She may have exploded into international infamy with her debut record, The Fame, but Lady Gaga never forgot where she came from — which couldn’t have worked out better for her favourite New York band, Semi Precious Weapons, opening act on Gaga’s gargantuan Monster Ball.

“She kicked and screamed and put her foot down until everyone that works with her and for her let us open her tour. And here we are,” says SPW frontman Justin Tranter over the phone from a stop in San Jose, Calif., six months into an insane world arena tour that will keep him and his band on the go until next May.

Formed in New York in 2006 by four stylish music school grads looking to inject a little glamour and filth back into rock ’n’ roll, SPW quickly attracted the devotion of Gaga, then a young singer-songwriter.

“She was a big fan of ours, luckily, thank God,” says Tranter. “Probably one of our first fans we had that wasn’t related to me.”
When Gaga began collaborating with Lady Starlight in what Tranter — an emerging style icon in his own right — describes as “over-the-top, Hairspray sort of disco-ball breaking insanity,” SPW knew they’d found their perfect match and asked the pair to open a show for them.

“[Gaga] became our permanent opener in New York; every time we played, she’d open. And then she moved to L.A. to make the biggest record of the decade,” Tranter says. “The first time [SPW] heard ‘Just Dance,’ we were driving through Minnesota to play a show to like 15 people and we heard it on the radio. We always stayed in touch with her, so it was just kind of really surreal and insane.”

Obviously, when its newly successful longtime admirer hand-plucked SPW from the world of dingy bars and danger vans, taking it to a promised land of stadium seating and climate-controlled tour buses, everything changed, says Tranter. Oh, except the most important thing: “Our show is exactly the same. Whether we’re playing in a bar to 30 people or whether we’re playing in an arena, we do the exact same show.”

The hardworking band’s crazy workload hasn’t lessened since graduating from DIY to Monster Ball — it’s just shifted. “There is still some filth and some glamour and some rock ’n’ roll debauchery,” says Tranter, “[But] both situations are tons of work, just in different ways. The smaller bars, we’re driving ourselves from venue to venue, we’re selling our own merch, we’re making our own merch. But there aren’t 200 kids who want to meet you and have their CD signed.”

There are also the daily on-location concert ticket giveaways, the interviews, the soundchecks, the shows, and the inevitable after-parties, which typically feature DJ slots or live SPW sets, to think about. And as Tranter mentions, each gig is followed by a meet-and-greet where fans can get their copy of SPW’s debut record, You Love You, signed.

SPW’s work won’t stop with the Monster Ball: expect the band’s follow-up record early in 2011, as well as a headlining tour though Canada during its off-time this autumn.

-Source: SeeMagazine

Check out these two alternative Vanity Fair covers, shot by the incredible Nick Knight and styled by Nicola Formichetti. Gaga looks amazing as always! have you purchased your copy of Vanity Fair yet?

Earlier this year, T.I. had jaws dropping when he announced that he’d recorded some 80 songs for his upcoming album King Uncaged, and that at least one of them was a collaboration with Lady Gaga.

“[She's a] phenomenal talent. Extremely proud [to work with her]. She’s definitely that good. She knows what she’s doing. She knows exactly what she wants people to think and say,” Tip said of Gaga. “She does everything that she needs to be done to ensure it happens. I think she’s an entertainer, in all aspects of the word … a classic, all-around entertainer. A global star.”

A few months later, he continued to heap praise on LG, calling her “a phenomenal talent … that transcends through all genres, all races, all religions.”

But while T.I. was clearly enthused about the collaboration, he also stopped short of saying whether or not his song with Gaga would actually end up on Uncaged, joking, “I’m not gonna let no cats out of no bags.” And now, we know the reason why.

In a new interview with Rap-Up.com, TIP revealed that the song would more than likely be re-worked … or scrapped entirely. Why? Gaga insisted that she could make something even better.

“[Gaga] brought it to my knowledge that she would like to top what we already have,” he said. “That being said, I don’t know if that’s going to be a keeper or if that’s going to be one-upped or what not.”

So at the moment, the fate of the collaboration seems to be up in the air. But T.I. doesn’t seem to be all that upset … after all, he was thrilled just to work with the Mother Monster on a track.

“I begged on hands and knees [to work with her], ‘Please!’” he joked. “I worked with the producer RedOne and made it known that I was interested in working with her, and the enthusiasm was shared, and we were able to get it done.”

-Source: MTV

As anticipation grows around the new album (which Gaga has asserted is her “best work to date”), so do the rumors. On August 12, 2010, celebrity blog Oh No They Didn’t posted a scan of a document which hinted that Gaga may have collaborated with David Bowie during a July recording session in Sydney, Australia in July. Bowie, however, quickly shot down the rumor, saying in a statement, “The suggestion that David Bowie is producing and participating in the production of Lady Gaga’s next album is untrue and a hoax.”

While he couldn’t reveal any specific information about the album, producer RedOne — the Moroccan-Swedish mastermind behind Gaga’s monster hits “Just Dance,” “Love Game,” “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance” and “Alejandro” — assures Billboard that the new material is worth waiting for.

“It’s going to be shocking, shocking, shocking!” RedOne says of Gaga’s new music. “You never want to go too far from your brand — people love you for a reason. But we still want to give them something with a kick, something that makes them say, ‘Oh my God! We didn’t expect this!’

“When you heard ‘Bad Romance’ after ‘Poker Face,’ it was like the best thing you’ve ever heard,” he continues. “We want that type of reaction. I think that’s part of my job and her job — to keep her evolving. ”

RedOne (aka Nadir Khayat) confirms that he has worked with Gaga on two tracks and describes both of them as “massive” hits-to-be. While RedOne and Gaga’s studio synergy has proven its platinum power (the pair collaborated on nine tracks on her first two albums), the producer says he encouraged her to add some new names to the production credits this time around.

“After ‘Just Dance’ and ‘Poker Face,’ ‘Love Game’ and ‘Boys Boys Boys,’ I got a sound out of her, and that made it easier for other producers,” he says, though he remains mum on naming names. “Her sound is so defined that no matter what people can follow it. That sound belongs to her.”

It’s this ability to reinvent herself without losing her sense of self that originally drew RedOne to Lady Gaga a few years ago. “When I met her I just felt her energy — and of course she was dressed in that special way [that] caught my eye,” he half-jokes. “She had this energy and was so knowledgeable of music. She makes an impression on you right away. Immediately I thought, ‘I can do something big with this girl.’”

That initial meeting took place very shortly after Lady Gaga was signed to Def Jam Records. RedOne saw so much in the up-and-coming singer — even at first sight — that even on the day she was dropped from the label just three months later, he joined her in the studio to hear the songs she’d already recorded. The music he heard confirmed his instinct about her talent. After listening, RedOne immediately realized her vast potential, especially since Gaga turned out to be a good singer and musician as well as a strong songwriter (“lyrically, it’s always interesting with her,” he says). The only thing that needed tweaking, he felt, was someone adjusting the arrangements and mix it to make it all sound more mainstream and radio-friendly.

“It was really good musically but it was a bit too left. I asked her if we could take it more to the middle, and she said, ‘I’m open. Let’s do it,’” he recalls. Once he was behind the board, he eagerly added “big drums, almost like a rock song with synths.” And the polished Gaga sound the world came to love began to take shape.

Now, with that early period of matching Gaga with the right sonic feel vindicated by a raft of hits, RedOne explains that the goal with her next album, as with any, is pushing the music to not only change but to grow. “We try to take the sound and make it bigger and more interesting every time,” he says. “And every time and era has its sound; you always want to be the first to jump on it.”

Propelled by his success with Lady Gaga and sure to influence his work on Lady Gaga’s new tracks, RedOne has been working hard with other artists. He recently completed Nicole Scherzinger’s upcoming album, with a single expected to be released by end of year, and he also just launched his own label, 2101, through Universal Records. 2101′s first artist is 23-year-old singer/songwriter, Mohombi. And just as in the case of Gaga, RedOne has stepped in to effectively launch the career of this already locally-praised artist.

Mohombi’s album doesn’t have a release date yet because they are still defining that sound — but it’s one of the lessons RedOne learned working with Gaga, and likely a factor in the patient timing of working on her highly-anticipated follow up. “That’s one of the things I really believe in — never give an album until people want it,” RedOne says. “Even with Gaga, the [first] album was released kind of early, but it wasn’t until ‘LoveGame’ that it took off and people realized she had talent. That’s when they suddenly paid attention. I think that’s important — to give them an album when they’re ready.”

If the recent reaction to Gaga’s every new bit of music — from her hit remix album to the massive fan love for her new tune “You and I” — is any indication, the world is more than ready.

-Source: Billboard

Singer Susan Boyle has said she really admires Gaga’s style and would love to work with her.

“I think Lady Gaga is a wonderful artist and completely original and I like her costumes. Love it! Yes, I’d love to do a duet with her, complete with telephone hat too!,” Boyle said.

Lady Gaga herself was spotted today at Apple’s headquarters on One Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.

Aside from posing with Apple corporate employees, it is speculated that Gaga herself visited the campus to ink some sort of deal with the company related to a marketing contract. That could mean we’ll be seeing Gaga on Apple advertisements, hearing her music on those very same ads. Essentially, an all-out Gaga-fest.

Mika says Lady GaGa’s success has changed the way female artists act.

The Grace Kelly hit maker feels as though other singers are trying to mimic the Bad Romance star instead of finding their own identity.

He explained:

“Pop music is really odd at the moment. GaGa has launched every single woman in pop music into this crazy per­sonality crisis.

“I don’t think men have felt it, it’s a female thing,” Mika told the Daily Star. “I’m looking forward to seeing what other records are out there.”

Janet Jackson has previously spoken about her friendship with Lady Gaga, and now it seems she is hoping to collaborate with the “Alejandro” singer.

In a recent interview with the U.K.’s Metro, Jackson says that she had her eye on Gaga even before she became famous.

“What I love about Gaga is her story, where she came from,” Jackson said in the interview. “Before she made it, before anyone knew who she was, I knew who she was and, to see her finally make it, I was so happy . . . if we were to work together that would be cool.”

Earlier this year, Jackson also revealed that, in her opinion, Lady Gaga is not only a great artist but also a great person.

“I really love Gaga, yeah, and she’s a sweetheart. It’s not always the case when you meet them. You can enjoy their work, but it’s not always … so pleasant when you get to know their personality, and she truly is a sweetheart,” she told MTV.

Jackson also offered a few words of wisdom to Gaga, adding:

“She works so hard, and I told her, I think she needs to slow down just a little bit, take some time out for herself.”

-Source:  RTT News