IN CONVERSATION WITH KEKE PALMER

interview by JANA LETONJA

Keke Palmer is releasing her new album ‘Just Keke’, which marks a new era for her. We chatted with Keke about this deeply personal exploration of her journey through love, motherhood and self-discovery, reflecting her evolution as both a person and an artist.

You’ve called your new album ‘Just Keke’ “the mark of a new era.” What makes this project such a personal and artistic turning point for you?

I always say as an artist, how you grow with yourself impacts your art. That's why it’s always been so important to me to ke keep evolving, because I want to be able to continue to share my story through my medium in new ways. I don’t want to ever become stagnant. I think ‘Just Keke’ is a very big example of that evolution of who I'm as an artist, especially as it pertains to kind of like fragmentation and integration. Fragmentation on a personal emotional level, but also artistically from doing so many different things as a host, as an actress, as a singer, as an entrepreneur. 

But then, when you look at ‘Just Keke’, this is kind of a project of me standing on my own, putting my own money and everything behind it in full ownership, and showcasing all of those things in one. It's not just integration on a professional standpoint, but then also personal, because I'm talking about so many things that I never usually would, and I feel like I only really can do or would do through music.

The album explores fragmentation and integration, as you mentioned. What parts of yourself were you confronting or reclaiming in this process?

I think the biggest part that I was reclaiming was the observer of my life. I think I lived so much in the performative aspect, and to be clear, I think everybody does. Even if you're not an artist, we all have to show up and perform for life, in ways that take us outside of our inner world. I think so much of that pressure growing up in the industry, it really did silence a lot of times that observer role that's always been there, that's always been the guiding force, that's always been the one that created this performative aspect to protect the inner person. And I think that it was time for her to reclaim her voice as the dramaturg, so to speak, as the person that has been around this whole time, that has a voice that can actually start to say to the audience “Hey, I've been watching you watching me, and now I want you to meet that girl and actually get to know her because she's who exists underneath all of this”. And I don't think any of that would've happened if I hadn't had my son or any of the things that transpired the following year after my son was born. That really called me to look deeper and have to go deeper or just turn away. And I was refusing to turn away because I don't want to ever become stagnant. I want to evolve, so I had to face a lot of things.

Tayla Parx is such a powerhouse in the music industry. What made her the right creative partner for this chapter of your journey?

Basically, because of everything I said. Again, when you're growing and you're talking about things that maybe you have not even talked about or said out loud before, you need a safe space to be able to let that all out. And I know I would not have done it with anybody else other than Taylor, because she's been my best friend since I was nine years old. We came into the industry together. We met at American Junior's auditions back when ‘American Juniors’ existed. And when I was approaching this project, I thought to myself “Who's somebody that I feel like I can actually say what I need to say with”, and it was Taylor. So, we were in the studio and immediately we start having those conversations. And the first two songs we wrote immediately were ‘Off Script’ and ‘Misunderstood’. On the album, ‘Off Script’ starts it, and ‘Misunderstood’ ends it.

How did Tayla help you unlock in your voice, as a writer, as a woman, and as a storyteller?

With vulnerability. I think I can be vulnerable, but I always try to preface it with a joke or keep it lighthearted. Even when we were kids, I never had to do that with her. I could always be extraordinarily vulnerable, especially us growing up as entertainers in the industry. We had spent so many nights telling each other about the pressure that we felt in our families driving and moving across the world to help us pursue our dreams. Those were very sensitive touch points in our childhood as child and entertainers. And so, working on this project with her, she reopened that place that she knows better than anybody, that can actually say “You know what? This was hard for me and this hurt”, and then help me put it into words and turn it into music.

This project dives deep into love, fame, motherhood, and identity. How did you find the courage to be so transparent?

So not only obviously because of Tayla and my community, but also my son. I want him to see me continuing to thrive in all aspects. I'm an artist, it is my passion to create. There's nothing I love more than that. And like I said, I can't continue to create if I'm not being real with myself, because a part of creation is meeting the many versions of you that you are evolving into in life. 

You meet a new you, you write a new song, you tell a new story, you say a new thing, you come to a new conclusion, you have a new realization. And I think for me, that's what it's about. And for me, my son has pushed me to continue to step through that door. I think before my son, it was just sheer faith, just me and my goals. But it has taken a new meaning, knowing that I have someone watching me, and I know who I want him to become and know who he can be and have courage to be that.

Is there a track on the album that felt the most vulnerable, or the most freeing, to write and record?

Okay, so there's two. The most vulnerable is ‘I Wanna Know’, because I think it is the most vulnerable thing that many of us feel when we've gotten out of a relationship or we've lost someone special to us. We’re wondering what they might be doing with somebody else, but it feels so cringe. And I remember when I first recorded this song, I was thinking to myself “Oh my gosh, this is like the spider crawling on the back of my neck”. But that's how I knew that it was an important song because it was expressing a real deep feeling that you don't want anybody to know that you have. And I think that's what makes music or art that people can relate to, because we can all go there and it feels good to have an expression of that that's tangible.

And then the one that felt very freeing was ‘Unless It's You’. To be honest with you, throughout my life, I've performed joy and laughter and all this type of stuff, but the one thing that I've never really performed and never felt comfortable to perform is deep love for someone, for another. That to me is something that's always been so deeply off limits. It exposes a part of me that I don't want anybody to know or anybody to see, but that person. And with ‘Unless It's You’, it kind of encapsulates the depth of what love has been for me. So yeah, it was freeing to express it because it's something that I always hide. I always talk about my son. My son is too cool, and I wouldn't describe myself as too cool, but when it comes to like love or romance, I can be very oh oh. And with this song, that all melts away and you see the tenderness that exists underneath that surface. It was very freeing to have a song to be able to express that aspect of myself in, because I just don't do it, especially not publicly.

Can you talk about the energy in the room when you and Tayla started working together? Was there a moment when you knew this album was going to be something different?

We had two big sessions. We had one in Atlanta where we were working, and that was really fun, really reflective. And then when we went to LA, it felt very celebratory. I felt we had time in between, from doing it in Atlanta to getting back to LA, so we were listening to the songs, living with the songs, thinking about what else we needed to complete this album's arc. And again, our story, like there's so many stories that are colliding. There's my personal story, but then there's also the story of friendship, the story of being two young women that have worked in this industry since being very young and have had our own individual successes coming together again to share in this project that's like another storyline within the storyline.

I think I realized then, like God writes a better story than me. In this moment in my life, no matter how difficult those things were and whatever has led her to this point, us coming together and having this moment, it means so much on all levels. And then it was cool because we had our family come and our parents know each other. When my mom and dad decided to go to California to help me pursue my dreams, her parents were the people they called and they were like “Hey, let's be each other's family when we'd go out there”. They were coming from Texas, we were coming from Chicago. We had them there and they got to be there and experience that and see how we were collaborating. It was very special.