Gaga speaks at SXSW 2014: the tough times and the love of music

Lady Gaga took part in a very open, honest Q&A with John Norris from Fuse during SXSW 2014 in Austin, Texas today, covering anything and everything. This was following a much talked-about performance on the Dorito stage the previous night where she got covered in vomit.

On the brand partnership, Gaga stated; "In SXSW it’s important if you are doing branded stuff to have a real connection with the fans. You have to put on a great show.” She also added: "Without brands we wouldn’t have these festivals or SXSW as record labels don’t have any fucking money.”

Of course one criticism thrown at the big acts coming to SXSW is that they obscure the exposure of younger bands that are what the festival is all about. She said: "All the artists and corporations that come here you should make an effort to integrate new and emerging talents into the show. Bring people together: ARTPOP."

Whilst Gaga is not one to listen to the “industry”, she does pay close attention to her fans with the start saying: "I listen to the internet very closely with SalesForce to know how people are talking about me and what the messaging is, I want fans to have an experience with me and Doritos supported the gig to its core, not telling me how to do the show or putting chains around my neck. They just said they wanted to support me in having a great experience at SXSW and helping the foundation and they came up with Bold Bravery."

Gaga is renowned for her social media prowess, but she’s not hung up on it: “Nobody’s going to remember what you tweeted when you died or your web content for the week. What’s going to be remembered are those magical moments that you have helped to create bringing the artistic community together to breed the love and compassion that comes from creating.” She also stated: "I don’t want people to think that the only way to get success is to make a cool youtube video or do something crazy on instagram. The only way to make it it’s to walk around with your instrument and go from venue to venue and ask them to play.” And there were plenty of suggestions in the Q&A, she later stated: "You should be signing people that are writing songs, songwriters, not someone that has a bunch of followers on twitter. The only reason that it mattered how many followers I have on twitter is because I have a real relationship with my fans, I real genuine understanding, I just want to say that you should be careful what type of business you’re selling, because if you’re selling anything other than talent and good songs you’re in the wrong business.” The latter statement getting a loud clap from the room.

Gaga talked about her upcoming 8-night residency that will close the Roseland Ballroom in New York, saying that the venue was where she went to cause some trouble as a young girl: "I see Roseland as the place my mum didn’t want me to go to, it’s a really true new york classic and it’s so sad to see it go. In the spirit of Roseland we have to keep the classics around for as long as we can. We’re losing a wonderful venue but I hope the spirit of that venue lives on in New York.”

The interview had to touch upon some of the tough times Gaga has faced in the past 12 months, with her hip problems and then the criticisms around the album that led her to vent her frustration in a blog post on her Little Monsters social network. She stated: “I was in a wheelchair for 4 months. I love my fans and adrenaline can take you very far: my hip was literally falling apart so now I have nails in it.” As to the recent, strong criticism around her she said: ”... it’s an age old tale, they build you up to tear you down. You see so many artists try so hard to act like it’s not affecting them, but people in your life change, and money makes everything so complicated. And I just decided that I wanted my work to be an open book and when it becomes complicated like that you ask yourself: do you want to make music anymore? I would still be happy making music downtown if I had to.” … "There’s no formula ever behind what we’ve done, and no process like something that was made in a factory, so the label and management are essentially waiting for a completely crazy person to deliver something they have never heard, something they don’t know anything about. They are waiting for me to give them the music, the visuals, a message for the release and it’s quite terrifying for them as they have so many categories to fill."

Gaga was recently criticised for not having sold enough copies of ARTPOP, to that she said: "We’ve sold over 2.5 million copies all over the world of Artpop, I’ve sold 27 million albums, I’m very proud of what we did. I’m held to such an insane standard, it’s almost like everyone forgets where the music business is now. I don’t know what fuck-all I have to do with Katy Perry, I don’t fit in pop music in a way but I came in through it and I’d like to think that now I’ve changed it in some way so you don’t think like you have to fit into a mould."

In terms of the next release, the artist confirmed that she has a follow-up to ARTPOP - a part 2 of sorts - as well as several more albums of material but she enjoys them privately with friends and it seemed like she was keen on keeping it that way for the moment.

Finally, talking about Austin and SXSW she said: "It’s a great vibe here, I had the best time this week. So much love between everyone, so much respect. I didn’t see anyone fighting, I saw true genuine music lovers. The most beautiful thing I saw was new artists playing and reacting to new fans that were walking into the venues. The vibe reminds me of some the bars that I was going into when I was young because all music lovers are connected, anytime you put music lovers in a room with beer and a shitty sound system everybody gets excited.”

Once again, in spite of a lot of difficulties over the past several months, Gaga has come across as an intelligent, humble artist that may not be able to sustain the insane level of success achieve over the course of 2011 and 2012 but that has every intention of carry on making music and staying true to herself.

(Andrea Leonelli)