Bloody Mary's Impact -- from the Born This Way 2010 sessions to Wednesday Addams' Viral Tik Tok
A Chat with Paul Blair (DJWS) and Clinton Sparks
by ChicaSkas for Gagaverse.blogspot.com
Got lucky this week and was able to sit down and talk to both Paul (DJWS) Blair and Clinton Sparks about their respective work on Gaga's newest (old!) surprise viral song, "Bloody Mary".
Clinton fit in his replies via email to me, and Paul and I chatted later on, a few days after Clinton replied. The following has been edited for continuity between the two interviews.
What did you think about Bloody Mary exploding the way it has over the past week?
DJWS: Somebody hit me up the other day and said, "How lucky is this?!", and I said, "Yeah dude, it's wierd, it's crazy, it's really cool. It's a lot of LUCK. The song is a really good song. I'm glad people are rediscovering it and like it enough to stream it as much as they've been streaming it. I feel pretty lucky that people give a sh*t. It's nice.
I was joking to someone that it kind of got the Kate Bush treatment -- 37 years later you get a hit!
DJWS: Not quite as big as that! That "Running Up That Hill" song is a phenomenal song -- that's a song that I've been listening to for 30 years -- but yes. Hopefully the crew over at "Wednesday", they'll include the song, actually, in the next episodes.
Have you ever heard the quote, "I'm here for a good time, not for a long time?" when people get all reckless and whatever? It's the opposite for me. I'm here for a long time, not for a good time.
The longer time, the more good times inside it, right?
DJWS: Well, I think with her [Gaga] and I, it's never chasing what's going on at a particular moment. Do you know what I mean? That doesn't equal longevity. You write cool stuff, and sooner or later, I don't know if the word is "catch up", but people notice. If you write cool stuff, and you do cool things, people will notice. And listen, a lot of this is luck too. I'm sure some incredible fan was watching "Wednesday", as we all were, and saw Wednesday Addams dancing with her hands in the air, like the song, like "Bloody Mary", and was like, "Holy ****, this girl's doing the Bloody Mary dance, and probably doesn't even know it." And then they put those things together and the next thing you know, everybody's doing it. The world is a strange place right now as to how people discover music. I think as much credit goes to the first Little Monster who put the song to Wednesday dancing. But to whoever thought of that --- thank you.
That would be fun to find that person, I totally want to find them now.
DJWS: I want to buy them a drink somewhere! A lot of credit to whoever that is.
I remember reading that Bloody Mary was written in Sydney, Australia. What was that like?
DJWS: No, no, that's not true at all. I was doing a bunch of tracks after she called me, and so the first batch of tracks I sent to Matt Williams, was like, probably like 30 tracks. Clinton, [and I] we were both DJing pretty hard at that time, and we crossed each other's paths a lot. And Clinton was a hip hop dude before I met him. I loved hip hop! So, Clinton's mixtapes were the some of the first mixtapes where I went, "Oh, ****, this is an incredible mixtape". I was like, holy **** this guy is really ****ing dope. As an artist I really wanted to get to know Clinton and we ended up becoming buddies. So when I started working on the Gaga record (Born This Way) I called Clinton, and I said, "Yo, you wanna work on any of these with me? And he said yeah, I'll send you some ideas." He sent me two ideas, and one of them ended up being "Bloody Mary". It was Clinton's idea to have that one "bum bad dum bump GAH - GAH". That was actually his idea.
I reached out to him for comment a couple of days ago, and he wrote me back that he originally had the idea for the words "GA GA" to be pulsing in red lights on the stage behind her. He also said it was his voice singing the "GA-GA" parts in the beginning of the song.
DJWS: Yes, he definitely came up with that GA GA idea and arguably it's one of my favorite parts of song. Clinton is a ****ing super talented dude.
So it was more of an ongoing process doing Bloody Mary, you guys didn't just sit down and do it all in one take?
DJWS: Correct. And you know, you perfect things, or change things over the course of years, so I think the bulk of the work on the tracks was done remotely, and we probably tweaked it here and there everywhere we went. This was one of those songs where we didn't revisit it a thousand times, it was really good, so there wasn't much to keep turning the screws on.
Can you tell us some cool stories about when you were working on Bloody Mary?
DJWS: This is one of those ones, seriously -- i sent in between 20-30 tracks in, and she started freaking out that there were 30 tracks. She came back, with like, parts of the song, without us ever meeting. Bloody Mary is, if not the first, one of the first three songs she sent back to me, after I sent her tracks. So she had a lot of the idea, as far as the melody goes, before we even met in person. Like met officially to work. I mean, we had met in person before that. She had a lot of the ideas done by herself. I can't remember what the other ones were that she did. Some of them, the first 3 ideas, they might not have made it, but this one was, like, seriously, not completed by any means, but like, "yo, here's the idea, meet me at this" and I was like, "oh **** this is a great idea!"
So this would have been around the time of when she wrote Born This Way (the single in Feb. 2010) and between April and July 2010 she was working on other demos like Bloody Mary.
DJWS: I was there when we were writing Born This Way (the single) -- that's another story. Bloody Mary was like, prior to.... well, maybe, I'd have to look at my calendar on that one. Born This Way had like kind of the same vibes. Like she had, like a demo kind of idea down, and then I came in and adjusted the track to the ideas. Whereas Bloody Mary, I sent in the track first, I didn't send in the track for Born This Way. We just retooled it and changed the way that it was written and wrote in new words, and reproduced what was already there. Jeppe Laursen actually submitted the first track for Born This Way, I submitted the first track for Bloody Mary.
If you listen to Bloody Mary, and Government Hooker, Electric Chapel, listen to how clean they are, how good the drums are, they stand out.
Honestly, Born This Way's production annoys me to this day, it could have been a lot cleaner... and bigger, even though it was huge.
I wonder if someday, considering you'd have all the stems and everything, if it would be possible to reconstruct it the way you originally saw it.
DJWS: It’s not in the cards right now. I would love to redo Born This Way completely. From top to bottom. Maybe in like 2050 or something. I'll probably be 105 before they let me do it. *laughs* But there will be some talks.
I would love to hear what your cut would sound like!
DJWS: Yeah, me too!
Maybe I should do a bootleg version one day.
Oh, my god, the fans would die of happiness. But I don't want you to get in trouble!
On that note, please do! *laughs* I really appreciate your time, Paul!
DJWS: Thank you, you guys are the best! Talk soon!
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Here is an image of a long since out of print CD featuring the Clinton Sparks remix of Bloody Mary.
Clinton sent back his answers by email, check it out below:
Back in 2012, Clinton, you epically remixed Bloody Mary. Would you ever consider doing another take on Bloody Mary, another remix of it, perhaps to celebrate this momentous occasion? (The fans would love this. All remixes = a new way to interpret the song)
CS: Thank you, I specifically made that for one of my mixtapes. I would love to do this, however I am not sure that LG or her record label, Interscope would be looking for this, especially when their focus is now this sped up version that has gone viral. If there was a request or desire I would be 100% on board.
What was it like seeing Bloody Mary get that Kate Bush moment, and go viral after over a decade?
CS: It was an incredible surprise. I was already happy with the success of the song and the album in which it was apart of, by creating a lifelong memory by receiving a Grammy nomination for the 'Born This Way' album. I was scrolling through my feed and saw that someone tagged me, and when I went to go see what it was, to my surprise, someone was genius enough to speed up Bloody Mary and put it to Jenna Ortega's dance.
Do you have plans to remix LG or work with LG again someday as everyone agrees that would be epic!
CS: Currently there are no plans. Although, I am always a phone call away.
What are some of your current projects you are working on now that we can go check out?
CS: I have a bunch of music coming out in 2023 that I am excited about where much like my 'Iconoclast' project, it will be me on vocals. Additionally, I have a book out, 'How to Win Big in the Music Business', and a new one releasing December 14th, titled '10 Traits That Made Me Millions in the Music Industry'. Lastly, I own the world's fastest growing and most diverse and inclusive gaming lifestyle brand, XSET. Thank you so much for reaching out. I would love to connect with any and everybody through my socials - @clintonsparks
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all work (c) KSB aka ChicaSkas for Gagaverse.blogspot.com
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