Lady Gaga's long-time collaborator Madeon sat down with the PopSamCam Podcast and reflected on some of his work with Gaga over the years, including on ARTPOP and Chromatica.
Madeon worked on several fan-favorites from 2013's ARTPOP, including "Venus" and "Gypsy". He also worked on "911" from Chromatica, and recently reunited with Gaga at the MAYHEM Requiem premiere in Los Angeles. Excerpts from the interview are below.
On collaborating with Gaga:
"I think she was pop in the terms of skill and reach, but she was also a dance artist. She had a real understanding of the culture and a real appetite for it. I was a mega Gaga fan and she was the one artist I wanted to work with. When that came about, it was such a dream. It was my first time in a big studio and on a project of that scale. But she was distinctly great because she's really knowledgeable and she makes. She has ownership over it; she's a maker. Some artists are brilliant at creating a system around them that hopefully creates great art, but they feel more like a manager of it. But no, she does; she makes.
She also really respects collaborators deeply. She both was protective in some ways, but also very respectful of my artistic maturity even though I was so young. She had great advice and witnessing the process was so awesome. It was a very tightly knit group. She would come to the studio everyday and wrote all the lyrics and melodies. But she really respected producers, and there were only a few of us. It really felt like a community. I think it changed my perspective on so many things. We got to reunite a little bit on Chromatica and throughout the years, and even recently."
On working on ARTPOP and the album's reception:
"I love the way the reception to ARTPOP has evolved because we cared so much. Obviously it was a successful album, but the way people appreciate it today is so different. I think people viewed it comparatively to the aesthetic of its time and felt like it wasn't matching that exactly as a dance record. Now what's really distinct and unique about it becomes more apparent as time has gone on, and you can see how different it actually was from other contemporary work. Its distinctiveness is now unmistakable. I love meeting people, especially people who were a few years younger than me—I mean I was only like 18 when I worked on that—so people that were like 14 when that came out, and to them that was the defining Gaga moment; their awakening to pop music. Hearing about the album from their perspective is really great. It really moves me. So I'm glad people like ARTPOP, because I love ARTPOP. It's great to listen to it in 2026."
On working on "911" from Chromatica:
"The song already existed and was written. They were trying to figure out the production, so Michael [Bloodpop] and I were chatting, and he was showing me the song and trying to get my opinion on it. The production hadn't been fully formed, and so I came in and worked on it. It was very obvious, like I listened to it and was like, this is what it needs; shift the melody right there, these are the drums I think it needs. It was very quick. It's one of these great things, where I think I have a solution. If it's the right one, then it's going to be easy but meaningful. So I made that version and then went to the studio with Gaga to record the vocals. I hadn't seen her in a while and it was really cool to reconnect back then. I could see and feel that the song was really special. She had written something really special. I was really happy that the song landed where I thought it should land. That was meaningful to me on a few different levels, both on a personal level and a musical level. I'm glad people like the song. I like the song."
Madeon's full interview can be found here.