Katy Perry knows firsthand that making art can be therapeutic.
Many of the star's most iconic songs are essentially musical pep talks, designed to make listeners feel like they can do anything they put their mind to. But you might be surprised to hear that Perry's own state of mind didn't match these hopeful songs when she came up with them.
"I think I have these ideas and I'm constantly writing, constantly taking notes. I think it's coming—I think it's a channeling of sorts. It's coming from a different place," Perry said during a recent appearance on Apple Music's The Zane Lowe Show, while discussing the inspiration behind some of her music.
"It's coming from my highest self that maybe lives in a different dimension," she continued.
"It's like, 'Here you go.' Especially songs like 'Roar' and 'Firework' where I'm really down in the dumps, don't know if I can keep doing whatever I'm doing. It's like, well, I'll write this to help encourage myself. And then all of a sudden it encourages a generation."
The lyrics to "Roar" go "I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter / Dancing through the fire / 'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar," while "Firework" goes, "'Cause baby, you're a firework / Come on show 'em what you're worth / Make 'em go, 'Awe, awe, awe' / As you shoot across the sky"
In the interview, the popstar explained the ways in which her music has reflected what was going on in her life over the years.
"When I was going through One of the Boys [2008, the album that gave us "I Kissed a Girl"], which was, whoa, it was like, oh my God, hold on to this ride," Perry said.
"And then Teenage Dream [2010] and Prism [2013], my personal life was not really working. My professional life was working. And then when Witness [2017] shifted everything, it started to come more into balance and then Smile [2020] really solidified it. And now 143 [2024] is the celebration of feeling that wholeness, operating out of that wholeness, which is a space I've never written a record from."
Perry went on to explain that her life now is a much healthier breeding ground for her music to come out of.
"I've always written a record from defense or not feeling enough or trying to transmute my trauma, whatever that was, and to change it," she said. "I always say this is the biggest lie I think artists have ever been sold is that they have to stay in pain in order to create."
Teenage Dream and "Firework" were released the same year Perry married Russell Brand, while Prism and "Roar" came out the year after their divorce. Meanwhile, Witness, the album the singer cited as marking a changing point in her life, was released around the time that she and her partner Orlando Bloom were getting back together after a short breakup.
The two now share daughter Daisy Dove, 4, and co-parent Bloom's son Flynn, 13, with his ex Miranda Kerr.
