On Her Inspiration for the Songs, the Recording Process, Her 5th Studio Album “Joanne,” Her Cookbook, and Friends’ and Her Family’s Influence Over the Album
By Ken Summit / The Interview Feed
Pop singer-songwriter Lady Gaga came out with her fifth studio album “Joanne.” On this record, Gaga goes out of her way to try to connect with her fans by digging deep into her emotions to pull out her most painful feelings and letting them out in music. She talks about her inspiration for the songs, the recording process, her cookbook, and friends’ and her family’s influence over the album.
Q: What was more work? Passing your driving test or doing the record, “Joanne”?
LG: The record (laughs). Absolutely. It’s like open heart surgery to do a record. You have to dig deeper and deeper. It’s painful, and then when it’s over you’re healed again.
Q: Was the plan to come out with a big single like “Perfect Illusion?”
LG: You know, we didn’t have a big plan with what the first single should be. “Perfect Illusion” just stood out with its energy, and it has a bit of anger and rage in it, which is something that I feel and it’s something that I feel people can be healed by. Once you start feeling less ashamed of your rage, you can let loose and navigate what is real and what isn’t. That’s what “Perfect Illusion” is all about.
Q: What are you raging about?
LG: I’m raging with who I’m singing to and all of the confusion. It’s really not against anyone. There’s nothing hateful intended on the record or accusatory. This record is about how we generally are experiencing life. Social media is a series of scrolled images. Image after image of filtered illusions. How do we find what is real? When you compare that to real-life relationships and what we see on the news, then you start to say, ‘Maybe it’s possible. Should I accept the fact that not everything that I am seeing is reality?’ This is the point of that song. It’s about acceptance.
Q: You are one of the most influential people in the world, on social media — when you put something out there, I don’t know how many people you have following this and being influenced by your work. Do you want to make sure you’re putting out a positive message, “Hey, we’re all in this together?”
LG: Yeah, of course. It’s through our understanding that we are all struggling that we become the same. The division and the filters go away, because we say, ‘I’m not sure who you are and you’re not sure who I am, so let’s just drop the illusion and look into each other’s eyes and talk.’ So “Perfect Illusion”, even in the video, as well as the lyrics and the song, is about a raging desire for human connection.
Q: In previous years, there were so many iconic things about yourself — the fashion, what you’re wearing, and what you are doing. It seems to me like you’re getting a bit more natural, like looking in the eye, like you said before, more real.
LG: Sure, it’s just where I am now. It was where I was before and I’m here now. Every time I make a new album, I become the music. Every time I wear something, it’s an expression of how I feel inside.
Q: You’re always surrounded by people. This is probably ninety-five percent of your life. Do you make sure that the five percent of the time when you are on your own, that you make it worth it?
LG: Just because there’s a lot of people around doesn’t mean you don’t feel lonely. I’ve been in a room with a hundred people, a thousand people, twenty thousand people, and I still feel lonely. That’s because of the barrier, the “perfect illusion” they see. That’s what this song is all about. I’m just like you. This is my job.
Q: You said it feels good to be lonely. Do you like it?
LG: You can, at times. And other times, it will feel bad to be lonely, but this song reminds you that it can feel good.
Q: When I look at what you’ve done over the years, you do so much for people. You do so much humanitarian work. It seems like your mission is to improve peoples’ lives, especially the outcasts. Is this one of your main missions in what you do with your music?
LG: It’s just a part of me. It’s just the way that I am. I just believe that love is the answer to all things. To react to violence with fear is the wrong way, but to react with love is always the right way.
Q: Was turning thirty a milestone?
LG: I think that I’m wiser, I’m more intelligent, and I’ve learned more. I didn’t really have my twenties in the same way as people do. I feel ready to make music that is intricately created.
Q: How do you imagine your thirties to be like? Do you want to catch up with the twenties that you spent in the public eye?
LG: I don’t feel obsessed at all with keeping up with anything, honestly. I just want to continue to enjoy making music and to enjoy being creative. I have my producer Mark Ronson really and truly to thank for that. I have hope that many people who hear this album know the importance of the comradery between the artist and the producer, and that relationship.
Q: You have a cookbook that you published with your dad.
LG: It’s wonderful. My father is such a homegrown man, and it was always his dream to have a restaurant and we have one now. It was also important to us that it wasn’t a celebrity-driven business, that it was a family-style Italian place that projected the roots of where we come from, so it’s called “Joanne.” He also made a cookbook. I wrote the forward for it and it’s comprised of all recipes from the history of our families as well as the chefs that work with us.
Q: So the song “Joanne” is also about your father’s sister?
LG: Yes, she died when she was nineteen years old and I never was quite able to understand the anger, the rage, and the pain that my father had his whole life. As I got older, I would watch him gaze at me and my sister as we would dance around the restaurant and I realized all the things that he missed out on and it became healing. This is what I hope for with people in this album, that they look into their past deeper and deeper, even into the past of their father, their mother, their grandparents, and see the losses, the pain, and heal from them and make themselves stronger, and see that in people that they might think they could never be friends with or love.
Q: Are American Horror Story and being an actress new ventures for you that you love very much?
LG: I love being an actress.
