- I'm shaking like a chihuahua right now
because I'm gonna interview one
of my favorite artists, Tori Kelly.
She gained traction on YouTube
making original songs and singing covers.
She's been nominated for a Grammy,
and she's only 25 years old.
This interview is really special to me
and I just hope I don't mess this up.
(gentle music)
I'm so happy to be here with you!
- Me too, thanks for having me
- I've been following you through
your YouTube days, to now your gospel album.
You did take a hiatus for a couple years.
I know, I was stalking your Instagram and I was like,
"Girl's not posting as much.
"When is her music coming out?"
And then you kinda just hit us with the gospel album.
- My faith has always been a huge part of my life.
Grew up in church and I grew up listening to gospel music.
My first real taste of just really really good singing
no matter what genre I'm doing, pop or whatever it is,
that kind of bleeds in to my music.
I brought up to my team, "What if we do a gospel song?"
and they were like down for it.
- [Shila] That's so great
- [Tori] They were, you know, saying why don't you
work with Kirk Franklin who is, if you don't know
the like top guy in gospel music.
Going in I thought okay it'll be a song or two
and that very quickly turned into a full album of songs
cause we were just on a roll.
- [Shila] That's amazing!
(upbeat gentle music)
What was your first opinion of Kirk?
And what do you think his first opinion of you was?
- He loves deep conversations.
He would just kinda through out like a deep question
and just kinda sit there and watch
people talk (laughs) about it.
And he just genuinely wants to learn
even at this point in his career where
he's considered, you know icon in gospel music.
He said that he wanted to learn from me,
which was crazy cause I'm like--
- You're like I look up to you?
- Yeah, like you're Kirk Franklin!
- Was there anything that this album taught
you about your faith or yourself?
- It's taught me I think to not overthink so much
and really just rest in the freedom
of being simply a child of God.
With this album I think I was really able to
just let the music kinda speak for itself
and then just rest in that and not, you know freak out over
how it's gonna come across or all these different things.
And I think music can really be a good way to do that.
- [Shila] How was it working with the gospel choir?
- [Tori] Oh man, it's the best.
You know there's a song, that's the last song on the album,
it's called Souls Anthem - Souls Anthem?
I love that one!
- There's a part at the end of the song
where you can't really tell but I'm actually crying
at the end of it cause I just go
- [Shila] Cause you got emotional?
- [Tori] Silent and I get so emotional
- [Shila] I love that lyric where you're like,
"It's not easy living life down my knees."
- Yeah it is based on the hymn.
It goes into the hymn as well which
is one of my favorite hymns.
So we wanted to do that song justice
and think what can the versus say that would make sense
with the chorus of that song and I think
that line just represents the struggle.
It's not easy to, you know, even be a Christian all the time
doesn't make life easy you know life is still hard
for all of us and we're all just trying to figure it out
and we don't have all the answers.
So I think that's really what that line represents.
- I'm definitely inspired by your music.
Dear No One was my single girl's anthem.
Me and my friends would listen to them and be like,
"Oh my god, when we gonna find our mister someone?"
But you found your mister someone.
- [Tori] I did!
- Tell me how has that Tori changed
from the Tori that you are now?
- That's a good question.
I've probably grown up a bit since
the last time people saw me out and about
and doing the music thing but I
think I'm still also the same. (laughs)
- Cause you were writing songs about finding someone
and I'm independent, I don't need a man,
and now she's got a man - I've fallen, I've fallen.
- Is this the ring, or?
- It is, yeah, it's the ring.
Marriage it's hard work, but it's even more beautiful
I think to put in that hard work and then say like,
"Look what we've overcome."
And it makes the love even stronger, so.
And I don't know a lot, I'm a newlywed,
so I'll take advice too but yeah it's been amazing.
- [Shila] How did y'all meet by chance?
- We actually met through a family member believe it or not.
His family ended up being neighbors with my aunt
and that it all started from there.
Yeah they tried to play cupid. (laughs)
- Was it love at first sight?
- It wasn't actually.
We took it slow and got to really know each other first
before we went you know, "Let's date!"
It was more like let's get to know each other
let's be friends and then slowly but surely
we fell for each other.
- What is that song writing process like for you?
- It's different all the time.
It can start with something that I've written down
in my phone that I didn't even think would be a song.
It can be like a melody that I've just had in my head,
I'll use my phone a lot cause I'll do
the little recording app and hum into it.
I kinda wanted to be free of my guitar.
Usually I'll always write with my guitar but
with this I wanted it to be really just piano driven
cause of the chords in gospel music are so insane
and I cannot play them on guitar.
And so just kind of having him sit there and kinda
go into it and then I would just start singing melodies.
It's really organic, those are the best writing sessions
I think when it just feels like it kinda
comes out of no where.
- [Shila] I really love your song Psalm 42.
I was literally listening to it last night
and I was bawling cause I really felt the lyrics.
It was like you read my diary
and like were just like singing.
But how was it writing that song?
- [Tori] It was one of the later ones that Kirk
and I wrote for the album.
He says you know there are song that are more horizontal
where it's like you and me talking, and he's talking
about worship music too, where it's like
you and I are talking about God and
that's the horizontal way.
And then there's the vertical way, where we're just
talking directly to God in a form of a prayer.
And we were like, we don't have any vertical songs.
Let's just write a song talking to God how we feel
but not only how we feel but going straight to the bible
and going through the Psalms cause there's
so many beautiful poems and songs in the Psalms
and is super inspirational just flipping through that.
So that's exactly what we did
and we just kind of put melodies to it.
- Having your faith and kinda being very open about it
has there ever been a time where you had
to put your faith first over your career?
- Oh, all the time.
It's hard to balance all of it.
I think more when I was younger and kind of
just starting out, there was definitely a time
where I like all I wanted was
to be recognized for singing.
And I was like, "This is all I want to do."
Which is totally fine, you know dreams are amazing
and we should definitely go for our dreams.
But for me it was really just consuming my whole life
and I started to find my identity in that
and that's really when I had to make that decision
like, what am I going to put first?
Am I going to put God first
and let him kinda be in control
and say whatever happens, happens.
Or am I gonna make you know music
and even fame sometimes be what I strive for.
- You're actually one of my curly hair inspirations.
(laughs)
I used to straighten my hair for 13 years
and I remember seeing you on stage and being so confident.
Really working the hair!
I must know, what do you use on your hair?
- I love a product
I still don't know if
I'm pronouncing it correctly or not,
but it's Ouidad I wanna say, it's O-U-I-D-A-D
yeah and it's just for curly hair.
There's a product in particular that's a texture taffy
that's the go to - I'm buying that right now!
(laughs)
You're also working on a pop album as well.
What does that look like for you?
- I can't say too much but I have been
I've just been writing the last couple years
so there's a ton of music that's there
that I'm excited for people to hear.
- Is it different sonically?
- It's a little different but I will say
for me it didn't feel, like doing the gospel stuff didn't
feel like a huge departure cause I
think vocally there's a lot of similarities.
The heart is still in it and it's still soulful, you know.
- That's all I'll say right now
I'm like a Tori Kelly fan, like OG
so routing for you, wanting you to have like all
the success and hit all the charts!
- I appreciate that a lot, thank you.
- It's so nice to meet you.
I'm still shaking from meeting her.
She was so down to earth, and so cool.
I admire her so much musically and as a person.
(gentle piano music)