Katy Perry and Alesso's Goal Was to 'Revenge Celebrate' in 'Cool and Sexy' Single 'When I'm Gone'
Rony Alwin Alesso and Katy Perry
When two worlds collide... Katy Perry and Alesso create the sexiest summer anthem!
In December, the Smile songstress and the Swedish DJ released their dance track "When I'm Gone," and the duo recently spoke to PEOPLE about working together to bring the collaboration to life.
"It was effortless, and easy, and cool, and we had the same goals in mind," Perry, 37, says. "We had the same goals in mind in that we just wanted to create an amazing vibe, and we wanted to just have that kind of sexy, longing, club vibe for the people. And he was happy to take any notes, and when we came together in the studio, he was so open."
RELATED: Katy Perry Drops Mesmerizing Video for Her New Single with Alesso: Watch 'When I'm Gone'
Perry also notes that working with Alesso, 30, was seamless.
"Alesso has no ego, he has the right amount of ego to be a DJ. Confidence, maybe. But it's great, because ego really gets in the way of good work getting done," the "Firework" singer says.
She also added that this song was the perfect way to "revenge celebrate."
"This was the right time, right before I was starting my residency, and the world was coming back and everybody wants to revenge celebrate," Perry says. Alesso adds, "I like that."
For the music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, Alesso says it was "such an awesome experience" and "exactly how we hoped it would be."
"We wanted to do something that was cool and sexy that worked with the song and [was] very visually pleasing, and it just turned out so great," the "Heroes" musician adds. "Obviously Katy carried the whole video with the incredible dances and the whole performance was just next-level."
Adding that she "put me in there for two seconds, which was fun, and I just wanted to look cool and play with a futuristic dog" named "Nuggets."
That music video took hard work, Perry says — she even found herself dancing in water at 3 a.m., "and it was not warm."
"I'm super involved in everything, to the point where I'm helping style the dancers before they're walking on set, and just very vocal about every little detail," she says. "We wanted the music video to really match the song."
Her vision for the music video came about during one of her "brainwaves."
"My fashion was a little bit of an early 2000s rave/Y2K, Jean Paul Gaultier corset throwback. And for some weird reason — I don't know where I got this idea, but they come to me either in a shower or a meditation or something where I'm like on a different brain wave, but I wanted to dance and slither in a data bank, in a pretend data bank."
Looking ahead, Alesso is gearing up for his upcoming Las Vegas residency at TAO from April to September, and will tour with reggaeton star Bad Bunny later this year.
"I'm not so used to stadiums so that's going to be a new challenge for me, but I'm so excited for it. I've known Bad Bunny now for a couple years, and we always said we want to do something together," he says. "He came for one of my shows in Tomorrowland, so now it's my turn to join his."
As for Perry, she kicked off the 20th season of American Idol as a judge in February and will continue to perform at her Las Vegas residency Play through the summer.
