Katy Perry has attention-grabbing down to a science.

The 24-year-old singer/songwriter ruffled feathers with her 2007 breakthrough Internet single, “Ur So Gay,” a tongue-lashing directed at a metrosexual ex that Madonna dubbed one of her favorite songs. The tune launched Perry to instant stardom.

Her bi-curious No. 1 hit “I Kissed a Girl” raised eyebrows, piqued the interest of straight males everywhere and landed Perry on “The O’Reilly Factor.”Perry – who performs at Agganis Arena on Saturday – says she’s not trying to stir controversy. She’s just trying to tell her story.

“I don’t know if the idea is like, ‘Oh, how provocative can I be?’,” Perry said by phone from a New York City hotel room. “I started living life on my own terms at 17. I moved away from home with the blessing of my parents. And it’s just that crazy experience of like, ‘Ohmigod, I have no curfew! I’m making my own money now! Nobody can tell me what to do! I don’t really have a set of rules besides the rules I set for myself!’ I just started singing about all these new experiences. It was like an open diary. A lot of it’s about boys. A lot of it’s about relationships, getting crazy with your friends and trying new things.”

Before living the stories that would become her Grammy-nominated, double-platinum 2008 album “One of the Boys,” Perry grew up in a Christian household. MTV-watching was prohibited. Madonna posters were forbidden. And terms as innocent as “Dirt Devil” and “deviled eggs” were banned in favor of “vacuum” and, yes, “angel eggs.” In fact, Perry released a gospel album at age 16, one year before she left home.

“It was different,” Perry said of her childhood. “I didn’t really have anything else to compare it to because everybody else around me had the same upbringing. I was only allowed to communicate with people of the like mind – Christian friends, Christian church, Christian camp, Christian entertainment. It was like, Christian music, Christian cereal!

“I didn’t really know it was that strict. Every once in a while I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go to co-ed parties or parties in general or why I couldn’t have gay friends. I started to ask questions, of course. But generally my parents were doing as good of a job as I think most parents can do. I think parents get a little freaked out when they have kids for the first time. They don’t want them to turn out like Charles Manson, so they’re a little strict.”

Perry says that despite her sheltered, gospel-singing background, she wasn’t concerned about reactions to the risque content on “One of the Boys.”

“Everyone comes from something or somewhere, but I made a record for myself,” she said. “I think a lot of people get really sensitive about trying to please people. They start doing things for everyone else and forget who they are and become really unoriginal. You lose the coolness about you. The reason why everybody liked you or bought your record in the first place is because it was different, it was your honest perspective.”

On her next record, Perry hopes to maintain that honesty, but with a more dance-oriented sound.

“I have little seeds of ideas that I have yet to plant,” she said. “I feel like a bit of a volcano ready to explode with all these stories. I made ‘One of the Boys,’ which I’m very thankful for and totally surpassed my expectations, but I made it from (age) 17 to 23, so naturally some of my perspective has changed. After performing for a year-and-a-half and being around so many different audiences, I’m realizing that I want to make people move more. It’s not gonna be a dance record, but it’s gonna make you move.”

Perry plans to work again with “Boys” collaborators Greg Wells and Dr. Luke. The Santa Barbara, Calif., native may also link up with Frou Frou’s Guy Sigsworth, pop/rock band Fountains of Wayne and r & b songwriter/producer The-Dream, the man behind Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” a Perry fave.

“I was asking my A&R guy,” Perry said, “I was like, ‘Who helps co-write some of those Beyonce songs? I want some ‘Single Ladies’ s—. That stuff is so epic. I just want to write great songs with great stories and never write songs that are just Top 40 pop subliminal messages. I mean, I’m proud to be pop, but I always want to bring a story with it.”

Katy Perry, with Boy Crisis, at Agganis Arena Saturday. Tickets: $29.50; 617-931-2000.

Source: Boston Herald