When the subject is covers and song versions, I'm a fanatic of all the creative possibilities. Even more so when they are songs by Lady Gaga and her new album Chromatica. In this case, the sky is no longer the limit.
Lady Gaga has always walked beyond the boundaries of the common in her art and this means that the works that derive from her music can emerge in this same space of expressiveness. When I do something cover, I try to try new things and create an aura of myself and the song, making the experience of whoever is watching or listening to the cover even deeper and more fun.
That's why I invite you to watch some of the independent musical/visual experiments I did for songs from the album Chromatica, by our dear Lady Gaga:
Alice
Opening with my favorite cover: Alice in the epic version. I composed most of the arrangements, looked for instruments that sounded like an orchestra and tried to bring Wonderland to this version.
You can see butterflies of light and an explosion of colors in a universe of darkness. The song has sad lyrics, but I looked for the joy and lightness of Chromatica to compose the whole.
Stupid Love
My cover of Stupid Love had a different look – something I felt could also be enjoyable to listen to. The harmony is very similar to Born This Way, it brings a feeling of freedom, so I thought about making my version with a slight influence from Country, something light, loose, free – in a clear and colorful video to express the mood of the song.
I talked a little more about the process of creating this cover and the video in this article.
Rain on Me
In my version of Rain On Me, I tried to preserve the original arrangements of the song and made small adaptations to the melody, to insert my impressions on it. The biggest affection was due to the effects in the cover video: clouds, rain and lightning to accompany the song.
The idea was to do something with an artificial aesthetic, as if I were in a controlled climate experiment, where the sad parts of the song had a grayer image – a world without color – and the overcoming parts were bluer – referring to serenity.
911
Did I like Lady Gaga's 911 music video? I LOVED! And I was already expecting something bombastic, so this was one of the covers in which I experimented the most with arrangements, instruments and palettes and dedicated my time. My heart is in the arrangements and instruments of our beloved Rock, in a hybrid with Dark Pop.
For the video, I tried to make faster cuts – in line with the speed of the music – and some more mysterious shots of sci-fi, in a concept of crowds of one person and oppositions of these crowds. Since “my biggest enemy is me”.
Puzzle
“We could be lovers, if only for one night!” – this is a part of the chorus of Enigma that fits perfectly with what I did in this video. In it, I worked with some resources that I use in my copyright works, especially in the PSYCHE project.
I preserved the original arrangements and instruments of this song too, there is something Disco Music deep down in her that I love and wouldn't want to change. But as Enigma is a song that plays with the unconscious to bring a message of passion and inspiration, I played with kaleidoscopic reflections to convey the many inner faces we can have within us.
Sine From Above
Sine From Above is my favorite Chromatica song. It's perhaps one of my favorites from Lady Gaga's career, along with Angel Down (Joanne, 2016) and Shallow (A Star Is Born, 2018). The sensitivity of the song inspired me to make a sensitive version, something with voice and piano ornamented only by ethereal and subtle voices.
The video was recorded in two planes and edited with smooth cuts and movements. The photograph features an illuminated silhouette in a celestial, minimalist setting, to match the lyrics of the song. The result was one of the works I most enjoyed seeing completed.
1000 Doves
I thought of my 1000 Doves cover as something clean, where the arrangements go from Cinematic to the Pop. I tried to express this in the film transitions at the beginning and end of the video. I imagine this could even be a theme idea for the music video – vintage cinema and the suffering of its stars. Lady Gaga has had cinematic influences since the beginning of her career – very visible in Applause (ARTPOP, 2013) and 911 (Chromatica, 2020) – and would do another incredible job within the theme.
But covers?
I've been doing this type of work since 2012 and I always saw covers as a space of freedom to test different paths and emotions. At first, I only recorded on the keyboard or piano, but since 2019 I have purpose of generating different immersion experiences in the materials – beyond the original sound or music – and make you feel what I feel when listening to them.
I know you enjoy this kind of work as much as I do. Enjoy these songs to the fullest, because they are made with great care and respect for the original artist's message.
