In a recent interview with Billboard, RedOne was asked about his collaborations with Lady Gaga and her new music! Check out the exclusive interview below!
You’ve been successful with that. But how do you know what people want?
I travel a lot. I’m from Morocco, I lived in Sweden, the U.K., New York. If you’re only in America and listen to American radio, you don’t know what’s going on outside. Traveling to Africa, they know everything that’s going on-Moroccan styles, Middle Eastern styles, flamenco from Spain, dance music from Europe, rock music in America and all that. I always loved all kinds of styles so I know what’s going on constantly. It’s part of [the] job, to know what people like.
I travel a lot. I’m from Morocco, I lived in Sweden, the U.K., New York. If you’re only in America and listen to American radio, you don’t know what’s going on outside. Traveling to Africa, they know everything that’s going on-Moroccan styles, Middle Eastern styles, flamenco from Spain, dance music from Europe, rock music in America and all that. I always loved all kinds of styles so I know what’s going on constantly. It’s part of [the] job, to know what people like.
European dance styles have never been very big in American pop-until Lady Gaga hit.
All her music is chord progressions that would work with a piano or a guitar, not just a loop doing one straight note. Of course it’s a dance vibe that’s going to make people move, but [it's about] the song. The first song that really broke was “Just Dance,” which was essentially a rock track but with synths instead of guitars. Big drums. The vocals were the melody, with a simple chorus. Thank God we were lucky and it was perfect timing. The moment the public heard it, they bought into it. Big DJs-I’m not going to mention names-come to me and thank me for opening those doors for them. They say, “If it wasn’t for you, we’d just be doing remixes. Now we’re producers.”
You and Lady Gaga wrote tracks for the new album from Jennifer Lopez, who’s a different sort of diva from Gaga. How did that work?
We sat down with her, had dinner and talked about where she is at now, what her image is. The thing that grabbed me is that she said, “I’m a dancer first.” And we were like, “Yes, Jennifer Lopez has got to have dance music. She started as a dancer.” So of course I had to make her move. She’s incredibly happy with her family and her husband, and she’s so inspiring-it was easy to make music with her.
What about your musical chemistry with Gaga?
We click. It comes naturally. It comes easy. It’s shockingly quick.
Did you really write “Poker Face” in an hour?
Yeah. We hit it on the right spot. It’s like, “Hey, this works.” But if we come up with different suggestions, we respect each other, both the positive or the negative. We never spend energy on anything. She trusts it if I say, “Oh, maybe this is not the right thing,” and vice versa. She would never say it just because. We just have fun.
You didn’t do as much for “Born This Way” as you did for “The Fame.”
I did three songs-not that much, no. Honestly we were both crazy busy and with me it was sort of like, I did good songs. Whatever I did fulfilled a function on her album. But that felt really enough to me.
You’ve said you’re always looking into the future. Where do you think you’ll take it next?
The beautiful thing about music now is that it’s not going to go toward one thing. I want to be able to prove that if you go this way, this way and this way, it will work. I always want to bring more freshness to the music.
Source : Billboard
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