Calvin Pia recounted how the band would rehearse in a “really dingy practice space” on New York’s Lower East Side. Their practice space was a room beneath a grocery store with huge metal doors. Stefani would enter the room with her keyboard.
By the end of 2005, the band began working on a five-track demo known as the ‘Words EP’ produced by Joe Vulpis. They would sell the demo at The Bitter End where they have regular gigs. The demo included No Floods, a song that Stefani would later perform as Lady Gaga live in the street for the Columbus Day Parade in New York City in October 2005. Maria Bartiromo, the programme’s host, was struck by Stefani’s performance.
In March 2006, another demo was produced by Vulpis that featured Stefani’s compositions. Its title was Red and Blue and was also sold at The Bitter End. The demo contained big-voiced ballads including Something Crazy, Wish You Were Here, and Red and Blue.
The band also road-tested Hollywood, Master Heartbreaker, Walk the Road, John’s Song, and also included a version of Led Zeppelin’s D’Yer Mak’er.
The SGBand disbanded after some members couldn’t cope up with the demands of school work and gigging anymore. After the split, the guys didn’t speak to Stefani again. The only time that they’d see her again was onstage or television as Lady Gaga. Pia tried to call her once when she began to make it big, but by then she had changed her phone number.
The Starlight Revue
A few months after splitting with her band, Stefani teamed up with another Lady – Lady Starlight – and formed The Starlight Revue. Being a part of this duo was instrumental in bringing some burlesque experience and color for Stefani. They would cavort about in nothing more than skimpy clothing and dance to heavy metal music.
They would go to Stefani’s apartment and plan about what they would do at their shows. While David Bowie and New York Dolls play in the record, they would customize their bikinis. She would later recount, “We thought, ‘What could we do to make everybody so jealous?’ We did it, and everybody was so jealous. And they still are.” They played gigs at downtown club venues.
This was the time that Stefani decided to shed her old skin and considered being reborn as someone completely different. She suggested to Lady Starlight about creating a pop/metal hybrid, but that idea didn’t come to fruition. Stefani continued to try things about. She knew it wouldn’t be too long before her talents were discovered.
Chapter 5 - Discovering the Talent
Musical Influence
It was her father who introduced her first to music, and later on, Stefani would look up to several musicians as influences to her music and art. She had appeared in an episode of the Ellen DeGeneres show where she told the talk-show hostess Ellen that she wanted to be like Boy George, a singer-songwriter who made it big in the 1980s. She said,
“This is really who I am and it took a long time to be OK with that. Maybe in high school you, Ellen, you feel discriminated against. Like you don’t fit in and you want to be like everyone else, but not really, and in the inside, you want to be like Boy George – well, I did anyway…”
David Bowie was one of the musical influences of Lady Gaga
But Boy George was not the only musical influence in Stefani’s life. She told Jay Leno on The Jay Leno Show:
“I just didn’t want to be like anyone else and I was obsessed with Judy Garland and Led Zeppelin…”
David Bowie and Queen were also major influences in her musical career. She once told Adrian Thrills of The Daily Mail, “I didn’t know what to do till I discovered Bowie and Queen.” She also told Wound magazine that it was through listening to Bowie that she began to listen to theatrical metal bands such as Iron Maiden. She began thinking about the theatrics of performance, and that was when “I really discovered myself.”
Following her quitting from using drugs, Stefani listened to The Cure and many other artists as well, including Freddie Mercury of Queen, whose hit song Radio Ga Ga was instrumental in lending her stage name. Stefani particularly liked Mercury’s flamboyant style and amazing vocals.
Discovery
Before meeting the person that would change her destiny, Stefani Germanotta interned for music producer Irwin Robinson. She was eager to know more about the music industry, and the internship was what she needed to achieve that. Although she mainly answered phones and got coffee for Robinson, the internship showed her the business side of the industry.
In 2006, Stefani was chosen by Bob Leone, National Projects Director of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, to perform, along with 8 others, in the 2006 New Songwriters Showcase at the Cutting Room, a recording studio in New York. She performed one of her compositions, Hollywood, and it caught the ears of Wendy Starland, a singer, songwriter and talent scout for Rob Fusari.
Fusari was a record producer well known in the industry. He was from New Jersey, and had worked with Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson, among others. He had also produced hits for Whitney Houston and Will Smith. Starland was there that time because Fusari had asked her to find him a young female vocalist, preferably under 25, to front a group like The Strokes, a female-fronted garage band. Starland later stated that Fusari couldn’t be there but asked her to look for someone with the ability and the desire.
That night, upon seeing Starland, Stefani approached and introduced herself. Starland recalled of that meeting: “[Stefani] was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Her band was awful, in my opinion. They were college boys, and she seemed to be modeling herself after Fiona Apple [a singer-songwriter]. Yet when Stefani started singing, I was hooked. She had incredible confidence, she carried the crowd even though, in my opinion, the songs were bad. I grabbed hold of her [after her show] and said I was going to change her life forever.”
Starland believed that the one she was looking for was Stefani, and so she called Fusari at home. He was annoyed at being disturbed so late, but he was interested when Starland told him that she found the right person. He went online and downloaded some of Stefani’s music; he was not at all impressed.
He was reluctant to meet Stefani and would have refused a meeting if Starland did not convince him to hear Stefani live before making any decisions. He finally agreed and set a date for a meeting.
When Stefani arrived, he was initially disappointed. He recalled, “She was a little overweight. She looked like something out of Good Fellas… She had on leggings and some strange cut-up shirt, a hat that looked like it was out of Prince’s Purple Rain – I remember thinking, ‘That could be her. But I hope it’s not.’”
Despite the initial disappointment, Fusari was intrigued by Stefani’s appearance and the styles that she used in her mode of dress. He described it as “quirky” and deemed that it needed improvement of some sort. The same could be said about her music. While conversing with her, he found her page on Pure Volume, a website for rising artists to host their MP3s, and played some of her songs in the background.
Fusari considered her music a bit “wedding bandish” but knew that the singer-songwriter in front of him was promising. So he invited her to his recording studio and asked her to play some of her songs on the piano. Stefani played Hollywood. Fusari may not be impressed with her appearance, but her voice caught him by surprise.
According to Fusari, she had only been playing for a few seconds before he knew that he’d want to sign her to a management contract. It was a life-changing moment, particularly for Stefani. While she was still playing the song, Fusari was on his BlackBerry and emailing his attorney to draft a contract. He recalled, “I totally saw superstar potential. I just didn’t know in what form or what genre it was going to be.”
They discussed the terms of a deal, and Fusari was surprised that Stefani knew so much about discussing business. She insisted on an 80-20 deal and got it. 80 percent of what she earned would go to her and to her father while 20 would go to Fusari. He later admitted that he almost walked away from the deal due to Stefani’s hardcore negotiation.
When it came to her style of musi
c that she was playing at the time, Fusari told Billboard magazine that Stefani resembled Gwen Stefani of No Doubt and Fiona Apple. Stefani didn’t like the idea of change, and Fusari claimed that Stefani “kicked and screamed, ‘No! No! I love what we’re doing. We’re not changing it.’”
Chapter 6 - The Birth of Lady Gaga
Rob Fusari didn’t think that Stefani’s rocker girl persona was going to be an easy sell. It wasn’t marketable, and her musical talents didn’t match rock music. What Stefani needed was a complete makeover for her look, sound and style.
The two began working in the studio for a new sound: more pop, less rock. It wasn’t smooth sailing because they always disagreed. Stefani was more inclined toward a singer-songwriter style that would show her individuality and style.
Fusari, on the other hand, wanted to try something different, a bit more polished and European-sounding. He thought that it would sound better without the live drums and some of the guitars. But Stefani thought this was a bad idea.
Stefani only relented to change one day after Fusari read an article in The New York Times that discussed how hard it was for women to succeed in the rock scene, the environment where Stefani wanted to make her career. The article also mentioned how Nelly Furtado swapped her folk-rock approached and made dance music. Fusari recalled,
“My antenna went up. I said, ‘Stef, take a look at this. I’m really an R&B guy. I never produced a rock record in my life. I don’t know, you think maybe we should shift gears?’”
Stefani finally gave in. Fusari sat in front of an MPC drum machine, Stefani on her piano, and they came up with Beautiful, Dirty, Rich.
But Stefani’s sound was not the only thing that changed toward a new direction. Coming across as an overweight, Fusari wanted her to lose some weight. In the next few months, Stefani dieted and worked out and lost 15 pounds in the process.
One problem that Stefani encountered was the fact that she was just one of many and there was little about her that stood out. She remembered that when she was performing live in New York when she was 14, she was in the minority. But after making it on her own, she observed that “there were so many fucking songwriters. Everybody did the same shit, and it was super-boring. I wanted to do something that was original and fresh.”
Before long, she realized that electronic pop music was a viable way forward. She also realized that pop was more “original and fresh”, and more likely to elicit a positive response compared to alternative music, particularly in the underground scene where she usually found herself hanging out.
This theory was put to test when one night while performing, it dawned on her that her old style of music wasn’t getting the response she wanted. She knew there were changes needed after finding herself singing her songs with no one in the audience paying attention. They weren’t interested in the girl who had this striking Amy Winehouse-style hair and wearing hot pants and a bikini top.
Stefani told Fiona Sturges of The Independent:
“There was this one night where I had a couple of drinks. I had new material and I had on this amazing outfit. So I sat down, cleared my throat and waited for everyone to go quiet. It was a bunch of frat kids from the West Village and I couldn’t get them to shut up.”
What Stefani did next was dramatic, but it was the only way she thought would get their attention as she didn’t want to sing while no one was listening. And so onstage in front of the audience, Stefani stripped down to her bra and panties, sat down at her piano and began singing. Now she had their eyes and ears.
For Stefani, this was the exact moment that Lady Gaga was born. She said, “That’s when I made a real decision about the kind of pop artist that I wanted to be.” She believed that what she was doing was nothing less than performance art.
Stefani knew she wasn’t a classic beauty, but all the same, Fusari wanted her to play off of an exotic feel in her look and sound. Stefani toyed with the idea until she came up with an over-the-top style of her own that consisted of skimpy outfits, futuristic-looking clothing and wild hairdos. It was vindication of all the ideas that she had harbored for years and now could put into practice.
With her new music and new look figured out, the only thing missing was a new name. Reports had it that Fusari and Stefani were in the recording studio and Stefani was playing Again Again on the piano and Fusari said of her vocal style and general demeanor,
“You are just so freakin’ Freddie Mercury, you are so dramatic.”
It was a compliment. Fusari thought that being theatrical was a plus for the whole thing, and Queen was among his favorite bands. He especially liked Queen’s hit Radio Ga Ga. Fusari had made a habit of greeting Stefani every day when she arrived in the studio singing Radio Ga Ga instead of a simple “hello”. The song became her entrance music.
Still lacking a stage name for Stefani, she and Fusari went back and forth to come up with suggestions. During a brainstorming session, Stefani received a text message from Fusari that said ‘Lady Gaga’. Fusari said it was pure mistake, “a glitch.” He recalled that he typed ‘Radio Ga Ga’ in a text but a glitch changed the word “radio” to “lady”. As it happened, Stefani loved it. She texted him back: “Don’t ever call me Stefani again.”
From that day on, she was Lady Gaga, and nobody called her Stefani Germanotta again, although her mom continued to call her Joanne. Her friends began calling her Gaga, too.
The Lady Who Invented Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga struck a friendship with Lady Starlight whom she met on her 20th birthday. When they first met, they hit it off immediately.
Lady Starlight said, “We were both ladies. She put a dollar bill in my panties and the rest is history.”
That meeting was before Gaga began her rise to fame, a time when Starlight was deejaying at Manhattan club St Jerome’s and Gaga was dating one of her friends, Luc Carl.
The two then went out as a duo and formed Lady Gaga & The Starlight Revue. They were also co-hosts of a weekly party called New York Street Revival and Trash Dance where they would perform go-go dance routines in their outrageous costumes and set on fire cans of hairspray to create sparks.
Gaga said of the experience, “It was like a Seventies variety show. All the rock boys wanted to take us home for drinks.”
Gaga has always made it a point to proclaim Starlight a crucial character in her life. She was the one who encouraged her to become Lady Gaga, especially when it comes to her fashion sense. Starlight, a philosophy graduate student who became a rock DJ, promoter and dancer and worked by day as a make-up professional for MAC Cosmetics, was also quick to say, “It was me who inspired her crazy style. My style, performance art and deejaying inspired her persona. Now she’s gone on to become a global phenomenon and I’m so proud.”
Lady Gaga and Lady Starlight back in the day
Lady Starlight would later insist that she didn’t mind being left behind after Lady Gaga became a global phenomenon. It was clear she had influenced Gaga, and Gaga herself admitted this fact. Starlight said, “It’s crazy knowing that the biggest star in the world was inspired by me,” adding that she was the one “who told her to take her trousers off because I rarely wore any myself.”
Indeed, it was Starlight who convinced Gaga to cavort about in skimpy PVC underwear and Indian headdresses. “We always wanted the flashiest garments possible… and to be as naked as possible.”
But more important than this, it was Starlight who influenced Gaga’s presentation and image.
Their NYC shows eventually improved and they began to receive better reviews. Word began to spread about this colorful female duo and in August 2007, the pair was invited to Chicago to perform at Lollapalooza, a rock festival.
A lot of rock bands took part in Lollapalooza that day, and so it was unexpected that Gaga and Starlight were well received by the indie rock crowd. Some would attribute this to Lady Gaga’s outfit, a sparkly blue dress that she discarded to reveal black bikini briefs and matching black stockings, both of which had
tiny mirrors as trim. She also wore a shimmery silver bikini top made up of miniature versions of the mirrors.
Her vocals were powerful as ever, and the crowd would call her “Amy! Amy!” as she walked by due to her close resemblance to Amy Whinehouse, another female in her 20s who was also performing there that weekend.
“It was a blast,” Gaga said of their show. The best thing about that experience was “the sea of hippies and so forth that were there and not expecting what they saw.” But what was shocking about the experience was when Gaga got a citation for indecent exposure as she walked about the festival site in her tiny hot pants over spandex leggings and knee-high boots. She said it was ridiculous being singled out amidst the drug-taking long hairs around her.
But the whole experience provided Gaga a sense of the path in which she was heading.
Chapter 7 – The Road To The Fame
Signing with Def Jam
Around the time that Stefani and Fusari came up with her stage name, they also came up with Team Love Child (TLC) which comprised Fusari, Gaga and her father, Joseph Germanotta. They registered the name in New Jersey as a domestic limited liability company. In other words, TLC was a production and writing company for the songs that Gaga and Fusari wrote together.
Stefani with Rob Fusari, a record producer, whom she would start a relationship with
Just 19 years old, Lady Gaga had a new look, new sound, and new name. But one can hardly consider her it a success. After undergoing some changes, the time came to build a reputation and find a record label. She also continued doing shows with Lady Starlight at clubs in New York.
Modern Divas Boxed Set Page 10
