Getting to Clarity with Kim Petras

The support of her fans has been a tremendous savior for pop sensation Kim Petras, who is currently out on a headlining tour—The Clarity Tour—that kicked off in Vancouver on Oct. 21. With a feature on the new Charlie’s Angels soundtrack, Petras career is growing quickly. She’s opened for Rita Ora and played alongside Ariana Grande in the Manchester Pride Parade. With all the success that’s headed her way, Petras knows that the support of her fans is important. “My fans are like my friends,” she says. She personally keeps in touch with her fans daily and knows what they’re going through in their own lives, which is something that a lot of artists don’t do.

In particular, the LGBTQ+ community has been a huge support for Petras, who says that she “was born and raised in gay clubs.” She feels blessed and honored for everything that she has. Let it be known that Petras is an independent artist with her own label. She’s put in all the hard work for her own career by building her platform on her own through social media, one of the primary ways she keeps a close connection with her fans.

Petras has released two projects this year. One, TURN OFF THE LIGHT, is a Halloween-themed album released in the month of October with 17 tracks. The tone of TURN OFF THE LIGHT is a character that Petras and her friends made up together: “We were wondering why there are so many Christmas records [and] no Halloween records,” she says. And that’s when Petras and her friends decided to make one. Tracks that came from an earlier release, TURN OFF THE LIGHT VOL 1, complete the project in its entirety.

“Clarity is kind of like a personality piece.”

Clarity, the other of Petras’ 2019 releases, is her way of allowing her fans to get a glimpse into her real life. Her past tracks showed a more glamorized and exaggerated side of Petras, but “Clarity is kind of like a personality piece,” she says. After going through a bad breakup, Petras wanted to put out music that her fans could relate to and lean on when they’re going through tough times.

Clarity isn’t all about the hard times though. It’s also about amazing times. With tracks such as “Got My Number” and “Personal Hell,”  Petras does a splendid job at keeping her sad songs pop. Petras has recently released a music video for her track “Icy” that shows her breaking through a toxic relationship to become a better version of herself. Clarity was released this past summer with 12 tracks and broke to number four on the iTunes pop chart.

Petras feels she’s learned in every way from being a better performer, a better songwriter and a better artist in general. “I’m restless, so I can never really stop writing songs,” she says about writing lyrics. She always gets down to write in her tour bus after her performances. Lyrics are what she has so far for a new album, and she is making new tracks and working on other things too. As long as Petras knows that she’s improving, she feels she’s doing well: “That’s my number one priority in life: to always learn, grow and to get better,” she says.

If you’ve seen Petras’ stage outfits, you’ll know that she loves fashion and it shows. Her inspiration is pulled from various places, such as Freddie Mercury, Billy Idol, Madonna, Cher and her own dreams. Petras had a dream about her tour and she woke up with all the outfits she wanted. “I sketched them out in my book and called my stylist and tailor so we could start working on them together,” she says. She had about ten looks conceptualized, but not all of them were made for the tour.

“That’s my number one priority in life: to always learn, grow and to get better.”

The Clarity Tour is Petras’ first big solo outing. “These are the biggest shows I’ve ever done, so it’s really nerve-wracking,” she says. Where her Broken Tour was more of a warmup, Clarity feels like an artistic arrival for her. “The staging reminds of Thierry Mugler fashion show.” The gist of Thierry Mugler fashion is haute couture. Petras has a turntable on stage that she wanted because she feels it’s glamorous. She also has a set of stairs—which she says, “is really sick”—and a full-blown light show.

While all of The Clarity Tour has been a blessing for Petras (“These have been the biggest and best shows I’ve ever done,” she says), a highlight so far was coming out of a casket a night before Halloween for her fans at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles. More than anything, though, she hopes that her performance can provide an escape for her fans: “My only hope is that they can come to my show and forget about their problems for a few minutes,” she says.

Kim Petras has the sound, look and the stage presence of a true popstar. If you want to catch Petras in her amazing outfits as she performs tracks such as “Icy,” “There Will Be Blood” and many more, be sure to catch her at The Depot on Dec. 5!

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