Katy Perry on supporting TV host Ellen DeGeneres, battling depression and new album Smile

Pop singer Katy Perry is ready to welcome the arrival of her daughter with her fiancé Orlando Bloom. Katy is not like other pregnant women who seem to take it slow and easy. Rather, she is all geared up and energetic for her forthcoming music album, 'Smile'.

Speaking to LA Times, Katy Perry was at her candid best as she spoke at length about her forthcoming music album, battling clinical depression, and her Tweet supporting TV host Ellen DeGeneres.

 On supporting TV host Ellen DeGeneres

On August 4, Perry's made the headlines and faced several backlashes for the tweet she wrote in support of TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who is facing allegations of fostering a toxic workplace environment at her talk show.

Perry tweet read: 'I know I can't speak for anyone else's experience besides my own but I want to acknowledge that I have only ever had positive takeaways from my time with Ellen & on the @theellenshow.'

Defending her post, Perry said to the LA Times.

I started that tweet off not undermining anyone else's experience. I wanted to only speak from my own experience. I have over 100 million people that follow me on Twitter, so not everyone is going to agree with me. And I'm not here to make everyone agree with me.

Perry acknowledged that it took years for her to feel comfortable speaking out on hot-button issues.

Her support for Ellen comes from her past experience

In the year 2017, Perry was deposed in Kesha's legal battle against Lukasz "Dr Luke" Gottwald, the music producer behind some of Perry's biggest hits whom Kesha accused of rape. The unsealed transcript from the deposition revealed that Perry was fearful of being attacked and criticized for being the one woman that is against women if she took a public stance in the matter.

About the legal battle

Katy said:

I knew both of them at the time. It sucks when you know both of the players. I can only speak for my own experience, and my own experience [with Gottwald] was a healthy one. I believe in due process. And I also believe that only they know the truth.

What led to depression

All of her past relationships failed. She and Russell Brand divorced in 2012 and then she dated John Mayer and Diplo — she then turned to work. She'd had, after all, a meteoric run of success. Katy was the only woman, and the second artist after Michael Jackson, to send five songs from a single album to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Sia recalled the time Katy Perry had a breakdown at her house during a period of depression.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about her friendship with the singer, Sia said:

She had a real breakdown.

She's on stage with 10 candied lollipops and clowns and dancers, selling the dream, the joy, the happiness — and that's really hard sometimes when you're not feeling it yourself.

Perry also opened up about the experience, explaining that the relatively lukewarm reception to her 2017 album Witness knocked her confidence.

I think the universe was like 'okay, all right, let's have some humble pie here. My negative thoughts were not great. They didn't want to plan for a future.

I also felt like I could control it by saying 'I'll have the last word if I hurt myself or do something stupid and I'll show you — but really, who was I showing?

Sia believes that Perry's emotions were an opportunity to reassess her relationship with music. She said:

I knew she was driven and ambitious, that was clear from the beginning. But I didn't realise that she was so reliant on that validation for her psychological wellbeing.

She did say 'I feel lost'. I think it was a big kick to her ego, but it was the best thing that could have ever happened to her, really, because now she can make music for the fun of it. Getting number ones does nothing for your inside.

Speaking about battling depression Katy said:

I was kind of clinically depressed and I didn't know what my life was. I couldn't really even imagine living, to be completely honest.

Bout with clinical depression.

Katy took transcendental medication. She took part in the Hoffman Process, an introspective retreat that she describes as 10 years of therapy concentrated into a week.

Smile resonates with Katy's turbulent past

It took over two and a half years to pen the song smile which tells the story of a difficult period in Perry's life. What led her to clinical depression and how she came out of it.

The song Smile was initially supposed to come out in June, then on Aug. 14, and now Aug. 28. In fact, motherhood wasn't something she ever felt destined for.

The response of the song

 Katy knows that music has undergone a seismic shift since she scored her first No. 1 with "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008. And now Hip-hop dominates the streaming charts, fans create TikTok hits out of bedroom dance routines.

Keeping her signature style intact Katy's next album is buoyant, playful and neon pop.

She puts it as:

It's an upbeat record. The tones are very hopeful and resilient and joyful, and I hope that it can ignite that in anyone who is listening.