Madonna Rocked To Kreayshawn, French Films Making MDNAchain saw images

Madonna Rocked To Kreayshawn, French Films Making MDNA

'We liked what we're doing in this current time and space,' producer William Orbit tells MTV News about working with the Queen of Pop.
By Jocelyn Vena

Madonna
Photo: Courtesy of Interscope

When Madonna hit the studio with longtime pal William Orbit to work on MDNA, in between brainstorming and recording sessions for the tracks, the twosome also shared many laughs. And in the lull of long recording sessions, they zeroed in on fun, instead of deconstructing the current musical landscape.

When Orbit spoke to MTV News about making the album, he insisted that despite the flurry of pop music floating around these days, they didn't give much thought to the music on Top 40 radio. Instead, they focused on their own music and the bubble of creativity they were living in.

"We never played tracks by everybody else, all the current artists. It's a dangerous road to go down," he said. "It doesn't work," he explained, because those songs are good for their own reasons, so it's futile to find out why they were good and how that can be replicated.

"We liked what we're doing in this current time and space," he continued. "What we tended to do was watch old French films from the '60s or listen to music that was so far away that it wasn't, in any way, relevant."

However, there was one person who managed to squeeze into their bubble and give them a good laugh: "I did remember, one day, there was a moment when we were waiting for Pro Tools to reboot, or something like that, and we were just looking at links on YouTube," he recalled. "And I was showing her Kreayshawn, and I've been working with her, and I really like her. And she's obviously got this track out called 'Hoes on My Di--' [with the line] " 'cause I look like Madonna.' And, I played it for Madonna ... then she was saying afterwards 'Hoes on my di--, 'cause I am Madonna.' That was about the only time we looked at any serious contemporary pop music."

At the end of the day, with the dance parties and Kreayshawn sing-alongs long over, Orbit insists the team couldn't be more pleased with the way MDNA turned out. He added, "It was a good adventure, and we pulled it off."

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