Marea Stamper, professionally known as The Blessed Madonna, has overcome adversity to create her debut album, ‘Godspeed.’ This house music creation represents the culmination of a three-year journey marked by personal loss, creative challenges, and unwavering determination. Stamper’s resilience shines throughout the album as she meticulously reworked old tracks, crafted new ones, and infused her life experiences into this labor of love.
Photo credit: The Blessed Madonna – Facebook
‘Godspeed’ is a seasoned raver’s journey through the landscape of electronic music. Blending retro and futuristic elements, the record seamlessly fuses pop sensibilities with avant-garde experimentation. Intricate drum patterns and unexpected turns frame proto-house rawness in a contemporary context.
In this exclusive interview, The Blessed Madonna opens up about the complex evolution of ‘Godspeed,’ her collaborative process with industry icons, and the deeply personal stories woven into the fabric of the album. Join us as we delve into the world of an artist who refuses to compromise her vision, pushing the boundaries of dance music while staying true to her working-class roots and spiritual influences.
EG: Hi, Marea! Welcome to EG. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. How have you been? Where are you right now?
The Blessed Madonna: Oh, thank you. It’s such a pleasure to be here and to be with you. I’ve been good. Right now I’m at home. I have been a little bit under the weather and I’ve been on bedrest, but my time of torpor is ending and I am reentering the world this weekend. So greetings from my bed, but soon-to-be greetings from ADE.
EG: So, first of all, congratulations on the release of ‘Godspeed’! You must be psyched to have this one out to share with everyone. What are some of your initial feelings now that ‘Godspeed’ is out?
The Blessed Madonna: Thank you for the congratulations on ‘Godspeed’. I am very, very, very excited to have this out there. It’s thrilling. There’s a little bit of a sense of mourning and a sense of joy at the same time. I have to remind myself not to read the comments for a long time. You can’t let the world in on that stuff. You have to stay in your own headspace about it.
EG: Now, what can your fans expect to find on ‘Godspeed’ as a whole? Is there an emotional trigger or concept driving the record?
The Blessed Madonna: As a whole, I think the thing to expect with ‘Godspeed’ is that it is the story of my life so far in dance music and my version of the history of the world. There are little nods to many things like ‘Homework’ by Daft Punk and Little Chicago in-jokes.
As far as an emotional trigger or driving concept of the record, it wouldn’t be fair to say that loss and transitions are a big driving creative force. I lost my dad right went I started making the record. I also lost many people that I really respected and in some cases really close to like Kelly and Paul Johnson who I worked with at Dust Tracks for years. I knew Paul for over 20 years and Kelly was like my mom. I really miss her. There are so many things that I would love to be able to talk to her about right now, and it’s tough because when you live a life in dance music, a lot of times I think particularly as a woman or a female-presenting person, you don’t have a lot of role models who are of a certain age, and there’s nothing that I did that Kelly didn’t do first and she and I talked on the phone constantly.
So there was a lot of that kind of sense of like, how am I going to make this album and not have these reference points? Also, we lost Jojo, the incredible artist club kid host at Smartbar at Queen and Boom Boom Room, and everything else. So, it felt like there was just kind of all these transitions that were happening while I was making this record, and that’s certainly reflected inside it. Godspeed means good luck, but it also means goodbye and I think that is sort of what this is. What’s next?
EG: What was the recording process like? Did you have a clear horizon from the start? Was it done in one ‘session’, or was the process more about ‘bits and pieces’ spanning over a long period?
The Blessed Madonna: The recording process was long. If there was an album before this, it would’ve been called ‘Mercy.’ That project was essentially done years ago and then it was sort of thrown out, but parts of it remain. ‘Godspeed’ was not done in one session, it was done in periods really, that lasted for years. ‘Secretariat’ was written properly in Chicago before I had even moved to London, so it would’ve been like eight-plus years ago or something.
There were sometimes fifty versions of a record and probably a hundred records written over that time or started and thrown into the trash. I felt like you only had a chance to make a first album once, and I didn’t want to fuck it up.
“I felt like you only had a chance to make a first album once, and I didn’t want to fuck it up”
EG: Notably, ‘Godspeed’ features an impressive list of collaborators, including names like Kylie Minogue, A-Trak, and Joy Anonymous. What was that ‘selection’ process like? Were you ever afraid of stretching your sound too far wide?
The Blessed Madonna: I was very lucky to have collaborators like Kylie Minogue, A-Trak, and Joy Anonymous, and of course my partner at Godspeed Studios, Pat Alvarez.
I wouldn’t call the process a selection. I don’t think there’s anybody that I can’t learn something from, and if I made a list of everybody that had come through the studio, it would be a long one and there would be names that really surprised you. But in my mind, I look at somebody like Damon Albarn, Paul Epworth, or Prince Paul.
I wanted to make an album that was like Handsome Boy Modeling School or I just don’t have any sense of stretching a sound too wide. Your job is to push things forward and not try to service the lowest common denominator, which I do think is a lot of what is happening in dance music right now. And certainly, there’s probably people who don’t have a high opinion of my willingness to dip my toe in the pot pool, but I strongly believe that all music is connected and it’s my job as a DJ and as a producer, and as a writer, as a songwriter, to show how those things fit.
EG: ‘Godspeed’ also sees you linking up with Sports Banger on the visual side of the record, which is absolutely fabulous. What can you tell us about this collaboration? What can people find on the vinyl version of ‘Godspeed’? Was your husband Vadim excited when you pitched the idea?
The Blessed Madonna: When it came time to do the art direction it was really a joy to work with Sports Banger. It was a dream and I am a huge fan and loyal customer. I was even before I had ever met Jonny or Dom. Jonny showed up, when I was playing at The Cause here for a benefit, an organization called War Child, and brought me some really lovely gifts and I just couldn’t believe it. I have such enormous respect for him and Dom creatively I think, and also socially and politically we’re extremely aligned across the board. We all come from very working-class backgrounds and in spite of the fact that the kids with the right shoes and money are now letting me sit with them at the lunch table, I very much know where I come from and what side of history I want to be on and the way that art interacts with that.
It was great to work with them because the ideas were almost the same immediately. We didn’t really even have to talk about that much. In the vinyl version, there are lots of little Easter eggs. You’ll get a beautiful picture of my husband’s adorable little tummy and lots of Easter eggs in the pictures. The photograph on the cover is a recreation of a photo from a Pentecostal church where my family is from, and I knew I wanted to bring a little bit of that energy to this. The idea of in that world the concept of the Holy Ghost being a spiritual entity that can enter you and propel you forward, creative and spiritually. There was a lot of discussion about that and what that would look like so we recreated the photo on the cover. Well, not recreated, but it’s a reference to another photo that I loved. But even inside the photo, there are little Easter eggs. You’ll notice the ‘Godspeed’ belt buckle on one of the people there. Some of those arms belonged to the guys from Paranoid London.
I dunno if Vadim has ever really been excited in his whole life except for when the McRib came back at McDonald’s, but he was happy to do it and had a lot of fun and we kept the leather pants.
EG: By the way, what was the process of curating such a big tracklist in today’s landscape? Does one have to consider consumer habits more than artistic desire?
The Blessed Madonna: I don’t really think about consumer habits when making an album. I mean, look, I understand there’s a kind of absurdity because we are selling this thing, and so to say that nobody’s thinking about algorithms and consumer habits and whatnot, somebody’s thinking about it. But when I’m making a record, it’s very important to shut that out. And the very first little interlude that the album starts with, that’s just me calling a hot mic. There’s this quote from Quincy Jones where he says, the second you start thinking about money when you’re making music, God leaves the room. And I said, God has left the room and I don’t want that. And that moment was really important for me, and I am glad that it wasn’t caught intentionally, but I’m glad that it was caught. Because, you have to make a decision about not even what kind of music you’re going to make, but what kind of person you’re going to be in the end.
I won’t look back on my life and wish that I had thought more about consumer habits. This album will either sink or swim, and at this point I’ve let go of that to whatever degree. The important thing is that I feel like God didn’t leave the room and that those sessions were filled with goodness and freedom and love and power and real emotions and anger and frustration. All those things are in there and sorrow on Somebody’s Daughter. The voice at the end, that’s my dad, and he died right after I signed the record contract. And I mean that stuff is all in here. So I don’t think anybody on the internet is asking for a three-minute voice message from my dad. I don’t see that getting on the radio, but it was the right thing to do.
“‘The second you start thinking about money when you’re making music, God leaves the room”
EG: And are there any plans to present ‘Godspeed’ in a live or special show format?
The Blessed Madonna: Eventually, I do want to, I would certainly love to present ‘Godspeed’ in a live or special show format. I guess we kind of did a weird, chaotic test balloon of that in Chicago when we did the Leaky Basement party. We had people from the album show up and we did parts of it live, and I remixed parts of it live.
EG: Finally, what can we expect from The Blessed Madonna in the next few months? Where can your fans catch you next?
The Blessed Madonna: States, and then I’m going to be on break from January. So this is it. This is the time to let the album do its thing and come January, we’ll see what comes next.
EG: Thank you so much for your time, Marea! We wish you all the best for the future. Take care!
The Blessed Madonna: Thanks so much for your time. It was really a pleasure to talk with you, and I really appreciate you having me.
The Blessed Madonna’s ‘Godspeed’ is out now on Warner Records. Stream and download here.
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