Gigi Perez Teaches Us How to Catch a Falling Knife
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Gigi Perez hit the scene with the release of her single, “Sometimes (Backwood),” in 2021, and has continued to grow her audience and explore her sound. She recently released her latest EP, How to Catch A Falling Knife, which shows the artist’s vulnerability as she delves into an intimate journey of heartache, grief, and love. We had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Gigi Perez in an exclusive press conference to talk about everything including her creative process, grief, inspirations, and the magic of music.
Gigi was asked about her creative process in which the singer responded that she wasn’t thinking of it as creating a project, rather she sat in her bedroom and wrote down everything she was thinking and feeling as a way of making her mind feel more at ease. With the raw vulnerability and emotion in each song on the EP, it illustrates that Perez was able to create art in a terrible situation by jotting her emotions on paper. With herself as the only resource at first, her latest EP came to be. She went on to explain that she took all her pain, stories, and experience with grief and put it together to create the emotional and amazing EP. The artist explained that she looks at the project as a question, rather than a guide, as she relates to the feeling of not knowing how one is supposed to deal with intense experiences.
When asked about the inspiration for the music video, Perez responded that she wanted to capture a delusion of an experience that does not feel real. She went on to explain, “It doesn't make sense, and it doesn't have to, but I know that there are so many people that have experienced really weird delusional kinds of fantasy things that you can think of when you're grieving. Instead of having shame and the weird feelings that used to terrorize me, I kind of turned it into a joke. It felt so true.” By creating this video, the artist managed to turn the emotional turmoil one experiences with grief into a vivid explanation of what goes on in your head during the heartbreaking time.
While discussing her goals as an artist Gigi mentions that the most important thing to her is to be a vessel where others can experience what they need to experience, “kind of like a projecting board,” she expresses. She goes on to explain that with more vulnerable situations, such as the loss of her sister, the intention was to get her emotions out. At the time, Gigi mostly used social media as a way to communicate with her friends and clarifies that sharing this raw side of her was a cry for help. Through this process, the singer-songwriter learned that other people experience similar emotions of yearning and anguish, which helped her in her healing process. Gigi continues by expressing that it’s important that her music helps people's own experience, rather than her own. In a sense, this shows how people can come together through the art of music and find whatever they need in the music.
When a question regarding her favorite parts of putting together the EP was asked Gigi explained that she got to be in the studio where Ariana Grande recorded Yours Truly. Growing up, Gig was a huge Ariana fan and jokingly says that she should have been her A&R because even though she was only twelve Gigi knew that Ariana was going to be a huge star. She names Grande as one of her biggest inspirations and expressed that being in that studio felt like a “fate moment” and brought a little more magic to the experience.
With her powerful vocals, vulnerable lyricism, and beautiful sound, Gigi Perez is a powerhouse with a flourishing future ahead of her. She is set to open for HAIM in the UK this August and I believe we can expect to see much more of the talented artist in the near future.
