In an interview with CBS News , Lady Gaga revealed that her latest album, Chromatica , almost never happened because she was struggling with depression and other issues regarding her mental health.
She explained that if it had not been for her producer, Michael Tucker, she would not have had any motivation to record and make music on her own.
“He encouraged me,” the artist said.
She went into detail about her recording process on the days she struggled the most. Tucker would reassure that the music she was making was special, despite Gaga’s negative self-criticism.
Although she was not always eager to record, Tucker, professionally known as BloodPop, was adamant on getting her in the studio. Oftentimes before they would even start recording, she explained that the two would talk for a few hours about how she was feeling.
“We were like, ‘feeling creative always makes her happy, so let’s put some studio time on the calendar,’” Bobby Campbell, Gaga’s manager said.
She credited the emotional conversations as the main reason her songs on the latest album were so emotionally charged as the feelings were fresh and Gaga oftentimes took direct lines from their talks and put them into her songs.
The musician admitted that her depression got increasingly worse after her “Joanne World Tour,” as reported by Billboard . She talked about how she used unhealthy methods, like isolation and alcohol, to numb her from the pain she was feeling at the time.
“I thought about really dark sh*t every single day,” she stated.
The 34-year-old still found herself battling her mental health during the outbreak of the coronavirus despite quarantining with her closest employees, who would participate in prayer, deep conversation, and board game nights together, according to Yahoo .
Overtime, Gaga was able to work through her dark feelings and find more of her true self.
“Freedom for me is when I can go to the darkest part of my heart, visit things that are hard and then leave them behind,” she commented, regarding the filming of the music video for her hit song “911.”
Gaga shared that the song is about a person’s body and brain battling with each other. She also admitted that it was the most alive she felt while recording her album.
“If there’s one glimmer inside you, celebrate it,” she said as she hoped to encourage others going through similar situations to celebrate every win throughout the day, even if they are small wins.