Kimberly Perry Talks Going Solo, “If I Die Young Pt. 2,” and the Bloom EP

The Band Perry had arguably one of the most successful country crossover hits with their 2010 release “If I Die Young,” a track about premature death that imagines a beguiling funeral for the young girl who acts as the narrator. When it was time for the lead singer of the band, Kimberly Perry, to kick off her solo career 13 years later in 2023, she reimagined the song and continued the narrative.

In “If I Die Young Pt. 2,” Perry celebrates life instead of wishing it away. Perry looks back on the original stating, “I wrote the original version when I was in my early 20s. I was a big daydreamer back then.” After being inspired by a piece of poetry, a young Perry wondered what her funeral would look like if it was hers to plan; however, the main motive came from a much deeper, existential place. “I think it was about having all of these dreams and hopes but also hedging my bets a little bit. Like, okay if they don’t come true and it all ends today, that’s fine. This moment is beautiful. I think that was the heart of the original version,” notes Perry.

Following the success of “If I Die Young,” The Band Perry would go on to release their record Pioneer, and then they’d move to LA and experiment with pop sounds leaving country music behind. In March 2023, the three siblings announced that they were taking “a creative break” to pursue individual careers. Kimberly, the lead singer, came back to East Tennessee.

Photo by Claire Schaper

After doing music with her two brothers Reid and Neil since she was 15, Perry was eager to dig into a new era with just herself in the driver’s seat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself on her front porch with an acoustic guitar, embracing her roots and re-engaging her singer-songwriter core. “It’s been a highly feminine moment,” she says laughing, “I feel like it’s really led to some of the most vulnerable music that I’ve gotten to write. It’s been super empowering.”

“If I Die Young Pt. 2” came out in May and with its release came many messages from Perry’s longtime fans connecting with the hopeful, updated message. In the tune, Perry sings “And I'm so glad I'm here now / Instead of somewhere underground / I think I'll always wanna stay.” Perry glistens, “It’s like we grew up not only in age but in life experience. In some respects, part two is this letter back to our younger selves who, in the moment of the OG, all of those feelings were so real.” She adds, “It's been really cool to see myself and the fans grow up with this chorus and to be able to look back now, with the perspective of there really is no such thing as enough time. We could all live 200 years and we’ll still wanna be here. We’ll still wanna be growing; we’ll still wanna be falling deeper in love with the people in our life.”

The release acted as the precursor to Perry’s solo debut project Bloom. Despite the cheerful title, Perry continues the Southern gothic imagery and themes that many loved from the early days of The Band Perry. A beautiful example of this is “Ghosts,” the first entry written for the project that acts as an ode to Perry’s husband. She was inspired by a greeting card that featured the phrase “Till death do us part is for quitters” and was decorated with skeletons. “I felt like it took me a really long time to find the love of my life and so I was like, I would also love to go ahead and identify him as the love of my afterlife,” she states. “As the girl who sings ‘Better Dig Two,’ it felt like the right love song to write for him.” Despite the ghastly, misleading title, the lyrics found in “Ghosts” are a poignant and poetic way of saying I will love you forever.

Perry’s current favorite on the five-song EP is “Burn The House Down.” She admits, “It’s got the most teeth.” Perry feels the message deeply because she felt as though she had to flatline a few times in her life before revisiting her career as an artist. “It’s a clean slate. It feels like I get to rebuild my house again from the ground up,” she explains. “‘Burn The House Down’ gives everybody the freedom to sort of let everything in your life get back to square one for the purpose of rebuilding and turning those ashes into some sort of beauty.” Each chorus ends with the anthemic lines, “I'm pourin' gasoline on a king-size mattress / Light it up with some dive bar matches / As hot as it is right now / You can't rise from the ashes 'til you burn the house down.”

Not only is Perry embarking on a new musical journey, but her personal life will also face big changes as she is expecting her first child at the end of August (she’s currently wondering if her son will be a Leo or a Virgo). The pregnancy has given Perry newfound confidence. “It’s already added a lot of gravity to everything that I’m doing. I”m not just building for myself; I’m building for my family that I’m growing.”

As Perry blossoms both professionally and personally, the Bloom project seems like the perfect companion for this time of life. The main message of Bloom is telling its listeners it’s okay and necessary to create room in order to grow as a human. In Perry’s experience, that comes with changes in relationships and changes in physical location. “It’s the real-life story of me over the last year creating that space,” she shares. “I hope it meets somebody on their journey wherever they are. I hope these tracks can hold their hand and accompany them in that moment.”

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