Give Me All Your Smilin’
French website Pure Charts by Charts in France met MDNA producer and dee-jay Martin Solveig for a long and interview about his work with Madonna on her new album and single.
Check out the Full Story at chartsinfrance.net and read an excerpt of their long conversation translated into English for you by MadonnaTribe:
2012 will be the year od Martin Solveig. His latest album “Smash” was released last June in France and became a real hit in the U.S. Madonna listened to “Hello”, the first single. She loved it and she enrolled the 35 year-old French dee-jay and producer to work on “MDNA”, her new album, hitting the stores on March 26.
A month and a bunch of days before the release, the one who used to be soprano solo in the choir of the Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly talks about the album recording, his collaboration with Madonna, her personality, her desires, William Orbit, the internet leak of the single, and the vibe of the next album from the Super Star.
Martin welcomed Pure Charts in his Parisian studio in Le Sentier neighbourhood.
You are one of the composers and producers of the new Madonna album “MDNA”, to be released on March 26.
How did this collaboration start?
Martin Solveig : I got a phone call from her manager, here in my studio. He called me in a very easy way. All the first contacts happened in a simple mood. This made me quite surprised. Madonna is not someone who puts some impossible hierarchy ranks in her team. She has a small team made of people who are with her all the time, and she has a very easy way to communicate with them. We met, we talked about music, and about cinema, too. We realised that we had very similar tastes about songs, about pop music, about a lot of things. All this happened very fast and in a pretty cool mood.
I think it all started thanks to your song “Hello” from your latest album “Smash” that was published last June. It was a hit in the U.S.
Yes, Madonna got to know me thanks to this song… She listened to my albums and she picked up other tracks like “Sunday” or “Boys And Girls” – which had some influence on “Give Me All Your Luvin”.
She told me “I’d like you to make me something a little like that”. She wanted something that she calls “surf”, like some electronic Beach Boys, she loves this idea.
At the beginning Madonna asked you to work on one song only, the lead single…
Well yes. I know that there were some dozens of producers in the cauldron. Madonna wanted to work with two or three people only, to give the album a general sense of consistency. With me, we got on the same vibe and I had the chance to start at full throttle. And in the studio, everything went super smooth and all of a sudden we ended up recording six tracks, a little less than the half of the album which is made of 15 songs.
Was it difficult for you to get over the fact that you were working with a Pop music icon?
I realized that on a second thought, what impressed me the most with Madonna was not the icon from the 80’s but her ability to keep up with the present time, to pass through the decades, and to always be there and be really herself all the time.
I have to say that my favourite bits of the entire Madonna discography are those she made with Mirwais and Stuart Price. And those are from the 2000s. Even if I adored “Ray Of Light” produced by William Orbit
Did you also cross paths with William Orbit?
It was a pretty crazy encounter. We really laughed in the studio. We worked together for a while. Him in his studio, me in mine but in the same building. Madonna was moving from one room to another. We shared a lot. William and myself, we are quite the opposite one another. Overall… William is British, I’m French. He is big, I’m small. He’s very messy, I’m pretty organized.
Madonna is a sort of counterpart of her producers. She was super sweet with him. With me, she was quite touch and straightforward. She is someone who pushes peple and I think that she allows them to give their best.
How was she during the process?
She makes you forget that she is Madonna very quickly. She is very natural. We were there to make an album and therefore we started working fast and we went fast to the core of the project. She wanted to make people dance, and she was looking to transposing this in catchy songs, messages, to make simple things full of energy.
Did she ask you for something specific? Did she give you any guideline?
She wanted some smiling! She wanted to work on the smiley side. With William, she was more introspective. To me, she used to say: “What we need is that people smile when they listen to your songs. This is what I like in your work. In general, when people listen to your songs, they get positive vibes”. She feels that this is something missing in today’s scene a bit and that this is what people need…
She felt that you had “a different sound”… Is that true?
Yes. You always have a little signature style. The idea was to keep it intact. After all, it is clearly there in the first single. A lot of people called me when the single was out to tell me “there’s no doubt, it’s you who produced this song:” It’s very flattering. I don’t even realizeall that completely…
Read the Full Story at chartsinfrance.net and continue reading the translation after the jump.
Do you mean that this goes beyond yourself?
I’m a little in a twister. There is a strong contrast between the simplicity of the work I’ve done with her and the mediatic mess that this generates.
The reactions, the commentaries. I was surprised. When you do some music with Madonna, you are ready to see people talking about it but you are not prepared to see that if you make a tweet, it’s instantly retweeted 250 times. And these people will go ahead and dissect every tiny details. It’s crazy stuff. Therefore, it is true that I make some little faux pas about what I say on Twitter or on some interview… Everything I say cand and will be used against me (laguhs). I learned that, to live in the world of great pop acts. It is an extraordinary experience for me…
There’s a little vintage sound in this first single, is this what you were looking for?
I would say that this track is sixties and contemporary at the same time… There’s a specific signature in this album, a dance-y side without being actually dance music. If you listen to William’s tracks and mines, there’s a sort of inspiration that comes from all over pop music.
Did you complete all the tracks?
Yes the album is done and even mastered. All fifteen songs have a history and something to say. This is gonna be a very good Madonna album.
I am aware that all that goes beyond music, that the Icon goes way beyond the music and her songs. I’m simply proud of the work I’ve done. And I am also aware of the honour and the luck I’ve been given to work on something like that, it’s an adventure out of the ordinary. I really hope that everything goes for the best…
In the first single we also listen to M.I.A and Nicki Minaj. I think that it was your idea to enroll M.I.A and that Madonna wanted Nicki Minaj
Yes.. Guy Oseary and myself were very up for the idea of collaborating with M.I.A. On the other hand, Nicki Minaj was her idea. I think she sees herself a lot in Nicki. The idea of the team worked very well with the Super Bowl. The choice of the single wasn’t completely a coincidence. The pom-poms side rocketed well this project in the incredible context of the Super Bowl. But the album still has a lot of things to reveal.
Will there be a before and an after for you?
For sure. I also think that I need to tell myself that I’ve just done my good work as a producer. I put all my energy in it, everything I’d got. This music, it’s been done for her. It belongs to her. I have to go on my own way. And in a humble way, I hope I put my own little stone in this extraordinary building. Madonna does not anyone to be who she is.
Did you get a phone call from the FBI when the single leaked on the Internet?
Yes. It was huge. It happened too soon. We immediately realized that is was something malicious and not something stupid from someone in the studio, for example. It was a clean version that was probably coming from one of Madonna’s computers. It was probably a hacker, and it made us panic a little bit. It did hurt the song a lot, the surprise effect was much weaker… We were especially worried at the idea that there were other tracks that were potentially in the hands of the hackers. I honestly think that the evil people who are beyond this probably have everything…. But the backlash probably scared them a bit and they kept the rest for themselves…
And that could have had some consequences on the release of “MDNA”?
If that happened, she could have questioned the project as a whole, which means publishing an album, going on tour… I am quite sure about that. She really wants to come back for her fans, to be on the scene again. When you work hard like that, you don’t make that to find yourself on the Internet in scratch versions which are not good and unpolished. I think that she was really disappointed and also a bit hurt..
Mirwais created “Music” for Madonna, the Megaforce collective directed the “Give Me All Your Luvin” video. How would you explain that Madonna is so in love with the French?
I think she got in very early. It goes back to her New York years when she was mates with Basquiat. There’s almost only Europeans around her. I think she got this Europena side at that time. She spends part of the year in London, she’s deeply in love with France, she has strong ties there. Her children speak French and attend French schools. She knows Europe as well as the US. I think she is connected to the French way of life.
Are you going to play these new songs in your concerts?
Obviously! As she very kindly used to say “these are our songs, they are your tunes too”, It was really impressive when she said that.
In fact, Madonna is very generous in the deals, right?
Yes! She is very generous on the writing credits and composition rights. She is very fair. I would have done all that for free (laughs). And if I had to redo it, I wouldn’t think twice…
And if Madonna asks you to be on the mixing desk at the Stade de France on July 14, would you say yes?
I can’t confirm anything yet… But there are great chances that I won’t be that far from the pitch of the Stade de France on July 14th… (laughs).
Source: chartsinfrance.net.