Corset DALOOD @daloodtbilisi @tata_la
PHOTOGRAPHER MARKUS KLINKO @klinkostudio Represented by @artsolutions.la
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VIKTORIJA PASHUTA @viktorija_pashuta
STYLIST ALEXIS FALLON @styldbylex
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER JOSHUA M. CHÉRIE CHERY @m.cherie._
HAIR ANASTASIIA TEREBOVA @anastasiia.terebova
MAKEUP GREGORY ARLT @gregoryarlt
NAILS ROXANA G VASQUEZ @statement_not_maintenance & JESSICA DE LEÓN @clawssynails
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PRODUCTION ASSISTANT CASSIDY COCKE @cassidy.ac
STYLIST ASSISTANT ANDREW NABI
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR KATE JINAKUNWIPHAT @katejinaa
MODELS KSENIIA ROGOVA @kseniia_sever, YULIIA SEMOTIUK @julia_semotiuk, NINA SVET @iamninasvet, RODWELL FLOWERS @rodiswell, PAVEL NECHAEV @ex.ogg
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LOCATION SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
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SPECIAL THANK YOU FRENCHYE HARRIS & TONY FERREIRA
Pants CULT NAKED @cultnaked
Shoes CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN @louboutinworld (available at Saks)
Diamonds CAMILLA SERETTI @camillaseretti
Words by Ryan Simón
Add it all up—the Grammys, the platinum certifications, the Christmas album, the children’s book, American Idol, Sing, her innate charm and confidence—and you get TORI., the stellar self-titled album by Tori Kelly, one of the brightest superstars of the 21st century. Period. Like her new do, a brunette pivot from the iconic golden curls she rocked throughout the 2010s, Kelly’s latest album marks a fresh start for the artist’s music career by returning her to her roots. (She is a natural brunette.) Both the culmination and a drastic departure of all her previous work, TORI. is a diverse, album-length love song to Kelly’s musical influences and personal inspirations, bringing together sounds from her Y2K childhood, Gospel upbringing, and girl-with-a-guitar YouTube days.
We caught up with Kelly to discuss the creative process behind her latest album, the struggles of embracing your individuality as an artist, the joys of singing in cars, and the exciting future of her live tour run.
TORI. isn’t just a self-titled album. It’s self-titled in all- caps with a period. It’s TORI. Period. At what point in the creation of this album did the title become such a bold statement?
The concept of doing a self-title in general came after all the music was actually done because during the creation process, I felt really free to just have fun. I basically went into the studio with Jon Bellion and the first thing I said was, “I want big sounding songs that everyone will want to belt out of their cars, with the windows rolled down, and make them want to dance,” because those are all the things I wanted for myself. I wanted to dance and let loose a little more. That was a result of coming out of Covid and being in lockdown. On top of that, my last full-length album was definitely more personal, more on the sad side, because I was just going through a lot. I felt like I healed from a lot and just wanted my music to reflect that. I was super in love and wanted to sing about it. Once all the music was pretty much finished, I zoomed out a bit and wanted to figure out the theme of this album, other than just having fun. I realized this really just felt like the most confident version of myself that I ever stepped into, along with getting older and feeling comfortable in my own skin. All those things led me to just make this my self-titled moment. It felt like a statement. Everything did, with me changing my look, going back to my natural hair color, having fun with fashion. All those things led me to make TORI. All-caps, period. It all made sense to me.
It’s a big, sprawling album too, with almost 20 songs on the deluxe edition. Despite that, TORI. is an aesthetically cohesive, complete project. What was the album’s creation process like?
This album was made over the span of a few years. I started working with Jon back in 2021, but we only did a couple songs that first week or so just to kind of see if we wanted to work together. After those first two songs, I was like, yes, please do my album. I really love this. I felt like he really understood me and my vision. He’s based in Long Island, so I would try to get out there because he has a whole studio in his house. It’s really beautiful. I would just stay with him and his family. That was probably one of my favorite things about it. He created such a home-y vibe that was just really comfortable. There were kids running around. His family was there. Producers and writers were coming in and out. I think that helped the creation process by making it really fun and chill.
You mentioned wanting to make songs you could sing to in your car. Do you always have a place in mind for your music during the songwriting process?
I think every album has been different for me. This is the first album where I actually pictured people listening to these songs. Like I said before, definitely in their cars because that’s where I listen to music the most. I just feel like that’s a fun place to listen to music. With songs like “Spruce,” I was picturing people getting ready for a night out, getting cute. It’s kind of all over the place. I mean, I have songs like “Oceans” that feel a lot more intimate, that you’d listen to maybe in your room with headphones on. With songs like “Alive If I Die,” I was picturing the stage—a big arena or stadium. That’s what’s been fun about being on tour too. While I was writing them, most of these songs I pictured in a live setting because that’s just my favorite thing to do ever. Getting to actually live that out now has been really cool. I think all the songs translate really well to a live setting.
Tights WOLFORD @wolford
Shoes KAUD @kaudofficial @tata_la
Diamonds CAMILLA SERETTI @camillaseretti
I want big sounding songs that everyone will want to belt out of their cars, with the windows rolled down, and make them want to dance, because those are all the things I wanted for myself.
“Oceans” is the song I’ve been playing on repeat. I love that one. With only vocals and guitar, the song achieves so much with so little. It’s a spectacular showcase of your singing, an ecstatic expression of love, possibly even of faith. Can you share a little behind-the-scenes of that song?
This one has become one of my favorites, even though it was a late addition to the album. We knew we needed a few more songs just to round out everything, so this one came later on after we had a good amount finished. Jon and I were talking and trying to figure out what was missing. I thought, I still don’t have OG Tori with her guitar, a super soulful, stripped- down type of song. Jon actually had pieces of the song ready, but the track ended up totally different. We loved the melodies and wanted to see how we could rework it. We kept trying to add sounds to see how it would work, but we ended up just stripping it down. Throughout the album process, I was being very careful with the editing and taking my time, but with this song in particular he said, “Let’s completely take off the guard rails. Go nuts. We already have so many songs where we’re being intentional, so let’s have one song where we’re not doing that at all.” I did my thing, and it felt like I was sort of painting, just going all over the place. I had a lot of fun with that one.
Of your entire discography, is there a specific song or project that you feel cuts deepest to who you are? One that you felt most vulnerable while making it?
Oh wow, if we’re talking overall project, I think I really opened up a lot on the Inspired by True Events album just by the nature of everything that was going on at the time. My parents were separating, which was really tough. My grandfather had passed away. It’s funny because I tried to write just straight-up pop songs at that time, music that I thought people would want from me, and it just was not working. So, I was like, I need to just not think about any of that and really try to say what I’m feeling, even if it’s not super relatable. The irony of that, whenever I do that, is that it always ends with fans telling me they related so much, which is crazy because I always thought it was just me going through it.
How do you balance creating music for yourself versus the audience? Do you feel more motivated or terrorized by the pressure to create music people will like?
It’s such a delicate balance because it’s a scary thing when you’re only writing for other people, but it’s also really tempting. We’re all trying to write good, catchy songs, right? In some ways you’re trying to follow this imaginary rule book of what a good chorus sounds like and what’s in the charts right now, but then if you go too much in that direction, it’s like people are smart. They can tell when something is not authentic. For me, I had to tell myself that I actually don’t care if people do or don’t like this. Jon was really good at following that rule, too. All that being said, it’s a balance. I always want to write from the heart. I always want to be authentic and make sure that I really love the songs, but I think this last album is a good example of me thinking, okay, what would people like to rock with in the car, what would they want to belt out at the shows? That’s still being authentic to me because I had to first make sure that I wanted to belt it out of the car. It always starts with me.
Dress RONNY KOBO @ronnykobo
Diamonds CAMILLA SERETTI @camillaseretti
It’s like that saying, “The most personal is the most universal.” Embracing your individuality is actually a recurrent theme in your work, from your latest album to your role as the stage-fright elephant Meena in the Sing movies to your children’s book The Curly Girl Blues. As an artist, when do you feel your sense of self, your individuality, is most threatened?
Probably when I care too much about what other people think. Comparison is really scary. It’s so hard to not compare ourselves, not only as an artist, but for everyone. It’s something we all struggle with, especially with the internet now. It’s so easy to be like, look their life. Look at what everyone else is doing. I’m definitely not immune to that. Ever since I was a little girl, I would go into label meetings, as young as 12 years old, and I’d have people tell me to my face, “You’re so shy. Why are you like this?” I’d immediately think of all these super bubbly Disney kids and wish I was more like them. It’s funny that you brought up the elephant because I really relate to Meena [laughs]. Around some of my first projects, some of my first EPs, I started just being myself. I was this girl with a guitar who was kind of shy, kind of awkward, writing about mylife, and people were relating to me. I felt like I didn’t have to change who I was, but I had to prove that to myself. Once I did, I suddenly became more confident.
When did you start to take music seriously? Do you remember the moment when you first thought, “I can do this”?
Oh yeah, I was probably six years old when I was like, I’m doing this for the rest of my life. My parents were both very musical. My dad—I watched him in bands growing up. He plays bass and he sings, so my house was super musical. My dad would sing with me around the house, and we would make up songs all the time. I knew, or at least they knew, early on that I had this passion for singing. I started doing local singing competitions around six years old. I think I was on an actual stage at three years old, with one of my dad’s bands. Again, I was very shy. Very similar to Meena then, but here we are. I’m very grateful that it worked out.
You kind of got your start by uploading music performances to YouTube in the early 2010s. Do you feel like the evolution of social media has affected your artistry over the past decade?
It’s definitely affected me. When I started, there was a lot of people on YouTube, but it wasn’t necessarily as saturated as it is now. Now, everybody is posting, and there’s so much music, so many things happening online. Maybe it’s a little harder to get discovered now? I’m not sure. Young artists ask me this a lot, and it’s tough because the only thing I can tell them is what I did, which was post, post, post. Don’t be afraid to post. That being said, it was a different time. What I do like though is the community aspect hasn’t changed. I remember going over to my friend AJ Rafael’s house (he’s on YouTube too) and meeting so many incredible friends just by being in that scene. We would make videos together and jam and hang out. I see that still happening. That’s the part of the internet I like, how collaborative it can be. Personally, I’ve just learned to adapt to every new platform. I always had the choice to either continue to do things my way or see what each new app is all about, like learn the new lingo and trends. I think I’m lucky that I did come up on the internet and gained a fanbase purely online first because that helped carry me onto each new platform, but I just have fun with it now. I try not to overthink it like I used to.
Corset DALOOD @daloodtbilisi @tata_la
I realized this really just felt like the most confident version of myself that I ever stepped into, along with getting older and feeling comfortable in my own skin. All those things led me to just make this my self-titled moment.
Which artists have influenced you the most?
I’m kind of a melting pot of different artists. I grew up in church, so Gospel music was big in my house. Crystal Lewis was the first singer where I remember being really amazed by her technique. Kirk Franklin and his overall production were always so great to me. Mary Mary was also big in my house. Gospel music was the first pillar of my musical upbringing, but then very close to that were neo-soul and R&B, like Maxwell, Jill Scott, and D’Angelo. There’s so much space in their songs. That’s really how I learned how to adlib and fill in the space. I would sing runs with my dad back and forth. We would have little riff battles to that style of music. After I picked up guitar when I was 15, I got really into Jeff Buckley, India Arie, and John Mayer. Throughout my whole life I’ve been inspired by big vocals. I loved Paramore when I was 15. Still do. I give a lot of credit to my dad because every time I’d emulate a singer too much, he would turn it off. He’d say, “That’s enough. You need to figure out what your voice sounds like.” I was really good at imitating other vocalists, but I eventually found my way and my true voice.
What do you look forward to?
Right now, I am looking forward to touring more. Next year, I am really stoked to open for Ed Sheeran for his European stadium run, which like, even saying the word “stadium” kind of freaks me out. Ed is a long-time friend. He’s always been so supportive. I’m looking forward to hopefully starting a family at some point. That really excites me. Being a mom sounds like a new, fun adventure. Both of those things and getting to continue to write songs and keep putting out music has been a huge blessing, a huge dream come true. I’m loving life right now.
