Q&A: Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa is a whole lotta diva, a fountain of X-rated pop goodies with a couture edge, a blend of "glitter mixed with rock 'n' roll," as she says it best on the bubblegummy-bad-girl number "Boys, Boys, Boys." Born and raised in the Big Apple, GaGa, whose name was inspired by the  Queen hit "Radio Ga-Ga," groomed herself for success from the ground up, fine-tuning her in-your-face performance glam-art since her early teens at open mics. She left NYU's Tisch School of the Arts to pave her own way, gigging around New York's Lower East Side. "I just started to bring my music from club to club," says GaGa. "I'd lie and say I was Lady Gaga's manager and say, 'Uh, yeah, she's been really booked up for this month, but we could squeeze you in on Friday.' I'd make myself sound bigger than I was." She was eventually discovered, signed-and-dropped, then signed again, having since penned songs for the Pussycat Dolls. Her debut album, The Fame, is 100-percent disco debauchery, taking on the standard themes of the night  -- partying, intoxication, sexual provocation -- or so it seems. Lady GaGa is a mistress of illusion. Here, Rhapsody's November Ones to Watch artist explains how.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

Rhapsody: So, can we talk about the inflatable whale in the video for "Just Dance"? How does that happen?
Lady GaGa: The orca. [Laughs.] The video is – it's an interpretation of what's the song's about – being drunk at a party, or high or kinda out of sorts – and you want to be able to get through the night, so you just dance through it. So, a lot of what I do is performance-art oriented and really over the top. Me on the whale in the video is supposed to be a performance-art moment, my interpretation of being a drunk girl at a party.

We wanted to do a kiddie pool scene that kind of played on the idea of women in video. At first you see me in this beautiful glistening pool of water and then you pull away and we reveal that it's a kiddie pool. It's kind of funny because it's this beautiful, glamorous setup – but I'm doing this ridiculous thing where I'm riding a whale and I'm smoking a pipe with these two guys that are kind of androgynous and wearing makeup. It's meant to be a commentary about my lifestyle. … My friends and I, we'd all dress really fashionable and crazy all the time; it's just who we are. It's in our blood and our bones. Our art is our whole life. I wanted that video to be an expression of the world that I come from – as opposed to a video in a club which you've seen before.

Having New York’s Lower East Side as your training ground – how did that influence you?
Oh my god  -- it was everything. I learned everything. How to survive in clubs that smelled like urine with guys who listen to rock ‘n’ roll – and I played pop records. I started go-go dancing and I'd slip the DJ my record and try to get them to play it.

So, when you say you were go-go dancing….
I never took my clothes off; I'd wear bikinis and stuff and dance in rock 'n' roll bars. I did that for extra money – that went toward making fliers, just the expenses that start to add up as a performer. Things like making costumes, Xeroxing, masking tape, you have to buy the ticket stubs sometimes ahead of time. I'd do performances twice a week, as a musician, and then three or four times a week as a go-go dancer, depending what time of year it was.

I really live and breathe and work and eat and sleep music, and for me, it was just about working my way from the bottom up. I still continued to do that even after I got signed. Even after I wrote "Just Dance" and having been discovered, I continued to play gay clubs and small straight clubs and just hustle my way up. Meet every DJ, play every club, go to every city. And it's been really amazing because I haven't had to rely on radio play to build a fanbase – I've been able to build real fans and connect with them every night. And when my album dropped, those fans bought the record.

How do you feel about the parallels being drawn between you and Madonna?
I think it's really cool. Madonna was a pioneer, female, sexual figure. She represents a lot about culture and women and being provocative and challenging boundaries. And I think it's a really fantastic comparison. Obviously, I don't aim to be the next Madonna; I aim to be Lady GaGa. My interest is, obviously, in procuring a career that's as important and as relevant to youth culture as she's been.

The album is a feel-good, party-girl manifesto, but is there anything underneath? There are things here and there, like that bit about living beyond your means. Are there messages you wanted to slip in there?
Absolutely. You really have to listen to the lyrics. [There are] lyrical plays in "Beautiful Dirty Rich." So many times you’ll see blog reviews like that record is about the decadence of celebrity life and I’m reading it like, "That’s not at all what its about." Clearly, they didn’t listen to the song. It’s about having no money but feeling beautiful and dirty rich because of the way that you dress and the way you walk and the way you dance and party and talk with your friends. All of them are a commentary about what fame really means, what it does to us as a culture, how we think about it. … Sometimes I’m saying that fame is what we all want and sometimes it’s poisonous; sometimes I’m saying it’s important, sometimes I’m saying it can save you. Ultimately, the only one thing it does say is that no matter who you are and where you come from, how much money you got in your pocket, you can have an inner fame, you can own a sense of importance and self-worth about who you are and what you make, without the cameras and celebrity life. That’s a real New York attitude, real downtown Lower East Side. Nobody knows who I am -- but everybody wants to know who I am.

So, were you totally slumming it in New York as an artist?
I would have jobs as a waitress, bartender. I interned at music publishing house where I made no money. Living in New York, if you’re smart and you get a few waitressing jobs, you can make good money. I mean I was a smart girl and I did my fair share of drugs and drinking, but not every night, you know? I was really good at saving money and writing music.

How would you rate yourself in terms of singer vs. performer and audio vs. visual ?
I’m best at being an artist, someone that comes up with really good ideas, and then I think I’m a great singer and a great visionary. I feel like they are all so important as a unit. Being better or worse at one thing or another is not the idea, it’s the magic that happens when they all come together. I’m an inventor.

You’ve got a Disco Stick and other "props." What else do you have in your bag of tricks?
They are my inventions. Um, the Disco Stick, I originally wanted to make because I made a song called "Love Game" that says, "Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your Disco Stick." The lyrics were sort of an ode to the way that young people get horny when they are in clubs when the beat comes on and the music comes on and the lights get dim and everyone is hanging out and looking at each other. Something about the music and the smell in the air makes people want to have sex. I was singing to a guy and the Disco Stick was a reference to a penis.

Yeah, I got that. [Laughs.]

I’ll just talk and you can edit. [Laughs.] The disco stick was meant to be my female representation of owning my sexuality in a way that a man does. The stick represents my ownership and equal sexuality and equal drive and equal pursuance and opportunity and ability. I wanted to make the Stick because it sort of flips the record. Like I’m saying, "I want to take a ride on your Disco Stick," but I got one in my hand. It beckons the question, "What is she really singing about? Why does she have one?" And then the crystal glasses, I wanted to bring the fashion and the technology together. They are beautiful, iced crystalline, refracted; they are really a commentary about perspective. And the same thing with the LCD glasses. They are made out of iPods. I do a lot of stuff that is commentary about perspective and fashion and pop music. I’m making spectacles. So much of what I’m trying to do is change the way we look at it.

Comments

[Tempestt]

I love her music! She rocks! Great interview! :)