STACK #186 Apr 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

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THE GAGA SAGA Mysterious but candid, powerful but vulnerable: the complex potion that makes up Lady Gaga will shortly bubble over into the artist‘s sixth studio album, Chromatica . Words Zoë Radas

F ibromyalgia is a condition in which the body‘s central nervous system drops the ball and refuses to participate in any number of those ways which make a human healthy: fatigue, disturbed sleep, altered memory and moods, musculoskeletal pain, and more are all symptoms of the debilitating disease. And what precisely triggers it? Doctors don‘t 100% know, although it‘s agreed that the causes lie somewhere amongst enduring psychological or physical distress. Now imagine living with this while dealing with both clinical depression and PTSD as the glacé cherries on top. This is the less-than-mint state in which Stanfani Germanotta found herself during the recording of Chromatica – the wildly anticipated fifth album from the NewYork City native otherwise known as Lady Gaga. Gaga has credited her producer BloodPop with bracing, supporting and encouraging her to keep pressing forward during their time in the studio. “He‘d be like, ‘Come on, let‘s go. We‘re going to make music,‘“ she recently told Paper Magazine . “And I‘d be maybe crying or venting about something that was happening in my life over some pain or depression I was feeling… I‘d start out the day so down and I‘d end up dancing, looking in the mirror, practicing my moves, singing along. Every day was an enlightening experience, but it had to happen every day.“ That part about dancing is particularly important as it informed Gaga‘s purest intentions for Chromatica ‘s material. “I want to put out a

I will do whatever it takes to make the world dance and smile

Lady Gaga in the clip for Stupid Love , the first single from Chromatica

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APRIL 2020

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