Interview selection 2007
Here’s another M-Tribe “best of” list before 2007 comes to an end. This time we take a look at 10 among the best exclusive interviews we posted on MadonnaTribe this year. 2007 marked Madonna’s twenty fifth anniversary in show business and we had the chance to talk to artists who worked with her on projects that in a way or another are some of the highlights of the Queen of Pop’s amazing career. From George Du Boise and Curtis Knapp who have met a star in the making, to the one and only Maripol, who worked with her on the Like A Virgin project. From Luca Tommassini who danced with her on the Girlie Show and Evita, to Mark Saunders who told us about the unreleased remixed track from the hit film Dick Tracy. We lived again the magic of the Confessions Tour by chatting with dancer Steve Nestar and Erotica choreographer RJ Durell.
We we proud to present the only interview Mr Rui Paes, illustrator of Madonna’s Lotsa De Casha book gave to a Madonna related news site in 2007. And while spaking about books we also met the charming
Lucy O’Brien, author of Like An Icon, the Madonna biography of the year.
What follows are excerpts from these interviews and links to read them in full. With the promise to continue in 2008 the “interview tradition”, started on fan sites by MadonnaTribe in December 2003, we invite you to enjoy again what we brought you in 2007. Thank You.
• Fashion stylist Maripol
(About working on the Like A Virgin album cover) She came to me and I just styled a bunch of things on her. I was already making the rubber jewelery and I was already making the crosses because of my love for the punks. So it was perfect for her. And talking about the clothes, Erika Bell used to make a lot of her clothes, I would give her clothes from Fiorucci and it was a mix of everything. And for “Like A Virgin” I was really hired as her stylist, to be with Steven Meisel and work on the look of the album cover.
I remember the blue satin sheet she used to cover herself with. We did a bathroom shoot and there are a lot of photos that we never used. At the beginning there was an art director, she wanted everything to be Madonna in black, a heavy rock “Black Sabbath Madonna”. And I didn’t think that it fitted very well. I said why don’t we bring out the aura of the “Like A Virgin” song, we can play with that. And it was rebellious since who was going to believe she was still a virgin!! She agreed and we got along very well. More here…
• Photographer George DuBose
(About Madonna’s first ever gig at Uncle Sam) Madonna made several costume changes and some of the outfits were a little risqué, she seemed a little nervous during the first set and when I went back to her dressing room, introduced myself and gave her some encouraging words, Camille [Barbone] heard a bit of the conversation and got pissed at me for speaking to Madonna regarding her performance. All I remember was that she made a unique presentation. She was something new and exciting. She was and is a passionate artist, this came across during this debut. I recall telling her that she was presenting a sexy image, but seemed nervous about whether it was working. I assured her that it was… working. More here…
• Photographer Curtis Knapp
(About the shooting of Madonna’s first magazine cover Island) The staff planned it. And they where very excited about it. And they did plan it around the time of her First record (remember records?) release. They had parties etc… She lived on the next block. She came over to the ‘Apartment’ to pick from my contact sheets. My Daughter Rei-re just asked when she could use the living room and watch TV. Ah kids. She was very focused on her idea of HER. But at that time, that day, we just had fun and worked on taking good pics. More here…
• Dancer, choreographer, director Luca Tommassini
(About dancing in Evita’s Buenos Aires scene) Madonna was pregnant and that scene had the most elaborate choreography. She had to work really hard. Coreographer Vince Paterson and Madonna herself wanted me in the movie because they knew they could trust in me. I danced with Madonna for years and they knew I would have protected and took care of her. Vince also knew Madonna and I can dance very well together and that I could easily pass for an Argentine man in the film. And let me straight the fact we shot that scene in London, not in Argentina and that I will never forget that period…
The thing is, I was almost becoming bold. I used to have platinum blond hair with dark edges for a major tv show I was doing in the week-end in Italy called Buona Domenica. In Evita I had to have dark hair so when the tv show was over I used to leave for London (I did it for three consecutive weeks). As soon as I got to London I had to dye my hair black. At first I simply tried to get away with it using a black colouring spray but on the first day of rehearsals Madonna got upset because when we danced and we were sweating a lot I had this black colouring thing coming down from my hair. It was really embarassing, thank God we were good friends.
Then when I came back to Milan for the Italian tv show I had to have blond hair again. The last week I didn’t go blond again as my hair was completely burnt, I could not even wash it and when I touched it there were pieces of hair on my hand… a disaster! More here…
• Dj, remixer, producer Mark Saunders
(About remixing the Dick Tracy track Now I’m Following You) I was approached by an A&R man from Madonna’s label in the States. He wanted a modern “hip’ version of the song. I thought that it would be really hard to make a “hip” version of a 40’s sounding song, especially with the technology available back then. Nowadays audio material can be manipulated and mangled a lot more. I thought he was nuts and at first my initial reaction was to turn the project down.
But then I thought “how can I say no to Madonna?!”. Then I found out there was another more modern version of it already made (Part II) and I would have both versions to work from… so I agreed. Some of the voice overs were already used in Part II version so I had access to them. I was also given tapes of other songs from the “Dick Tracy” album so I seem to remember taking a few bits of Madonna speaking from some of those other songs. I think on Part II there was an odd combination Madonna saying “Dick”, “Dick” and then from another song the line “my bottom hurts just thinking about it”. I remember thinking “how did they get away with this?”. More here…
• Dancer Steve Nestar
(About the peace message in Forbidden Love) That idea came from Madonna, she had it for London. Since then we ran that number of the show with the painting on the chest. The symbols were the “Star of David” – the Jewish sign – and Normann had the “Crescent Moon” – the symbol of Islam… we were supposed to represent those two religions who oppose each other in Palestine. More here…
• Choreographer RJ Durell
(About choreographing Erotica)
I was able to use some of the movement and concepts from my submission to Deeper and Deeper. I only choreographed about one minute of a routine for the submission so I had plenty of work to do in-order to realize Erotica. It was amazing to see how the pictures that were in my head for the Deeper and Deeper submission were easily translated to Erotica for the tour. I was familiar with Erotica before my work on the Confessions Tour, I loved the song. When Jamie first told me that I would be choreographing to the song I was elated. A few days later I was officially on board and I was given the updated track to Erotica. Just when I thought that things couldn’t get any better I was given the opportunity to work with this amazing track. I loved how the song had been given new life. More here…
• Book illustrator, painter Rui Paes
(About working on Lotsa De Casha) Madonna is possessed of tremendous visual awareness and I was very lucky that she liked what I proposed. She could see, immediately, the potential of the various sketches I presented and was a constant support with her positive reaction. Her sense of humour and openness were also very important. When I was designing the interior of the Wise Old Man’s house (the Owl), I thought that if he had a wife he should also have a family. As a child, I remember spending many hours on my own, drawing and painting sprawled on the floor at my parents’ house in Africa. So I called Madonna and asked her if she could send me some drawings of her children. I got those and used them in that same scene, in the kitchen of the Wise Old Man, copying them carefully onto those tiny sheets of paper that are spread on the floor of the kitchen, as if they had been made by the Owl’s children. In that same scene, in the kitchen, I introduced a small family of hedgehogs, happily eating bits of bread on the floor. Having spent some time in Italy I was able to learn Italian and the word for ‘hedgehog’ is riccio with the plural standing as ricci which sounds like ‘Ritchie’ – a little clue to relate to Madonna who was also the inspiration for the image of Mrs. Owl with the bowl of spaghetti.
Until Madonna decided to give me a ring, all contacts were made via the publishers and they were very good in reporting back to me her reactions to my work, which kept me going. They were also quite good in accommodating the breaks in the text that I suggested in order to pace the narrative with the illustrations, what I call the hot points in the story, and in mediating the early contacts with Madonna when we were establishing all the main visual elements and aspects of the story.
More here…
• Pop writer, author Lucy O’Brien
(About her book being different from other biogs) I feel that previous biographies have concentrated on her sex life, image and relationships at the expense of her work. I wanted to explore her music and live shows with a depth and detail that had never been done before. People have consistently underestimated her talents as a musician and songwriter.With the generous, candid contributions of many people who’ve known her, I wanted to build up a clear picture of her as an artist and as a woman.
She’s often represented as a single-minded businesswoman, but I also wanted to show a side that’s rarely talked about – how she can be quirky, childlike and sweet.
More here…
• Italian pop singer, song writer, huge Madonna fan Chiara Iezzi
(About being a fan) Madonna has the power to deeply shake me. I’m like any other Madonna fan. Nobody should touch her. A person who puts herself on a cross knows what pain is, she has given all herself. Sometimes to attract people’s attention on certain problems we need to turn ourselves into “transmission mediums”. She chose this role: living to tell. This is what a true artist should do and there aren’t many true artists around today. I don’t care about cynicism and about who thinks it’s just a publicity stunt.
She made a lot of money? Well ok, she deserves all of it. I detest envy. I’m influenced by almost everything she does. To me she’s the absolute model. It gives me strenght to see how much she believes in her ideas. Madge is great. She’s the Queen and I love her voice, her talent and her courage. More here…