Lady Gaga is nothing if not a storyteller. And this particular musical yarn may be her best yet. At the very least, it's her most personal.
E! News not only has the exclusive premiere of Gaga's "Marry the Night" music video, but sat down with Mother Monster herself to get the artist's own take on this 13-minute autobiographical opus.
"It was one of the worst days of my life and it happened quite quickly, but in my mind, when I think back on that period of my life, it all happened very slow."
And now, Little Monsters, she's sharing that day with us all.
Gaga explained that the video is a rendering of the day she thought she saw her dreams slipping away from her—when she was dropped from her first label, Island Def Jam.
"It is my personal way of seeing things," she said. "If you give up after something like that, you were never destined to be an entertainer."
As for what, exactly, she means by "Marry the Night," loyal fans already know that it's a love song of sorts to New York City. But the video is more than that—about marrying, as it were, your own personal obstacles.
"In order to be great writing music," or whatever else it is someone wants to do, she said, "you have to acknowledge what is wrong with your work, or what is dishonest about it. What have I not been really great at?"
We'll assume that's a rhetorical question, since we'd be hard-pressed to find any faults with Gaga's ever-growing oeuvre. So what does Gaga find to be her biggest obstacle?
"I don't know, I don't have an answer to that question. I love the obstacles. To marry your obstacles mean I, the artist, wholeheartedly accept everything you throw at me, I am destined to struggle, I am destined to write music about the struggle, and I accept it willingly."
One thing that's obviously not an obstacle to this bare-all artiste is her well-toned bod, which gets some ample showing-off time in her new video. And not just skin for skin's sake; those dramatic, intense nude scenes, she says, were the most real.
"Well, I was naked in real life when it happened," she said, referring to the moment she found out she'd been dropped. "That's probably the most honest moment in that video of everything I've ever done. My directorial decision was for them to just f--king roll the cameras, because I couldn't go in and out of the moment.
"I wonder if I will actually release that scene in its entirety—it's about 30 minutes long."
As for the intense aesthetic of the video, Gaga said, "It was intensely important to me that it was not too beautiful. It was an incredible experience. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing."
And as for her solo creative direction efforts? How'd that go?
Despite her recent amicable parting of ways with longtime collaborator Laurieann Gibson, it was creative business as usual on the shoot.
"I have always been the creative director, and the House of Gaga has always been the creative force behind what we've done. There really aren't many tremendous changes.
"I know it's my directorial debut, but I've really created everything I've ever done in my career. I really didn't do anything differently on this video that I didn't do on the 'Telephone' video or the 'Paparazzi' video or the 'Bad Romance' video.
"I hope my fans will take from this the progression that you have to trust yourself to make mistakes."
And not to take yourself too seriously.
Intense though the video is, it isn't without its levity.
"I always believe that you walk the line of humor if you're being so incredibly serious," she explained. "There's something quite comical about the opening of the video, even though it's quite sinister and dark."
Indeed, the opening, nonmusical minutes of the video bring the laughs, some of which are even at the expense of—gasp!—fashion.
"It's meant to be comical," she said, adding that fashion serves as a metaphor in the video. And that the video itself serves as a window into the heart and mind of Gaga.
"In essence, it's insight into my entire creative process and the way that I view things."
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