Calvin Harris, singer/songwriter/producer extraordinaire, says he turned down an opportunity to work with Lady GaGa, aka New Madonna, a little over a year ago. Harris says the request to produce GaGa came at the beginning of 2008 -- a blissful, simpler time I'm retroactively dubbing The Pre-GaGa Era -- before there was much buzz surrounding the singer. Apparently, neither GaGa's name nor her music made much of an impression on Harris:

"I thought, "Lady GaGa? What sort of name is that?" So I replied saying, "Nah, I’m not into that." Fast forward a year and she’s the biggest thing," said Harris in an interview with NME. "But I don’t regret turning her down as I didn’t think the song I heard then was that good."

We trust that he's consoled by the fact that his opinion was, and is still, correct. In the meantime, Harris has released a new single called I'm Not Alone, and is keeping his fingers crossed about possibly working with another new chart-topper, Katy Perry.

"I hope that happens. I got an email from her saying she liked my stuff. But it’s hard to tell if it will happen. I tend not to reveal things like that because you end up name dropping and not doing any records with anyone." [NME]