Lady GaGa: The Fame
At age 22, Lady GaGa (born Stefani Germanotta) has already written songs for Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls, gone number one in two countries and topped the iTunes chart with her debut album The Fame. Named after the Queen song "Radio Ga-Ga," she's also been accused of influencing the current sounds and visuals of another pop superstar, Christina Aguilera, who rocked a suspiciously GaGa-esque look at the MTV Video Music Awards and in recent promotional photographs. We spoke with this engaging ingénue in the making about these "dirrrty" claims, fame and the legacy of her idol, Andy Warhol.
Tamara Palmer: Congratulations on the success so far of your debut album. At this point, it has only been out a couple of weeks. Has it exceeded your expectations so far?
Lady Gaga: I really didn't want to put too much emphasis on the first week because, I'm not Kanye West, you know what I mean? I'm a brand new artist. I've had the album do really well in other countries on opening day, but we had a number one single [in Australia and Canada]. We didn't even have any radio play in America so I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't go on iTunes, I didn't call anybody. I just stayed focused, kept my head down and did my interviews and before I knew it, they called me and said, "You're number one on iTunes today," and I was like, "Hollllly shit!" It absolutely exceeded my expectations, but I know that it's great work and I believe in it and it's going to continue to exceed my expectations and everybody else's.
TP:
You're correct to not judge it on opening week, even though there is pressure to do so in the music business. But I think a record like yours needs to grow in a more organic way.
LG:
Oh yeah, and there are so many albums that come out in opening week and explode and sells a ton, and then they totally sell nothing. I was really excited to see this week's numbers, because we didn't sell too many less than we had sold the week before, which means that it's steady and I'm making an impact and it's a real record.
TP:
Why did you devote this album and perhaps this phase of your career to the topic of fame?
LG:
As somebody that grew up in New York City, I was surrounded by pop culture obsession and fame growing up. I was really fascinated with the idea of fame as an art form and studying the philosophies of Andy Warhol in the 70s and fashion icons from that era as well that were really inspired by the idea of fame and glamour and decadence but from a more organic place, from the street. So I tried to look at the fame as something that comes from within us and analyze how in New York City we feel fame from within, from the way that we walk, the way that we dress, the way that we live and breathe our art and our fashion. It's got nothing to do with being a celebrity or having cameras and money. So this record was a struggle and a reckoning with all those ideas.
TP:
You went to a high school with a lot of famous former students. On Wikipedia's entry for it, it says, "Notable Alumni: Caroline Kennedy, Nicky Hilton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lady GaGa." Is that wild to you to be considered in that sort of company?
LG:
Ha, that's funny. That's very funny.
TP:
So you were even more directly surrounded with celebrity than your average kid in New York?
LG:
I wouldn't say I was surrounded by it. I wasn't part of that elite group of girls. There were lots of different kinds of girls who went to my school; some with an incredible amount of wealth and some with none. So I wasn't part of that top tier group of girls, but I was very close to it and got to see it every day. Going from a school like that and then moving down to the Lower East Side, it changes the way that you look at things and it opens your eyes up to a completely different perspective on life. The thing I do have in common with all those girls is our education. I came from a really educated background and I'm very proud of that.
TP:
You speak about Warhol as being a big influence, but what about that generation of artists and performers that took over downtown after Warhol passed away? That sort of Michael Alig, club kid?
LG:
That whole scene and that whole lifestyle is really emblematic of something that's much bigger, and that's something that's kind of vacant right now except for a really small community in New York. And really what's missing is that group of people that really live and breathe for their art. Right now, I think the club scene is more saturated with the drugs, the alcohol and the party kids. I think what I'm really hungry for is that unity, that Factory, that group of people that decide what art is and what's not and it's part of their lifestyle.
TP:
So do you think the club scene is more aimless than it used to be?
LG:
I don't want to say that it's aimless because I'm really close friends with a lot of people that are in it. It's funny, it's just like anything: There's some people that are totally aimless and just drink and get drunk every night and don't pursue their art, but then there's others that do that are extremely talented and have a lot of notoriety in that community. It's both. But I will say that I don't think it's nearly as saturated as it was in the 70s and 80s.
TP:
Despite the fact that this is your debut album, you're not really a new artist, are you?
LG:
I've been around for a long time. It's funny when people are like, "This happened so quickly for you. You came out of nowhere," and I'm like, "Not really!" I've been doing it the way everybody should freaking do it, I'm not special. Every person who is worth their salt as an artist that's living on a tour bus and playing for 15,000 people in an arena every night should say that they've been around for a while and they've hustled. To me, that's like Artist 101.
TP:
Does your experience writing songs for other people help you with your own songs?
LG:
You learn how to synthesize other people's ideas and edit them and make them better. That's why I'm strong as a writer, because I work with artists who want to write music and I take their ideas and their emotions and what they want to say and I apply a pop sensibility to it. A lot of times, someone will sing me a verse or a chorus that they really like and I'll just move the rhythm around a little bit, change a couple of the lyrics and maybe just whack that hook in a little bit further so it really has that hooky pop explosion feeling. That's what I'm talented at, so absolutely. This would not be the album that it is if I hadn't been writing for other people, because I learned how to write a pop song.
TP:
Are you writing for anybody right now?
LG:
Yeah, I'm working on a couple of different things now.
TP:
Anything you feel like talking about?
LG:
Um, well, they're not for sure yet so I don't want to talk about it because it's senseless. For sure I'm on Britney's album, that's something I can talk about.
TP:
How was that experience? Did you write "Quicksand" with her, or separately?
LG:
She heard a song that I wrote that she really loved and then she put her own touches on it and recorded it. I was really disappointed that I couldn't be there to produce her vocals because I was in Europe but I'm hoping to get to work with her more closely soon. She really loved the song and wanted it for her album and I was more than happy to have her do it.
TP:
There has been a lot of buzz on the Internet, largely thanks to Perez Hilton, that there are a lot of similarities between Christina Aguilera's current project and what you've been doing. Maybe it's the way that Perez and other people frame it, but to me it just seems so blatant that she is borrowing from you.
LG:
Well, you know, it's interesting. Perez is excellent at what he does. I've got to hand it to the guy. Sometimes I look at his blog and I'm, like, "Oh my God, Perez!" He just seems so on the money. But at the same time, I don't want to get swallowed up with what the media says and she said and then what he said and everything gets twisted up and discombobulated. And at the end of the day, when I was a little girl, I was a really big fan of Christina's and I still am a fan. I think she's very talented, so I don't want to get wrapped up in all that stuff. I don't have anything bad to say about her. I think she's a legend in her own right for my generation and I think there can be both of us. I don't think there has to be one.
TP:
I agree, but it also must be a little bit of a flattering thing for you?
LG:
I mean, it's flattering that I could possibly be inspiring her work. But I would never say that she's copying me or that she's stolen things from me. I'm from New York and I live and breathe fashion. I mean, I sleep in my freaking catsuit sometimes. It's not a costume that can be stolen; it's in my bones.
TP:
One thing Christina is really good at is morphing her look and the concepts of her records. Do you think that you'll play around with that yourself?
LG:
I think that my work is ever-changing and constantly morphing. I'm not the kind of girl to sit down and go, "Okay, this album I'm going to have this look." I don't live my life in stages of looks. I'm changing from week to week and month to month. This truly is who I am. If I go out to a nightclub and I see a certain hairstyle or a certain outfit and it inspires me and starts incorporating itself into my vision, and then I see an art piece and I take something from that, it's really organic. Does that make sense? It's part of my lifestyle, it's totally not a marketing idea that I sat down and came up with. So, yeah, I'll for sure be changing for a long time.
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