- OK, rolling?
- [Cameraman] Speeding.
- Well, Madonna has called, and as always,
we have come,
this time, to the secluded
Larrabee studio in North Hollywood,
where she's about two-thirds of the way through her new album.
Let's go see what it sounds like.
- [Madonna] Hello? Kurt? You there?
You hear the effects?
- [Producer] Is that too bright?
- Why don't you go over there?
- [Producer] You want this off, or —
- Oh no, 'cause he's over there. Never mind.
Why don't I just shut up and stop directing you all?
Should we do one more song or not?
- Let's do one more.
Surprise us with something.
- Let's do "Little Star." - OK.
- [Producer] Is this the lullaby one?
- Yeah. - Alright.
- For something completely different.
- OK. What was the inspiration for this?
- For which? - "Little Star."
- Lola.
- Oh.
- Otherwise known as Lourdes Maria.
- How's she doing?
- It's my one super sentimental
song on the album.
- Well, everybody should
have one of them, I think.
- [Madonna] Exactly. Where's my engineer?
- Send out a Pat signal.
- Well, we always bring Lola in when we're, like,
three-quarters of the way through the song,
and if she grooves to it,
then we know we're in the right place.
- Is she pretty accurate about that?
- Oh, yeah.
(upbeat music)
- [Kurt] That's pretty.
- Thank you.
- [Kurt] Those are incredibly dense tracks.
There's a lot going on there.
- [Madonna] Mhm.
- Did you put all that on there yourself?
- Myself? - Well, I mean, did you instruct others to do so?
- Well, I would say that it was a collaboration
between everybody —
between me and William Orbit.
Where is William? - Can we meet some of these people?
- Yes, I would love to introduce them to you, OK. - Can we get a —
- [Producer] Hold on one second. We'll get the hand mic.
- [Madonna] Well, this is Pat McCarthy,
my engineer, otherwise known as Patman.
- So, these tracks seem really, really dense with stuff.
Is this hard for an engineer to keep it all, like, discrete?
- [Madonna] Discrete [laughs]. - Discrete.
- Isn't that a technical term? Come on!
- It comes to me pretty well-arranged.
- Well, OK. I guess that says it all.
Alright, we'll move on.
- I can just turn this right around to him. - [Laughs]
- To whom?
- To Mr. Orbit. [Madonna] To William Orbit.
- Oh! Let's go over here.
- [Madonna] William Wainwright III.
- Damn little stool's in the way.
- [Madonna] Otherwise known as William Orbit.
- And what has William brought to this project, Madonna?
- Wow. That's a big question [laughs].
Well, a certain brand of,
sort of, madman-type genius, really.
- [Kurt] Would you say that's accurate?
- How am I supposed to know? - [Laughs]
- [Kurt] So, what have you added
to this record? It sounds unusual.
- [Madonna] Crunch.
- [William] Crunch, bite.
- [Madonna] Bubbles.
- [William] Chewiness.
- [Laughs] There's a lot of bubbly bits.
- A lot of goodness.
- There is a lot of bubbly bits. I've noticed that. - Yeah.
- Let's go over here. - Oh, alright.
- [Madonna] To Marius. - The next little helper.
- Yes [laughs]. - [Madonna] Marius De Vries.
- I'm sorry to patronize you.
- I worked with Marius on my 'Bedtime Stories' record. So, he's —
- This is a lot different from that, I assume?
- Yes, it is.
- In what way?
- The music's different.
- Naturally, Marius. I know that, but I mean —
- There's more, sort of —
I don't know, more synthesizer stuff,
more interesting, abstract sounds. - More techno.
- Who else should we talk to, Madonna?
- Matt!
Matt, come over here.
- He's got no respect for authority.
- Exactly, which is —
we need one rebel.
- OK.
- [Kurt] Has it been a pleasant experience for you?
- When he's not talking on the phone to his girlfriend
or chain-smoking cigarettes [laughs].
- Ooh, in California, you know,
that's not allowed.
- And everybody knows who Guy is.
- No, no one knows who Guy is. Guy —
- Oh, please.
- Well, I mean — - [Off camera] Happy birthday!
- And it's his birthday.
- It's your birthday?
- He's 23, 25? Oh my god. - Congratulations.
- Wow. Do you think you’ll see 26 at this rate?
- Yes, yes. Looking forward to it.
- Now, what has been your role in this album?
- I'll get out —
- Just helpful, helpful friend.
- You know, he's our discerning ear.
- Oh, so is that everybody?
- Yeah.
- It's a trim little crew.
- This is our family. Yeah, we, you know —
- Now, where are you now?
You're like three-quarters of the way through, you said?
- Three, yeah. We've got a
couple more tracks to cut.
We're working on a new song today,
and then, we start mixing.
We've mixed a few things.
There are certain kinds of records that I always listened to.
Most of them come from England,
a few from France,
and it's a certain kind of a sound,
I can't describe it.
And the only way to get — - Dense, thick?
- Well, the only way to get that sound
is to work with the people
that make those records. So, here we are. - Then, you've done that.
- [William] The songs had a —
don't want to get too technical or anything,
but I mean, they had a very defined landscape,
if you’d like. There's a lot going on.
And I kind of assumed it, like, she spent ages
on it, and when I came down
to the studio, and saw how quick it was,
I was a bit blown away, actually. - Wow.
- 'Cause I take ages on stuff.
This is definitely a very full-on
production for Madonna, as well.
I think it's important to mention that
because I'm —
I mean, that's what I do for a living,
and I'm learning a lot of
production techniques off of you,
which I hadn't figured I was
gonna do coming into this project.
- I'm more instinctual.
- [William] You don't waste a lot of time thinking.
- [Madonna] I'm not a musician at all, in that respect.
I'm not a trained musician. - [Kurt] Yeah.
- [Madonna] So, maybe that comes in handy.
Go into the vocal booth.
- [Kurt] Where is it?
- [Off camera] On the way there, why don't you
just show them around,
like you did before, on the way there?
- OK. - [Off camera] Yeah, show them
a little tour on the way. - Alright.
- Alright, so this is the — - So, I guess, you guys,
we're gonna do "Skin?" - [Off camera] OK.
- Right? That's the name of the song
we're working on today,
but I don't think we wanna go
with the harmony route right now.
- Did you change the name of that song?
- Yeah, I did.
- What was it called before?
- Never mind!
- [Laughs] You know, I wouldn't tell anybody.
I just wondered.
So, this is the —
- This is the lounge area.
It's different from the other lounge area.
- What goes on in here?
- Matt usually calls his girlfriend in here.
- Huh.
- This is the guitar garden.
- Oh, now which one is your —
if I had to hammer a guitar, here?
- Listen, I really don't play the guitar.
These are all William's guitars,
and he goes insane in here, OK?
I know nothing about any of them.
- Hm. Alright, so —
- We just put them through a Marshall.
That's all I know.
And here's my —
this is my little garden.
- OK, and this is —
I see you have your —
a lot of tea.
- My ginseng tea, see?
Somebody came in here and set-decorated it,
you see? Sunflowers. Isn't that sweet? - [Kurt] Aw, that's sweet.
Alright, so you're gonna do "Skin?"
- [Madonna] Mhm, but, you know,
it won't sound good in here.
You should go in there and listen.
- [Kurt] Well, I think we're getting a feed
off the board, so we'll hear the feed,
but we'll see you.
(music playing)
- Marius, that was wrong, wasn't it?
- OK, go back.
Did I do that wrong?
Was "I close my eyes" in the right place?
It was right?
Well, if I sang the verse right, just pick it up
right after the last "I close my eyes."
- [Kurt] It's almost psychedelic, dare I say.
- Yeah, drug music without drugs.
- Yeah. Is that possible?
Well, I guess it is if you're doing it. - None of us are on anything.
It's possible if you have really free people.
- Yeah.
- Because, ultimately, that's what drugs do.
They free your mind and give you the feeling
like you have, you know, no inhibitions.
You can go anywhere.
- So you're just in touch with your inner, whatever?
- My inner self?
- Yes.
- Well, I'd like to think I am.
I mean, I've come a long way.
I used to think I was in touch with my inner self,
and then I realized that was my inner ego.
- [Laughs]
What's the difference?
- 'Cause ego is all, you know,
gratification for yourself alone,
and there’s not very much sharing and kindness and generosity involved.
- So, does this have anything to do with having children,
'cause children, of course,
put something in your life that you —
gives you something else to live for,
besides yourself.
- It has a lot to do with that.
I mean, I think probably having her
has set me off on a new way of thinking.
And then, I've just gone down a different road,
period, and —
it was very good for me, too,
because, then, the writing of this record
and the working on it —
where I was going allowed me to be
much more free and experimental.
It's been really fun. I've never had so much fun
really working on —
never felt so free to experiment, and —
- [Kurt] Yeah. I mean, some of it sounds like a big
star fall in the sky or something. There's just
so much going on up there, you know. - Mhm, yeah.
- What is the rest of the album like?
I mean, there are how many songs?
Thirteen, something like that?
- Fourteen. - Fourteen?
- But I'll only put 13 on, because 13's a lucky number.
- It is? - Mhm.
- How is it a lucky number?
- Thirteen is the age when —
that's why boys get bar mitzvahed at the age of 13, by the way.
That's the age when the soul gets completely, like, sort of,
solidified in your body, when you come into your own.
- Is this one of those Kabbalah things?
- Uh-huh. Yeah, it is.
- So, you've been doing some spiritual searching?
- Yeah.
- Kind of. - Mhm.
- When this is done, and when the
record finally comes out, will you —
it's been a long time since you toured.
- Yes, I — - Are you touring again?
- You know what? I really want to tour with
this record, 'cause I just, like, love it.
It has so much cool energy, and it would be great.
I just, if I have to sing "Like a Virgin,"
I'm gonna kill myself.
- [Laughs] Well, you don't have
to do that, 'cause, you know —
- I know. I don't even wanna sing "Vogue,"
you know what I mean? It's like — - [Laughs]
- I feel like that's like 100 years away from me.
Songs are like —
they're like tattoos, you know what I mean?
It’s like, they represent a time in your life,
and if you've really moved on,
it's hard to go back there
and sing it with feeling.
- Can you go out on the road
and just do the new album?
- I'd like to. I don't know if I could do that.
- Who would stop you?
- Nobody, Kurt. - Nobody! Well, fair.
- Well, let's go to the lounge
and see if Lola's there.
- OK. - [Off camera] Not yet.
- No? Let’s go there anyways. - [Off camera] She wasn't five minutes ago.
- Let me just see what these guys are doing
because I hate wasting time.
- [Laughs] As well we know.
- [Kurt] What's the name of the album gonna be?
Do we know yet? - [Madonna] I don't know that, either.
We were thinking of calling it 'Veronica Electronica.'
- [Laughs]
Surely, you'll think about that twice.
- That is one of my middle names.
Bet you didn't know that little bit of trivia. - Veronica, I know that.
- OK, OK. - I've known that for a long time.
- Don't get loud, Kurt. - Yeah, I'm just sorry, you know.
I like that, 'Veronica Electronica,' though.
- It's a bit silly.
- But you're in a silly, fun mood, you know?
- Yeah, I could —
you know, you can always,
you know, last resort, take a title,
a song title and use it, but —
- That would be too easy, though, I think. - Yeah.
- And the song's titles aren't even
definite, are they? I mean,
you'll be changing all of them, too.
Everything will be different by the time your record comes out.
- Everything's changing, constantly. - [Laughs]