Christina Perri

ISSUE #35 MMUSICMAG.COM overall aesthetic. The breakthrough came after she and British musician Kid Harpoon penned “Burning Gold,” a triumphant pop anthem unlike anything on her 2011 debut, Lovestrong. “I remember staying up the entire night, freaking out with my manager,” says Perri, 27. “I put the headphones on and was like, ‘Oh, my God—this is it!’” Later, Perri connected with British producer Jake Gosling and wound up staying in England all summer recording nine songs. “I caught a vibe,” she says. “I found myself in a little family who knew exactly what they wanted to do, and we had the perfect kind of mix going on.” Perri is no stranger to collaboration. On Lovestrong, she teamed with co-writers on eight of the 12 songs, including “Jar of Hearts,” the piano ballad that kick-started her career. The song was featured on a 2010 episode of So You Think You Can Dance, and within days, it shot up the iTunes charts, earning Perri a deal with Atlantic. In 2012, she scored another key placement, landing “A Thousand Years” sai T on the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: u Y Breaking Dawn—Part 1. With success came loads of touring— enough to leave Perri burned out. Since Head or Heart arrives without a reality CHRISTINA PERRI show or teen vampire flick to generate buzz, she’ll once again play road warrior—not that The piano-pop songstress adds a British accent she’s complaining. “It’s so great to build to her latest set something from the ground up,” Perri says. Throughout her travels, she’s met CHRISTINA PERRI LITERALLY WEARS As Perri explains, she’s got London many diehard fans—some with tattoos of her passions on her sleeve—as well as on to thank for the wide-ranging sound of her her lyrics. “I’ve been signing so many arms, other parts of her body. She’s got dozens recently released sophomore album, Head and they get it tattooed the next day, which of tattoos, many referencing the books, or Heart. The Philly-born singer-songwriter freaks me out,” she says. “Then again, I’ve records, films and foods that have shaped found herself in the U.K. midway through last got Johnny Cash’s signature on my arm, so her life. If space permits, she might consider year, and although she’d already written the I understand wanting to do that.” a beefeater—or maybe Big Ben. bulk of the record, she’d yet to decide on an –Kenneth Partridge buying albums,” he says. “T Bone Burnett made a great comment a year restoring a 1947 recording booth,” he says. “When I was years ago when he said that music started getting bad when record younger, I always wanted to find one. The Voice-O-Graph machine companies started making music for people who don’t like music. was finally discovered after a decade-long search. “I got in touch That’s a really great point.” with a lot of coin-operated machinery/gadgetry people and ended While others sound a death knell in the streaming era, White up finding this—it’s a great one,” he says. In fact, Neil Young’s new is celebrating the fifth anniversary of his Nashville-based record album A Letter Home—which includes songs by Willie Nelson, Tim label Third Man Records. On Record Store Day—observed the third Hardin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bert Jansch and Gordon Saturday of each April—he performed a short set that included the Lightfoot—was created entirely in the lo-fi retro booth. Jo McCaughey title track to his latest album, Lazaretto. The recording was then Although White has become a standard-bearer for analog pressed and packaged to become—unofficially, at least—the world’s recordings, you won’t find a fat stack of LPs in his home. “I’ve never been ISSUE fastest-released#35 M MUSIC record. “&Singles MUSICIANS don’t really mean MAGAZINE as much to me an actual record collector, a guy who hoards them and gets every digit in a commercial sense, except this one was the best trick to get and serial number,” he says, “but I do appreciate the history of vinyl— people into the record, to lure people in,” says White, 38. the Americana history of certain items. I don’t want it to get lost. I feel Before recording the follow-up to 2012’s Blunderbuss, White like I’m protecting it, like in taxidermy. I’m protecting and honoring it.” had embarked on an entirely different project. “We spent more than –Blake Boldt 19 MARCH/APRIL 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M mag 35.indd 19 7/13/14 8:56 AM.

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