LANA DEL REY INTERVIEWED FOR NYLON ESPAÑOL FALL/WINTER ISSUE 2015
Paris, the city of light, the city of fashion; the one who saw the birth of Dumas, Verne, Proust, Piaf and Bardot, and was warm with Buñuel, Wilde, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, it welcomed us to make one of the biggest and long awaited productions from Nylon Español.
This trip to Paris wasn't a cliché scene from a Hollywood movie, neither a midnight walk a la Woody Allen. We got to Paris on a countdown to make our job, five covers with Lana Del Rey.
There's a perspective of Paris for everyone; there's the fashion world, the gastronomy, the culture and literature. But on this occassion we weren't there as tourists; we had nine days to arrange everything. As a reality show, the Nylon Español crew had just a few hours to make what would be the most important number on our editorial schedule. The style team, leaded by Greta Forte, went on a hurry through fashion boutiques, between Champs-Élysées through Le Marais to have the complete outfits for Lana. While Esteban Calderón, photography director, and I, organized everything carefully for the shooting. The Eiffel Tower lights illuminated our hurried steps from Arc de Triomphe to Rue Galilée, where the exorbitant amount of clothing was kept.
Back on April, this year, I began the calling process and meetings with the press team of Lana Del Rey; 145 emails later, we had a deal. Her songs are haunting and beautiful, but they go deeper on desire and freedom, they represent femininity and women's sexuality.
They ninth day was here, the end of arrangements. On midnight we were on the way to Le Bal Studio. We were accompanied by a team of bodyguards taking care of diamonds, just as a team of stylists and a glam team. In the studio, the equipment was put together on set, waiting for Del Rey to arrive. Punctually, Lizzy Grant arrived, the person she is off-stage. With a smile and open arms, she introduced herself to the whole team.
Her professionalism and humble personality allowed us to talk and laugh with her for more than twelve hours, seven changes and fifteen outfits: a photoshoot without antecedents on her career.
Honeymoon is your fourth body of work, how do you define your evolution?
When I started my first album, Born To Die, I had already several years of experience on song writing. But when Video Games was finally played on the radio, in that moment, I knew my record was known. Before this one, I had already written two albums, but writing Born To Die was similar to the way I had fun while documenting my life and my fears, as well as my fantasies. After the release of Born To Die, I started working on more material as nine songs that I originally thought they were for a new album, but due to other things, they became part of the deluxe re-packaging of Born To Die, Paradise. It felt like a grounded notion of what I was looking for the feeling and production behind Born To Die. I especially loved the songs Ride and Cola. Then I toured for a while and while I was on the road, I began thinking about the kind of songs I wanted to sing on stage: something a lot more organic and with guitars on it. That's how I wrote songs with more acoustic sounds and a touch of psychodelia, that became later my album Ultraviolence. After I wrote this album, I sent it to Dan Auerbach because I wanted him to help me with the production, then we spent another four months on the mixing. The mixing can be a really exhausting process, so I began writing new songs in my home again between sessions. Finally, I came back to the studio with Rick Nowels. Honeymoon was similar to when I began writing Ultraviolence after Paradise, because I didn't feel any pressure while doing it. It felt very natural but also very emotional, I was writing songs like Terrence Loves You, Honeymoon and God Knows I Tried, but also had fun with songs like Freak and Art Deco.
Tell us more about the process of recording Honeymoon
I wrote the biggest part of the record during fall, winter and spring, and it was a beautiful process because I did it with one of my best friends, Rick. My daily activities consisted on swimming on the beach and writing. The album started very easily and fun with songs like Music to Watch Boys To, Honeymoon and Terrence Loves You, and finally, it went through more modern and sexy songs like Freak and Art Deco. But the line that goes through the record has a lot of jazz influence.
What personal trait did you add to this recording?
I guess that you always realize a lot about where you are in your life while you're writing a record. I realized that I didn't fully understand, but I knew I had a great potential to see life as a more fun and beautiful experience.
Tropico is a short film you did with Shaun Ross, written by you. How does it feel to go into the visual representation of your music? Are you doing something similar with Honeymoon?
Yes, I like what I've done with Honeymoon until now. And yes, I have a visual concept that goes through this record, but it's more in terms of cameras I have used and the velocity in which I record certain stuff. Tropico is one of my favorite proyects I've done and was really hard to make considering the lenght of it and the number of settings. With Honeymoon, I think High By The Beach was a fun and beautiful video at the same time. And I think that the video for Music to Watch Boys To highlights the cool and touching part of the song, things that may have been overlooked. I also love the continuity of some themes that run in and out of the art, starting with the album cover art and the fact that I'm posing on a Starline Tours tourist bus, to the fact that there's presence of telescopes in the High By The Beach video.
Did you add something different to Honeymoon?
I guess that records always have a way to surprise you. I always start the process of making a record, knowing where I'm going, but finally, as songs are being conceived, you realize that the concept can be something completely different to what you had originally contemplated. Honeymoon started with a lot if Jazz implementation, but it grew to be something a lot more grounded and minimalistic.
Aside of your artistic evolution, how has been your personal evolution?
I feel that it's been the opposite to an evolution, I feel like it has been more of a deconstruction. My personal life has been through different transitions, on this moment, my life is on a stripped place, where I only have basic daily needs, I'm working on myself and where I want to go from here.
Lana Del Rey as an artist has reached many different types of public, regardless of gender and age of these. How do you find the balance between so many publics and what you deliver?
I think that if you stay true and honest to your sound, then you'll reach the public you're supposed to reach. I started doing little shows on New York City, and I feel like that the few unusual people I met there, at that informal folk scene, were my public, and I was theirs. While my record got bigger through the years, I ended up performing to a more younger public. But I feel like all types of people come to my shows.
Fashion and music: let's talk about your personal style and how this has influenced your music.
When I'm home for a long time, I have more time to go shopping and organize everything. I have a very casual life when I'm off-stage. I love vintage leather, pastel blue denim, white blouses and blue cardigans. I've been through different fases in my life in which ones, I've appreciated fashion more than on anothers. For the moment, I'd say I'm very interested. In general, I'd say that my personal style is introspective, I guess it's the reflection of more contemplative and raw songs like the Ultraviolence ones.
How much do you incorporate your own stories to your music?
I'd say that except for one or two songs, my personal life is always reflected on my music, it's easier to write about what it's closer to you and what you want, it's also is more gratifying despite the consequences of it.
You've done collaborations with other artists, ones that are out of the pop world, are you interested on giving a twist to your music?
I see myself working with people I admire, until now, I've had the opportunity to go on tour with Father John Misty, and recently, I made a song with Abel (The Weeknd). There's people I'd like to work with on my next album. In terms of sound, I really think it's gonna have a variety of different sounds.
In terms of women that have achieved challenges on the industry, what are your thoughts on the timing of these achievements?
I don't necessarily listen to women who are considered to have broke gender parameters. I listen to Billie Holiday, who is someone really important to me, who achieved a lot of things, just as Joan Baez.
Your fans are very aware of every step you take in your career. The internet allows them to access to information about whatever you're doing, what do you think about this?
I don't know, I think a big part of my career happens through the internet, except from my shows and albums. But with that said, I'm not someone who spends a lot of time online.
During the shoot, we were talking about goals and challenges, and the importance to keep fighting, tell us more.
Dreaming is just as important as any mantra about fighting for your dreams, there's books I love that talk about dreams as a science, and the fact that it's impossible to close the gap in between where you are and where you want to be without dreaming. My favorite principle when it's about dreaming is "be true to yourself".
You have fans outside the US, are you conscious about your iberoamerican and latin public?
I have a connection with fans on Latin America and Spain, maybe it is because of the passion and devotion I feel when I'm there, or maybe because of my deep roots with faith. When I'm in Mexico, or even in Barcelona and Madrid, I feel more understood and I feel that my music is appreciated for exactly what it is.
How do you feel about your music transcending borders?
I'm not sure about how it transcended borders, but I'm sure it has transcended the way in which I thought it would. I think all of this converges in what we were talking about dreaming. The more honest you are to yourself and the harder you dream, the more you'll have the opportunity for your art to travel further away.
omg I love the production on Doggy Style, she has a few bops, I thought she had a thread already... I showed the mv for Deepthroat to all my friends and they were shook!
not really relevant but today Chimera hit me once again on the way back home, the sky was cloudy and it was windy and I was just walking listening to it, looking at the buildings and the wind blowing my hair it's really her best song (with Underwater) ugh I love her so much, she's severely underrated she needs to make it big
i've been working on some more neil edits, i've only made one Lana edit that I like so far, but I will be making more, I am currently more satisfied with what I have achieved, my previous Neil edits were such disasters but I think these are a lil better.
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