April 15, 2024 • 26 mins
Celebrating her smash "Happier" w Clementine Douglas hitting #1 on the dance charts, The Blessed Madonna shares how the song was born, how long ago they started working on it, and how many Vs there were of it!
We also get to know Marea better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
We also get to know Marea better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
- the first thing she wanted to be growing up
- if 'The Blessed Madonna' or 'The Black Madonna' were the first artist names she was gonna go with
- the first song she produced
- the first dance song that made her fall in love w EDM
- the first thing that truly makes her happier
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Dance counting down the biggest dance songsin the country. This is America's Dance
thirty The bless Madonna. Welcome toAmerica's Dance thirty for the first time.
It's great finally meeting you. Oh, it's great me to you two,
and I'm so happy to be hereand I'm so happy you're here. First
(00:32):
of all, before we start thechat, do you want me to refer
to you as the Blessed Madonna throughthe entire thing? Or as Maria?
Okay, we're on a real firstdame basis. I think yes, definitely.
Well, you can call me beor Finky or Fink or Brian any
all of those. Those are allgood for me. I like, thinky
(00:53):
though, that's cute, feel free. Just don't call me Brian. That's
reserved for my dad. Yeah,I got you, Although there is one
other person that calls me briy,and every time he does it, I'm
like, who the f gave youpermission to call me priye? Right?
Is there any name that we shouldn'tcall you? No, I'll answer anything
(01:15):
as long as the check clears.I love the way you think. Now,
before we talk all about happier,I got to tell you how jealous
I am of you. Is ittrue that you were the general manager of
your college radio station. Oh yeah, when I was in college, I
applied for our college radio station.I was already working here at the radio
(01:37):
station as well. I didn't evenget a call back. How messed up
is that? Oh that's tough.Yeah, no, I sees power pretty
quickly. I was just a DJ, and then the GM resigned and for
whatever reason, they gave me thejob. And actually I sort of miss
it terribly in a way. Itwas barely a radio station. WLCV thirteen
(02:00):
ninety amuck to the Tribelock area ofthe University of Louisville. It was good
when webcasting became a thing because thenpeople could actually hear us. But yeah,
we were more of a social clubthan an actual radio station. We
had a little mini car called theSquirrel Killer said that across the front bumper,
(02:22):
and our logo at the radio stationwas a white squirrel, because we
have albino squirrels at u of L. For whatever reason, they're everywhere,
Like you've never seen one in yourwhole life, but they're everywhere at u
of L. And of course there'sall kinds of lore about why we have
white squirrels anyway, So but alittle mini Mustang that we drive around the
campus. I'm telling you, reallybarely a radio station, but definitely definitely
(02:46):
a lot of fun. Yeah,the barely a radio station type stations are
the most fun because you could getaway with more. Like when I started
here, we were the power Pig. We had just signed on and went
after another one of our radio states. So it was guerrilla warfare and you
could just have so much fun.Oh yeah, it was great. It
was a sort of a zen thing. You know. You know what is
(03:09):
the if a tree falls in theforest, there's no one there to hear
it is really an AM radio station. You know. It was a very
interesting time. But it's where Ilearned how to actually djay, where I
learned how to mix records. Thatis amazing. Well, congratulations on that.
On to more important things, Congratulationson Happier with Clementine Douglass not only
(03:34):
being number one on America's Dan's thirtyand the media based chart, but also
on the Billboard chart. Congratulations.I know, I'm so grateful for both
of these things. I could notbe more not surprised, like nothing about
what's good that happens to Clementine isa surprise, because I know she's a
(03:54):
genius, and if there is anythinggood to be said about that record,
every bit of the credit belongs toher. She is the heart and soul.
She is a writer, she isalso a producer. The pleasure of
being able to make a record likethat with her is just unparalleled, and
(04:16):
so when I talk about it,I always try to really emphasize that because
she is so much more than afeature. She is absolutely the whole potato.
It's a record that has just hada life of its own. You
know, there wasn't an enormous amountof hype put into it. We don't
have a video, we don't haveyou know, there's none of that stuff,
(04:38):
and it just happened. Well.I can't wait to talk about how
it was born. I mean,obviously Clementine is amazing. I am always
sure to find out how many songsshe's actually behind as well. Oh yeah,
which is incredible, real power writer. Open to me this way.
I had Clementine in one day.I've had her on the studio quite a
(04:59):
bit. There was another record.So sometimes non scent things like just like
do you want to produce this record? Yeah. Great. So there was
a record that I was sent tolook at producing, like taking it out
of just like its infancy, dida couple of versions of it, and
eventually I was like, you know, we just need to get Clementine over
here for this. Got her overand realized that she had written it,
(05:24):
and she like didn't even initially rememberbecause it had come to me through someone
else. That's the most amazing thingabout producing records. Usually virtually one percent
of everything that I touch, Itouched from beginning to end. But there's
only a couple of times that somethinghas come to me, and incidentally that
(05:48):
has always been related to Clementine.That is incredible. I think it was
Oh was it dom Dalla's song?I think? And I couldn't believe that
I found out that it was hertoo. I'm like, what the heck
is going on here? She's writtenhundreds of songs. I mean, she's
one of those people. She's likeCarol King or something, you know,
(06:08):
she's just it's just like a powerwriter. And now I'm in that world
also where I'm writing songs for otherpeople and top lining and doing all of
that stuff and it's a world thatI just was not super familiar with until
until the last couple of years.And she's one of the people that I
just have the most respectful because itreally I think you could look at that
(06:33):
in two ways. There are somepeople that feel like this, like this
volume of stuff, or people whoare like just you know, prolific writers
that somehow there's like a downside toit, or people working together that there's
a downside to it. For me, when I look at it, I'm
like, that's every song that wason the radio in the sixties. That's
(06:57):
the real building. That's that's Carolk and Paul Anka and all these people
who wrote I mean, you know, like you know, they have their
own careers, but they also wrotehundreds of songs for other people and with
people. I mean, there wasa point where Carol King and Paul Anka
sat back to back in the sameroom in the real building just writing songs
on typewriters. Wow, I actuallythink that's beautiful. Yeah, that's amazing.
(07:31):
Enough about Clementine, we know howamazing she is. Before we talk
all about how the song was born. With you guys, let's get to
know the blessed Madonna a little betterwith Finkey's first hit, Me Baby.
So I love finding out the originof artists when you were first growing up.
(07:57):
Was getting into music the first thingyou wanted to do or was there
something else you wanted to be whenyou grew up? Yeah, so I'm
I'm I'm a musician's daughter. Mydad, my dad is a was a
lifer, and I was both encouragedand discouraged from entering the family business.
I actually really hadn't planned on that. I went to college and I studied
(08:18):
writing, and then I had plannedon probably going to law school. Took
all my Latin, did all thatstuff, you know, I'm momma Smott,
but then learned how to DJ.And I had been in the raves
scene since the dawn of time.I am one of the very first people
in my part of the country togo to parties. But it took me
(08:41):
a long time to get into djaying. I'd already been involved in events and
throwing raves and stuff like that,and so it was it was not my
first path. I was pulled verymuch off my plan and my dad's plan.
He was not he was he was. I think he was very relieved
(09:01):
to think that I would not spendmy life on tour. Whoops. Well,
what's ironic is I actually wanted toget into law too, because I
loved arguing. But then I kindof saw all the work that went into
it. I'm like, and thenI fell in love with radio. I'm
like, nah, I'm good,I'll stick with radio. I still have
(09:22):
fantasies about breaking off and doing law, but no, it was the right
choice for me. I understand whenmy dad was reticent. It's a hard
job. It's a great job,but you can't really be prepared for it,
even me, even a kid whogrew up in a van with a
band on the road, you know. I mean that was where I would
go with my dad and self merchof his shows. So you know,
(09:46):
if anybody was going to be preparedfor this, it was me. And
I still was fully unprepared. I'mstill not prepared. Yeah, it's a
tough industry. It's definitely a toughindustry. Now, as mentioned, the
Blessed Madonna obviously isn't your real name, and you and breaking news, and
you had a previous artist name asthe Black Madonna. But when you were
(10:07):
deciding on an artist project, werethose the first names you were going to
go with, or were there othernames you were considering. Oh well,
like everybody in techno, I putout records under a thousand different names.
Really, oh yeah, oh no, no, no, no, some
of them will never will never berevealed. And also I wrote for other
people, Like before I even everhad a record out or was touring,
(10:31):
I would write for other people anddo like production and like ghostwriting and stuff.
So I've had many, many,many lives, and you know,
I think one of the nice thingsabout dance music is being able to kind
of slip through names like that.Anybody who's been around for at least fifteen
twenty years will have a minimum often monikers. That's so incredible, No,
(10:54):
I know, I remember back inthe day it was also a lot
bigger than it is now. Butyeah, a lot of artists have many
monikers. Speaking of your many namesand many lives and incredible discog of course,
including you're number one Happier. Butdo you remember the first song you
ever produced? Yeah, actually Ido. I was living in Kentucky and
(11:18):
I in the days when there wasa program called Reason. So this was
like two thousand, maybe four orso. And I was just trying to
learn, and yeah, I madea couple of things, and actually right
off the bat, Felix the houseCat wanted to sign one of them,
(11:39):
and then it didn't happen because hislabel changed hands. But that's part of
the reason that I went to Chicagowas to like I had gotten just enough
positive feedback from somebody that I admiredcreatively that I thought, maybe I better
go try to chase this. Youknow, then you expect, like,
(12:00):
well, it'll happen quickly, andit, you know, not. I
was just making I was just inthe studio all the time, just making
records and records and records and recordsand records and records, and I thought,
you know, well maybe I'll makelike ten twenty of them and then
something will pop off. Well nothing, I mean, you know, for
a decade, and even then itwas just a very hurry up and wait
(12:24):
situation. Then suddenly everything changes andI can't explain why that moment happened.
And even now like I'm going throughanother wave of like change in terms of
just doing so much work that thework is changing and what it sounds like
and what I'm able to do,and that part of it is wonderful because
(12:48):
there's still like mystery and surprise,and you know, I'm not somebody that
passes things off like I'm When I'mnot on the road, I'm in the
studio about fifty hours a week witha really tight curve of people. I
run a studium called Godspeed. Wejust have people in writing constantly every day,
(13:09):
all the time, all the time, even when I'm gone. My
partner there, he's in there rightnow, like with anybody, like he's
working with everybody. What I mean, it's anybody, and we work on
each other's stuff, and people flyin and we all sit on the floor.
It's a room about the size ofa walking closet. It's not fancy,
but it's been a really special space. So you know, there's still
(13:30):
a room for surprise and magic andlike to learn things and to learn really
how to write like that is justa whole new thing. Well, I'm
glad you stuck through it, throughthe tribulations. That's the hardest part.
It's amazing that you did. Now, I'm really excited to ask you this
question because we kind of started aroundthe same time. Do you remember the
first dance song that made you fallin love with DM Well, uh yeah,
(13:54):
probably this would have been in theera of the cassette single hold on,
it's the single, not single Wow, you just told me how old
you are? That was a testand I passed. Yeah, So it
could have been probably a Pet ShopBoys or even like Kylie Minogue, like
(14:16):
loc Emotion was one of the earlyones for me. Also like Technotronic Pump
Up the Jam. I mean,that's that's the It's that very early kind
of like you know, we havethat real wave of uh of dance crossover
like eighty nine to ninety Snap LittleBoot Yeah, I mean all of that
(14:41):
stuff, I I I those wereall things. Almost certainly it was Pet
Shop Boys though that and then andthen also even though it was an M
I think that was really important forme. Two things that I think were
more important than anything that would havebeen filed as dance music were two records
that had a certain kind of productionon them that became real gateways for me.
(15:07):
One was Paul's Fatigued by the BACBoys and the other one was It
Takes a Nation of Millions to HoldUs Back by Public Enemy, And both
of those albums work a lot withlike funk samples, and even though they're
not filed as dance albums, Imean, play shad Rack by BacT Boys
in a club and see what happens. You know, it's an incredible dance
(15:30):
record. And same thing, youknow, with It Takes a Nation Millions
or Fear of a Black Planet.That Fear of a Black Planet was the
one that I really loved from fromPublic Enemy, there's a B side called
Revolutionary Generation that was like, reallysuper important for me. These are not
records that I think people would likefile, you know, so much underdance
(15:52):
records, but they were and theywere really important for me, even though
they were way over my head.You know, I had no idea,
you know, white girl from Kentucky. I'm listening to Public Enemy. I
have no idea what they're talking about. But the beats were slamming, and
that's all that matters. What matteredto me then and it and it definitely
as like a grade schooler, it'slike a definitely a life changing thing from
(16:18):
a Finally, in Finky's first inhonor of your smash Happier Going number one,
what is the first thing that trulymakes you happier? My husband you
(16:38):
know, we've been together for thirteenyears and I'm still I'm down bad.
Like I love him. I lovehim terrible. It's awful. I like
him more than I did when westarted dating, and that's really saying something.
But I almost feel like I shouldlike throw that out, Like it's
like you know when you're grading ona curve and you throw out the highest
score in the lowest. But avery close second is my dog Boosy,
(17:02):
who I'm almost equally obsessed with,and I FaceTime with him and like,
I will be facetiming with him afterI'm done with you. I love my
dog very much and my my Ihave two dogs. They're very legendary in
their own in their own right.My other dog, she got to go
to Barrakai and in Berlin, aclub that sometimes people can't get into.
(17:27):
She bes her she's pretty legendary,great after pretty dog. But Bootsy also
that's my that's my main man.He's that's my dude. I miss him
very much. And actually the ladythe queen's my house loves him so much
that she just went on vacation andwhen she was gone, she knitted versions
both of my dogs. I waslike Ramona. She was like she was
(17:52):
like, I missed them so much, so that's something I would say dogs.
But but yeah, dogs. WellI'm a fur parent as well,
so I completely get that. AndI think I've done an amazing job of
not holding it against you that you'rea dog parent when I'm a cat dad.
So that's all right, I acceptkat, I except thank you.
(18:14):
Well, let's talk about this smash. You know, it is so incredible
because it's got not only like anold sound to it, but a new
sound to it. And Clementine,as we were talking about, I think
she sounds possibly the best she's eversounded on this song. How was happier
born Happier? Like I said,it doesn't exist without Clementine. She is
(18:37):
the force behind it. That's theone word answer there. But I knew
when I was working on it thatthe goal would be when I heard it
and I talk about this a lot, like I think there are forever records
that kind of live a little bitoutside of time and space. For me,
that was one of the things thatI wanted to make sure to really
(18:57):
do to where you couldn't tell whenit was made, and it went through
a lot of versions. There weremany versions of it, and it was
the first one of the first recordsthat I ever like really road tested like
that, I that I rolled outversions of it in front of people.
So you see different videos where likethere are slight differences, and you'll see
the comments somebody going it seems likefaster, you know this kind of thing.
(19:22):
It's like, well, yeah,it is like ten beatmuts faster.
And so there was a lot ofthat kind of thing. Uh. But
you know, I was really tryingto like think about leaving space in it
and to not overburden it with toomany elements, because the records that I
(19:42):
love always kind of have that opennessin them. And when I tell you
I'm not somebody, some people werelike, oh, well, if it
doesn't work and immediately then you justmove on whatever, And I'm not like
that. I will just keep doingthings. There are songs that I have
workshopped literally for years. Wow,and when you get him, it's so
(20:07):
right. Mercy Mercy, that's aseven year old record. I started that
like two weeks after I moved toLondon, and now I'm a permanent resident
of London, and that thing justcame off the charts in Italy like two
weeks ago. So I hang inthere with stuff, and even the version
that's on my album, I've stillpushed out further, like it's like all
(20:32):
live Latin percussion on the album version. So Happier was one of the first
ones that I did that in frontof people. Usually I'm just kind of
doing it myself in the background.But I was really encouraged to try things
in front of people, which wasa new thing for me, and I
knew that I got it right thefirst time I played it at Smart Bar
(20:52):
when my friend Rupert who we usedto tour together, he was also on
my tour manager. We learned howto make records together. We worked with
it like we've done everything together sincelike forever. When I put on Happier
and he goes, oh, Iknow this, I love this song,
and I thought, he's never heardthis, and that's you got it right.
(21:15):
When it feels like when you hearsomething like you're coming home to it
like a good a great record hasalways existed, right you didn't make it.
It's like it's like a fossil orsomething you know you maybe you uncovered
it or pointed it out or whatever, but you didn't discover it any anything.
I think. I think there arecertain kinds of refforts, not all
(21:37):
of them. Some some records reallyare innovative and you create it and it's
it's it's a totally new thing,and that's that's a totally different kind of
thing. But sometimes when you're makingrecords, you find it and then it's
just your job to clean it offand present it in a way. And
I think that that was all iswhat I was trying to do, was
(22:00):
to to like get out of theway of the song. And producing is
a word that there has so manymeanings in dance music in particular. Some
people think that producing is writing.Some people think that producing is engineering,
and then there's producing and they're allrelated, and sometimes they're the same thing,
and sometimes they're different, and sometimesyou do them all and sometimes it's
(22:22):
many things that said. This isone where it was just really it felt
like it felt like just trying toget out of the way of it so
you could see the contours of itand to try to put it in a
place that was a little bit outsideof time, so that people so that
it would feel familiar even if you'dnever heard it before. Well, you
(22:44):
guys absolutely accomplished that because it isa smash. Now, how long ago
did you guys start working on it? Oh? My god, over a
year. Oh wow, you're happI literally I couldn't tell you. I
couldn't tell you you did understand.I'm in the middle of well, I've
just finished my album, but Imade like over one hundred records for it
or something. It's just been likeand then also remixes for other people and
(23:08):
writing for other people. So it'sjust like this kind of constable clone Hut
is not the only one who forgetswhen they write something. Oh, I'm
here to tell you. It happenedto me. And when I came back
from Christmas break, I went backin the studio and I ran My partner
met me there and we were goingover music, like kind of picking up
where we left off, and Iwas like, what is what is this?
(23:30):
And he was like, my nicknameis Marge. He's like, Marge,
you wrote it, and I wasright. So it's been kind of
a blur. And I think whatI've been really trying to do as I've
entered like proper songwriting over like sinceCOVID that was you know, like I
(23:52):
had to learn how to write songsbecause I wasn't just going to be able
to go out and DJ. Sothere was a kind of like, I
have to learn how to do thisso that I can you know, have
a job. And you know,it was just so pulled into it that
the world of writing and real truelike songmaking, which is so different than
(24:15):
making tracks. It's so different,and there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong
with making tracks. My favorite recordsare tracks right like there. I wouldn't
call them a song. I wouldcall them a track. Many of the
you know, some of them arejust drum tracks. So I'm not I'm
not playing with myself anywhere like abovewhat that is. And in fact,
(24:37):
I think probably most tracks are moreimportant than most songs I'll ever write.
That said, Once you get pulledinto real like what it means to write
a song or to work in agroup, to get in somebody's head,
to try to get an idea outof it, to try to you know,
you enter into such a place oflike like creative intimacy with people.
(25:02):
It becomes really addictive and really delicious, and you know, at the end
of the day, you don't feellike you have had gas taken out with
tank, you have it put backin, and it's just such a very
different thing. So you know,we have here. It was one of
the first ones where it was like, Okay, I'm going to like work
with other people and we're going totry to crack this nut. And there's
(25:30):
fifty eleven versions of it and Ifound it. But it was really a
record that kind of like opened myhead in a way that not anything had
before. Well, congratulations on it, because it truly is an amazing song
and track. Thank you. Ijust it's just absolutely one of my favorite
(25:52):
songs on the radio right now.Congratulations on it going number one. It
is such an honor chatting with you, the Blessed Madonna. Thank you for
your time with us on America's Danceand thank you. It's an honor to
be here. And thanks for takingsuch good care of me and for playing
the record and loving it. Ireally appreciate it. In America's Dance thirty,
counting down the biggest dance songs inthe country, America's Dance thirty
Dance counting down the biggest dance songsin the country. This is America's Dance
thirty The bless Madonna. Welcome toAmerica's Dance thirty for the first time.
It's great finally meeting you. Oh, it's great me to you two,
and I'm so happy to be hereand I'm so happy you're here. First
(00:32):
of all, before we start thechat, do you want me to refer
to you as the Blessed Madonna throughthe entire thing? Or as Maria?
Okay, we're on a real firstdame basis. I think yes, definitely.
Well, you can call me beor Finky or Fink or Brian any
all of those. Those are allgood for me. I like, thinky
(00:53):
though, that's cute, feel free. Just don't call me Brian. That's
reserved for my dad. Yeah,I got you, Although there is one
other person that calls me briy,and every time he does it, I'm
like, who the f gave youpermission to call me priye? Right?
Is there any name that we shouldn'tcall you? No, I'll answer anything
(01:15):
as long as the check clears.I love the way you think. Now,
before we talk all about happier,I got to tell you how jealous
I am of you. Is ittrue that you were the general manager of
your college radio station. Oh yeah, when I was in college, I
applied for our college radio station.I was already working here at the radio
(01:37):
station as well. I didn't evenget a call back. How messed up
is that? Oh that's tough.Yeah, no, I sees power pretty
quickly. I was just a DJ, and then the GM resigned and for
whatever reason, they gave me thejob. And actually I sort of miss
it terribly in a way. Itwas barely a radio station. WLCV thirteen
(02:00):
ninety amuck to the Tribelock area ofthe University of Louisville. It was good
when webcasting became a thing because thenpeople could actually hear us. But yeah,
we were more of a social clubthan an actual radio station. We
had a little mini car called theSquirrel Killer said that across the front bumper,
(02:22):
and our logo at the radio stationwas a white squirrel, because we
have albino squirrels at u of L. For whatever reason, they're everywhere,
Like you've never seen one in yourwhole life, but they're everywhere at u
of L. And of course there'sall kinds of lore about why we have
white squirrels anyway, So but alittle mini Mustang that we drive around the
campus. I'm telling you, reallybarely a radio station, but definitely definitely
(02:46):
a lot of fun. Yeah,the barely a radio station type stations are
the most fun because you could getaway with more. Like when I started
here, we were the power Pig. We had just signed on and went
after another one of our radio states. So it was guerrilla warfare and you
could just have so much fun.Oh yeah, it was great. It
was a sort of a zen thing. You know. You know what is
(03:09):
the if a tree falls in theforest, there's no one there to hear
it is really an AM radio station. You know. It was a very
interesting time. But it's where Ilearned how to actually djay, where I
learned how to mix records. Thatis amazing. Well, congratulations on that.
On to more important things, Congratulationson Happier with Clementine Douglass not only
(03:34):
being number one on America's Dan's thirtyand the media based chart, but also
on the Billboard chart. Congratulations.I know, I'm so grateful for both
of these things. I could notbe more not surprised, like nothing about
what's good that happens to Clementine isa surprise, because I know she's a
(03:54):
genius, and if there is anythinggood to be said about that record,
every bit of the credit belongs toher. She is the heart and soul.
She is a writer, she isalso a producer. The pleasure of
being able to make a record likethat with her is just unparalleled, and
(04:16):
so when I talk about it,I always try to really emphasize that because
she is so much more than afeature. She is absolutely the whole potato.
It's a record that has just hada life of its own. You
know, there wasn't an enormous amountof hype put into it. We don't
have a video, we don't haveyou know, there's none of that stuff,
(04:38):
and it just happened. Well.I can't wait to talk about how
it was born. I mean,obviously Clementine is amazing. I am always
sure to find out how many songsshe's actually behind as well. Oh yeah,
which is incredible, real power writer. Open to me this way.
I had Clementine in one day.I've had her on the studio quite a
(04:59):
bit. There was another record.So sometimes non scent things like just like
do you want to produce this record? Yeah. Great. So there was
a record that I was sent tolook at producing, like taking it out
of just like its infancy, dida couple of versions of it, and
eventually I was like, you know, we just need to get Clementine over
here for this. Got her overand realized that she had written it,
(05:24):
and she like didn't even initially rememberbecause it had come to me through someone
else. That's the most amazing thingabout producing records. Usually virtually one percent
of everything that I touch, Itouched from beginning to end. But there's
only a couple of times that somethinghas come to me, and incidentally that
(05:48):
has always been related to Clementine.That is incredible. I think it was
Oh was it dom Dalla's song?I think? And I couldn't believe that
I found out that it was hertoo. I'm like, what the heck
is going on here? She's writtenhundreds of songs. I mean, she's
one of those people. She's likeCarol King or something, you know,
(06:08):
she's just it's just like a powerwriter. And now I'm in that world
also where I'm writing songs for otherpeople and top lining and doing all of
that stuff and it's a world thatI just was not super familiar with until
until the last couple of years.And she's one of the people that I
just have the most respectful because itreally I think you could look at that
(06:33):
in two ways. There are somepeople that feel like this, like this
volume of stuff, or people whoare like just you know, prolific writers
that somehow there's like a downside toit, or people working together that there's
a downside to it. For me, when I look at it, I'm
like, that's every song that wason the radio in the sixties. That's
(06:57):
the real building. That's that's Carolk and Paul Anka and all these people
who wrote I mean, you know, like you know, they have their
own careers, but they also wrotehundreds of songs for other people and with
people. I mean, there wasa point where Carol King and Paul Anka
sat back to back in the sameroom in the real building just writing songs
on typewriters. Wow, I actuallythink that's beautiful. Yeah, that's amazing.
(07:31):
Enough about Clementine, we know howamazing she is. Before we talk
all about how the song was born. With you guys, let's get to
know the blessed Madonna a little betterwith Finkey's first hit, Me Baby.
So I love finding out the originof artists when you were first growing up.
(07:57):
Was getting into music the first thingyou wanted to do or was there
something else you wanted to be whenyou grew up? Yeah, so I'm
I'm I'm a musician's daughter. Mydad, my dad is a was a
lifer, and I was both encouragedand discouraged from entering the family business.
I actually really hadn't planned on that. I went to college and I studied
(08:18):
writing, and then I had plannedon probably going to law school. Took
all my Latin, did all thatstuff, you know, I'm momma Smott,
but then learned how to DJ.And I had been in the raves
scene since the dawn of time.I am one of the very first people
in my part of the country togo to parties. But it took me
(08:41):
a long time to get into djaying. I'd already been involved in events and
throwing raves and stuff like that,and so it was it was not my
first path. I was pulled verymuch off my plan and my dad's plan.
He was not he was he was. I think he was very relieved
(09:01):
to think that I would not spendmy life on tour. Whoops. Well,
what's ironic is I actually wanted toget into law too, because I
loved arguing. But then I kindof saw all the work that went into
it. I'm like, and thenI fell in love with radio. I'm
like, nah, I'm good,I'll stick with radio. I still have
(09:22):
fantasies about breaking off and doing law, but no, it was the right
choice for me. I understand whenmy dad was reticent. It's a hard
job. It's a great job,but you can't really be prepared for it,
even me, even a kid whogrew up in a van with a
band on the road, you know. I mean that was where I would
go with my dad and self merchof his shows. So you know,
(09:46):
if anybody was going to be preparedfor this, it was me. And
I still was fully unprepared. I'mstill not prepared. Yeah, it's a
tough industry. It's definitely a toughindustry. Now, as mentioned, the
Blessed Madonna obviously isn't your real name, and you and breaking news, and
you had a previous artist name asthe Black Madonna. But when you were
(10:07):
deciding on an artist project, werethose the first names you were going to
go with, or were there othernames you were considering. Oh well,
like everybody in techno, I putout records under a thousand different names.
Really, oh yeah, oh no, no, no, no, some
of them will never will never berevealed. And also I wrote for other
people, Like before I even everhad a record out or was touring,
(10:31):
I would write for other people anddo like production and like ghostwriting and stuff.
So I've had many, many,many lives, and you know,
I think one of the nice thingsabout dance music is being able to kind
of slip through names like that.Anybody who's been around for at least fifteen
twenty years will have a minimum often monikers. That's so incredible, No,
(10:54):
I know, I remember back inthe day it was also a lot
bigger than it is now. Butyeah, a lot of artists have many
monikers. Speaking of your many namesand many lives and incredible discog of course,
including you're number one Happier. Butdo you remember the first song you
ever produced? Yeah, actually Ido. I was living in Kentucky and
(11:18):
I in the days when there wasa program called Reason. So this was
like two thousand, maybe four orso. And I was just trying to
learn, and yeah, I madea couple of things, and actually right
off the bat, Felix the houseCat wanted to sign one of them,
(11:39):
and then it didn't happen because hislabel changed hands. But that's part of
the reason that I went to Chicagowas to like I had gotten just enough
positive feedback from somebody that I admiredcreatively that I thought, maybe I better
go try to chase this. Youknow, then you expect, like,
(12:00):
well, it'll happen quickly, andit, you know, not. I
was just making I was just inthe studio all the time, just making
records and records and records and recordsand records and records, and I thought,
you know, well maybe I'll makelike ten twenty of them and then
something will pop off. Well nothing, I mean, you know, for
a decade, and even then itwas just a very hurry up and wait
(12:24):
situation. Then suddenly everything changes andI can't explain why that moment happened.
And even now like I'm going throughanother wave of like change in terms of
just doing so much work that thework is changing and what it sounds like
and what I'm able to do,and that part of it is wonderful because
(12:48):
there's still like mystery and surprise,and you know, I'm not somebody that
passes things off like I'm When I'mnot on the road, I'm in the
studio about fifty hours a week witha really tight curve of people. I
run a studium called Godspeed. Wejust have people in writing constantly every day,
(13:09):
all the time, all the time, even when I'm gone. My
partner there, he's in there rightnow, like with anybody, like he's
working with everybody. What I mean, it's anybody, and we work on
each other's stuff, and people flyin and we all sit on the floor.
It's a room about the size ofa walking closet. It's not fancy,
but it's been a really special space. So you know, there's still
(13:30):
a room for surprise and magic andlike to learn things and to learn really
how to write like that is justa whole new thing. Well, I'm
glad you stuck through it, throughthe tribulations. That's the hardest part.
It's amazing that you did. Now, I'm really excited to ask you this
question because we kind of started aroundthe same time. Do you remember the
first dance song that made you fallin love with DM Well, uh yeah,
(13:54):
probably this would have been in theera of the cassette single hold on,
it's the single, not single Wow, you just told me how old
you are? That was a testand I passed. Yeah, So it
could have been probably a Pet ShopBoys or even like Kylie Minogue, like
(14:16):
loc Emotion was one of the earlyones for me. Also like Technotronic Pump
Up the Jam. I mean,that's that's the It's that very early kind
of like you know, we havethat real wave of uh of dance crossover
like eighty nine to ninety Snap LittleBoot Yeah, I mean all of that
(14:41):
stuff, I I I those wereall things. Almost certainly it was Pet
Shop Boys though that and then andthen also even though it was an M
I think that was really important forme. Two things that I think were
more important than anything that would havebeen filed as dance music were two records
that had a certain kind of productionon them that became real gateways for me.
(15:07):
One was Paul's Fatigued by the BACBoys and the other one was It
Takes a Nation of Millions to HoldUs Back by Public Enemy, And both
of those albums work a lot withlike funk samples, and even though they're
not filed as dance albums, Imean, play shad Rack by BacT Boys
in a club and see what happens. You know, it's an incredible dance
(15:30):
record. And same thing, youknow, with It Takes a Nation Millions
or Fear of a Black Planet.That Fear of a Black Planet was the
one that I really loved from fromPublic Enemy, there's a B side called
Revolutionary Generation that was like, reallysuper important for me. These are not
records that I think people would likefile, you know, so much underdance
(15:52):
records, but they were and theywere really important for me, even though
they were way over my head.You know, I had no idea,
you know, white girl from Kentucky. I'm listening to Public Enemy. I
have no idea what they're talking about. But the beats were slamming, and
that's all that matters. What matteredto me then and it and it definitely
as like a grade schooler, it'slike a definitely a life changing thing from
(16:18):
a Finally, in Finky's first inhonor of your smash Happier Going number one,
what is the first thing that trulymakes you happier? My husband you
(16:38):
know, we've been together for thirteenyears and I'm still I'm down bad.
Like I love him. I lovehim terrible. It's awful. I like
him more than I did when westarted dating, and that's really saying something.
But I almost feel like I shouldlike throw that out, Like it's
like you know when you're grading ona curve and you throw out the highest
score in the lowest. But avery close second is my dog Boosy,
(17:02):
who I'm almost equally obsessed with,and I FaceTime with him and like,
I will be facetiming with him afterI'm done with you. I love my
dog very much and my my Ihave two dogs. They're very legendary in
their own in their own right.My other dog, she got to go
to Barrakai and in Berlin, aclub that sometimes people can't get into.
(17:27):
She bes her she's pretty legendary,great after pretty dog. But Bootsy also
that's my that's my main man.He's that's my dude. I miss him
very much. And actually the ladythe queen's my house loves him so much
that she just went on vacation andwhen she was gone, she knitted versions
both of my dogs. I waslike Ramona. She was like she was
(17:52):
like, I missed them so much, so that's something I would say dogs.
But but yeah, dogs. WellI'm a fur parent as well,
so I completely get that. AndI think I've done an amazing job of
not holding it against you that you'rea dog parent when I'm a cat dad.
So that's all right, I acceptkat, I except thank you.
(18:14):
Well, let's talk about this smash. You know, it is so incredible
because it's got not only like anold sound to it, but a new
sound to it. And Clementine,as we were talking about, I think
she sounds possibly the best she's eversounded on this song. How was happier
born Happier? Like I said,it doesn't exist without Clementine. She is
(18:37):
the force behind it. That's theone word answer there. But I knew
when I was working on it thatthe goal would be when I heard it
and I talk about this a lot, like I think there are forever records
that kind of live a little bitoutside of time and space. For me,
that was one of the things thatI wanted to make sure to really
(18:57):
do to where you couldn't tell whenit was made, and it went through
a lot of versions. There weremany versions of it, and it was
the first one of the first recordsthat I ever like really road tested like
that, I that I rolled outversions of it in front of people.
So you see different videos where likethere are slight differences, and you'll see
the comments somebody going it seems likefaster, you know this kind of thing.
(19:22):
It's like, well, yeah,it is like ten beatmuts faster.
And so there was a lot ofthat kind of thing. Uh. But
you know, I was really tryingto like think about leaving space in it
and to not overburden it with toomany elements, because the records that I
(19:42):
love always kind of have that opennessin them. And when I tell you
I'm not somebody, some people werelike, oh, well, if it
doesn't work and immediately then you justmove on whatever, And I'm not like
that. I will just keep doingthings. There are songs that I have
workshopped literally for years. Wow,and when you get him, it's so
(20:07):
right. Mercy Mercy, that's aseven year old record. I started that
like two weeks after I moved toLondon, and now I'm a permanent resident
of London, and that thing justcame off the charts in Italy like two
weeks ago. So I hang inthere with stuff, and even the version
that's on my album, I've stillpushed out further, like it's like all
(20:32):
live Latin percussion on the album version. So Happier was one of the first
ones that I did that in frontof people. Usually I'm just kind of
doing it myself in the background.But I was really encouraged to try things
in front of people, which wasa new thing for me, and I
knew that I got it right thefirst time I played it at Smart Bar
(20:52):
when my friend Rupert who we usedto tour together, he was also on
my tour manager. We learned howto make records together. We worked with
it like we've done everything together sincelike forever. When I put on Happier
and he goes, oh, Iknow this, I love this song,
and I thought, he's never heardthis, and that's you got it right.
(21:15):
When it feels like when you hearsomething like you're coming home to it
like a good a great record hasalways existed, right you didn't make it.
It's like it's like a fossil orsomething you know you maybe you uncovered
it or pointed it out or whatever, but you didn't discover it any anything.
I think. I think there arecertain kinds of refforts, not all
(21:37):
of them. Some some records reallyare innovative and you create it and it's
it's it's a totally new thing,and that's that's a totally different kind of
thing. But sometimes when you're makingrecords, you find it and then it's
just your job to clean it offand present it in a way. And
I think that that was all iswhat I was trying to do, was
(22:00):
to to like get out of theway of the song. And producing is
a word that there has so manymeanings in dance music in particular. Some
people think that producing is writing.Some people think that producing is engineering,
and then there's producing and they're allrelated, and sometimes they're the same thing,
and sometimes they're different, and sometimesyou do them all and sometimes it's
(22:22):
many things that said. This isone where it was just really it felt
like it felt like just trying toget out of the way of it so
you could see the contours of itand to try to put it in a
place that was a little bit outsideof time, so that people so that
it would feel familiar even if you'dnever heard it before. Well, you
(22:44):
guys absolutely accomplished that because it isa smash. Now, how long ago
did you guys start working on it? Oh? My god, over a
year. Oh wow, you're happI literally I couldn't tell you. I
couldn't tell you you did understand.I'm in the middle of well, I've
just finished my album, but Imade like over one hundred records for it
or something. It's just been likeand then also remixes for other people and
(23:08):
writing for other people. So it'sjust like this kind of constable clone Hut
is not the only one who forgetswhen they write something. Oh, I'm
here to tell you. It happenedto me. And when I came back
from Christmas break, I went backin the studio and I ran My partner
met me there and we were goingover music, like kind of picking up
where we left off, and Iwas like, what is what is this?
(23:30):
And he was like, my nicknameis Marge. He's like, Marge,
you wrote it, and I wasright. So it's been kind of
a blur. And I think whatI've been really trying to do as I've
entered like proper songwriting over like sinceCOVID that was you know, like I
(23:52):
had to learn how to write songsbecause I wasn't just going to be able
to go out and DJ. Sothere was a kind of like, I
have to learn how to do thisso that I can you know, have
a job. And you know,it was just so pulled into it that
the world of writing and real truelike songmaking, which is so different than
(24:15):
making tracks. It's so different,and there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong
with making tracks. My favorite recordsare tracks right like there. I wouldn't
call them a song. I wouldcall them a track. Many of the
you know, some of them arejust drum tracks. So I'm not I'm
not playing with myself anywhere like abovewhat that is. And in fact,
(24:37):
I think probably most tracks are moreimportant than most songs I'll ever write.
That said, Once you get pulledinto real like what it means to write
a song or to work in agroup, to get in somebody's head,
to try to get an idea outof it, to try to you know,
you enter into such a place oflike like creative intimacy with people.
(25:02):
It becomes really addictive and really delicious, and you know, at the end
of the day, you don't feellike you have had gas taken out with
tank, you have it put backin, and it's just such a very
different thing. So you know,we have here. It was one of
the first ones where it was like, Okay, I'm going to like work
with other people and we're going totry to crack this nut. And there's
(25:30):
fifty eleven versions of it and Ifound it. But it was really a
record that kind of like opened myhead in a way that not anything had
before. Well, congratulations on it, because it truly is an amazing song
and track. Thank you. Ijust it's just absolutely one of my favorite
(25:52):
songs on the radio right now.Congratulations on it going number one. It
is such an honor chatting with you, the Blessed Madonna. Thank you for
your time with us on America's Danceand thank you. It's an honor to
be here. And thanks for takingsuch good care of me and for playing
the record and loving it. Ireally appreciate it. In America's Dance thirty,
counting down the biggest dance songs inthe country, America's Dance thirty
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