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elllipsis

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  2. Posted

    @@maru

     

    Channel V at Splendour in the Grass

     

     

     

    CW (Carissa Walford):  I’m here with Lana Del Rey, Miss Lana Del Rey, post-performance here at Splendour in the Grass 2012. How was the show?

    LDR (Lana Del Rey): It was good.

    CW: Feel good?

    LDR: Yeah, better than I could have hoped for. Really good.

    CW: I was there and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even get to the front and so I thought the best way to see you was to go underneath the stage for a little bit.

    LDR: Oh no! *laughs *

    CW: The sound under there was amazing!

    LDR: What?! *laughs*

    CW: I kinda sat there by myself because I was…

    LDR: You were under the stage?!

    CW: I was under the stage! Is that bad?

    LDR: Did you see up my skirt?

    CW: No no no, I was… I couldn’t see anything!

    LDR: Oh right, yeah…

    CW: This is the problem. I couldn’t see anything but I could hear…

    LDR: It’s all about the music.

    CW: …I could hear everything but I did obviously see the set at the start and it’s just so classy and artistic and… You did such an amazing job.

    LDR: Thank you!

    CW: I really did go into another world.

    LDR: Thank you!

    CW: I loved it.

    LDR: I really appreciate it.

    CW: Who would have thought, you know, way back when you thought maybe you might give this all up. I don’t know what we would do, I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t experience that performance just then…

    LDR: Ahhh!

    CW: But what would you do? If you weren’t doing this...

    LDR: What would I do if I wasn’t doing this? Well, for the last 10 years, I mean, I’ve worked sort of in, uh, I mean, I guess you would just kind of generalize as service work in Manhattan, in New York, and music was kind of an afterthought that sort of, you know, like I started writing at night, um, after work and after school, um, so I think I’d just go back to that, being more involved in my community in New York. *laughs* This sounds like a Miss America uh… answer!

    CW: *laughs* Miss America for 2012.

    LDR: Yeah.

    CW: You studied metaphysics?

    LDR: Mm-mm.

    CW: Tell me about that!

    LDR: Well, it depends on what branch you study, um, I was interested in the origin of reality and how it came to be, basically how we came to be right here right now, and the history of the soul and where it goes after this life is over, and so it was just this like in in-depth… yeah, 4 years of school.

    CW: Where do we go, please tell me. Somewhere special and pretty.

    LDR: I don’t, I don’t know where we go but I know that we have to be very good to…

    CW: To go to a good place.

    LDR: *laughs* To go to a good place, yeah.

    CW: And were you studying as well as writing your music, or was that a separate thing?

    LDR: Yeah, I mean, my last 2 years I told my teachers I was gonna be a singer so they gave me an independent course and I lived, uh, I lived outside of New York in New Jersey and started making my record with this guy who was kind of a famous producer in Manhattan named David, and so, I mean, it was on my mind, it was something I wanted to do. I didn’t really think it would work but, um, I really wanted it to happen.

    CW: Now, post-Saturday Night Live performance, obviously with all that backlash, do you feel like now you still have something to prove with your music?

    LDR: Um… I mean, I never felt like I had anything to prove. I felt like, you know, they were a bunch of assholes for being so critical…

    CW: *laughs* Love it!

    LDR: Um, you know, because like… I mean, like, you know, I was a person who wanted to become a really beautiful poet and I wrote my songs and, like, made a record that I loved and I thought that there was kinda where the focus should be and, for me, I felt like I’ve kinda walked on this road alone for a really long time, so I never really feel like I have to redeem myself ‘cause I don’t really talk to that many people, so I kinda do my thing.

    CW: Yeah. And why, why do you do your thing? Why do you love music so much? Why do you do what you do? Do you think.

    LDR: I think because when I was younger singing was one of the only things that I thought I might be good at. There wasn’t that much else that I knew how to do very well…

    CW: And this is what it was and you just went with it?

    LDR: Yeah, yeah, I thought it’d, it’d be good if I could do something that, yeah, I loved. *laughs*

    CW: It’s good to be able to not work a day in your life and actually enjoy what you do, right?

    LDR: Um… Yeah, it’s nice to do what you love. I mean, it’s important and I think when you start doing that other doors start opening and you realize it’s the right thing to do.

    CW: I’m absolutely obsessed with your album Born To Die, it’s, I know it’s cliché but it changed my life and it’s my favorite album so far of 2012.

    LDR: Wow.

    CW: I mean, from those classic sounds of uh, Born To Die to that hip-hop flavor that you bring in um, Off To The Races, now obviously influenced by the 50s and 60s… Why did you fall in love with those eras?

    LDR: I mean, I didn’t really find those eras, those eras found me, like, I have just kind of a naturally classical disposition and so when I started writing by myself people came up to me and asked me why I liked the 50s, why I liked David Lynch, and then I started looking into the 50s and watching David Lynch but I kinda was well suited to, like, all those kinds of things before…

    CW: How did you even get to know those kinds of artists, was it your parents that introduced you?

    LDR: Mmmmm... no.

    CW: Or did you just, sort of did you own research?

    LDR: Oh just later, I guess just later on, just started researching, I don’t know, everyone I… all the greats. Yeah.

    CW: Well, I really loved in particular how your music videos have evolved, from Video Games…

    LDR: Thanks!

    CW: …which is, like, your own homemade style, to your latest one Summertime Sadness with Jamie King! How the hell did you get to work with her and all the people that made that cinematic film clip of yours?

    LDR: Um, well that is actually one of the nicest things that’s happened to me. Um, James has become one of my dearest friends and I met her in California and she came up to me with her husband, who’s an amazing director and it was when I was singing, like, at a hotel and she told me that she loved the record and then uh, a couple of months later we got back together and she wanted to, you know, we’ve just been friends and she wanted to be in the video and her husband directed it and our good friend co-directed it, Spencer Susser, who’s also a good director in Hollywood and we just became a little family!

    CW: I like it!

    LDR: Yeah.

    CW: Have you become best friends with A$AP Rocky as well because I know he’s a fan and…

    LDR: *laughs* With A$AP Rocky?

    CW: …you liked my t-shirt, remember?

    LDR: Oh yeah, of course, of course, of course! Yes! She’s wearing an A$AP Rocky t-shirt.

    CW: Yeah, I made that especially for you ‘cause I thought “I wanna impress Lana Del Rey”.

    LDR: Thank you, I appreciate it, I appreciate it! * laughs*

    CW: And everyone keeps saying to me “Why didn’t you put Lana Del Rey’s face in the t-shirt?”

    LDR: No, this is way cooler!

    CW: Come on! That would be a bit obvious!

    LDR: That was the right way to get to me, that’s like dating someone’s sister to get to the girl, it’s really good.

    CW: And I thought I may freak you out if I have your face on my shirt while I’m interviewing you, but anyway, I’m glad you’re impressed.

    LDR: *laughs*

    CW: I wanted to ask you, with National Anthem and featuring him in that video, did you get any backlash from, that, Grassy Knoll, you know, reenactment?

    LDR: Um…

    CW: Obviously with Americans being so patriotic?

    LDR: To be honest I didn’t hear anything about it.

    CW: Neither did I, that’s actually why I wanted to ask you!

    LDR: I, actually didn’t, I actually didn’t hear anything about it, I mean…

    CW: It’s kinda interesting, then.

    LDR: You know, like, I was, you know… I tried to be respectful, um, but sometimes…

    CW: Oh yeah, you did it tastefully but, you know, haters are gonna hate! *laughs*

    LDR: Yeah, that’s true. No, everything actually was okay with that.

    CW: Now, we know naturally you’re just a fashion icon, you’ve recently done a collection for H&M – absolutely flawless, I have to say – and it doesn’t seem like you’re, you know, a celebrity headlining the campaign, it just seems like you’re just a model and you just fit in so well. I wasn’t surprised at all when I saw that. Are you into fashion as much as you are into your music, does it kinda go hand in hand?

    LDR: I mean, the fashion world is kinda something I never really had much to do with until, you know, they kind of came to my rescue when everyone said they hated my record, they were kinda like “Don’t worry about it, you’re amazing”.

    CW: Oh! ‘Cause you’re signed with NEXT Models…

    LDR: Uh uh, uh uh.

    CW: …and that happened, like, not that long ago?

    LDR: Not that long ago. Yeah, I mean, I wear the same thing every day, I mean, I do like to wear flowers in my hair but I wear jeans and like a navy blue sweater every day pretty much, so I’m not that fashionable, but uh…

    CW: Oh, you are, let me ensure you, you’re a fashion icon to everybody, including myself.

    LDR: Uh uh, yeah…*laughs*

    CW: Now, tells us about the EP Paradise Edition of Born To Die. What’s different about that?

    LDR: Ah, well there’s just 7 new songs on it, so it’s just things I’ve been working on for the last 7 months, just… it’s just like an afterthought on the rest of the record and it’s just kind of like a final… a final thought, yeah.

    CW: Just to put that whole album to rest before you move on to the next?

    LDR: Yeah, yeah ‘cause I don’t want to make another record for a little bit so I’m just kind of gonna finish this one. *laughs*

    CW: Yeah. Finish this one, have some time off, hopefully? Before the next one?

    LDR: Yeah, you never know. Come back to Byron Bay.

    CW: Come back to Byron Bay and hang out.

    LDR: Lie on the beach… Yeah.

    CW: Chill out and maybe make the next record here.

    LDR: That’d be nice. I actually recorded 3 songs in Sydney yesterday.

    CW: Oh, did you? Oh, will that be on the new album?
    LDR: No, it’s for something else.

    CW: Oh, what is it for?

    LDR: It’s for, uh, I’ve been working on scoring these movies, actually.

    CW: Oh, amazing!

    LDR: So it’s for soundtracks, yeah.

    CW: You can’t tell me the movies, can you?

    LDR: Oh, I wish I could! I probably… No, I can’t, sorry.

    CW: No, you can’t. Ah, I tried! Anyway, thank you so much for having me. Pleasure, I feel very honored.

    LDR: Thanks for everything, you’re really sweet. Thank you!

     

     

     

    This interviewer is SUCH a fangirl.

    Also, when interviewers and interviewees constantly speak at the same time ---> :deadbanana:

     

    Once again I need a little help figuring out a word/expression. It's roughly between 6:37 and 6:41, when the interviewer says "did you get any backlash from your ???, you know, reenactment?"; no idea what she says.

    EDIT: Added it, thanks @@jess9715! I did not know that. :$

    3

  3. Posted

    Next Libération interview

     

    Lana Del Rey, the Black Dahlia

     

    Only one video posted on the internet, "Video Games" was enough to make this young american pop singer the phenomenon of the season. So, buzz or bluff ? Encounter in Paris, with a strange creature taken out of a 50's movie.

     

    She asks two hours of preparation for the photo shoot (hairstyle, make-up and stylism), advised by a funny bird called Johnny Blue Eyes. She, it is the musical phenomenon of the moment, Lana Del Rey, 25 years, plastic UFO.

     

    Three months ago, a clip circulates on the web and has a gigantic and immediate success. Video Games present a series of extracts from film noir, young skaters and stars of hip-hop, all found on YouTube and assembled in an artisanal way.

     

    In the middle of these pictures, Lana, young woman with a fascinating physic, lolita of the fifties to the gangsta of the modern times, sings her loving dramas in a sweet and warm voice. The pout is sulky, the video goes around the planet and projects the young woman at the rank of starlet 2.0. The excitement begins.

     

    The public falls under the spell of the mystery singer, excited by that mouth, swollen with collagen obviously, and by the dramatic melodies which escape from it. But many internet users love to hate what they consider a purely marketing product and have fun searching the drawers of the web in search of the "before Lana". Parodies of the clip or sites mocking her lips multiply.

     

    Frightened young woman or femme fatale

     

    When she finally leaves her room, a white dress and roses on her head, to join the team of Jean-Baptiste Mondino on the roof of a hotel in Paris, we believes she straight is gone out of YouTube. Same slightly wavy hair, same fifties makeup.

     

    Her steps are slow, her wrongfully timid voice resembles that of a naive high school girl, she has glances of a stray hind. Lana Del Rey is not really at ease, especially when the photographer explains to her that he will make a close-up on her lips. Panic : "Oh no, not my mouth."

     

    This hemmed mouth that causes so many jeers is not frankly assumed by the interested, who, after negotiations, will let herself go and even have pleasure in taking the pose. The hind caught in the headlights turns into a femme fatale.

     

    Lana then removes her stage costume and puts on jeans, white shirt, black ballerinas, and orders a cappuccino. She poses in front of her the few cigarettes she stitched from different people, settles, the legs as tailor, breath finally.

     

    Closely, we see the false eyelashes, the ultra pronounced makeup, but also guess a pretty young girl with delicate features. The night before, Lana Del Rey turned her new video, Born To Die at Fontainebleau with Yoann Lemoine, author under the name of Woodkid of the sublime Woodkid Iron : "He's a genius, he gave me everything I dreamed he totally respected my universe."

     

    This is the first time that Lana Del Rey sets the foot in Paris and she did "not even had time to go see the grave of Jim Morrison". The following week, she will record two TV shows and will perform on the stage of the Silencio and the Nouveau Casino.

     

    What a flood of requests for Lana Del Rey, born Lizzie Grant 25 years ago in the middle of Manhattan. The family – her parents are real estate agent and professor, she has a little brother student and a little sister photographer – then migrated to the north of country, at Lake Placid, before sending Lana, at 15 years, to a boarding school of the corner: 'I lived in my head. I was not really alone, I was thinking a lot, I tried to understand who I was, what I wanted to do."

     

    Lizzie/Lana returned to New York at 18 and, after her studies of philosophy quickly interrupted, begins to write her first songs and play them in clubs.  The concerns of the young Lizzie are the same as today : "The love and my vision of the future, a kind of fantasy about my future. The dream of a better life, inner peace."

     

    And then, Lizzie became Lana : "I wanted a group name. I chose Lana Del Rey because I find the sonority really nice. There was no break between Lizzie Grant and Lana Del Rey, but Video Games drew so much attention that internet users have searched and tried to figure out who I was. I created a sound world for the album (1) [to be released mid-January, at Polydor, note], which corresponds to the visual world of my clips. I did not invent a second personality, I would become insane and imortantly, I do not need any."

     

    Lana makes her clips with iMovie

     

    All doubts are allowed since the appearance of this girl out of nowhere. Is it really her who has directed her first videos as she claims ? How did she get such a buzz in a record time ?

     

    A legend runs according to which a press agent, announcing her departure, would have delivered to all her contacts her last "crush" : Video Games. Lana opens wide the eyes : "Really ? It is so romantic", exclaims she while going up in the acute ones.

     

    The truth would be simpler: "I put the video on my YouTube account and each day, I saw the number of views increase. Thirty days later, Radio 1 diffused the title when the animator Fearne Cotton said that she adored the song, then a lot of influential artists followed, like The Weeknd or Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid). It was at this time that I met people from majors. Today, I have two managers to which I am very close."

     

    Lana Del Rey works mainly with three people : Justin Parker, a composer and producer in London, her best friend Dan Heath, composer of movie musics in Hollywood, and Emile Haynie for the hip-hop rhythms.

     

    The inspirations of the singer are mostly visual : the cinema of the fifties, the landscapes that she knows (Brooklyn) or not (Monaco, Paris) and which "upset" her.

     

    Musically, Lana said she still needed a very orchestral background and hip-hop rhythmic : "it gives a different beauty and tension which reminds... I don't know... life."

     

    As for the clips, she confirms, almost offended, to be the director: "I work with iMovie. As for the Word software, we copy/paste, it's really easy. I had a problem of copyright with certain elements which I used, I had to remove and replace seven seconds. But most people were glad that I use their images because they loved the clip."

     

    Her popularity, does she scare her ? "Now yes. You know, I do not like to be in the middle of  a polemic, it's not in my nature." She does not know if she feels armed enough, encircled or strong at the moment : "I love singing, but it isn't the most important in my life. If this became too difficult to support, I would stop." Her ultimate accomplishment, she ends up giving way with a certain coquetry, would be "to be a good person".

     

    (1) Lana Del Rey still has five songs to produce for her record and a song to record for the one of Damon Albarn.

     

    @@elllipsis You've joined six days ago and you're helping... :aw:

     

    What can I say, I have no life I'm very generous.

     

     

    :toofunny:

    2

  4. Posted

    @@maru

     

    El País interview (translation from Spanish)

     

     

    Lana Del Rey: “People lied a lot about me for money”

     

    The artist Lana Del Rey, one of music’s main figures at the moment, speaks a few hours before her performance at Sónar

     

    Daniel Verdú - Barcelona, 15 June 2012

     

    Only one hour earlier, the record company calls and offers us an interview with Lana Del Rey, one of music’s main figures at the moment and about whom much has been written lately - accusations of being a manufactured product and merciless criticism. This hasty appointment hours before playing at Sónar, her first concert in Europe, only increases the sensation of precaution and protection of a supposedly fragile artist. Sitting barefoot in a little leather sofa with a cigarette in her hand, all that preconceived notion crumbles. Extremely approachable and gentle, without any star affectations and with a much more restrained beauty than in her videos and photos, Elizabeth Grant (New York, 1986) looks like everything but a manufactured product. Rather, she looks like a girl who wanted fame so that she could meet her idols, but these invited her to the party only to tear her to pieces.

     

    Q (Question): Do you smoke a lot?

    A (Answer): If I have a show, yes. Because sometimes I get a little nervous. I wasn’t today, but everyone keeps asking me if I am so I’m starting to worry…

     

    Q: It’s the first concert in Europe, why Spain?

    A: In the interviews I gave here they never lied, I feel that I am respected. I was in Santander for 4 months when I was 16, I have friends here and I feel great.

     

    Q: Do you think people lied a lot about you?

    A: Yes, sometimes. For money, for good headlines. I wouldn’t give any interviews because I don’t have much to say. However, before I’d even given any, there was already a lot of stuff written about me. It’s sensationalism, as always.

     

    Q: The mystery that you cultivated around you didn’t help, don’t you think so?

    A: I don’t know! [She says it in Spanish] But it wasn’t intentional, I was just a quiet person. Now I don’t know what would have been better.

     

    Q: Is it hard for you to constantly be called a manufactured product?

    A: Yes. It bothers me because of my music and my lyrics, which I spent a lot of time writing. Also because of my family, I worry that they might think I’m having problems or that they read those awful things. We have a great life together and I don’t want my reputation to turn me into something useless for the people I care about. I’m very well settled in my New York community where I’ve been doing work for the last 10 years and I don’t want that to change, to not be able to help anymore. And, well, these things make you very uncomfortable.

     

    Q: Do you have any regrets?

    A: I wrote about what was going on in my life. But maybe I would have liked things to have been easier, like I said I’m a very quiet person.

     

    Q: What about this obsession with authenticity? Doesn’t it seem necessary to justify the existence of a character/persona in pop, nowadays?

    A: People think I’m a character because I changed my name, but that’s it. I’ve tried to lead a life that suits me perfectly. And if it seems like a character it’s because I do things exactly the way I want to. But people don’t like that because it seems weird to them. Well, and it is: I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I don’t listen to pop music… But Elizabeth and Lana Del Rey are the same person.

     

    Q: You wear a crucifix around your neck. Are you Catholic?

    A: Yes and I go to church. But I try to understand God in light of my own experiences. When all of a sudden you see your idols saying unpleasant things about you, when you see people whom you’ve read and worshipped not respecting you, you become someone else. You don’t live for other people anymore, you live only for yourself and your inspiration. I believe in a God whom I’ve personally reached. But I wear this cross [hanging around her neck] because I like diamonds [laughs].

     

    Q: You arrived in Europe amidst its collapse. Are you worried about the crisis?

    A: I think about it every day. I worry about it more than about my reputation. There’s no real way of getting out of this, we’re too many and we’re exhausting all the resources. I attentively follow Richard Branson’s investigations in space, the progress in nanotechnology, new resources… That’s what I dedicate my time to.

     

    Q: Do you miss your former life?

    A: I miss the community work I used to do in New York, because there’s not much point in life if you live only for yourself. And that’s definitely a negative aspect now.

     

    Q: You won’t deny that being a star has its advantages.

    A: What I wanted is to be respected by other writers, because writing is what I like to do. I wanted to have friends who were artists and people with an interest in progress, in technology, in finding answers to life’s problems. I didn’t find them. I would be fine if it had been a smooth ride, but it wasn’t.

     

     

     

    Cute interview. I had no idea she'd spent 4 months in Santander when she was 16! (I guess that last question & answer gives a bit more context to what she recently said re: Barrie + not knowing any "worthwhile" people; she's disillusioned... but yeah, this is OT so I'll just shut up, sorry.)

     

    ---

     

    I'll transcribe the one from Channel V at Splendour In The Grass now.

    By the way, that interview in CatRadio is not in Spanish, it's in Catalan. That will probably... complicate matters. :eek:

    2

  5. Posted

    oops, i started typing the sunday times one up without posting here, sorryyy

     

    The mysterious Lana del [sic] Rey is behind the song of the year. Does it matter who pulls her strings, asks Dan Cairns

     

    Even by the breakneck standards of the digital world, Lana del [sic] Rey's year has been a fast once. The 24-year-old New Yorker, real name Lizzy Grant, started generating interest in Britain in the spring, when her song Video Games and, more important, the video for it that she subsequently posted on YouTube began to create a stir. In the five months that have followed, Grant's pseudonym has been dropped so many times, and the hype/mythology machine smoked so vigrously, that, inevitably, a backlash has begun. So far, so virally predictable. What is refreshing - or plain insane, depending on your viewpoint - is that a backlash against the original backlash is now rapidly gaining support. And what is easy to forget, amid all the hubbub, is that Video Games is quite simply the song of the year. Yes, it's that good.

     

    Back to the chatter, though, for it is deafening. Every constituency is manning the barricades. Fans acclaim Grant as one of the best new singers of her generation. Detractors, meanwhile, post poison about her rich dad, self-mythologising back story, mysteriously deleted debut album and suspiciously voluptous lips, the last presumed by the doubters to be surgically enhanced (Grant has, surely unwisely, created the debate herself, responding on one website: "Right - I didnt [sic] get surgery whoever the f*** u [sic] are - i [sic] didnt [sic] even have a house to live in let alone $ to f*** w [sic] my face.") Behind the scenes are management, label executives and publicists whose air of micromanaging secrecy sommunicates not confidence, but anxiety. That's a pretty rich, not to say putrid, brew.

     

    Yet, and it is important to remember this, the main bullet points of the marketing plot are working with a smoothness beyond the wildest dreams of any team tasked with launching a new artist. Radio is hugely supportive (Video Games is predicted to rise to the Radio 1 A-list this week); other influential tastemakers are jumping on board. What this once ideal and fractious scenario says about the new lines of communication between artist and fan, and the obstacles that - the democracy and egalitarianism of the web notwithstanding - are placed in the way of them, is about much more than Video Games or Lizzy Grant. She just happens to be the most recent and glaring example of this new commercial culture. She also happens to be very pretty. Does that make her a fair target? Well, let's ask her.

     

    Sitting in a London hotel room, her fake-nailed fingers clamping a succession of cigarettes, the singer is easily identifiable as the retro femme fatale who stares expressionlessly at the camera in Video Games, yet utterly different: one minute hard-eyed and verbally robotic (ending some answers with an abrupt and terminating, "Um yeah"), the next seemingly unsure of herself, inarticulate or unedited. Some of her replies are so hair-rasingly, well, wrong, almost Miss World-like, you wonder why she was ever let loose with an interviewer.

     

    Talking about the failure of her debut album, and her musical influences, she says: "When I started listening to people I consider to be musical icons, my tastes were sort of confirmed in my own mind. And that's why, you know, even though nothing good ever happened, I was deterred from trying to be a noteworthy artist. But I wasn't deterred from making things that I thought were beautiful. In fact, I haven't listened to anything new for 10 years, because, you know, I like what I like. I mean, sometimes I find things that strike me, but in general I have names - I like, you know, Jeff Buckley, he was a show stopper. When I see footage of him live, I just think, "He's unbeatable." Kurt Cobain, just his face alone was, like, enough. He didn't even have to sing, his presence was scary, sick. Elvis, Frank - and Bob Dylan."

     

    Then there are glimpses of another, much clearer and less bewildered or regal person, as when she returns, again, to the shelving of her first album. Overseen by the Paul McCartney and Regina Spektor producer David Kahne, and either self-titled or called Nevada (the internet is unclear on this), the album was preceeded by a well-received EP in late 2008. A few tracks can still be found online, and songs such as Kill Kill, Kinda Outta Luck and, especially, the blowsy, strings-drenched pop-noir of Yayo are audibly the work of the same artist you can hear on Video Games and its double A-side, Blue Jeans: woozy, nostalgic odes to glamous with a murky underside, to love on the wrong side of the tracks, and as visually evocative as anything seen on Grant's own videos, which feature grainy Super 8 footage spliced with television new snippets, the Stars and Stripes swaying in the wind, and the singer herself, dressed  in vintage clothes. If these songs are anything to go by, it must have been a remarkable record. So. presumably, the shelving of the project (and Grant's management seem determined to sit on it, preferring to big up her new material) must have been devastating. And have made her wary?

     

    "Oh, I'm wary," Grant agrees. "Incredibly wary. But I'm not jaded. I'm nervous, definitely - probably more than most people you might meet this year. I don't think I've really left anyhing [behind], stylistically; my new songs are still autobiographical and cinematic. Having the record just shelved for two years, that's difficult for anyone, especially when you're younger and you make it with a famous producer, which David was.

     

    "It was an exciting time and, making the record I thought... it's not that I wanted anything to be larger than life, I just thought, "Well, here I am, I'm on my way to not having to do anything else in life." And to have absolutely no reaction, and no recognition, and no nothing, after you make a record that you think is perfect, you definitely start to think, "Well, good try, but you'd better go find something else that works." Because, if you keep chasing something that isn't working, you'll drive yourself insane."

     

    The precise reason the album was shelved is as much a mystery as why anybody around Grant felt it was okay for her to enter the publicity fray with stories such as her time spent living in a New Jersey trailer park (albeit, apparently, an unusually bohemian one). Her father is a multi-millionaire domain-name entrepreneur and philanthropist. Then there is the effort to market her as an indie artist - her new releases are coming out on a small label, Stranger Records - when even cursory research reveals that she has major-label dollars behind her, and that she is working with a small army of the usual bespoke-songwriter suspects.

     

    Such nervousness and sleight-of-hand tactics are baffling - who cares if she's not totally "authentic" (whatever that means) or bears traces of manufactre? Yet neither Grant nor her handlers are forthcoming about details they consider awkward - and they are a little too energetic with the opposite, with results that are what would be politely described as bearing signs of embellishment (I'd say enhancement, but let's not go there.)

     

    Her team cannot, however, be solely blamed for such distractions, although these seem at best unnecessary and at worst counterproductive. We are all culpable, and perhaps need to refocus on what really matters - and, for starters, ignore the darker end of the hype and airbrushing. You sense that Grant is becoming aware of the pitfalls of her current situation. Talking about some of the comments posted beneath her videos, she says: "Obviously, you're not going to enjoy ones like "Oh, look at the hype" and "This will all be over before it begins"." Then, forlornly, she adds: "If I could do it over, I thing I would just post the song." Ah, "just" the song.

     

    Well, perhaps that's the point. Listen to Video Games' incredible bridge, on which, as harp and piano ascend, the singer captures the rapture/wistfulness one-two of love, singing, almost sighing, "It's you, it's you, it's all for you", then tell me you're still bothered by her lips or her percentage. It will say far more about you than about Lizzy Grant if you are.

     

     

     

    @elllipsis, lola did the Sunday Times interview so if you haven't started or haven't finished, there is no need to start/finish it :)

     

    That's all right, I hadn't started yet. :)

     

    I'll do the El País translation instead.

     

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  7. Posted

    @@maru

     

    3FM Radio

     

     

    17 november 2011

     

    LDR (Lana Del Rey): So far it’s really good. We’ve had a really good experience here and, yeah, we love it. *chuckle*

    G (Gerard): Last night you performed at the Paradiso for a big audience in a very, well, kinda small venue. How was it for you?

    LDR: *laughs* It was good, I mean, I’ve been looking forward to playing here and, you know, the only thing was that I couldn’t hear myself that well, but the audience was really nice, really receptive and really warm, so… I enjoyed playing for them. *laughs*

    G: There was something magical in the air last night.

    LDR: Yeah.

    G: I don’t know if you noticed it but there was something!

    LDR: Yeah, there was definitely… I definitely felt that. There’s definitely like a sparkling energy.

    G: I felt the exact same way. Well, let’s talk about…

    LDR: Did you?

    G: Let’s talk about the song. When I first heard your song Video Games I thought I… I was in some kind of a dream, I thought it was… I was in a trip or something; what the hell happened? Then I saw the video and I thought “well, it really is some kind of a trip!”

    LDR: *laughs*

    G: It’s a fantastic song, it’s one of my… I think it’s one of my favorite songs of 2011. What’s it about, what is Video Games about, when did you wrote [sic] the song?

    LDR: Um, I wrote the song 10 months ago and it is sort of about, um, a time when, you know, like my music wasn’t going very well at all, and so it was just about a time when I was living at home with my boyfriend and he would come home from work and… um, I’d be there and I’d just sort of walk around the house and watch him play video games and just enjoy our time together and…

    G: And you’d just put his favorite perfume on?

    LDR: I did put his favorite perfume on! *laughs*

    G: What was this favorite perfume?

    LDR: It’s by Creed, it was called Spring Flower. *laughs*

    G: Okay, I wanna smell that, I wanna smell that.

    LDR: *laughs*

    G: Well, you came out of nowhere, I mean, boom, there was Lana Del Rey all of a sudden. How did it happen, I mean, what’s the story?

    LDR: Well… Let’s see. I mean, I’ve been singing for a long time since I was 18 and… I think what happened was in May, when I put, um… when I put Video Games up on YouTube, um… people just started reacting to it really quickly, people I didn’t even know. I think… I think it’s just ‘cause that song in particular is a… it’s a good song and people like… I think when you have one really good song it does… it can change things, can't it? Sort of.

    G: Well, yeah.

    LDR: *laughs*

    G: See, it happened right now. I mean, it’s changed a lot of things. Um, your real name is Lizzy, Lizzy Grant.

    LDR: Yeah.

    G: Where did Lana Del Rey came [sic] from then?

    LDR: I think in 2008, when I started really making, like, my first record I was sort of considering it an art project, I was making the videos and writing the songs and I just wanted something that sounded…

    G: It sounds good.

    LDR: Yeah, I like the sound of it.

    G: Yeah.

    LDR: It sounded like a good match for what I was trying to do sonically, huh!

    G: In January we can, uh, expect this album, the first one.

    LDR: Uh uh.

    G: I’m very, uh, I’m very curious [about] what we can hear on this album but at the same time a lot of people got high expectations, I mean, is that something that’s bothering you?

    LDR: No, no. Not in terms of… in terms of people’s expectations for the record I’m not worried at all because… one thing I do right is sing; that’s one thing I can do. The rest of it, pfff… is a mess. *laughs* But I mean, I’m, you know… I love to sing and I love to write and so I think that comes through. It doesn’t have to be a good record anyway. It’s just sort of like… I’m just sort of trying things out and, um… but you know, regardless, the songs are… the songs are, they’re pretty good, so um… I mean, I don’t think, you know, it’s not like… I don’t think people will consider it a masterpiece but you can’t hate it, it’s, you know, it’s… it’s beautiful, I have like the Philadelphia Orchestra playing on it, I have amazing, like, hip-hop programmers and so there’s nothing really… not to like about it. *laughs*

    G: Can’t wait to hear it. January the album is there, uh… Blue Jeans and Video Games is [sic] in the charts in Holland, it’s [a] very big, big hit.

    LDR: Isn’t that amazing?

    G: It’s great, but I know… you gotta come back next year for more shows, right?

    LDR: Yeah, I can’t wait. I’d like to play the, uh, bigger room downstairs at the Paradiso ‘cause I thought… I know we could have done that; that would have been nice.

    G: Well, next time the big one.

    LDR: *laughs* Yeah! Thank you.

    G: Okay Lana, thank you very much.

    LDR: Thank you.

     

     

     

    One minor thing: between 2:40 and 2:42 (between "it can change things" and "sort of"), I can't quite figure out what Lana says. It's not super relevant but if someone understands what's said, please let me know so that I can add it.

    EDIT: Already added it, thanks @@lola!

    1

  9. Posted

    @@maru

     

    Mulberry x Lana - Poolside @ Château Marmont

     

     

    I’m Lana Del Rey and we’re at the pool at the Château Marmont, and I’m talking about Video Games, the first single off of my record called Born To Die.

     

    When I first started making videos, I was originally collecting vintage clips of exotic places that I considered to be beautiful and inspiring and started setting it to classical music, and then I eventually started setting those clips to my own music and slowly splicing myself in, um, and turning them into music videos.

    I knew, in my video for Video Games, I wanted to feature different clips of the Château because it was one of the most beautiful places that we had seen in Hollywood, and it had a lot of the muted blues and greens that I was sort of inspired by for the color scheme of my video.

    I actually started with the footage from here and then started collecting my other footage for the video based on, I don’t know, the energy and the colors that I found from vintage clips of the Château back about 10 years ago. I used a collection of different clips, um, some of them were… some of them were vintage clips from the 50s and 60s of certain icons or just shots of things that I considered to be really beautiful and timeless, and I also spliced in different footage of, um, more modern clips of kids skateboarding, um, down in Santa Monica and also, you know, like there’s a modern day actress and… that I’ve put in the video and, um, I feel like all the choices I made were really… they were just personal choices, I was guided by my intuition and, um, I just picked things that I thought were beautiful. I liked the skaters because we used to skate in New York and, you know, it just reminds back of when things were pretty easy and simple. And it resonated with me because when I wrote the song for Video Games it was like a time when I was at my most… one of my happiest times and, um, I felt like the kids by the… the kids skating and the kids by the swimming pool, like, you really felt that they were just living for the moment. It was very young, um, and I miss that and I missed that at the time when I was, I don’t know, writing.

     

    It’s amazing to be back at the Château Marmont because it’s a place that’s inspired so many of my videos and influenced a lot of my visuals, and I’m excited to perform here, it’s so beautiful.

     

     

     

     

    La Boîte à questions

     

     

     

    BQ (Question Box): Could you show us how Lana Del Rey dances in a club?

    LDR (Lana Del rey): That would be… illegal.

     

    BQ: Video Games is my favorite song, can you please sing it for me?

    LDR: *sings* Swinging in the backyard, pull up in your fast car whistling my name.

     

    BQ: What can you do for the sake of the audience ratings?

    LDR:  *kneels in the chair and playfully lifts her skirt*

     

     

     

    ---

     

    I will definitely come here and pick more interviews to translate and/or transcribe tomorrow, but now I really need to get some sleep as it's almost 7am here. :awk:

    1

  10. Posted

    Awesome! Thanks for volunteering! :3

     

    We're just focusing on 2011 interviews at the moment (for the sake of my sanity as I compile and organize all of this), but you can definitely have at the El Pais interview when we get to 2012 :creep:

     

    It would be great if you took a stab at transcribing video/radio interviews not yet claimed, or typed up a print-only interview; you can see what's still available here! :)

     

    OK, so unless I got it all wrong, I think these two interviews -- Mulberry x Lana - Poolside @ Chateau Marmont + La Boîte à questions -- are still available.

    I could start by transcribing those, what do you think? :)

    0

  15. Posted

     

    Okay, let’s talk about feminism. What’s your take on feminism?

    To be honest, I don’t really have one. I have a great appreciation for our world’s history. I learn from my own mistakes, I learn from the mistakes we’ve made as a human race. But I think we’ve gotten to a good place as women and we’ll just keep naturally progressing. That’s kind of how I feel about it.

     

    this quote upset me because i think that's how a lot of women feel. we haven't gotten to this "good place" by natural progression but by women fighting for their and our rights in the past. if women don't keep standing up for themselves, we are not going to progress and she doesn't seem to care about that at all and just takes it for granted.

     

     

    I completely agree with this.

     

    I simply assumed that was her - inadequate, that's for sure - way of dodging the question, since so many celebrities (Lana included) have recently been targeted for "saying the wrong thing" (either out of ignorance, carelessness or misinterpretation) re: feminism, as well as other social and political issues. I can understand not wanting to be at the centre of yet another controversy.

     

    OR she could just be rather ignorant about the subject and not want to delve into something she doesn't know all that much about; OR she could just not be interested in it at all (which would be quite ironic in an autonomous, self-sufficient woman - but still entirely possible); OR she could have no interest in the role of feminist / social icon; OR an infinity of other reasons.

     

    My point being: it's impossible to know for sure what she meant or which are her real views on feminism (if she has any) based on this.

    1

  17. Posted

     

    @@slang - "The rest is just a demonstration that people can read the same things with different perspectives."

     

    I think that's the bottom line, really. No matter how many different viewpoints are expressed in this thread, there is no correct interpretation, only different opinions based on different personalities and experiences. If it's already difficult to be absolutely certain of what someone means when they say something to us directly, that becomes practically impossible when all we have is a written interview (no body language, intonation, etc.) already dependent on a third party's interpretation and way of phrasing / conveying what was said.

     

    It did make for a very interesting discussion, though.

    3

  23. Posted

    3. What's your current career? What's your dream job?

    I'm not doing anything at the moment. I used to want to be a psychiatrist, then I wanted to be a brain surgeon, then a plastic surgeon, then a serial killer, then a porn star then it went back to wanting to be a psychiatrist and I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter what I'm going to do professionally for I don't think a specific job is going to make me happy.

     

    Oh man, if this is true... I don't even know what to say except "OMFG are you me?!".

     

    Anyway, congrats @@lola. Really enjoyed reading your interview.

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