Music Preview: Christina Perri
It’s Easter Sunday and while I am looking forward to digging in to some fantastic traditional Armenian Easter food at my boyfriend’s parent’s house, singer/songwriter Christina Perri is a long way from her Los Angeles home, setting up for a concert later that night at a venue in Montreal, Canada.
The 24-year-old beauty is happy to talk when I call, and the excitement in her voice over her first-ever tour and the May 10 release of her debut album “lovestrong” is contagious.
Though she hasn’t yet released her album, Perri’s first single, “Jar of Hearts,” which first premiered on “So You Think You Can Dance” in June of 2010, has just recently gone from platinum to double platinum, and Perri couldn’t be happier.
“I think it’s bananas. I think it’s so cool that I blew up out of nothing. I get to be authentically me. I think it’s a really rad time to be making music and I am completely grateful to be meeting people,” says Perri.
The artist goes on to explain that in the time since she released “Jar of Hearts,” she has been so busy working on creating her debut album that she has not had time to meet the people who are listening to her music. Now that the album is done, Perri says that she stays at the merch tables after every show for as long as she can to say thank you to her growing fan base.
Before my interview with Perri, I only know her by her hit single, and barely by that. As I prepare to talk to her however, I listen to the upcoming album and I realize what I think everyone who reads this article needs to know: Christina Perri is going to be something big, and if you don’t take advantage of seeing her perform at the May 1 show at Avalon Theater, then you are going to be kicking yourself when the next time she comes to Salt Lake, she is selling out larger venues that will not provide nearly the intimate experience that you are practically guaranteed at Avalon.
If going double platinum without ever having released an album isn’t proof enough that Perri is the music world’s next big thing, then perhaps the fact that she worked with producer Joe Chiccareli, a man whose résumé includes such artists as White Stripes, Tori Amos and The Shins, will convince you.
“The whole recording process was surreal for one reason only, because we did it for 33 days. We rolled in there and just had to go. It was the best 33 days of my life and the worst 33 days of my life,” says Perri.
The result of her whirlwind recording process is “lovestrong,” an album that consists of songs that do the justice to Christina Perri that in my opinion, “Jar of Hearts” just doesn’t do.
While “Jar of Hearts” is making a splash on pop stations, some of the other emotionally intense songs on “lovestrong” are likely to find themselves on more eclectic stations that feature the sounds of power artists such as Adele, Rachael Yamagata and Florence + The Machine.
“Everything on ‘lovestrong’ is so authentically me. If you listen to the album from front to back; I tried to do that, to make it cohesive and one piece. Every instrument is played by a real human being. It’s not a jumble of sound,” explains Perri.
The authentic side of the petite, tattooed brunette is a beautiful one, and it’s no surprise that in the three years since she moved away from her hometown of Philadelphia to work on a music career, that she has found complete success. While the success is not surprising to a Perri listener, the fact that the singer/songwriter is still a bit in shock makes her that much harder to resist.
The show prior to our interview was Perri’s first return to Philadelphia since she had moved, and she was still riding the high that she experienced from that show.
“It was so crazy. I couldn’t have imagined it. I definitely couldn’t have dreamed it. It was an overwhelming, magical feeling. I almost cried. It felt really cool because it’s not like I went and did this thing that’s really easy or did this thing that everyone saw coming. I moved to go chase a dream that is really scary and hard to achieve. But to come back and have them live in the dream with me was really magical,” says Perri.
The lovely musician then talks about her excitement over coming to play in Salt Lake especially because of the fact that it will be her first headlining show. She promises that her show will be all her, and as she sings the night away at her piano, or while strumming her guitar, Perri has one wish for the Salt Lake fans who come to see her play on Sunday.
“I hope that everybody enjoys the music and the band and that in the end, everyone leaves feeling a little better,” says Perri.
After listening to the album and then talking with her, I can honestly say that if you attend the Christina Perri show, there is no way that you won’t leave feeling better. At the very least, you will leave feeling extremely proud of yourself for going to share in the experience with a young woman who is no doubt heading for the big time.
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