I started talking to BloodPop, the exec producer on the project [Lady Gaga’s Chromatica LP], in late 2018. We’d never met before, but we knew of each other from the scene so he hit me up on Instagram and asked if I wanted to come over to his studio to listen to some music.

I didn’t have any idea it was regarding Gaga, I just figured we were going to connect on our own stuff. But he played me some ...