March 28, 2012 News

Interviews with Madonna’s Collaborators

Avicii talks about his Ultra Music Festival experience with Madonna
Madonna surprised Miami festival goers on Saturday when she appeared onstage with AVICII to debut his remix of her new “MDNA” track “Girl Gone Wild” at the electronic Ultra Music Fest. Fresh off his performance with the Queen of Pop, the Swedish producer sat down with Billboard.com to talk about Madonna’s appearance and the major live show he has planned for later this year.

He said…

I had about three days to do [the remix] … and I was in the middle of touring as well. “It turned out great. I already had a melody that I was going to use for something else, but it really fit with that one so it wasn’t that hard.

Have a look at the complete interview…

Hamish Hamilton takes us at the Super Bowl Rehearsals
Director Hamish Hamilton gives us a look behind the scenes of Madonna’s Super Bowl performance…

MDNA interview with Martin Solveig
Martin Solveig was recently interviewed by Universal France for OFF.tv

He was also interviewed at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami…

He also chatted with Billboard…

William Orbit, Stuart Price, Mirwais. A lot of great EDM producers have worked with Madonna. Were you intimidated?

Martin Solveig: I tried to forget that very very fast because I would have been too intimidated to line up with all those legendary producers. At first I thought we were going to work on one song; that was the original plan. Let’s try to work on one song and take it from there — not spend too much time thinking about the legend, and do something that just makes sense.

But one song turned into three.

Martin Solveig: We really got along very well. We had a lot in common in terms of music taste, perception of things, cinema taste, food taste, wine taste. And also, she has a very dry humor. More of her English side, perhaps – she has many sides of course. I’m a very good audience for that kind of humor. It makes me laugh a lot. We did one song and another song, and we were having fun making music. And actually it was a very privileged time. She wasn’t under any kind of pressure, she had time to spend on it; it was the only thing she had to work on.

Tell me about a film that both you and Madonna like.

Martin Solveig: That one is very easy: we have the French film “Le Samouraï.” We talked a lot about movies; she has a very impressive knowledge of French film from the ’60s. It’s the story of a killer, a very solitary person; the cinematic of the whole movie is really special. We liked it very much, and talked about that for a little while. On the next day I had a draft of another song called “Beautiful Killer” referring to that. [The track is rumored to appear on the “MDNA” deluxe edition.]

Her other producers have said that once they got over the intimidation factor, she was a very giving and open collaborator.

Martin Solveig: That’s very true. I came to the conclusion that none of the songs would have been the same without her. It’s not like the songs were written before; she sings them, and it’s done. It’s definitely a collaboration; definitely a 50/50 collaboration. She really wants you to do stuff, and she really wants to explain her vision of the song. It’s a tennis game.

How did “Hello” change your career?

Martin Solveig: This song changed it all, of course. It’s actually one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to me. It probably got me to work with Madonna, because she wouldn’t have heard of my work if it wasn’t for this song in the first place. That’s the kind of magic that can come from a hit record. It’s great to have one – or even a couple!