Singer Tori Kelly on collaboration, faith, and motherhood ahead of Friday’s T-Mobile show

Tori Kelly. // photo credit Daniel Antropik

Even if you’re not familiar with the world of Christian music, you know singer Tori Kelly’s voice. She appeared in the ninth season of American Idol, she’s voiced Nina the elephant in both of the animated Sing movies,  and has collaborated with everyone from Ed Sheeran to Justin Bieber.

Her blend of pop, R&B, and gospel has made her a crossover success, but on her latest album, God Must Really Love Me, released last month, Kelly turned more introspective, exploring “a period of thrilling flux, indescribable joy, and profound fulfillment,” inspired by the birth of her son, Zayden, last November.

Tori Kelly comes to T-Mobile Center this Friday, July 24, opening for Forrest Frank, and we hopped on the phone with Kelly to discuss God Must Really Love Me, motherhood, her wide-ranging career, and more.

The Pitch: Is that your baby on the first song on the new album?

Tori Kelly: It is. It is. Imagine if it was just a random baby. No, yes, it is my son. I had to throw him on there. He’s at the beginning of the album and the end of the album. He bookends it.

It feels like every time a musician or an artist of any sort becomes a parent, it really changes your focus.

Yeah. It definitely does. I thought that it was this unique feeling that I was going through at first, and then now in hindsight, I’m thinking of all the artists that I love, and I’m like, “Oh, this is a common thing that happens to people–to artists, specifically. I think it’s so hard not to write about this really big thing. It’s such a shift in your life, so it’s not surprising that we all can’t help but write about it in our music.

This album is you settling into yourself. Would that be an accurate way of interpreting it?

I think that’s pretty spot on, yeah. I don’t know if it’s becoming a mom that things started clicking more. I think every album I’ve put out, I actually feel like I’ve become more and more myself. It’s almost like a representation of how I’ve grown or where I’m at in life, so it makes sense that now, with this latest album, I’m 33.

I feel like that’s the point in life too where it’s–at least with friends that I’ve talked to–it’s like something about your 30s just feels like very defining: “Hey, I know who I am. I’m not second-guessing as much. I’m better at saying no.” It does feel like I’ve settled into myself in a way, but in a very exciting way.

I still feel like there’s so much life to live and so much more to write about but yeah, stepping into starting a family, I feel, has really allowed me to get my priorities right and–still really excited obviously about my career and everything, ut something about, looking at my little baby, I’m like, “Oh, shoot, this adds a whole new layer of just purpose and clarity,” and it’s unlocked a whole new side of my songwriting even.

It’s been really beautiful to be able to have a career that allows me to actually write about my real life and put my real life into my art. I think it’s just mind-blowing that I’m able to even do that. I don’t take that for granted.

As you’ve gone through your career, you’ve worked with so many folks and also gotten to interpret so many people’s songs. What lessons has that taught you that you’ve been able to apply to your own songwriting–all the covers you’ve been able to do and the collaborations you’ve done? I have to imagine that’s an education of sorts.

Yeah, it definitely is. I think if anything, it’s taught me the power of my voice, I think. I always feel like my voice, and the way I interpret songs, is the glue or the through line because, as you said, I’ve done so many different covers and things, and I love so many different styles of music, too.

You’ll hear in my catalog that I’ve hopped around these different genres, but I’ve always felt and hoped that my voice would be the through line to all of that. There are so many songs that I’ve done that just one coming to mind is like this–Stevie Wonder, “Don’t You Worry About a Thing.” The fact that I get to sing that and little kids think that’s my song?

I try to tell them, “This is not my song. This is Stevie Wonder. It’s the OG,” but yeah, being able to sing songs like that is cool too, ’cause it keeps just good music alive, also, making sure that the next generation gets to be reminded of these iconic classic songs.

In doing things like Sing as well as performing your own music, I have to imagine that just opens your audience up to this wide range of folks who come out to hear you sing and see you perform?

It seems like it, yeah. I do think it’s pretty cool looking out at the audience at some of my shows. I feel like it’s so diverse. Especially with the Sing stuff. That just opened up a whole age group. Now I have all these young kids or–actually it’s crazy ’cause it’s been 10 years now since the first one, so now those young kids are teenagers, and there’s a new wave of young kids after that.

I love that. I think the more the merrier. I would hope that my music is universal. I would hope there’s something for everyone a message or something that people can just, take away from. That’s my goal. I would definitely hope that’s the case.

Are there challenges for you moving between the secular and Christian music worlds, or do you see it as just, “I make music”?

I really love this question ’cause I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s more the latter for me. If people have been following me for a while, they know my faith is very foundational to who I am, and I definitely consider myself a Jesus lover, and my faith is huge, and that’s gonna bleed into my music at different times, but I think at the end of the day, I love telling stories.

I love writing about my son, as you’ll hear on this latest album, and I also, at times, like to write about my faith, and so for me, I think it all blends together. For me, I have a hard time fitting into categories. I always have trouble defining something as a genre or putting it into a box because, at the end of the day, I just write about my life and whatever I’m inspired by.

I think people can take that how they will. But yeah, I think I’ve been really enjoying just simply writing songs about my life, and sometimes I’ll be singing about [my faith] in a more explicit way sometimes, and then other times it will be in the background, but it’s always gonna be the foundation of who I am, so it’s gonna come out in some way at some point.

Did you grow up in a musical household?

Oh, for sure. Yeah. My dad plays bass, and he sings, and mom also grew up playing piano. Both are huge music lovers. I grew up remembering my dad having band practice at the house, and there are home videos of me just dancing around the house at four with all the instruments sprawled out in the living room. So yeah, music was a huge part of my childhood. I remember my dad making up songs during bath time. It was just nonstop music. He would have gospel music on, but then he’d also play like Led Zeppelin, Lenny Kravitz. He would play like a lot of neo soul, like Maxwell, Jill Scott.

So his music taste, I think, really bled into what you hear now from my music. I just was soaking all that in like a sponge at a really young age.

Tori Kelly opens for Forrest Frank at T-Mobile Center on Friday, July 24, along with Cory Asbury and The Figs. Details on that show here.