During her visit for some ARTPOP promotion, Lady Gaga took some time to talk with the canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, to talk about her promo single Venus, fans and more. Read the full interview after the jump!
Lady Gaga, who was born to be a peculiar way, walks into the hotel suite in what one supposes is semi-casual for her: shiny black boots with outrageous lifts, a long red-plaid lumberjack shirt, a boopsy-blond Marilyn Monroe ’do. And no pants.
Heading to the couch – “Gaga will be on the couch,” her record-label publicist had insisted earlier – the Applause singer towers over everyone in the room thanks to the giant heels. She has a softer look than I had anticipated. She is youthful, narrow, perky, small-headed, doll-like.
Does one shake her hand or does one bow? I do the former, but, given her striking presence, my true impulse is to start up a slow clap.
“Do you mind if I smoke?” she non-asks, preparing to light up. We chat about the weather. She uses a cardboard coaster for an ashtray.
And then we talk about Venus, a Sun Ra-inspired astral-celestial adventure off her recently released third album, Artpop. “The song is about Botticelli’s Venus coming out of the painting and having a voice,” says Gaga. I nod knowingly, vaguely recalling an episode of The Simpsons in which Michelangelo’s David comes to life.
“That’s really what Artpop is all about. Seeing yourself as the canvas, as well as the medium and the artist,” the 27-year-old says.
Pop music gets short shrift when it comes to the consideration of music as art, but Gaga, a woman of audacious fashions and conceptual concerts, is her own walking, talking scheme of art. She’s the woman in the meat dress, the lady inside the giant egg, the paint-smeared singer in the video for the jittery hit single, Applause.
“You’re all of these things at once, and you’re able to self-invent and still be inside your own art piece and step out and have a voice,” says Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta). “It’s about giving a voice to the old souls of the art world.”
She summons voices in her music, sometimes blatantly so. She is clearly inspired by Madonna and Bowie, groundbreakers in the field of art pop and reinvention. She draws criticism, however, for adopting their poses and musical mannerisms too blatantly. Conspiracy theorists hear striking similarities between Madge’s Girl Gone Wild and the neon-lit Applause, in which Gaga adopts a Bowie-like inflection. And of course Gaga’s Born This Way (the title track from her 2011 album) replicated Madonna’s Express Yourself to Single White Female extremes.
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘appropriation,’” Gaga says, after I had used that exact word. “It gives the impression that there is not a genuine connection with the work.”
Does Gaga summon Bowie and Madonna (and Bonnie Tyler and/or Kim Carnes) as if they themselves were old souls of art to give voice to? “Whenever I’m channelling or referencing or injecting an artist’s work into my music, the idea is to create a metaphor for the ways things used to be,” Gaga brilliantly explains. “It’s taking nostalgia in and blasting it into the future.”
Another slow-clap moment. I want to ask her about Madonna’s cheeky turnabout inclusion of Born This Way into her concert versions of Express Yourself. I want to ask the singer about the hip surgery that caused the truncation of her last tour. I want to ask why she split with her manager, Troy Carter. I want to ask about her randy episode with R. Kelly on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live.
And I want to ask that she cease with her smoking, because it is disgusting. But I have only 10 minutes with the poker-faced one. “Have your key three or four questions ready,” her publicist advised me on the elevator ride up. So I needle Gaga about the rumour that hit the Internet last week – that Interscope wasn’t happy with Artpop and had twice over the last year or so demanded that the album be redone. “I didn’t see that article,” she says, with a laugh. “It was a non-reputable source, and none of it is true.”
One of the reasons pop music is seen in less than an artistic light is its unconcealed commercial intentions. Gaga can speak about her vision but, at the end of the day, she’s after radio play. “Sure,” she says, “but with every record I make, I assume I’ll have to fight the battle to get it played. It’s about growing as an artist and not allowing radio or the business to dictate the creativity.”
At this point, a handler in the back of the room flashes the one-minute sign. “Tell me about that tattoo,” I say quickly, pointing to the unicorn riding high on her outer (non-operated-upon) left thigh. “It represents my album Born This Way,” she says, “and I have one for Artpop, too.” When she holds up her forearm to show off that small, simple promotional inking, I suggest that she is a billboard. “I guess so,” she says with a shrug.
“I like to take my experiences with me.”
Gaga then goes on to explain how her fans – her “Little Monsters” – ink themselves in the same way. During concerts or other appearances, Gaga and her followers flash their like-tattoos to each other. “They show me their little unicorn thighs,” she says, smiling. “It’s an amazing thing to watch.” Having given Gaga’s album another spin before the interview, I still had it ringing in my mind. “Live for the way you cheer and scream for me,” Mother Monster sings, “the applause, applause, applause.”
To my suggestion that her relationship with her fans is tribal, Gaga agrees. “There’s something very tribal that Little Monsters have become, and it’s beautiful.” Is it satisfying, that emulation, that applause? “Mmm, I wouldn’t say satisfying,” Gaga says, standing up to see me off. “I would just say that I am very grateful. We all live for this validation, for the work that we do. And when we do things that we love, and we’re happy, we feel a sense of who we are.” And so one more slow clap for Lady Gaga. Give her that thing that she loves, the applause, applause, applause. We can’t say she hasn’t earned it.
Heading to the couch – “Gaga will be on the couch,” her record-label publicist had insisted earlier – the Applause singer towers over everyone in the room thanks to the giant heels. She has a softer look than I had anticipated. She is youthful, narrow, perky, small-headed, doll-like.
Does one shake her hand or does one bow? I do the former, but, given her striking presence, my true impulse is to start up a slow clap.
“Do you mind if I smoke?” she non-asks, preparing to light up. We chat about the weather. She uses a cardboard coaster for an ashtray.
And then we talk about Venus, a Sun Ra-inspired astral-celestial adventure off her recently released third album, Artpop. “The song is about Botticelli’s Venus coming out of the painting and having a voice,” says Gaga. I nod knowingly, vaguely recalling an episode of The Simpsons in which Michelangelo’s David comes to life.
“That’s really what Artpop is all about. Seeing yourself as the canvas, as well as the medium and the artist,” the 27-year-old says.
Pop music gets short shrift when it comes to the consideration of music as art, but Gaga, a woman of audacious fashions and conceptual concerts, is her own walking, talking scheme of art. She’s the woman in the meat dress, the lady inside the giant egg, the paint-smeared singer in the video for the jittery hit single, Applause.
“You’re all of these things at once, and you’re able to self-invent and still be inside your own art piece and step out and have a voice,” says Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta). “It’s about giving a voice to the old souls of the art world.”
She summons voices in her music, sometimes blatantly so. She is clearly inspired by Madonna and Bowie, groundbreakers in the field of art pop and reinvention. She draws criticism, however, for adopting their poses and musical mannerisms too blatantly. Conspiracy theorists hear striking similarities between Madge’s Girl Gone Wild and the neon-lit Applause, in which Gaga adopts a Bowie-like inflection. And of course Gaga’s Born This Way (the title track from her 2011 album) replicated Madonna’s Express Yourself to Single White Female extremes.
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘appropriation,’” Gaga says, after I had used that exact word. “It gives the impression that there is not a genuine connection with the work.”
Does Gaga summon Bowie and Madonna (and Bonnie Tyler and/or Kim Carnes) as if they themselves were old souls of art to give voice to? “Whenever I’m channelling or referencing or injecting an artist’s work into my music, the idea is to create a metaphor for the ways things used to be,” Gaga brilliantly explains. “It’s taking nostalgia in and blasting it into the future.”
Another slow-clap moment. I want to ask her about Madonna’s cheeky turnabout inclusion of Born This Way into her concert versions of Express Yourself. I want to ask the singer about the hip surgery that caused the truncation of her last tour. I want to ask why she split with her manager, Troy Carter. I want to ask about her randy episode with R. Kelly on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live.
And I want to ask that she cease with her smoking, because it is disgusting. But I have only 10 minutes with the poker-faced one. “Have your key three or four questions ready,” her publicist advised me on the elevator ride up. So I needle Gaga about the rumour that hit the Internet last week – that Interscope wasn’t happy with Artpop and had twice over the last year or so demanded that the album be redone. “I didn’t see that article,” she says, with a laugh. “It was a non-reputable source, and none of it is true.”
One of the reasons pop music is seen in less than an artistic light is its unconcealed commercial intentions. Gaga can speak about her vision but, at the end of the day, she’s after radio play. “Sure,” she says, “but with every record I make, I assume I’ll have to fight the battle to get it played. It’s about growing as an artist and not allowing radio or the business to dictate the creativity.”
At this point, a handler in the back of the room flashes the one-minute sign. “Tell me about that tattoo,” I say quickly, pointing to the unicorn riding high on her outer (non-operated-upon) left thigh. “It represents my album Born This Way,” she says, “and I have one for Artpop, too.” When she holds up her forearm to show off that small, simple promotional inking, I suggest that she is a billboard. “I guess so,” she says with a shrug.
“I like to take my experiences with me.”
Gaga then goes on to explain how her fans – her “Little Monsters” – ink themselves in the same way. During concerts or other appearances, Gaga and her followers flash their like-tattoos to each other. “They show me their little unicorn thighs,” she says, smiling. “It’s an amazing thing to watch.” Having given Gaga’s album another spin before the interview, I still had it ringing in my mind. “Live for the way you cheer and scream for me,” Mother Monster sings, “the applause, applause, applause.”
To my suggestion that her relationship with her fans is tribal, Gaga agrees. “There’s something very tribal that Little Monsters have become, and it’s beautiful.” Is it satisfying, that emulation, that applause? “Mmm, I wouldn’t say satisfying,” Gaga says, standing up to see me off. “I would just say that I am very grateful. We all live for this validation, for the work that we do. And when we do things that we love, and we’re happy, we feel a sense of who we are.” And so one more slow clap for Lady Gaga. Give her that thing that she loves, the applause, applause, applause. We can’t say she hasn’t earned it.
