Lady Gaga. Photo / Supplied by Universal Music
A few years ago Lady Gaga decided she wanted to be famous and now the New York vamp is toasting her own success. She talks to Scott Kara
"I've become great because I decided to be great," Lady Gaga says as she hitches up her sparkly bustier. "Two years ago nobody knew who I was and now a lot of people do. I am living proof."
Amazing what a bit of ambition, a few outrageous, vixen-like outfits, and a slightly naughty and catchy tune like
Just Dance
can do. That song, off her aptly titled debut album,
The Fame
, which came out this week, has been one of the most played songs on New Zealand radio and TV in the last few months.
And it helps that Gaga is an exhibitionist too. "I feel comfortable with it. If you watch the video [for
Just Dance
] the most comfortable I look is humping that blow up whale. I just look so at home," she smiles.
The 22-year-old - real name Stefani Germanotta - has always liked being the centre of attention, be it in school plays or as a youngster performing for strangers in restaurants when she was out for dinner with her parents. "I was very loud, but they [her parents] used to let me perform and if we were at a restaurant I'd be performing for the people at the table next to us saying: 'Do you wanna see my routine?' So I always tell my parents: 'It's your fault!'"
Her rise to fame is also helped by the fact she's easy on the eye. Hot, even.
And lounging in a Los Angeles hotel suite she certainly looks famous. In a variation on Madonna's celebrated cone-shaped bra, Gaga's bustier is encrusted with crystal bits to make her breasts look like disco balls; her jacket is a Ziggy Stardust-inspired number with sharp, jutting shoulder pads; she pulls at her black latex pants and pings them against her skin; and adding to the glamour are the six-inch skyscraper heels.
Topping the look off is a lightning bolt painted on her cheek like a teardrop - another Ziggy inspired touch.
It's people like David Bowie and Madonna, along with everything from disco, art and film, that inspires her music.
"It's not about looking good, and looking sexy, it's about being provocative in your thoughts. Madonna's very provocative. And Bowie's androgynousness, and the persona [he] connects to his music. And the way that the Beatles transformed when they did
Sgt Pepper's
. I challenge anyone to tell me that what I'm trying to say is not real because I live and breathe it so show me where it's fake. Find it."
The comparisons might sound a little ambitious considering she's only released one album and
Just Dance
could be written off as throw-away pop, but for Gaga there's a philosophy - of sorts - behind her persona and album.
It started in her hometown with the idea that she and her "sub-culture of friends" could self-proclaim their own fame. "So within that small group we decided what was good art and what was great self-expression and if the ideas and concepts were strong enough then how could we translate them to the world? So
The Fame
is a concept album, and it's fun and all those things, but the lyrics are very strategic and conceptual. It's showing people this is who I am and this is who I proclaim myself to be. It's vanity in a positive way by knowing exactly who you are.
"It's been a long time since we've seen a musician combine music, fashion, technology, performance, and art in a symbiotic way in which all things are just as important as the music. It should never be just about the record, and I might get shot in the face by everybody in the world for saying that but it's about so much more to me."
For example, when she's writing a song she's thinking as much about what outfit she's going to wear when she sings it as what the words and message might be.
When writing devious love anthem
Poker Face
she was thinking about Sharon Stone's character in
Casino
and Michelle Pfeiffer in
Scarface
- "tough, beautiful, hot, delicious women that men want to throw on the bed and ..."
Well, you can imagine what comes next.
Musically
The Fame
is fun, electro-charged pop, with rock'n'roll influences. The title track has a riff pillaged from Yes'
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
("It's about me and my struggle with the idea of fame and trying to poke fun at it.");
Brown Eyes
is like a diary entry about having an illicit affair ("That's my vulnerable side."); and
Boys Boys Boys
is a nod to LA bad boys Motley Crue ("It's a real girls' anthem. It's about a guy I was dating who was a real f***** metal head.").
Then there's
Beautiful Dirty Rich
, one of the first songs she wrote as Lady Gaga which sums up how this self-professed exhibitionist came to be.
"That was me in the thick of the Lower East Side [of New York] discovering a whole new part of New York. Of drugs, partying, artists, and the rich kids who do drugs but say that they have no money. That was my anthem. I have nothing but my piano and this apartment, but I'm going to feel beautiful and dirty rich and I'm going to make an outfit and put on these eyelashes and create it for myself.
"I always think," she sighs, "'What a f***** egomaniac. But with the nerve that I have, why not?"
LOWDOWN
Who:
Lady Gaga
What:
New York pop star who wanted fame and went out and grabbed it
Debut album:
The Fame, out now