I saw this cool article on Lady Gaga on one of the big newspaper websites, so I thought I'd link you guys up  I don't think it's anything "new" but isn't it great to know you've got lots of cool interviews easily accessed in these threads 
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald
Quote:
Fashioning the perfect career
CAMERON HOUSTON
November 2, 2009 - 12:34PM
Lady Gaga performs at the launch of V61 hosted by V Magazine, Marc Jacobs and Belvedere Vodka on September 14, 2009 in New York City. Click for more photos
If the clothes maketh the girl, then super songstress Lady Gaga must be one hell of a woman, writes Cameron Houston.
It's sometimes easy to forget that Lady Gaga is a musician. The electro-pop princess has made headlines recently for her blood-splattered appearance at the MTV Awards, exposing her breasts at a gay pride event and wearing a coat made of miniature Kermit the Frogs on German television.
Then there were persistent rumours that the 23-year-old singer was a hermaphrodite, after reports of a "suspicious package" at her recent Glastonbury performance. Lady Gaga denied it but said she wasn't offended her genitalia had become the subject of global speculation. The singer freely admits to being bisexual.
The bizarre outfits, which borrow from Cyndi Lauper, Grace Jones, Ziggy Stardust and the Gimp from Pulp Fiction, have also gained international attention and created a cottage industry for fashion bloggers.
But while cyberspace remains fixated on her outrageous wardrobe and sexual proclivities, Lady Gaga has become only the third artist in the history of the Billboard Top 100 to have three No.1 singles from a debut album.
The Fame chalked up more than 3 million album sales and almost 20 million downloads, while industry heavyweights from Beyonce to Justin Timberlake are clamouring to work with her.
After her supernova rise from struggling burlesque dancer to global celebrity, Lady Gaga insists art will always be more important than fame or money.
"Everyone wonders who Lady Gaga is. Who is the person behind the make-up and the glasses? I'm a performance artist and this is what I do. Art is a lie and every day I kill to make it true," she says during a sit-down chat with Fairfax in New York.
The self-proclaimed dilettante makes frequent references to Ernest Hemingway, German poet Rainer Maria Rilke and the founder of method acting, Konstantin Stanislavski. She veers from one thought to another without any obvious segue. One minute she's waxing lyrical about an epiphany at a recent performance in Moscow: "There were all these Russian criminals and Mafia and princes and presidents of countries I'd never heard of. It was this dangerous, dark, wild evening." Then, without warning, she starts rambling about the fjords of Norway, which it seems also provided artistic inspiration.
Lady Gaga says her flamboyant fashion provides the aesthetic for her art and is an extension of her persona. She concedes the outfits are controversial, particularly her MTV performance outfits in September, when she writhed on stage with fake blood flowing from her chest and eyes. She compares that moment to a Botticelli opera.
"That, for me, was the first truly original thing I've done," she says. "I wanted to do something that was emblematic of the death of celebrity. The demise of the blonde women that we worship, kind of paint a picture of Marilyn Monroe with a bottle of pills in her hand."
She says Gothic glamour is her default fashion setting. "I do have some tight-ass, black skinny jeans but they sit at the back of my cupboard. You're never going to catch me in sweatpants, this is my style."
Born in Yonkers, New York, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta learnt piano from the age of four before attending Manhattan's Convent of the Sacred Heart School, which counts Caroline Kennedy and Paris Hilton as alumni.
She claims the prestigious private school stifled her creative talent. "Nuns ran my school, so I was suppressing this particular part of myself for a long time. It wasn't until later that I realised my true passions were music, art and performance."
After leaving school at 17, she attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts but dropped out at 20 to sign with Def Jam Recordings in Los Angeles, where she wrote songs for the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears.
That gig lasted less than six months, before she returned to New York, dyed her hair platinum blonde and adopted the stage name from the Queen song Radio Ga Ga when a music producer compared her voice to that of the late Freddie Mercury.
During her first performance at the Slipper Room on Manhattan's Lower East Side, she wore a conical bra and hot pants in an obvious homage to Madonna, who built an empire by turning controversy into a commodity.
Lady Gaga makes no secret of her admiration for the Material Girl or her ambition to emulate the reigning queen of pop. "She's so nice, I really love her," Gaga says.
The respect is mutual. Madonna sees glimpses of herself in the 23-year-old diva.
Madonna told Rolling Stone last month: "When we saw her, I actually felt a kind of recognition. There's something quirky about her. She's fearless and funny and when she spoke to the audience she sounded intelligent and clever."
And like Madonna, Lady Gaga seems acutely aware of the need to reinvent and evolve. A design team called the Haus of Gaga puts together the elaborate stage sets and helps conjure her vast collection of bizarre costumes. Her look is ephemeral but spandex, spikes, lace and disco ball mirrors are constant themes.
She claims to be unfazed by appearances in the glossy magazines' worst-dressed lists.
"I couldn't care less. If Karl Lagerfeld called me an ugly hag, then I'd be upset," she says.
But one wonders what the ponytailed Chanel designer would make of Lady Gaga's exploding bra, which spewed pyrotechnics on stage during a music awards night in Toronto.
Lady Gaga claims it was intended to be a feminist statement. "The bra was meant to be a weapon. My body is my weapon. I am woman."
LADY GAGA ON ...
FAME
"I forget that I'm famous most of the time. I get recognised but I don't really go to fancy, pretentious restaurants."
MUSIC TASTES
"I'm kind of like a heavy-metal girl. I listen to Black Sabbath all day."
TATTOOS
"I have a quote by my favourite philosopher, Rainer Maria Rilke, on the inside of my left arm. It says: 'In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?"'
DEATH OF CELEBRITY
"The glamorisation of the demise is not only killing the celebrity but it's also killing us because we're obsessing over it."
HER ALBUM — THE FAME MONSTER
"This whole album is about fear. I discovered my fear of fame and understood why I have covered myself in wigs and make-up. I discovered my fear of death and alcohol, my fear of drugs and loneliness and the truth."
Lady Gaga is re-releasing her debut, The Fame, retitled as The Fame Monster, on November 23. Along with Poker Face and Just Dance, the album contains eight new songs, including a duet with Beyonce.
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In other news, my fiancee is buying me the super-deluxe version of Monster for Christmas! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, although I will be a bit bummed if I don't get a signed copy 
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