longtimeman

The Austrian newspaper "Kronen Zeitung" (called "Krone") just published an, in my opinion, quite good interview with Lana.
Source
 
I did a quick translation again. I hope there aren't too many mistakes in it.
 
TRANSLATION:
 
 
 

"Music to watch boys" doesn't really make sense in English - it sounds like you're saying that the music is watching the boys. The 'to' at the end is a construction that tells what you're doing while you're watching boys - meaning, listening to this music.
 
ETA: Or, if you want to stretch the phrase out into a sentence, it would be something like: "This is the music that has been made especially to be listened to, while you are sitting on your banana lounge, watching the boys (or girls, or whatever it is you enjoy looking at)."

She encapsulated her LDR persona at the end of the recent BBC interview: "Live in your own inner world and manifest that outwardly"

I agree with some of this writer's points. There's a lot of romanticism throughout LDR's body of work. Plus, another of her influences, the Beatnik movement, is about hedonism, pessimism and existential crisis. One cannot deny that.

That's what I mean. Too many journalists think that they're explaining something by saying that she has a persona, or has created a persona, and then they don't bother to go into detail as to what that persona is, or what it means for Lana's art. Nobody takes her at her word that Lana and Lizzy are the same, even though it's clear that there's a logical progression from her visual and musical 'persona' that goes all the way back to her earliest recordings that we have, right through to now. The idea that Lizzy was a caterpillar and Lana is a butterfly is one of the lies that the media sells, because it's the simplest narrative to trace about her, and people can't seem to imagine any story that is different to the hundreds of movies we've seen either about how the innocent starlet comes from a small town and is exploited by the big star making machine or, on the other hand, of the careerist artist who will step on anyone and do anything to get to the top. I haven't seen anybody bother to seriously consider what it means for her to change the line of the old song to "Jim told me that he hit me and it felt like a kiss", or to write a song called "I fucked my way up to the top", and then drop the claim that she had a long relationship/affair with someone in the industry. 
 
I agree with you 100% that Lana is just a name to attach to whatever cause you happen to be pushing, and we would not be reading or bothering about any of these articles if they weren't built around (shallow) discussions of Lana. Sex sells in more ways than one.

There's something about Lana that makes writers want to pontificate, usually without any consideration of her as an artist, which is the only annoying thing. I'd love it if somebody actually tried to analyse her approach to persona (not what they think 'persona' means), and the unusual moral outlook of her songs and videos. Linking her to a nonsensical term like 'late-stage capitalism'* isn't doing anybody any favours.
 
*
 

There is no such thing as a fake fan. We all like things because we think they're cool, or they make us happy, or they're associated with something that makes us feel good. Sometimes I think that Lana is not for young girls, but then I remember what I was listening to when I was twelve years old, and I have to let it go. Lana's for anyone who likes her or likes her clothes or whatever. None of us loses anything as a fan if somebody else likes her for what we think is the wrong reason.
 
It's not the young teens that are the problem, it's journalists exploiting and degrading Lana to bolster some point they want to make.

There is no such thing as a fake fan. We all like things because we think they're cool, or they make us happy, or they're associated with something that makes us feel good. Sometimes I think that Lana is not for young girls, but then I remember what I was listening to when I was twelve years old, and I have to let it go. Lana's for anyone who likes her or likes her clothes or whatever. None of us loses anything as a fan if somebody else likes her for what we think is the wrong reason.
 
It's not the young teens that are the problem, it's journalists exploiting and degrading Lana to bolster some point they want to make.

That's what I mean. Too many journalists think that they're explaining something by saying that she has a persona, or has created a persona, and then they don't bother to go into detail as to what that persona is, or what it means for Lana's art. Nobody takes her at her word that Lana and Lizzy are the same, even though it's clear that there's a logical progression from her visual and musical 'persona' that goes all the way back to her earliest recordings that we have, right through to now. The idea that Lizzy was a caterpillar and Lana is a butterfly is one of the lies that the media sells, because it's the simplest narrative to trace about her, and people can't seem to imagine any story that is different to the hundreds of movies we've seen either about how the innocent starlet comes from a small town and is exploited by the big star making machine or, on the other hand, of the careerist artist who will step on anyone and do anything to get to the top. I haven't seen anybody bother to seriously consider what it means for her to change the line of the old song to "Jim told me that he hit me and it felt like a kiss", or to write a song called "I fucked my way up to the top", and then drop the claim that she had a long relationship/affair with someone in the industry. 
 
I agree with you 100% that Lana is just a name to attach to whatever cause you happen to be pushing, and we would not be reading or bothering about any of these articles if they weren't built around (shallow) discussions of Lana. Sex sells in more ways than one.

There is no such thing as a fake fan. We all like things because we think they're cool, or they make us happy, or they're associated with something that makes us feel good. Sometimes I think that Lana is not for young girls, but then I remember what I was listening to when I was twelve years old, and I have to let it go. Lana's for anyone who likes her or likes her clothes or whatever. None of us loses anything as a fan if somebody else likes her for what we think is the wrong reason.
 
It's not the young teens that are the problem, it's journalists exploiting and degrading Lana to bolster some point they want to make.

This is so self indulgent and flowery and ultimately meaningless, but there's something funny about the way people who like Lana relate to Lana.  There are stans who get really annoyed about young women who feel a connection to her lyrics, calling them tumblr fakes and try hards, etc, but rail against music outlets who call Lana herself a fake try hard. That's not related to this at all but it made me think of that. Just that idea of "The only person who's allowed to be disillusioned is Lana! She's the only one who I'm comfortable with having these specific feelings and damn these girls for twisting her message for their attention seeking fantasies. I think Lana is deep and little girls  can't be deep."
 
Not that Lana fans are the only ones guilty of this  because marina fans are even worse

While I agree with you I can't stop thinking she's much more aware of the aesthetics she's chosen to portray in her music than we imagine. This particular quote it's pretty interesting:   "There is a whole new genre that nobody is observing. The American Dream and American Psycho are starting to represent the same thing. Cinema and music and life are starting to merge. Death is art. We've played pop music out. That wholesome dream is dead (...)I'm talking about epic, knocked-down, dragged-out love stories in song. That's what I'm heading towards. I want to destroy lives with my music and to understand the glamour of danger. Without Scarface would there be half the gangsters there are out there now?"    For me this quote totally captures her whole persona and what she's trying to achieve in her songs perfectly. It just can't be all that unintentional, you see - or at least that's what I want to believe.

She doesn't conceive of it as a "persona" but a name change. I remember her recent interviews having her say it's not an "act" that she gets into in order to entertain but more related to how she visually/sonically sees herself. The other thing I remember her saying (or at least myself interpreting) is that LDR and Lizzy Grant are one; they have the same personality/character. Maybe the video styles of the LG and LDR eras differ, but their difference could be owing to not having the resources to tell stories like the LDR-era ones can.
 
I think the real issue with "thought pieces" and LDR is one of exploitation. They are jacking her persona (which isn't a persona) and using it to promote their opinion about what's wrong with the world, or what particular problems the world has and that they are afraid of. It is exactly the same process as LDR wearing some recognized brand of clothing and having the clothing manufacturer use that to sell their clothes. Hence, LDR wears cut off jeans and Hollywood caps to prevent that. Unfortunately, she can't do the same kind of thing with the personality/character she has.
 

You haven't had the brain implant yet?

Thanks for the link. Yet another piece that could be summed up as 'Here is an essay about my world view, which mentions someone famous to get more clicks'.

Think Piece O'Clock from Salon/AlterNet. 
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/08/why_lana_del_ray_is_the_perfect_artist_for_an_america_in_decline_partner/

Well you can obviously do whatever you want, I don't mind. I just wish there was a better thing to make me feel better about it than to tell myself 'she was asking for it'.

You haven't had the brain implant yet?

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.
 
 
 

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.
 
 
 

@@longtimeman Thank you so much for the transcription!  . I wonder how UV used to sound before she met Dan  , well judging by the 'Demo-Radio Mix' version of West Coast probably we have an idea.

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.
 
 
 

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.
 
 
 

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.
 
 
 

This is a fairly rough transcript but I've tried to be as accurate to the meaning of the questions and answers as possible. If I've made any substantial mistakes, please let me know.