Interviewing Lady Gaga

Some notes on Episode 300 of Song Exploder.

Today, I published the 300th episode of Song Exploder, with Lady Gaga as my guest. Ordinarily, my instinct would be to just move on to the next episode, but I’m trying to follow some advice from a CPA who did my taxes once, about fifteen years ago, who told me that it’s important to commemorate one’s milestones. I have no idea what in my tax return could have possibly inspired his comment. Maybe it was just a very emo way of saying “remember to save your receipts!” In any case, the sentiment has stayed with me, and I’ve tried to put this into practice ever since (even if I haven’t always succeeded).

So, having seen the episode odometer roll over to a nice round number, I’ve decided to pause briefly from editing Episode 301 to write this. Shout out also to Field Notes and their slogan: I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now. I thought I’d tell the story of how the episode came together.

This June, I got an email with the subject line “Lady Gaga - Song Exploder” from her publicists, asking if I’d be interested in doing an episode with her. I wrote back right away to say yes, cc’d my Song Exploder co-producers, and the conversation shifted to song choice and logistics. For a while, it seemed like we might record the interview in my home studio, and I wondered how I could fit her entourage into my backyard. (Sometimes artists arrive at my place with managers and/or publicists and/or assistants, but the interview space, the actual inside of my studio, is just for the artist and myself when we record. There’s no room, literally or figuratively, for others to sit in and listen in, which means everyone else has to make themselves comfortable and wait outside.)

As the date for the interview drew near, the location still hadn’t been settled. Then, they asked, would I go to Malibu, to Rick Rubin’s studio Shangri-La, to record there? Though Rick Rubin’s studio has come up on the podcast a few times, I’d never been there myself. It had significance to Lady Gaga, because she’d worked there many times over the years, and it was where she had recorded the song we would be discussing: “Abracadabra.” It’s a gnarly, serrated, aggressively catchy dance track that my gym has decided everyone must hear at least once, and possibly twice, during every workout. But, of course, it’s much more than that, as well, which is why she chose that song to discuss.

After arriving at Shangri-La, there was a moment where I had to take a dose of my own medicine and wait outside in the backyard, at a wooden patio table, while they finished setting up. I wasn’t nervous exactly—I don’t really get nervous during interviews, but I do operate at a somewhat heightened state as I try to be present, and in the moment with every question and answer, while also anticipating where I want the conversation to go next, while also checking to make sure the mic is always placed correctly, that the ambient sound isn’t going to be an issue, and that I’ve been able to ask them everything I need for a cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and ending. During the interview, I’m checking and re-checking those boxes, while also trying to be in the moment with my guest, asking them to delve deeper into what happened, and what their hopes and creative intentions had been.

As I tried to limber up mentally for that, I had my back to the door that led to the studio. Then I heard a voice say, “Hi! It’s so nice to meet you!” Lady Gaga was walking out onto the wooden deck that led to the grass where I was standing. She was dressed in all black – a long leather coat, leather pants, and shiny, black knee-high platform boots. Her hair and eyebrows were dyed a blonde so light it was almost white, and she wore bold, red lipstick. She looked like my idea of Lady Gaga: high contrast, high fashion, high ponytail. But whatever expectations I may have had about her personality, a personality that might match that exterior, were immediately disproven as she spoke. I could hear the exclamation points as she said hello, and though we’d never met before, she hugged me as she welcomed me inside.

We spoke for over 90 minutes, and throughout the conversation, I remained disarmed by her earnestness, her warmth, her references to both Iron Maiden and Iron Butterfly. She was delightful.

After the conversation ended and I started packing up my laptop, I murmured to Lady Gaga’s publicist Katie a question I’d asked over email the day before – might she be open to taking a photo that I could post on social media when the episode came out? But the interview had run long and gone deep, so I could understand if she wasn’t up for it. Katie quietly replied, “Yeah, let’s just skip it.” But Lady Gaga overheard us a bit, and asked what I needed, and said we could of course take a photo. She grabbed her phone, sat next to me and took a handful of selfies. Then she repositioned us outside, by the giant tree in the front yard of Shangri-La, and asked Katie to take a few more.

This would be a great place to put one of those photos, but alas, they have not made their way to me. Yet, he added, optimistically. But even if I don’t get that photo, it’s fun to think there’s a few pictures of me and Lady Gaga somewhere in her Photos app. And I can tell myself that we didn’t take the picture to remember the moment later, we took the picture to remember it then.

Here’s the episode.

— Hrishikesh

PS – my tour dates with Samin Nosrat continue this month! I had a wonderful time in San Francisco and Boston discussing her cookbook Good Things, and answering some Home Cooking questions. Come see us in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and/or Los Angeles! Tickets are here. And if you can’t make it to any of the live events, we turned one of our SF talks into a Home Cooking episode, which came out last Friday.

another stunning Song Exploder illustration by Carlos Lerma