\n\t\t\t\t\tThe former Little Mix powerhouse steps out solo with a debut that trades tween-pop sheen for punchy hooks and a voice finally turned all the way up.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPerrie Edwards has already done what most aspiring pop stars only dream of: survived a televised singing competition (and Simon Cowell), sold out arenas, weathered tabloid storms, and walked away from a decade-long girl group stint with both her voice and dignity intact. As one-fourth of Little Mix, she moved through the machinery of mass-market girl power with an earpiece in and both eyes open. Now, she\u2019s doing something far scarier: going solo.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Titled simply Perrie\u2014a move that signals either radical honesty or a refusal to overthink\u2014the album isn\u2019t chasing reinvention so much as reintroduction. Across a tight set of stadium-sized choruses and serotonin-delivery systems, Edwards leans into a mode of pop that\u2019s increasingly out of fashion: melodic maximalism, emotional legibility, vocals you can actually hear.\u00a0 It lands somewhere between the post-millennial catharsis of Kelly Clarkson and the heart-on-sleeve shimmer of artists like MUNA\u2014music built for both car stereos and that one scene in every coming-of-age film where someone finally runs toward something.<\/p>\n
Perrie doesn\u2019t mark a break with the past so much as a recalibration of its terms. After a decade enmeshed in the choreography of stardom, Edwards claims a space as a soloist that\u2019s both familiar and stubbornly hers. The album\u2019s an exercise in controlled release: anthemic choruses and confessional moments alike, calibrated for maximum emotional impact without conceding to the disposable demands of streaming-era pop. This is an artist wrestling with what it means to be \u201cauthentic\u201d in a genre that packages identity as product.<\/p>\n
Perrie caught up with RANGE to talk about shedding the burden of performative compliance, embracing creative agency, and why the hardest freedom is simply being unapologetically herself.<\/p>\n
Perrie is your debut album as a solo artist, and it\u2019s self-titled. How do you feel like this project shows people who you are in a way that Little Mix couldn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s just really authentically me. The concepts, the lyrics, the sounds\u2026 even sonically, it\u2019s so me. It\u2019s the music that I love the most: that anthemic pop with big melodies and big vocals. I think it\u2019s very autobiographical as well, which is why I wanted it to be self-titled. My stories and experiences were put into these songs, so it just made sense for it to be called Perrie, and I\u2019m glad that I did now, because I think that it just works.<\/p>\n
Speaking of anthemic pop, this album is very cathartic, almost like a release. Did it feel that way when making it?<\/p>\n
Absolutely, I feel like when I was in the studio writing the music, stadium pop was very much in my head. I wanted the melodies and the choruses to have a payoff, almost like a reward that you get. If I wasn\u2019t getting a serious serotonin hit through the chorus, I was like \u201cThat\u2019s not it. We need to change the melody.\u201d<\/p>\n
I love when music makes you feel something, and it makes you feel that lift off of energy. I think that that\u2019s what a lot of my choruses do, which I\u2019m really proud of. I know that\u2019s not necessarily like the trend at the moment or whatever\u2026 but I just love music that feels like it could live forever.<\/p>\n
Did you have a hard time translating that feeling into the music? Or did it come naturally through the process?<\/p>\n
Most of the sessions would start off as a conversation about a concept that I wanted to do, and then we\u2019d come up with lyrics from the conversation itself, if that makes sense. There\u2019s a song on there, \u201cSand Dancer,\u201d that stemmed from me wanting to do a song about growing up and why I developed a love for singing. I think that most of the concepts just kind of stemmed from these conversations happening, and that felt good.<\/p>\n
Was there a time when you were making the album where you felt like everything clicked? Like you understood yourself in a way that you didn\u2019t before?<\/p>\n
Weirdly, I think in the new year. That sounds so cheesy\u2026 \u201cNew year, new me!\u201d But I had a bit of time off\u2014a bit of time away from making music\u2014and it just felt like things weren\u2019t going anywhere, which made me feel a bit stressed. I just felt this pressure, and I felt like I didn\u2019t know where to turn or what to do. Then, after the new year, I was itching to get back into the studio, and I knew that I wanted to bring more of myself to the table. Those sessions that I did in the new year were the ones that got me the most excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, after a few great sessions, I listened to the album, put it in order, decided on the singles, sent it to the head of my label and was like\u2026 \u201cHere\u2019s the album, here\u2019s the tracklist, here are the singles.\u201d I feel like I just took charge in a way that I hadn\u2019t before, and I wish I did that more in the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Do you think that having that control is something that\u2019s going to be vital for you going forward?<\/p>\n
Absolutely, I\u2019m a very indecisive person, I can\u2019t help that, it\u2019s just my personality. I\u2019m not the type of person to walk in and demand attention. It\u2019s quite hard for me to do that. However, I do know what I want, so I think it\u2019s just a matter of getting out of my own head and getting the people around me to get on board as well.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve learned so much during this process, the whole journey of going solo. I\u2019ve realized that I can\u2019t please everybody, I\u2019m fucking sick of it. It\u2019s draining. I can only do what makes me feel fulfilled, and if that\u2019s not good enough, that\u2019s it. I can\u2019t do more than that. I can\u2019t pretend to be someone that I\u2019m not, and I can\u2019t make music that I don\u2019t love. I\u2019m in a place now where I\u2019m content and happy with whatever the outcome is, because I feel good.<\/p>\n
Was it a long journey to get to that point? Embracing that \u201cthis is me, take it or leave it\u201d attitude?<\/p>\n
Yes, I didn\u2019t used to feel that way. I always felt like I needed to please everybody. I felt like I needed validation from everyone. Not just my team and my label, but the fans. I was so scared of letting people down that I lost myself a bit. Being the people pleaser that I am, it just wasn\u2019t rewarding to me. I think that sometimes you need to just follow your instincts and do what\u2019s right for you, and then what comes from that comes from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What aspects of this album will you carry forward when making your next?<\/p>\n
Definitely more of the big vocal moments. I know what my fans love, and that\u2019s what I love doing. I love a ballad, and I think just more lyrics and concepts that I know people will relate to. And, of course, the fun, cheeky, upbeat, feel-good stuff as well. I would love to just explore the sound that I\u2019ve found now, make it bigger, and keep building on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Little Mix powerhouse steps out solo with a debut that trades tween-pop sheen for punchy hooks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-171921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}