Question: Going into your bio you have compared yourself to some pretty big artists. Artists quite different from what you actually ended up sounding like. How do you take these kind of influences, these kind of rock influences and turn them into something like a dance song.

Lady Gaga: I would say that I don't really compare myself to those people. But I do have a lot in common with them. I have a lot in common with David Bowie, Queen and with Prince and with Madonna in the way that I combine theatrics and the visual element in all of my performance.

Also, the fashion and the imagery, but I'm trying to say is an artist goes much further beyond the music. And I don't really like when bands compare themselves to artists of the past and try to mimic them -- -- and it sounds like a copycat.

So the intention is just not for me to sound like David Bowie, or to sound just like Madonna, or to sound like Prince. Rather it is to pull references from all these different people and create something fresh and new and futuristic and pop and different had I do sing more like a guy and I do like a girl so all those male references that I am calling, you can hear in my voice.

Question: How do you make sure that you are included as well as the references?

Lady Gaga: well, I've been playing in the New York club scene since I was 15, and I've been playing piano since I was four and writing music since I was 13, listening to music and doing nothing but living and breathing performance, so your influences just become a part of who you are. They are your inspiration. These people are my muses. They are always in my bones and in my blood and in the back of my mind. And I'm making a record. The most important thing for me in making art is that it is quality... and I always wanted to make sure when I was writing that I could be able to perform it on stage. For example, what would I be wearing. By making the clothes I wonder about what I'm trying to say about pop culture and about fashion and about New York
New York City and pop culture are paramount in what I write.

Question: When did you first discover the sound that you have now?

I would say I was around 19. I had been doing a kind of folk/and then pop rock and then I was doing a kind of jammy pop rock. Or rather hippie rock. I should say... and you know, you just you change. I was living downtown, hanging out with their real heavy metal crowd who liked Black Sabbath and iron maiden and AC/DC. And I just got into theatrical pop music, because I wanted to try something new. And because I was bored. I was bored in my own stuff, and I just wanted to try something and so I did.

Q:  How do you write your songs?  To start with a poem or...?

Lady Gaga: I usually start with me at the piano composing, sometimes to a beat sometimes, do something in the studio while  playing on the synthesizer and the producer does all the production while I'm singing... sometimes I'm falling asleep and   I hear melodies.  So sometimes they catch me during the day, and I say, 'O I  like that one' so I save it. 

Or, sometimes I think of a funny phrase like.  'wanna take a ride on your disco stick?'  You just never know...inspiration is funny.