Calvin Harris Talks Writing For Rihanna, Leona Lewis’ Vocal Style & That Lady Gaga Feud

Not only does Calvin Harris know his way around a dance smash, the Scottish DJ also pulls no punches when it comes to honest interviews — he’s candid but diplomatic. At least, he was in a string of interviews he just wrapped overseas while promoting his latest album 18 Months, where he talked about his recent Twitter spat with Lady Gaga, how Leona Lewis recorded a version of Rihanna‘s smash “We Found Love” first and what it’s like to be in the studio with RiRi. (It sounds intense.)

Item! Following a recent dispute over Harris’ quote about turning down remixing one of Gaga’s tracks, which prompted the singer to blast Harris on Twitter, he smoothed things by minimizing the conflict in an interview with Capital FM. “[I was] a bit surprised because it had been on Wikipedia for four years,” he said. “And I didn’t say anything bad.” Rather than how it was framed, Harris said, he just “didn’t have time to do a remix — which frequently happens with all sorts of people. It’s not really a problem. Something was taken the wrong way, or it was reported again, four years later, in the wrong way.” Welp, that settles that.

Item! Onto more weirdly fascinating things, news broke a few weeks ago that Leona Lewis had, in fact, been the first to record Harris’ collaboration with Rihanna, “We Found Love,” and Harris expanded on that story in a separate interview. When discussing Lewis’ version, he explained, “They’re very different because she sings it dead softly, you know, how Leona sings. It’s more like an X Factor ballad.” Is it wrong that we’re dying to hear it?

Item! As for his onetime “We Found Love” collaborator, Harris told BBC Newsbeat that he doesn’t have any songs on her upcoming LP Unapologetic, because he wasn’t good at operating on her timeframe. “You go into the studio and you’re like, ‘I need to sit here and I’ve got two days to make probably one of the best records that I’ll ever make in my life,'” Harris explained. “Obviously I didn’t do anything, so I’m not on the record. I did a decent tune, but you can’t work under that kind of pressure. I can’t, anyway.”

Calvin Harris: Dishing on all the divas, and we love it.