New interviews: LA Times, Out, Towerload, Logo…
It really seemed that Madonna was promoting Rebel Heart in a massive way during her short visit to Europe, but all expectations were exceeded when she returned to the U.S. and started appearing literally everywhere. And so far, it has only been album reviews and press junkets in video or text form, with the best – visually and artistically – yet to come.
Here’s a round-up of the latest Madonna interviews that were published this week and didn’t make our news page yet – please click here for more from our archives.
From The Los Angeles Times:
Q&A Madonna: ‘Caring about what people think is the death of all artists’
Madonna opens her strong new album with Living for Love, a jubilant house jam about moving beyond a debilitating breakup. But love, of course, is only one of the things that pop’s most paradoxical superstar is living for these days.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview where Mikael Wood asks Madonna if she doesn’t think the official album has supplanted the leak in people’s brains.
I think their brains have been contaminated by what they’ve heard. And because I was continuously being hacked into – with all the different versions from all the different producers I was working with in all the different recording studios – it started making me second-guess everything. I had extreme anxiety.
Some of the demos that I had done, I actually liked as demos; I liked the simplicity of them. But then people were commenting on them: “Oh, I can’t wait to hear the finished version.” And I thought, Well, what if this is the finished version? And then other people were saying they liked things as demos that I had changed the production of.
In a way, it was almost like doing a test screening of a film. I went through this with my last film I directed, where the audience’s comments actually weighed in and gave Harvey Weinstein the right to say, “If you change X, Y and Z on your film, I’ll spend more money on the marketing.” But that’s not the movie I want to make. So from the point of view of the artistic process, it was devastating. And it still is.
Read the full interview on The Los Angeles Times.
From Towerload.com:
Madonna on Grindr, the LGBT community and her “Rebel Heart”
Today, Madonna drops her thirteenth studio album and, frankly, her best work in at least 15 years. The full Rebel Heart experience is a genre-spanning affair, as bold and uncompromising as its iconic star. (…) We had the chance to talk to her Madgesty last night along with several other journalists. She graciously entertained questions about the album, those leaks, and how she’s seen the gay community change around her.
Bobby Hankinson: I think [the ‘Living For Love’ video] was your first time bringing kind of what you do with your tour visuals and bringing it to a full-on music video concept. Is that something we’re going to get to see again? Madonna replies…
The thing about that song, it’s such a passionate song, I had to present it in a passionate way. I used mythology to tell the story, with the story of the minotaur and the matador and fighting and fighting for love and the color red and flowers and horns and death and naked men. You know, the important things in life. I don’t want to make every video the same, but I did love the richness of that video. To me, it felt like a painting that came to life. That’s what I was trying to do. I wouldn’t want to do that for every video. When I do ‘Bitch I’m Madonna,’ it’s going to be a whole different aesthetic.
Read the full interview on Towerload.com.
From Logo:
The Unapologetic Madonna Interview: The Queen Of Pop On Grindr, Song Leaks, Her Kids, And More
One approaches an interview with Madonna with the same reverence and terror you would an audience with the Pope. Except the Pope hasn’t been entertaining, scandalizing and enlightening fans for more than 30 years.
But, as Rebel Heart races up the charts, the Material Matriarch consented to an intimate conversation with members of the gay press—including yours truly.
In person, Madonna is smaller than you expect, but no less regal or magical. At nearly 9pm, after a long day of press ops, she’s still a vision of glamour, with nary a wisp of hair out of place. She makes a point of asking all our names looks us directly in the eyes when we speak to her.
At first we all avoided discussing the leaks—the numerous Rebel Heart tracks and demos that appeared online over the past few months, forcing Madge to move up her release date and reconsider other aspects of production. But when it became clear she still had a lot to say about the subject, we dove right in.
There was little territory that was forbidden, in fact: the Queen of Pop was happy to discuss her kids, her frustrations with Avicii and Diplo, her infamous “reductive” reference to Gaga, and what she thinks the gay community is missing today.
Just don’t ask her to give up any tours about her upcoming tour.
Why would I do that? I want it to be a surprise for you.
Read the full interview on Logo.
From Out.com:
The Many Heresies of Madonna Louise Ciccone
With Rebel Heart, Madonna enters a new period, and the Madonna era enters its fourth decade. Over the years, we’ve seen many “new Madonnas” come and go, but the new Madonna is still always Madonna herself. Or as Madonna jokes, “I’m the new old Madonna.” Joan of Arc, the most famous woman of her day, died a martyr at age 19, betrayed. Madonna, 56 years young, has made it clear that she will countenance neither martyrdom, nor marginalization, nor relegation to the status of “national treasure.” She will not retire quietly into Cher-like fag-haggery or into Paula Abdul–ish irrelevance. If the kids are using Snapchat, she’ll use Snapchat to release her video. If her hardcore fans are on Grindr, she’ll live-chat on Grindr. Madonna will follow pop culture wherever it goes—over a cliff and into the sea, if need be. Her new album is many things. Above all, it is not her last.
Check out the interview on Out.com.
