MorleyView: Linda Perry

antiMUSIC: Do you have a wish list of people you'd like to work with?

Linda: I don't honestly pick the people I work with. They kinda of pick me. If I were left to pick people who I'd want to work with, well most of those people are dead, and the other ones are probably retired, you know, cause I love seventies music. That's my style of music. There's not a lot of that going on. So I mean, Courtney, probably. But I did approach Christina too. I definitely did approach her. I didn't expect her to want to work with me, but I did come up to her and say, "Hey what are you doing? You need to really tap into your dark, depressed, insecure thing." And she's all "What?" And I'm like "It's obvious you're depressed." And she's like "How can you see that?" And I said: "I see it all over you. You're a very dark girl, very depressed and unhappy." And I think that's what got her to want to work with me. I wasn't you know telling her to come work with me. I was just pushing a button. That's what I do, I push people's buttons. And I want them to dig a little deeper. But Courtney found me too. She showed up at my house at 2:30 in the morning and that's the first time I ever met her. And that was surreal too, so you know what, I'm going to let it be what it is right now. People seem to gravitate toward me and they're doing it for a reason, and I'm going to trust their reasons. The only person who didn't gravitate toward me was Gwen.

For that one, I had to really sell because I really did want to work with her. And Jimmy Iovine wanted her to work with me. And she kinda came in dragging her feet because she never worked with a woman before and she wasn't certain…she was like "I want to do a ‘80s dance song/album and Linda doesn't do that." And I knew that about her and I could feel the first day, she was very wary of me. So when she left that night, I stayed up all night long writing "What you waiting for" and she came the next day and I played it for her and she was like "Oh, my fucking god". And again, we got our first single. So, I won her over after.

antiMUSIC: I almost don't want to ask this because I think I don't want to hear the answer but can we ever look forward to another Linda Perry solo record?

Linda: I'm not going to say never, but it's not going to happen any time soon. The whole thing for me is, what's making me really good at what I'm doing now, is that I'm 100 per cent focused on it. I've done things where I've done 50 per cent here, sixty per cent here. I have to keep my focus. And I really enjoy the person I became as a producer because Linda Perry, the artist, was a real jerk. I'm not proud of some of the things I've done as an artist. I didn't feel that I was the smartest. I didn't feel that I was the most open. And I was definitely very, very hard on people. And just an asshole and very egotistical. So becoming a producer, I've become very nurturing, very open minded, incredible collaborator and my ego is really down to my ankles at this point. Not soaring around my head. I still have my ego because I have to keep that a little bit. But it doesn't make decisions for me. You know? And I really, really love the person I'm becoming right now. And I wouldn't change that for anything. And being an artist…I don't have any desire. Do I want to go out and play once in a while? Absolutely. You'll catch Linda doing a random, surprise show somewhere, you know, here and there once in a blue moon because I love performing live and it's great to get that fucking shit out, screaming…

antiMUSIC: and do some Zeppelin?

Linda: Fucking…I love singing Zeppelin…I just… what a release! If everybody could sing and experience what it's like to open your mouth and just sing and have a bunch of people just watch you and really get off at watching you sing. It's such an incredible experience. And that part I'm going to keep. I'll do that very random. Once in a while when I feel like I'm ready to explode, I'm going to put together a show and go play. That's my release. It's just playing. And I sing all the time in the studio, like when I'm by myself and I don't work with people. I write songs all the time. You'll never hear them. They're just my own personal private little stash of songs. But I'm able to do whatever I want and that's the beauty of where I'm sitting in life right now. I can do whatever I want to do and nobody can tell me what to do. And I love that. Because I don't care if I have one song on the charts or five…or none, it doesn't matter to me, I don't care. As long as people want to keep coming to me, hey, I'll give you 100 per cent…if not more. But I don't search out projects and I don't need it. I don't need money, I don't desire that. And that's why very few songs come out. Once in a while a song of mine will pop out, but if you notice I'm not…there's not five Linda Perry-produced or written songs on the charts. Because, again I want to do quality. Not quantity.

antiMUSIC: Well, I don't want to keep you all day so I'll let you go but this was a real highlight for me. Thank you so much for taking all the time.

Linda: You're very welcome. Hope I was helpful. Thank you.

Morley Seaver and antiMUSIC thank Linda for being so generous with her time in doing this interview. 

Preview and Purchase Linda's CD Online

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