HomeKatharine McPheeKatharine McPhee Worked With Sia, Ryan Tedder on New Album
Katharine McPhee Worked With Sia, Ryan Tedder on New Album
06/13/2015 mj santilli Katharine McPhee 22
Katharine McPhee's long awaited 3rd studio album, Hysteria, is almost here, set to be released on July 24. The cheeky first single, "Lick My Lips, co-written with Florence + The Machine's Isabella Summers, is out now.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Katharine reveals that she also had the opportunity to write two songs with songwriter and pop star, Sia. Both will appear on the upcoming album. "I loved working with Sia," the singer said, "I got in with her when she first started wanting to write with pop artists."
It's been a long road to Hysteria. Katharine began working on the record during Smash's run on NBC from 2012-13. After the series was cancelled, she was immediately cast in the CBS drama, Scorpion, and didn't get back to recording until the hiatus.
"It was frustrating at times because sometimes you just want something to be out," she said. Hysteria's executive producer is Teresa LaBarbera Whites, who does A&R for Beyonce. (she also worked on Allison Iraheta's post Idol debut and was also the center of a pretty big exercise in Idol spoiler trolling).
Kat met another collaborator, Ryan Tedder, while on set at Smash. (the two also performed together on American Idol in 2013). Together, they wrote one song for the album. "He started a song and then I was able to finish it," she said.
Happy that she waited, rather than rush something out, Katharine is confident that she "put out an album that felt like came from me." She describes Hysteria as a pop album, with a "mature vibe" and "old influences."
"The songs that I wrote [for Hysteria] were about things either people around me were going through, or I was going through," the singer said, "and I turned them into pop songs."
"I love pop music," Katharine confessed. "There's so many different styles that I'm fortunate enough to able to sing being from a musical theater background. I grew up singing pop music."
The singer promises that Hysteria will be "the most artist-centric" record she's ever released: "I felt inspired for the first time."
After Katharine's second place finish on American Idol season 5 in 2006, she released a self-titled, "rhythm pop" album, produced to appeal to the kids (who could forget OPEN TOES!!!). 2010's Unbroken was filled with adult contemporary fare, like the Kara DioGuardi penned "Terrified." Maybe Hysteria will be a happy medium between the two.
"It took some time because you have to have inspiration," Kat said of the long wait between albums, " That means you also have to live. You have to go and experience stuff. That's what I did."
Watch Katharine McPhee Perform in Bombshell (ViDEO)
Katharine McPhee's New Album Hysteria Drops July 24
Katharine McPhee – Lick My Lips Music Video
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