French DJ discusses duo's recording sessions
Grace Carroll

15:55 20th March 2013

More about:

Lady Gaga is apparently 'really impressive' while in the recording studio, according to French DJ Madeon.

The 18-year-old collaborated with Gaga on the recording for her new album ARTPOP, which was the first time that Madeon had met a vocalist while working with them.

Speaking to Digital Spy at the Sony's Xperia Z smartphone launch, Madeon said, "She's great. She's a really, really interesting and nice person. From a personal standpoint it's been hugely admirational, to be like, 'Wow - you're at this level of super, ultimate fame - and there's this aura of superstardom - and you're still an engaging and nice person'. So that was really humbling.

He continued, "Professionally, I think she's amazing. She would come out of a show after singing live for three hours and giving it everything, but just go straight to the studio and record She would still give everything - even on the demo take! She's really impressive."

Madeon went on to explain that this was his first time working with a vocalist in person, and even said that the experience would help him while working on his own debut album.


Lady Gaga with Madeon in Paris last year. Awww.

He said, "I learnt a lot because I don't really work with vocalists in real life that often. For my previous collaborations I'd never met them while doing the song. It was really interesting for me to feel the vibe of working together, sitting at the piano and collaborating on ideas right away.

"I think it's great that my first real experience of that was with Lady GaGa! I did a session with Beth Ditto before, so they were the only two I'd worked with."

The most unlikely music collaborations

  • Iggy Pop: The never-clothed rocker has teamed up with US pop singer Ke$ha to record a new track for her album, after she previously snared studio time with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to work on their track, 'The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends'. Speaking of the Iggy collaboration, Ke$ha tweeted: "its a fk!ng dream come true to be collaborating w my IDOL! the original WILD CHILD. Iggy I got a song for yall on my next record%u2026get ready."

  • Miles Kane: The 'Inhaler' rocker has recently worked with Magnetic Man producer Skream on new track 'First Of My Kind', and hinted at interest in recording more with the dance producer, telling The Daily Star: “I’d be well up for guesting on a proper ‘having it’ track like when Noel Gallagher sang for The Chemical Brothers. That world isn’t what I’m used to but it really intrigues me. Me and Skream had a right laugh. I was surprised how much he knows his rock ’n’ roll.”

  • Noel Gallagher: Inspiring Miles Kane to consider a dance duet, Noel Gallagher teamed up with the Chemical Brothers in 1999 for 'Let Forever Be'. The track reached No.9 in the UK charts.

  • Gerard Way & Deadmau5 'Professional Grievers': The 'My Chemical Romance' frontman has recently teamed up with the mouse-eared dance titan for dance track 'Professional Grievers'. Ironically, the track has appeared online in the same week in which Deadmau5 posted a rant against musical collaborations on his blog.

  • Ryan Adams and Deadmau5: If we are to take Adams' word for it, an upcoming collaboration with the electro-house producer sounds like 'BladeRunner starring Don Henley', which doesn't sound too bad to us. Deadmau5 has also worked with Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance in 2012 - despite earlier this year criticising dance producers who team up with big name stars.

  • David Bowie & The Pet Shop Boys - 'Hello Spaceboy': This meeting of music giants resulted in the track 'Hallo Spaceboy'. When asked about the track, Bowie says: 'I adore that track. In my mind, it was like Jim Morrison meets industrial. When I heard it back, I thought, "Fuck me. It's like metal Doors." It's an extraordinary sound'.

  • Tom Smith (The Editors) & Raized By Wolves - 'The Call': The frontman of the Birmingham indie-rock band had a marriage of musical minds with the dance troupe (which includes former members of Doves) on their spectacular 'The Call' single.

  • Aerosmith & Run-DMC - 'Walk This Way': Another bizzare hook-up. Who would have thought rock and hip-hop would create the legendary anthem 'Walk This Way'?

  • Jay-Z & Linkin Park - ' Numb': Rockers love to collaborate with rappers. Here, the track 'Numb' was produced after the meetings of these different musical minds.

  • Sonic Youth & Cypress Hill - 'I Love You Mary Jane': This rap-rock collaboration was taken from the Judgment Night movie soundtrack, and nobody expected it to sound as chilled and mellow as it turned out to be.

  • Metallica & Lou Reed - 'Sweet Jane: Pairing this old school acid-rocker with a heavy metal band was always going to be bizarre, but it was fun to listen to the time-signature complexities and epic heaviness of Metallica condensed down into the simple 'Sweet Jane'.

  • Jack White & Insane Clown Posse - 'Leck Mich Im Arsch': Probably the only thing that Jack White and Insane Clown Posse used to have in common was that they both had roots in Detroit. Sadly, that is no longer true%u2014in a bizarre turn of events, Jack White produced an Insane Clown Posse song about dirty sex antics.

  • Brian May & Dappy - 'Rockstar': How the former Queen guitarist could ever lower himself by collaborating with an absolute idiot is beyond us, but as expected, the result - 'Rockstar' is absolutely vile.

  • Texas & The Wu Tang Clan - 'Say What You Want' (remix): Sharleen from soft-rock band Texas thought it would be a great idea to collaborate with gangsta-rappers 'The Wu Tang Clan' on a remix of her hit 'Say What You Want'. The result is surreal, to say the least.

  • Tom Jones & The Cardigans - 'Burning Down The House': Throw an indie-pop band in the same room with a Welsh rock legend and you get 'Burning Down The House'. sorry guys, but the original Talking Heads song was far superior.

  • Lil Wayne & Fred Durst - 'Ready To Go': The duo's track has yet to be unleashed upon a world of unsuspecting music lovers, but hopes are not exactly high...

  • Coldplay & Jay-Z - 'Lost': Although Jay-Z is known for his leftfield collaboratins, teaming up with the British pop-rock band is not one that we expected. Saying that, the resulting track could have been a lot worse.

  • Weezer & Lil Wayne - 'Can't Stop Partying': American alt-rockers meet the unique stylings of Lil Wayne for the ridiculous track 'Can't Stop Partying'. It sounds more like a Rebecca Black reject than anything remotely worthy of either artist. Get your ear plugs in!

  • Timbaland & She Wants Revenge - 'Time': This unusual collaboration proves that superstar hip-hop producers get sad too. Timbaland teamed up with the goth dance duo for 2007%u2019s Shock Value, and the resulting 'Time' was very beguiling indeed.

  • Anthrax & Public Enemy - 'Bring the Noise': As the song suggests, both groups do indeed 'bring the noise' %u2014it%u2019s just that one keeps the volume up with super-heavy guitar chugging while the other simply yells, 'Yeah boiiiiii!' How peculiar!

More about:


Photo: WENN / Lady Gaga / Instagram