Was Katy Perry Tempted To Write Any 'Screw You' Anthems On Prism? - MTV.com

Katy Perry has always been an open book when it comes to expressing how she feels. And that is no more evident than on Prism. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

So, when she sat down to write the tracks on her October album release, she made sure she took a good, hard look at herself, as well as her beaus, both past and present.

"Well I never try to make people out to be villains, too much. There's a lot of empathy in my writing, even if there is pain and sadness," the singer told rapper/host Iggy Azalea about her songwriting process during "MTV First: Katy Perry 'Unconditionally'" when they two ladies sat down to premiere Katy's latest Prism visual for "Unconditionally."^[4]

She continued, "I think that I'm not always trying to point the finger. I think on this record, the whole Prism record, it's very self-reflective and you hear that I've kind of gone inside more so and looked at where I can make myself better, did a patchwork thing, rather than like 'Screw you. You're crazy. F--- you.'"

That's no more obvious than on the song, "It Takes Two," on which she apologizes to a former lover.

"There's one song on the record called 'It Takes Two,' which is about specifically that. Because it's really easy when relationships end to be like 'That guy was a f---ing douchebag.' But really if you laid it down, and you saw the whole span of the relationship, you saw that you were in love, you saw the intimate moments, you saw the pain, you saw all the emotions and you have to kind of say 'Well, what responsibility can I take for myself in all of this'."

And, she said that she wanted to explore all the shades of heartbreak and love, not just the obvious ones. "Well the thing is; it's either 'screw the guy' or like 'I'm so strong now.' I'm like 'Yeah I'm strong now, but I was in bed for two weeks. It sucked," she said of her songs. "I mean it's a realistic approach."

Katy teased that the video was inspired by costume dramas like "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Anna Karenina," but what about the song itself?

"I think I wrote that song because that's how I aspire to be loved, especially without fear and acceptance," she said. "And I think I was going through a lot of changes in my life when I wrote the whole record in spring and did a lot of therapy and reflection and that served me really well when I was writing these lyrics."

References

1. ^{^} Katy Perry (www.mtv.com)


2. ^{^} expressing how she feels (www.mtv.com)


3. ^{^} Prism. (www.mtv.com)


4. ^{^} "Unconditionally." (www.mtv.com)