Kelly Clarkson hinted that she plans to drop a new record in 2017, and now she's given PEOPLE a few more details about the next stage in her music career.
"I'm working on my new album now," the singer, 34, told PEOPLE during an interview at the S.H.E. Summit in New York City, where she was speaking on a panel about time management as a brand ambassador for Citizen watches.
"We are hoping the single will be in April, and then the album in June," says the mom of two and stepmother of two. "It's my favorite thing I've ever done. It's the first time I got to pick my label, because I just got out of my [American] Idol contract. I've been dying to make this record since Idol." In June, she announced that she had left her record label of 14 years, RCA, and signed a deal with the urban-leaning label Atlantic.
She describes the upcoming music's new sound as "soulful urban pop" and not the "rock pop" familiar to her fans.
"It's very much my personality. I think it's very much what people expected from me off of watching me on Idol. I sang all these Aretha Franklin things, I love Tina Turner, I love Mariah Carey, I love Whitney Houston. I think it's very much what people expected in the first place. I love all my stuff that I've done but this is the record that has been in me since junior high. And that music from when I was in junior high is now coming back into style - like our 15-year-old listens to R&B that I listened to in high school." Kelly claimed.
The album's not quite finished yet, though. "We're still working on it, but we have a good batch of songs already and I can't wait to sing them live," she says. "They're amazing. After having a career for so long, it's so weird that nobody knows my sound yet, so it's going to be so good. It's definitely a different chapter." Kelly furthered.
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