You knew this was coming … ;-) This woman, a year my junior has been a source of validation, inspiration and regeneration since I hit rock bottom in Vegas and moved back to Ohio two years ago.
Nevertheless, my allegorical sister from another mister continues her meteoric rise through the piano, performance art, fashion, social, search, tech, innovation and online zeitgeist:
Highlights
- If you don’t have any shadows, you’re not standing in the light…
- You have to look into what’s haunting you, and you need to learn to forgive yourself in order to move on (referring to the next single off her upcoming album, whose Biblical proportion doesn’t seem likely to conclude at ‘Judas’)
- My girlfriends wanted to work for you (Google). I wanted to be the one they were searching for…
- Piano’s funny…I mean it’s kind of this thing that always stays with you. You kind of get your chops back pretty quickly…
- I was never the winner. I was always the loser.
- Because if the artist is constantly molding ourselves and changing and bridging –abridging — what we do for the machine, then the artist becomes part of the machine. I don’t want to be part of the machine. I want the machine to be part of me.
- Addressing bullying: Do I want to stick it to anybody? No. I just wanna make music.
And I really encourage people to look into the darkness and places you wouldn’t normally look to find uniqueness and specialness…because that’s where the diamonds are hiding
From a PR perspective, few artists today understand viral marketing and the highbrow aspect of our language as well as GaGa. In an interview with Fuse in 2009, she acknowledged: You’re only as good as your best references. I couldn’t help but smile when she mentioned Francis Bacon as a source for her ‘immaculate conceptions’ –and wonder what the spike in his Google search queries will be like in the next few weeks.
Crazy little monsters (a term of endearment she and her followers use).
Perhaps the most exciting part for me, and either those who appreciate or are artists who transcend time (Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Hendrix, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Bowie, Clapton, The Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews to name a few…) is simply the music.
I love how she uses pianospeak to describe her message and music: Sonic (root/variation: sonorous, sonoric). Classical pianists (and I believe, all true artists) are religious about Soul: warmth, color — vibrancy.
GaGa reveals some pretty sick details about her progression as a singer and pianist, discussing how the forthcoming album (due May 23rd) will further highlight her abilities as a producer and songwriter. From a melodic perspective, she shared that
“Sonically, it just smells like me, if that makes sense…” adding
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, um –in my opinion — All good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a hit.”
A — f(expletive)ing Men. Is it May, yet? Lol.
But in all seriousness:
‘Where words fail, music speaks’ -Hans Christian Andersen
Enjoy the weekend!
Byron Isaac 