So much for just having fun. Cyndi Lauper’s been doing anything but lollygagging lately – appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, promoting AIDS awareness and gay rights, and releasing a new album, Memphis Blues, which ditches the all-dance vibe of her last studio offering Bring Ya to the Brink for a classic, old-fashioned sound. That’s not all: She’s writing dance music for the stage version of 2005’s British indie Kinky Boots, working out a reality show and touring through the summer.
Lauper found a few minutes to chat about all her projects – and also, what to make of past and present diva beefs, whether she’ll duet with Lady Gaga anytime soon, and why she’s “giving a damn.”
GayCalgary: How do you go from dance to blues?
Cyndi: Blues is the basis of all music – the basis of dance, the basis of rock. It’s the beginning of all the music I sing. It’s just the roots.
GayCalgary: You’ve wanted to do a blues record for a while – is that right?
Cyndi: For eight years.
GayCalgary: How come it didn’t happen sooner?
Cyndi: Because I was on Sony, and they didn’t want to do it. They didn’t even really see the dance record; I was just doing it. But they had some interesting people there at that point and then I don’t know. You know, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m not writing dance music. I’m writing for a play and a lot of it is dance music.
GayCalgary: Which play?
Cyndi: I’m writing for Kinky Boots, and it’s all kinds of music. It’s kind of wonderful.
But the blues – you know, I studied music. When I started singing I was bored with what I was singing so I became a student at Lennie Tristano’s school of music. I studied with Betty Scott, his singer, and it was jazz. But before jazz was the blues and out of blues came jazz. If it weren’t for that kind of study, I wouldn’t understand it as well.
GayCalgary: Besides your voice obviously, what do you think your gay following will appreciate on this album?
You know what, I give my gay following more credit than most people. I think that this music, they’ll relate to, because I chose music that people could relate to. It’s fun, and it’s also written in code – and if the community understands anything, it’s code.
GayCalgary: Do you feel like you’re taking a big risk with this album because it’s not pop, it’s not dance, it’s not commercial?
Cyndi: No. I think I gotta make music that I always dreamed of making, and I gotta do stuff like this because I want to leave behind a body of work that’s as great as I can do. This is some of the best singing that I think I’ve ever done.
This is a live CD. Everything was live. It took two weeks to record, and we recorded it on an 8-track machine. Bill (Wittman, her longtime collaborator) kept saying, “The Beatles could record Sgt. Pepper on 4-track. We could do this blues record on 8-track.”
GayCalgary: You mention issues at Sony, but do you feel like you can get away with more now than you could earlier in your career?
Cyndi: Well, I’m the boss now. And I said that I could do it (laughs). Listen, right now America is singing the blues. We are all singing the blues. It’s hard. So I tried to pick songs that speak about the times that we’re living in now. The things that are timeless issues.
GayCalgary: Do you have any plans to take any classic songs, like “She Bop,” and give them a blues makeover for the tour?
Cyndi: I already did. But I’m not saying, because it’s really fun. It’s so funny, but kind of cool.
GayCalgary: You’ve been working hard on the “Give a Damn” campaign. What do you hope to achieve with it?
Cyndi: To raise awareness. Bring the straight community in to support our brothers and sisters in the gay community.
GayCalgary: You’ve been a supporter for a while, but what was the moment where you really started to “Give a Damn”?
Cyndi: Well, I always did. But I realized that you could actually do something, and so I tried. It was step by step by step that I realized, Oh, that’s what’s happening. Well, I can do this to help that. So now I’m here.
GayCalgary: You established a relationship with Lady Gaga while working with her on the Viva Glam campaign for MAC to spread AIDS awareness.
Cyndi: Wonderful artist. Very inspirational.
GayCalgary: What do you make of this Gaga and Christina Aguilera rivalry?
Cyndi: Well, that’s because they’re both blondes. You’ve got to let that stuff go. That’s just people not having enough to write about in the paper. It’s like wrestling – good guy, bad guy. Like me and Madonna, I doubt that it’s real.
GayCalgary: Do you remember any tension between you and Madonna?
Cyndi: No! Are you kidding? She was always inspirational for me. I always felt like she was my sister from another mother (laughs) because we were kind of partners in crime out there, in an odd way. When I saw the “Like a Prayer” video, I was like, “Yes!”
GayCalgary: Because you were feeling the same way?
Cyndi: Well, every Catholic schoolgirl does.
GayCalgary: Have you entertained the idea of doing a duet with Lady Gaga?
Cyndi: Nope. She’s really, really, really stretched right now. She’s got a lot of people on her.
GayCalgary: If it does happen, you’ll send the gays to homo heaven. And say it did, have you thought about how it might sound?
Cyndi: No. I told her, “Listen, know that my door is always open.” You never know. What the heck! She’s in her moment right now – let her have some time, space, happiness. Let her do her thing.
GayCalgary: Are you thinking ahead to which genre you want to explore on the next album?
Cyndi: No, I’m not thinking that far ahead. I’m doing this and I’m writing the music for Kinky Boots with different partners, and I’m just thinking about what I need to do right now. I know I’m going to do other things. I signed a production deal with Mark Burnett. I’m looking forward to working with him and I hope that that happens soon.
GayCalgary: That’s the reality show, right?
Cyndi: Yeah, that’s a reality show, but I kind of want to make it funny, too, like a comedy.
GayCalgary: Your life must be pretty comical then, huh?
Cyndi: Sometimes I think all that’s missing are the dancing bears rolling through.
