It’s a new chapter for Kimberly Perry in a lot of ways, including with her music. Formerly one-third of the sibling trio, The Band Perry, the mother-to-be, scheduled to give birth later this summer, is now launching her solo career, with the release of Bloom, a five-song EP, out now.

“I’ve been building music and building a baby at the same time, and I feel like we’re going into labor now with the music side of the project. It feels way more peaceful than I’ve heard potential human birth can be, so I’m super excited,” Perry tells Everything Nash with a laugh. “It feels great. It honestly has a bit of a surreal feeling too, ’cause everything that I’ve dedicated the last 12 months of my life to is live. I can’t believe it.”

The Band Perry, which also included Perry’s brothers Neil and Reid, had a multi-platinum, No. 1 hit in 2010 with “if I Die Young.” Now, 13 years later, Perry is revisiting that era with “If I Die Young Pt. 2,” out now. After writing the first song by herself. Perry brought in hit songwriters Jimmy Robbins and Nicolle Galyon to continue the story.

“I really felt like I needed the perspective,” Perry acknowledges. “Both of people who were fans of the original ‘If I Die Young’ and saw the beauty of that, but also know how to get the best out of me in a writing room. I feel like we built a lot of accountability, to make sure that we weren’t going to record something that was half-baked or wouldn’t honor the original.”

It was a friend and colleague of Perry who had the idea to write and record a sequel to the original “If I Die Young,” a formidable but welcome challenge for Perry.

“It felt so right to me,” Perry says. “And so needed, but I procrastinated for four months, ’cause I was intimidated, and scared to pick up pen and paper for that. It was a daunting thing. So finally two days before we went into the studio, we gave ourselves exactly 48 hours to not overthink anything, and we knocked it out in a couple of hours.”

Perry has been bravely honest about previously having a heartbreaking miscarriage, which also influenced “If I Die Young Pt. 2.”

“I just wanted to be really honest that that had happened, because I wish that I had had a female artist really talk about that, and that I would know that that’s a possibility,” Perry explains. “It’s a pretty common occurrence. I had no idea, but it also felt special to talk about, because that second verse did set the intention. I was like, ‘No, this is not gonna be a once-and-done opportunity for me to have a baby. Let’s just put it in here.’ The first version was a prayer. We turned this version into a prayer.”

As Perry embarks on her solo career, with plans to hopefully tour after her baby is born, while also preparing to welcome her first child, the Mississippi native is excited and hopeful about her promising new season in life.

“I think it’s just like any human experience,” Perry says. “The next chapter is built because the one that came before exists, and that can be a mix of highs and lows, positive and negatives, hits and misses. ‘If I Die Young Pt. 2’ is a song that feels like a ubiquitous moment right now because the OG exists. And so, I do feel like the foundation that I got to build for myself inside The Band Perry is just one that is so special, but it’s also allowed me to come out as a new artist with benefits because I feel so welcome as a new artist.

“I feel all the butterflies of that, but I have the wisdom of some collective experiences in my career.,” she adds. “It just feels really amazing to have both sides of that, as I’m walking into this brand new future.”

“If I Die Young Pt. 2” and all of the songs on Bloom can be found at KimberlyPerry.com.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of 2b Entertainment / Claire Schaper