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Interview with Seattle 107.7 The End 03/10/2019

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She said California was made "for a side project 2,5 years ago" so it was not meant for NFR originally. Imagine sitting on that perfection of a song for so long. No wonder she is not excited about performing it it's fucking old.

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No wonder she is not excited about performing it it's fucking old.

 

instead she wants to perform new, current, hot-off-the-press songs like born to die, blue jeans, and summertime sadness


it's just the way i feel

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that date format had me thinking this was from March..... wtf lol

 

i need to hear the outtakes from this record


giphy.gif

if i fuck this model and she just bleached her asshole and i get bleach on my t-shirt, imma feel like an asshole

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Walt: It's Walt on 107.7 The End and I am joined by, right now by the lovely Lana Del Rey who's graced her presence here in the studio. Welcome!

Lana: Thank you so much. I'm in Seattle!

Walt: I know! And it's a little grey so we're kinda living up to a, what people expect.

Lana: Yup!

Walt: Just no rain.

Lana: Exactly.

Walt: So, uh, congratulations on the new record.

Lana: Thank you.

Walt: Norman F-ing Rockwell as we have to say here, safe radio land. Uh, explain the title to me.

Lana: Mmm, well [coughs a little] when I was working with Jack Antonoff in the studio, we, I think we maybe had about 4 songs in the can, and uh, I was writing Venice...Biatch [both laugh].

Walt: Right

Lana: And uh..

Walt: A 9 minute song by the way.

Lana: A 9 minute song, and uh, I threw a little line in there about "paint me happy in blue like Norman Rockwell", and the um, as it happened like my sister and I were taking a little weekend in Yosemite, we had a 8 hour drive and, was talking to her about Norman Rockwell we were listening to some documentaries as we were driving up and I kinda started thinking about um, like a play on his name as a title and kinda of a, like with a little bit of thought in...like where the American Dream stands so little bit of an exclamation point on my version of what I'm living in the middle of the [laughs] American Dream..

Walt: Yeah, well it's..

Lana: ..this year.

Walt: It's such a fantastic album title when you think about it because it, er, it's a phrase that you wouldn't actually put together but it actually puts a contemporary twist on what we think as Norman Rockwell.

Lana: Yeah, yeah, and I feel lucky that no one was like "who the F is she to be, like, using Norman's name", you know, like I mean I...[inhales]...it just kinda was, every now and then like a phrase or title just speaks to you and I thought I hope they don't mind if I just, you know..

Walt: Right. Has anybody from the estate reached out?

Lana: No. I think we reached out to them. And like, you know..

Walt: You guys cool with this?

Lana: [laughs] At the time it was so far so good I mean I definitely made sure to mention to them that I was really hoping the album ended up playing with alot of integrity..

Walt: Right.

Lana: But obviously that's, you know, a matter of perspective..

Walt: Right.

Lana: And, I don't know what I would think if someone like, called an album Lana Del F-ing Rey, but..

Walt: It's pretty cool!

Lana: It depends how good it was [laughs].

Walt: It's pretty cool. Alright so you mentioned you work with Jack Antonoff on this record.

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: How did that come about?

Lana: Um, I met Jack, every year I try and go to this like one big party that's before the Grammy's, it's the

Clive Davis party.

Walt: Sure.

Lana: So, I went on down to New York, and did that, and then he came up to my table and introduced himself and asked if we could have breakfast the next day and said he was really sure if we got in the studio we would [inhales] do something good and I told him I wasn't writing 'cause I was in the middle of like a really long winter tour, but I ended up meeting him and then the next day I had another day off and I went down to his studio in Brooklyn and um, I played him the one song I had written, which was Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have and he loved it and he played piano, and then, ah, we ended up, he had a chord progression like a four chord progression and we ended up writing the title track Norman. And ah, I went home and I thought: This is really different for me, like it's very easy..

Walt: Right.

Lana: And then, within six months I kinda knew what the whole record was gonna sound like and just kinda...unexpectedly felt like wow I'm doing another back to back album again.

Walt: Yeah.

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: But it felt like natural, he felt like he coaxed the best out of you.

Lana: [short pause] I mean, yes..

Walt: It seems like it!

Lana: To say the least, like especially at a time where...it's never any fun not to have anything in your bank to write..

Walt: Right.

Lana: And...but he actually, I was really surprised like he has a kinda sixties sensibility within him which I was, I wasn't sure if it was gonna lean too heavy towards psychebanger or whatever which I'm, you know it's fun but, I was more like writing long form stuff hence like Venice and..

Walt: This record feels so comfortable for you..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: It's got a very, kinda like a throwback seventies vibe a little bit..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: Very California Canyon-esque.

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: Is that who you are? Is that, uh, by design? Did you think about that consciously as you were creating this record?

Lana: It's alot of who I am. I, I kind of have alot of worlds going on at one time, um, but when I'm in L.A. my sister and I were in Laurel Canyon for a minute and so were a couple of other musicians and um, Jonathan Wilson, this artist and I we would always talk about doing this Laurel Canyon Revival night 'cause he, he did that for like ten years before he moved to Echo Park so, I guess it was kinda on my mind, um, and then that paired with, um, just like encouraging Jack not to go bigger with the production..

Walt: Right!

Lana: I think it ended up sounding alot more, ahh, casual than I thought and I, like I'm having fun with it on stage even though it means I'm not moving around as much so I think it was kinda like, it's really one of those meant to be things for me.

Walt: Well it's interesting 'cause I'm gonna jump around here because I had this planned out but now you just touched on something..

Lana: [laughs]

Walt: Um, one of the things I love about your music is that it is, it seems always honest and it's always who you are, you know, what your sound is and what your songs should sound like..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: Do you ever feel like, get in the trap of "oh well I need to do a song with a trap beat now" or use autotune or do whatever the fad of the day is.

Lana: I get a little nervous when my own sensibility swings so hard, you know like I'll find myself for like two years at a time listening only to trap music and so like I'll have, I'll want like really badly like a trap influence or whatever, um, and I'm kinda like, it really is a little un-nerving sometimes like how wide I feel like I could go..

Walt: Right.

Lana: like from Country to..

Walt: Totally get it.

Lana: to anything, so especially when I'm on stage and I'm in my like boots and I'm going from a song like Bartender to like a real hip-hop sampled song..

Walt: Right.

Lana: but, um...I mean..

Walt: So you've done a good job staying out of that trap.

Lana: Yeah, I try and like at least write, at least have the words be something that, and the melodies, be pretty authentic to like..

Walt: Have you ever done a song that you're like "this isn't for anybody else to hear but this is me doing a metal song" or something completely left field?

Lana: I mean so many times..

Walt: [laughs]

Lana: especially when I was writing for fun like in 2010 and 11, I'm* even know if I was writing for myself or for somebody else and some of the stuff I hear I'm like woofhoo girl, you're lucky, you're lucky you made it.

Walt: Bury that one.

Lana: [laughs]

Walt: You also worked with, uh, Zack Dawes on this record who I love his work with Mini Mansions, Last Shadow Puppets..

Lana: C'mon!

Walt: Alexandra Savior, c'mon!

Lana: That's my buddy.

Walt: He's, he's pretty awesome.

Lana: Yeah, him and his girlfriend are like one of the things that makes L.A. fun for me..

Walt: Really?

Lana: they don't live far and, um, I had a little side band with him, him and Miles Kane..

Walt: Oh, yeah?

Lana: and, uh, Loren who is the drummer now with Florence, um, so we were just kinda hangin' around when we all had a year off and he, he, yeah we did California together, that's a song on the record..

Walt: Right.

Lana: and, um, our little side band has like 11, talk about a different style I don't even know what I would call it, like Rockabilly, English Rockabilly..

Walt: [chuckling] English Rockabilly, sure.

Lana: Um, so he's really cool.

Walt: That's cool. You surround yourself with good people on this record.

Lana: Yeah, L.A.'s been fun.

Walt: 14 songs on this record and it clocks in well over an hour..

Lana: Oof! Well over.

Walt: So, when did you start working on this thing and did it just flow naturally I mean at some point were you like alright we have to stop 'cause we're at 10 songs or whatever we gotta..

Lana: Yeah, I wanted to stop at 11 and then I really, I had a song from 3 years ago called The Next Best American Record and I just thought, I just wanted it to be on the album but it was close to 6 minutes..

Walt: Right.

Lana: And, um, and then Zack's song California, we did that when we were working on our side project so that's probably, you know, two and a half years old but again I thought like, like at the time in that period, three -- two, three years ago I was kind of, I think I was kinda edging towards something a little more, um, singer songwriter-ish..

Walt: Right.

Lana: So, ah, yeah I think it was gonna be like 11, 12 and then, ah, ended up..

Walt: Was anything left behind?

Lana: Yes. Like there was some real big, um, like 60's Shangri-Las pop stuff kinda like the title track of my last album Lust For Life..

Walt: Sure, yeah.

Lana: Which I was trying to do a bit of a girl group sound. I thought it was either gonna go kinda like hip-hop girl group or like something yeah a little more acoustic, and in the end there were just more songs that were like that and I think the next album whatever that ends up being I think it'll still be more in this realm 'cause I'm having so much fun.

Walt: You've definitely tapped into something here and I think all the songs that are out of the entire 14 I think they all fit..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: I mean they all fit in this package.

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: You've also done alot of music videos for the songs on this record, is that visual component important to you?

Lana: Well, it's getting stranger and stranger to make videos I'll be honest, it's like I've been to Nevada with all the bikers, I was in a pool with crocodiles you know, been in a castle with tigers so actually my sister's a cool little director, Chuck, and uh, for 3 of the videos we just rented out a cool parking lot on Alameda and we did it on our, we shot some of it on our phones which was sort of like the looped videos for Mariners Apartment and Venice, um, so we have like a 15 minute version that those loops are from, that's gonna come out for Norman, Bartender, and Happiness Is A Butterfly, um, so I think when I'm with her like I feel definitely very casual and then when I think of like real big concepts I'm kinda like, is anyone, you know, gettin' tired of these? [laughs]

Walt: Right.

Lana: But I have fun, every time I'm on a video set I really, it's surreal I think to myself there's all these people here and..

Walt: I always loved reading the treatments that video directors would give you for a song like "okay now we're gonna have a little person with a mackerel beating themselves on the head" what do I have to do?

Lana: Poor Rich Lee, I'm the one giving him treatments I'm like "and then we're gonna be a, then I'm gonna be ghost on the Hollywood sign but I want the real sign" and he's like, oh, so expensive, please..

Walt: The budget is only what it is..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: That's fantastic, um, alright so let's talk about the cover of Doin' Time which when I first heard this song earlier this year I thought, alright this is such the right song for you..

Lana: Really?

Walt: and this is going to be the song of the summer and thank you for proving me right!

Lana: [laughs] Thank you.

Walt: Because it is a huge song that has got no, it's not losing any steam at all. How did this song come about?

Lana: Um, well John Janick who runs Interscope he's awesome, he called me and asked me if I thought I could, uh, record like a Sublime cover, this was like well after I was done with my album, um, but he said he needed it in a few days and he really wanted Andrew Watt to do it who I know from like around town but had never worked with. So, it was just for a documentary, 'cause I think Interscope's, they're putting out that doc, um, so I said sure and just, ah, went up to Andrew's house but I definitely had it in the back of my mind that like this could go one way or another, I love Sublime, um, so yeah I ended up doing the cover and, uh, I think before it was out, um, we were talking earlier about David Kahne but I got a email from my first producer David Kahne from when I was twenty, he made my first album that came out in like 2000 and 8, 7 maybe..

Walt: Right.

Lana: And, um, all he said was, you know "I hope you ended up doing it, I really wanted you to do it and so did, um, Bradley's former wife" and stuff, so I thought..

Walt: Wow!

Lana: And I said, "Really? And you still have my email this is crazy", um..

Walt: You haven't changed your email in all those years!

Lana: No, so really came full circle in that way and, uh, and also I think it's, first of all I think any time anything of mine gets on the radio is really crazy, you know, and uh, and it's funny that this one is, like it could almost be called Summertime, you know..

Walt: Right! Well I've always thought of the song, it's Summertime, it's the Summertime song from Sublime..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: But the timing was perfect on it, I thought, and your treatment of it, it's true enough to the original but yet it has your flavor, your flair and your sound, it..

Lana: Yeah, some strings..

Walt: so I think it worked.

Lana: Thank you.

Walt: Yeah, it worked so well, um, so you've, you have wild success touring you've been touring for many years and you do these big shows..

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: Um, which do you prefer do you prefer to be creating in the studio or do you like performing live?

Lana: Once I get in the groove of being live I'm super happy but I need to like mix it up so like we did an arena in Vancouver but when we do the midwest it's gonna be like 1,500 capacity bars and theatres and stuff..

Walt: Right.

Lana: So I think that balances it out 'cause I still need ta keep my feet on the ground and like be in the bus and not just fly in on the day of..

Walt: Flying is hard. Flying gigs are tough!

Lana: I'm not a big flier, so, yeah, um..

Walt: I'm with ya.

Lana: But being in the studio is just, I mean, I feel super spoiled too because Jack will come to town for a week and I just get to go not more than two miles away and..it's like sometimes we don't even record we just kinda chat..

Walt: Right.

Lana: and the next day we'll maybe get something..

Walt: It's all setting it up for when you do push play on the computer.

Lana: Yeah.

Walt: So tonight you're playing the WaMu theatre, what can we expect from the show tonight?

Lana: Uh, it's gonna be more of a folky start, I'mma do a little Joni Mitchell cover which I don't usually do covers at the shows, do a song called For Free and, uh, but the next time you hear it I'm gonna have my girls with me Zella Day and Weyes Blood they're coming to..

Walt: Love Zella!

Lana: Yeah! She's like, they're very inspiring to me, um, they're gonna come to the Bowl..

Walt: 'kay.

Lana: So...I'm gonna do that and then, you know I think my show's running at about like an hour and a half [laughs]..

Walt: Wow! Great.

Lana: I sound like a disc jockey, I'm like our show..

Walt: Ah, it's fine, it's fine, take over my job when I'm done. Perfect.

Lana: [laughs]

Walt: What's the plan for next year, the record just came out so I'm sure you're gonna be supporting this for a while yeah..

Lana: Yeah, we're going to the midwest, nobody knows but we are, in November..

Walt: Shhh..

Lana: So..[laughs]

Walt: [laughs]

Lana: See you in Des Moines, please come down [laughs] you know, Kansas, Oklahoma, um, and ah, yeah and then we're gonna do Europe in February so yeah alot of small shows and, um, still just kind of pluggin' away at..

Walt: Yeah.

Lans: whatever the next new sound is [laughs]..

Walt: Well I'm super excited to get a chance to meet you..

Lana: Yeah, thank you.

Walt: ..talk with you and hear this record and where your music is going I think it's fantastic.

Lana: Thank you so much.

Walt: Lana, thank you for spinning some time with us here on 107.7 the End.

Lana: Absolutely.

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