“Madonna, call me when you're ready to get your fucking strength back, okay?” The appeal, accompanied by the gesture of the receiver, is from Linda Perry.
During an interview granted to Consequence of Soundthe singer/songwriter/producer, who recently released her new solo album Let It Die Here and got the 4 Non Blondes back on their feet (see interview at this link), explains what's wrong with Madonna's artistic trajectory.
“This is a pain in the ass,” Perry says of his attempts to collaborate with Madonna (he has produced and written for Christina Aguilera, Pink, Courtney Love, Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande and other pop stars), all of which were rejected. «When Madonna is ready to retire from the scene, she should make a record with me. It would make a great record.”
«At the moment one of the problems I have with Madonna is that she is one of the greats, she taught women to be strong and be themselves. And I love how it's always changed. Each of his albums has a different sound. She's an explorer, she's a leader, she's there in front of everyone showing the way and telling people what to do, how to be strong and kick the world's ass.”
The problem? Lately she is no longer someone who leads others, «but someone who follows. Follows trends, tries to compete with Charli XCX. All the things about her seem weak to me, not at all powerful. So I'd like to lock that woman in a studio, give her a couple of slaps and say “Wake up! Go back to being Madonna and what you represent. You're a leader!”. We need to get back to that point and focus on the strength of what her voice can do, not what Auto-Tune and the effects and electronics that she likes so much can do.”
What exactly would Perry do? «I would put it out in the open. I would take all her flaws and bring them out into the open, show them, make them beautiful. I'd make a more acoustic record, maybe with some strings, something you could stand up there and sing in front of a well-dressed audience, in a place like Carnegie Hall. This is what I would like to do, but she would never enter the studio with me because it would be something far from what she wants to do.”
