Lady Gaga Finds Magic In The Mayhem

“I’m a pretty soft person,” Lady Gaga muses. “But my music’s not.” Indeed, for an artist who has come to represent all that is maximalist, fantastical, prurient, and potent about celebrity, Lady Gaga seems, smiling in a black beanie and twin blonde braids, almost disarmingly warm. “I don’t really know where it comes from,” the artist born Stefani Germanotta tells Stereogum of her imminent seventh album, Mayhem. “I often ask myself, ‘Why?'” Why — when she has found success beyond most musicians’ wildest dreams; established herself not just as a pop princess, but as a jazz crooner who can keep up with the likes of Tony Bennett; when she has found the love of her life, the tech entrepreneur (and Mayhem co-producer) Michael Polansky — did she want to write an album seeped in chaos, madness, heartbreak, and, well, mayhem? “I thrive in intensity,” she answers. “That’s a big part of what this album is all about — vulnerability and aggression at the same time. That’s where I live.”