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00:00Perrie, thank you for coming into The Independent.
00:01So obviously we're talking about your brand new single,
00:04You Go Your Way.
00:06So can you tell us a little bit about that, please?
00:08Yeah, of course I can.
00:09So it's my third single and I absolutely adore it.
00:12It's one of my favorites.
00:13I've been like anticipating this moment
00:16because I just love this song so much.
00:18It's a Joy Anonymous song.
00:20So he's like the coolest ever person to work with.
00:23He's so sweet and so lovely.
00:25And I always feel like when I'm in a creative space,
00:27I have to be with people that make me feel safe and comfortable.
00:30Otherwise I don't do my best.
00:32And he's that person.
00:34So I call him my henjoy.
00:36And yeah, I just absolutely love it.
00:44It's very upbeat and sound and very uplifting and anthemic,
00:48but actually the themes of the song are sort of kind of leaning towards heartbreak
00:53and the kind of, I guess, the moment before an ending, essentially.
00:58So I'm assuming this isn't about your current relationship.
01:01So is it kind of like a nice thing to be able to kind of go on
01:06creative license a bit when you're kind of doing songwriting?
01:08Yeah, well, this song, the way I take this song is that like,
01:13first of all, you can hear it in so many different ways.
01:15Like a lot of my fans have already heard it and they're associating it
01:18with their time in their life now where they're all off to uni.
01:21So they're leaving for uni.
01:22They're leaving their family and friends behind.
01:24But like they're going their own way and they're doing their own thing.
01:26And it's like it's taken that leap of faith, I think.
01:29But when Alex and I first got together,
01:33it was very early days, but I was obsessed with him.
01:35And I was like, I love you. Please love me, too.
01:38The kind of not vocalizing it just then?
01:40No, it was at the very beginning.
01:42And I was like, we really liked each other.
01:43But I was going on tour with Ariana Grande in America for like two and a half months.
01:49And I just thought this is too fresh to be putting it on him now.
01:52Like, what are we? Are we official? Are we not?
01:54So I just said, maybe instead of you waiting for me,
01:57because I don't expect you to like you go your way, I'll go mine.
02:00And then we'll see where we're meant to be.
02:01If we're meant to be together, we will be.
02:03And he was appalled by that.
02:05He was like, oh, that's gross.
02:08You're my girlfriend. And I was like, really?
02:11And then I was just looking that down. Yeah.
02:14Straight away.
02:14Yep. He wified me off there and then.
02:16And that was it. Never look back.
02:18So my story had a happy ending, but people are definitely
02:21like taking this song in all different ways.
02:23I think some of them are seeing it as like some of their friendships
02:25that they don't have anymore or it's just like part ways with somebody
02:29and it being quite a scary thing at first.
02:31So tell me about the music influences, because I've kind of mentioned it's
02:34there's some disco stuff in there and, you know, a bit of ballading.
02:38And also your voice is incredible.
02:40Like you really went for it.
02:41Yeah, especially towards the end with the falsettos and everything.
02:44It's amazing. Thank you.
02:46Well, I mean, vocals for me are like the the core.
02:50It's like the absolute everything to me, the vocals.
02:52So I have to make sure that I've done like plenty of doubles.
02:55I've beefed it out.
02:56We've done like the more like group vocals and me and Joy went into my booth.
03:00And bear in mind, he's like, I swear he's like ten foot tall.
03:03And I am not. I am half that.
03:05And we were in my booth and he was like squashed in my booth.
03:09And we were like, you go, you're just doing like chanting vocals
03:12to make it sound beefier and like all those kind of things I love on track
03:15because then it sounds more like a party rather than just a hundred of me.
03:19You go, yeah.
03:21So I like to beef it up.
03:22I like to obviously get all the harmonies in there, the ad libs and production.
03:26Kind of. We tweaked it quite a lot, actually,
03:29from where it started off to where it is now.
03:31And in the studio, were you talking about any influences
03:33or kind of like the sound you were going for?
03:35No, we were in the studio doing a different session, actually.
03:37So we were just together hanging out, writing for my album.
03:40And he had this song and I was like, oh, let me hear it.
03:43And it was actually one of his songs.
03:44And I was like, you're going to have to let me get on that.
03:47And he's like, really? Do you like it?
03:49I was like, yeah.
03:50So I sang it like there and then.
03:51I love that I've seen Jade and Leanne both, you know,
03:55shrieking about it on your Instagram and everything.
03:56They're clearly very excited.
03:58I'm assuming they've heard the full thing.
04:00Actually, I don't know if they've heard this one.
04:02I don't know.
04:02Leanne's excited about it as well.
04:04She posted, didn't she?
04:05And she was like, I can't wait for this one.
04:07Yeah, I think we all just get excited for each other's stuff.
04:10It's wonderful.
04:10And it's also different as well, which is fun.
04:12Well, I was going to come to this.
04:14Yeah, absolutely.
04:15I think what's lovely is that you've seemingly very naturally landed
04:18on very distinctive sounds of your own.
04:20Oh, yeah, absolutely.
04:21Was that something you discussed
04:22or is it you kind of just have very distinctive music taste?
04:25No, I think we were like it in the band.
04:26We were always so individual in the band anyway, which is why
04:29if you think about it, Little Mix is such a variety of sounds.
04:33Like it's different genres.
04:34It's pop, but it's influenced by so much because we were like
04:39completely different in our tastes and our styles, I guess.
04:43So it it worked for Little Mix.
04:45And then now that we've gone solo, it's like we've really kind of gone
04:48for what we wanted to do.
04:50Exactly.
04:51It's kind of crazy looking at your stats for the band and everything
04:54and how successful you were.
04:55Yeah, I think not one but two of your albums are in the biggest albums
04:58of the 2010s.
04:59Oh, wow. Yeah.
05:01So, you know, there's like above like Rihanna and stuff, which is crazy.
05:06Do you feel like that success was underrated at all
05:08while Little Mix were kind of still going
05:12and possibly because of the fact that you were young women?
05:15Maybe. I feel like a lot of Little Mix life,
05:18like it didn't feel like it was actually happening, I think,
05:20because we were so, you know, heads down, working constantly, doing everything.
05:25Can Little Mix do this? Yes, we can.
05:27Can we do this? Yes.
05:27Like we literally spread ourselves so freaking far and wide
05:31that we just wanted to keep working and proving to people that we could do it.
05:35And I think with that fire in our bellies, we were just it's almost like
05:38we were like that.
05:39And I think until we stepped back and looked and thought, holy crap,
05:42we did so much like we achieved so much.
05:45We toured the world like we sold millions of albums.
05:49We got number ones.
05:50It was like a lot to take in in the moment.
05:53But I think stepping back from it, we can all look at it and think,
05:56oh, my gosh, like that was wild.
05:58It's amazing.
05:58And then you mentioned that you're sort of dabbling in directing.
06:01So you've directed the new music video.
06:03I didn't direct it per se, but I did it with Charlie.
06:06And he's incredible.
06:07He does like, you know, Jungle. Yeah.
06:09He does like all their videos and it's like the one take thing.
06:12Yeah. So it was a lot of pressure.
06:14This was just from start to finish, one take.
06:16So if I mess up at one point, we've got to start again.
06:19It's wild. How many takes did you do?
06:20Maybe six or seven.
06:22I mean, that's wild considering that.
06:24Yeah, that were like usable.
06:26There was a lot of like stopping at the start because like the camera guy
06:29could see his reflection.
06:30So Gary would be like, stop, we need to go again.
06:32And then we go again.
06:33It would be something else out of place.
06:35It's really hard to get it perfect.
06:36But once you do, it's so fun.
06:39I think I'd like to shoot every music video like that.
06:42Yeah. And I saw you brought your son onto the set.
06:44Yeah, I did. For the second music video, I did.
06:46He loved it. Dadda brought him in.
06:48He came in and he was like, wow, mama.
06:52Like he didn't know it was me at first.
06:53I was in like that sure girly outfit at the moment he came in.
06:57He was like, wow. Yeah.
06:59He was like, oh, my gosh.
07:01You mentioned the album.
07:02So how is all of that going?
07:04It's pretty much finished.
07:05It's exciting. Which is wild.
07:07But I keep adding things on.
07:09So I need to like actually lay off tweaking things now.
07:12Otherwise I'm going to start missing deadlines.
07:14But I can't help it because I listen to stuff and I'll be like another harmony
07:18there would be perfection or another ad-lib here.
07:21Or if I pull that bit out or the production here could be this.
07:24And I just I get too much into it.
07:26So I need to stop now.
07:27Do you think you're going to be a tour?
07:29I would love that. Yeah.
07:31I would absolutely love that.
07:32My dream.
07:33And the reason I love doing this is to do live shows.
07:37So just to be in front of an audience and sing like that's where I'm
07:40in my happy place. Yeah.
07:41I mean, it's lovely watching kind of like footage of you on stage
07:44because you are clearly in your element.
07:46I love it. I just love it so much.
07:49Even though I'm terrified, I'm terrified before I get out there.
07:52And I'm thinking, oh, my Lord, I'm at that.
07:55But I don't. And I get on there and I'm like, I love this.
07:58I mean, that's amazing.
07:59I think I guess that's like fight or flight response kind of kick.
08:01Yes, it kicks in every time.
08:03But as soon as I'm like, oh, OK, five seconds in, resume breathing.
08:07I'm alive. I'm here. Let's do it.
08:09Because you've been really open about, you know,
08:10you have struggled with panic attacks and anxiety in the past.
08:13Have you found ways to kind of deal with that?
08:14Or is it still a thing?
08:16Yeah, I think it's a journey like I honestly think it's a journey
08:19because it comes in waves and sometimes it's manageable.
08:22Sometimes it's overwhelming.
08:23I take my therapist to work with me as well.
08:26So I've had like a lot of radio stuff on my music video for You Go Your Way.
08:30I took my therapist.
08:31And it's just nice to have her there
08:34because I think when you suffer with anxiety, you can sit in an office
08:37with someone and you can get all these, oh, just tap, tap, tap.
08:40Do these do these techniques.
08:41But when you're in the moment and it's happening,
08:43it doesn't feel like you can take them into like an embody them yourself.
08:48I just start spiraling and that's it. I'm done.
08:50So having her there and coaching me through what to do
08:55and calming me down and like all these different things, it just really helps me.
08:59I'm so open about it as much as I can because I know my fans suffer a lot
09:02and people I know suffer a lot.
09:04And we're constantly like DMing each other and they'll send me little tips
09:07that they've learned in their sessions and I'll be like, oh, have you tried this?
09:10And it's really cute.
09:11Again, you've been really open about that.
09:13But you mentioned that you're partially deaf.
09:15Yes. Is that a thing?
09:16Like it's basically my eardrums burst twice now.
09:22Ouch. So once when I was in nursery,
09:25I was like, I remember it.
09:26It's so weird because I remember it.
09:27We were singing Happy Birthday.
09:29And then I just felt like the worst pain ever, like the pressure in my head.
09:34And then it just kind of popped.
09:35And then just loads of blood and hot wax was like running down my face.
09:39So obviously they called my mom.
09:40I went to the doctor's and my eardrum had burst.
09:42And then it happened again when I was about 15, 16 years old.
09:47It popped again.
09:48So it's like my hearing's not fully there in one ear.
09:52Do you find that affects you as a singer or did you have training
09:54to sort of get around that?
09:55No, I think it's absolutely fine when I'm performing and stuff.
09:58As long as my levels are OK in my ears, it's fine.
10:00But like if I'm stood here and someone's talking,
10:02I can't figure out what direction they're coming from.
10:04And I guess, you know, it feels like maybe this is a big question.
10:06But, you know, since becoming a parent, you know, what has changed,
10:10you know, like your career, life, all of it?
10:12I think everything changed when I had Axel.
10:15First of all, I loved being pregnant and I felt so empowered
10:18and I felt so confident and I felt so just, I don't know,
10:21something came over me, this self of confidence,
10:23because I'm not that confident.
10:25And I know it might seem like I am when I'm in my workspace.
10:28But like in my personal life, I can't do confrontation.
10:30I can't have a serious conversation because I'll just cry.
10:33Like I'm not good with things like that.
10:35But then after having Axel,
10:37it kind of just put everything into perspective.
10:39And it just made me realise like so many things I used to really
10:42get worried about and get anxious about and overthink
10:45just really weren't that important anymore.
10:48So I'm like, I just birthed a human.
10:49Like, of course, I can have a conversation with somebody
10:51that makes me slightly uncomfortable.
10:53And then I think I like learnt a lot through having Axel,
10:56learnt a lot through my therapy, learnt a lot from Alex.
10:59He's been such a help for me and my confidence,
11:01like in how to handle situations.
11:05And he's always got my back and he's like,
11:06I'll do the conversation if you want or I'll be there for you if you want.
11:09And I think I kind of needed him to like push me a little bit
11:12to be more confident.
11:13So I'm grateful for him for that, because he's really good with stuff like that.
11:16And that must be coming into the music as well, right?
11:18Because you sound so confident on all of the singles so far.
11:21Oh, thank you.
11:23Yeah, I think it's just because I'm so happy in the booth.
11:26I'm just like, oh, my gosh, this is what I do for a living.
11:28And I'm living my dream.
11:29Like little me would have died thinking she was doing this now.
11:33So it's just crazy.