Lana covers Les Inrocks

[M.I.A. 224]

Thank you!

 

I need the full translation, this interview seems interesting :cry:

Would anyone doing it ?

[Myriam 557]

Thank you!

 

I need the full translation, this interview seems interesting :cry:

Would anyone doing it ?

 

I don't know, I would give it a try but I'm pretty sure it'd turn out as a huge mess lol

[M.I.A. 224]

I don't know, I would give it a try but I'm pretty sure it'd turn out as a huge mess lol

 

just try it !

 

What did she exactly said about "The master key system" ? Very interesting book!

[Quentin 552]

I don't think that will be a good idea to translate a translation, plus my english isn't that good but we can try to resume all of her answers if you want. About the book she said "This is a book that i constantly need to get back in touch with my creativity".

[Myriam 557]

I don't think that will be a good idea to translate a translation, plus my english isn't that good but we can try to resume all of her answers if you want. About the book she said "This is a book that i constantly need to get in touch with my creativity".

I'm actually trying to translate the whole thing rn, but don't expect much my english isn't that good either.

 

And, is it just me or is the introduction a bit too rude?

[Sitar 22,173]

Kill Kill and Mermaid Motel are some of the better-produced songs from AKA, though...

 

I am interested to hear new versions, though.

[Myriam 557]

TRANSLATION

 

Please ignore any cringe worthy sentences (and I'm sure there's many) but oh shit at least I tried...

 

 

In the past 18 months, we have said everything, wrote everything, read everything and thought about everything concerning Lana Del Rey. .

And just for the sake of saying a bit more, let us add that we noticed a series of 'funny' events that's been happening to her:

In 2012, Lana Del Rey announced 2 times that she was going to stop her music career when in fact she didn’t. And her first album was released 2 times. The first time, in the beginning of the year, and entitled Born To Die. But she could have just called it “We Only Die Twice” (I really don’t understand what’s that about though lol).

It’s re-released today as a version called “The Paradise Edition” with 8 dazzling, beautifully voluptuous and lyrical new tracks wrapped in the strings of a symphonic orchestra - just like a tragic and delicate meeting between Roy Orbison and Alison Goldfrapp in a worn out Old Hollywood motel .

 

Even if we are unconsciously influenced by so much prejudice: let us admit that we were disappointed by the first version of Born To Die that reappears today as the purgatory Paradise Edition.

In one of the new tracks, Lana Del Rey sings “Elvis is my daddy, Marilyn’s my mother”. An ultimate provocation as she is dreaming of being the daughter of the two biggest myths of the pop era. And it’s not completely out of the blue. Lana Del Rey has a lot in common with her so called “daddy”. She looks like Priscilla Beaulieu, Elvis’ fiancée. And we can almost imagine her career as a reversed reflection of Elvis’ (a lanamorphosis?).

In the mid 50s, Elvis shocked strict America with his sensual gipsy look and his long ghetto capes. In 2011-2012, Lana Del Rey angers everyone (at least those who consider pop music solely as an artistic discipline) with her trashy dolls masks and her presumed and assumed absence of authenticity.

The myth of Elvis had ended and the good music had stopped once he decided to start filming movies in chains. As for Lana Del Rey, the opposite has happened: fascinating when we discovered her videos, she wasn’t very well received when her music came out. A simple CD, with a few warmed tracks, and out-of-date production, and the general impression that the music and the sound were less interesting and not as important as the visuals.

To sum things up: When we are craving Lana Del Rey, we go watch her videos rather than listen to her album.

 

She has, nonetheless, warned us with her first debut “Video Games” that her music is largely based on aesthetics, imagery and decadent Hollywood clichés. Just like in a David Lynch movie, the disturbed reinvention of anonymous pop-jazz singer Lizzy Grant resists to all the interpretations.

But it’s like everyone’s trying to find her new flaws, because she has sold albums. Born To Die is a commercial success.

 

A few months ago, Lana Del Rey became a new fighter in the world of commercialized pop music.

A few weeks ago, she was in Paris at “Salon de l’auto” for the presentation of the new Jaguar. She’s also the new face of H&M.

 

Do you have a clear view of what those past 12 months were like? Or is it just a big blurr?

I remember this ritual: going to sleep every night listening to the same songs, watching the same movies. I can also remember the rare moments where I would go back home to stay with my family.

In between those precious moments, the only thing recall is a frenzy and running errands. But I wanted it to be this way, I wanted to be involved in anything that concerned me, even if it’s just a small video for the cover of Vogue… This kind of projects makes me want to sink back in my imagination and that’s where I’m happiest. I’m very comfortable when I’m living in my own mind, my own inside world. The rest, I just have to live with it.

 

Does it hurt? The rest of it?

No, not at all. It’s just that I feel better here (points to her head)… I’ve always been like this, since I was very young, I’ve always been a loner, an introvert. At the age of 7, I began to redirect these thoughts to poems and short stories.

But I got really lucky was when I discovered philosophy, in school, when I was 14- an electif class that introduced me to my real passion and lead me to pursue my studies in metaphysics.

I used to adore English literature, but very quickly, literature was not enough to answer the huge questions.

I never stopped reading from authors like Nabokov and Ginsberg, though, the first ones that gave me the impression that you can actually paint so many images with words. I loved the idea of literary movements, and the existence of spiritual communities like in the times of Sartre and Camus. It seemed so distant and European.

 

Did you feel alone and isolated on the countryside of New York?

I used to dream about being a part of a spiritual community, I have searched for those people for so long. But I was excluded at school. Those friends I was seeking, I only found them with time, recently… People like my director Anthony Mandler or the composer Daniel Heath, who only work on music for movies but accepted to work with me.

 

Do you still read as much as you used to?

I can’t seem to stay focused on a book I haven’t read before. I sometimes listen to audio books, but otherwise, whether it’s with literature or music I have a tendency of constantly returning to a bunch of classics. The Master Key System by Charles Haanel is a book that I constantly need to get in touch with my creativity.

All those books have once helped me and I am convinced that they will help me each time: what once worked will always work!

And it’s the same thing for movies, I know I can count on the Godfather, Virgin Suicide, Scarface, American Beauty.. .

 

Do you count on these movies to cheer you up?

They are not the most joyful, but there’s so much beauty in them. And indeed, they help me get back on track… Same thing with music, I always go back to Nevermind – Niravana, it is without a doubt the only album. The rest is a list of 50 songs that I torture my entourage with, because I can literally live while listening to the same ones (she turns on her iTunes): Eagles, Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Chris Isaak, Bruce Springsteen…

 

The Elvis song, it’s Edge Of Reality. Is that where you live?

Yes, that’s very true.

 

Were you faced this year, with strategic decisions you had to make but perhaps weren’t prepared for?

These decisions were derisory compared to the real choices I had to make in my life… They’re nothing in front of what I had to confront before. They don’t matter when I had to see people helplessly fall and die. The little troubles related to music are ridiculous: if I say yes, then it’s yes. If I say no, it’s no. Where’s the problem?

It doesn’t matter if the world hates me for stopping or proceeding my music career: all of this is not that big of a deal.

 

Where does this “distance” come from? This coldness?

For a very long time, I lived fully and dangerously… That’s why I would have preferred it if people didn’t attack me this violently. But I won’t be a crybaby about it. A lot of my friends are dead: it allows me put in perspective this bad chronicle. Even if it’s not fair for a music that’s so beautiful, that I listen to permanently, that I absolutely love- mostly sonically.

I’ve always made songs for my own pleasure, I used to be the only one that listened to them. They’re like the soundtrack of my life.

 

Born To Die is being re-released with 8 new tracks that totally rebalance it. However, it was rumored that you quit music?

I actually returned to the studios in New York just after Born To Die was out. Without any pressure, just because I didn’t know what to do with my days.

Each time I had a free weekend in Los Angeles, I used to go to a studio in Santa Monica, very influenced by the Pacific. Therefore, I had worked very slowly, for 7 or 8 months.

Some songs like Bel Air, that I love, came to me very quickly, naturally…

I had then started to compose for films, at home, away from everything, it opened new possibilities for me, away from the scenes.

During 10 years of my life, I’d been like that; erased, recluse, and I find this again in writing for cinema.

 

Concretely speaking, how do you write for cinema?

I’ll show you, it’ll be a lot easier.

I start with an acapella that I recored, alone at home, on my computer, on GarageBand, and then I let my arranger Daniel Heath listen to it (she lets us listen to a few minutes of a song that’s still in working: an acappella melody of an unbelievable purety. Her voices constantly changes ranges with a dazzling beauty. Her song, even if still ‘naked’, carries the track of the chords and arrangements.)

That’s what I give him, and I already start evoking which instruments and sounds we should add to it.

And then, that’s what he offers (we find the same song, but enhanced with symphonic chords and opulent piano arrangements; exactly what the first version was suggesting. It’s very astounding: you have the impression that the musical chords were already on the first naked acapella, when in fact they weren’t!)

My songs have a lot of information, even at a primary stage. And Daniel knows exactly how to translate my ideas.

 

Do you always think about the chords when you’re composing?

They are fundamental to me, I hear them in my head while I’m writing.

Chords and voice: that’s where I start. I listen to a lot of movies’ soundtracks, it’s in my DNA, like those of Giorgio Moroder or Thomas Newman…

Miraculously, even if I’m not a big musician, I always seem to acquire from my team what I had in mind. I explain everything in the smallest details and they understand the ambiance, the mood, the color that I’m searching for.

In Bel Air, I wanted the sound of children’s laughter in the park, but also rain: it symbolized the end of summer, the death of love, the collision of two worlds…

I adore the studio, that’s where I’m most meticulous and joyful. I would have loved to know more about the techniques because I rely on a sound engineer that frisks around with all these mysterious buttons.

Being independent in the middle of the night would be great. But I would miss team work.

 

The strength of these new songs lies in their vibes and ambiances. Unlike these of the album, you are not imposing hip hop beats that almost ruin them.

It’s a natural progress, I’m immersing into a more sixties ambiance, more Americana, more peaceful… I don’t feel like sending my songs to producers so they can add more beats to them … I want to keep them natural.

For example, I’ve never been pleased with the production on the album version of This Is What Makes Us Girls- but it’s the only one I’d work on again If I had the choice.

According to me, there’s clearly 2 albums on this new edition of Born To Die- the 8 new tracks form a new album that reflects what I am today. It’s always me, but without any makeup on.

 

In New York, your life seemed to be controlled by rituals. Do you have any new ones in Los Angeles?

I spend my life in my car. People in LA go to sleep early, and so the highway is mine, at night…

I go to Sunset Boulevard at around 2 in the morning, I go down towards the ocean, I take a walk and then I return.

In the morning, I get up early, I read the newspaper while drinking coffee and then I call my little brother and sister, everyday at the same exact time.

I depend on my rituals, they’re necessary when everything else fades away.

I also have rituals when I go visit my father in Florida. We go fishing, sailing in the Everglades. And then there’s walks in the Laurel Canyon, behind LA, still fluttering with the ghosts of the 60s. I can really feel the vibrations eversince I had my old convertible, the tragedy, the darkness…

 

Do ritual accompany your singing too?

I sing all the time. In front of my computer, or with my boyfriend (she starts singing an a cappella melody she had just written – Goosebumps)…

As there’s less production on the new songs, you can hear my voice better, the texture of it.

Maybe I’m taking less risks, but it’s a chant that says “I don’t fucking care anymore, I do whatever I want!”. A lot of the songs were created out of this free-style, like Body Electric, Summertime Sadness and Cola.

My music is very influenced by movies and cinema and it was only reasonable that I’d end up working with Hollywood musicians. They’re my rock.

 

Among these new songs, you chose to revive Yayo, one of the songs of your 2010 album under the name of Lizzy Grant. Will this album ever be re-released?

Like I did for Yayo, I would like to redo certain songs like Kill Kill and Mermaid Motel. They mean a lot to me, they are the most autobiographical out of all the songs, my sprees to Coney Island …

But I don’t like their production, I can’t re-release them as they are. I recorded them 6 years ago, an eternity… Yayo was a fundamental moment in my life, a trigger, my first video.

 

Did your parents support you in the beginning?

They used to be hippies, music was very present at home. And my father is a songwriter- for more country things. My mom sings in our church choir, where I used to sing - very nervously but with pleasure.

They were always behind me, even before the music, when I used to get in trouble.

I don’t drink anymore, but I used to drink a lot.

Many people have helped me 10 years ago, and that’s why I am so involved in helping people who want to get sober. Day and night, I visit centers with people recovering from alcohol addiction, like I was when I was 15 or 16. I am alive. I take advantage of every second of peace, every second of blare, every second of meditation, every second of company… I am so thankful to be alive. Every morning, I am thankful.

 

 

 

[TrailerParkDarling 5,679]

" A lot of my friends are dead" :/

[IamThatGirlLily 531]

So yeah, I did a translation of the interview too, it's not as good as Myriiiam's, but I took me 2 hours so here you go anyway

 

 

 

 

Do you have a clear view from the last 12 months or is it all dazed and confused?

 

LDR – I'm reminiscent of this ritual: sleeping each night while listening to the same songs, watching the same movies. I also remember those rare moments where I could take a pause, going back home and be with my family. In between those precious moments all I can recall is wildness and being on the run. But I wanted it to be that way, being involved in everything I do or take part, from the tiniest video to the cover of Vogue Australia... Those are the kind of projects that push me into my imagination and this is where I'm the happiest. I'm happy and well when I live in my mind, in my own world. All the rest, I just live with it.

 

What about all the rest, does it hurt?

 

No, no at all, I'm just better in here (knock on head)... It's been like that for a long time, since I'm was little girl. I have always been on my own, I've always been a loner, an introvert. I started to turn my ideas into novels and poems when I was 7. My biggest luxury was to learning about philosophy in school at 14 – an optional course, it was my first real passion that led me later to study metaphysics. I adored English as well but it became quickly insufficient to answer all my questions. Though, I have never stopped reading authors such as Nobokov or Ginsberg, the first people that gave me the impression of painting wild landscapes with simple words. I loved the idea of cultural/literary movements – being in a community like it existed for Sartre or Camus. It seemed so long ago, so European.

 

Because you felt lonely, isolated, in your upper New York countryside?

 

I really wanted to belong to a community of people who have the same mind, I kept looking for these people for a long time, I was ostracised at school. Those friends I was looking for I found them as time went by, recently actually... People like video producer Antony Mandler or composer Daniel Heath whom only work on movie scores but has agreed to work/compose with me.

 

Do you read as much as you used to?

 

I can't concentration on a new book I haven't already read. Sometimes I listen to audio books but other than that whether it's music wise or literary wise, I have a tendency of going back to a handful of classics. Charles Haanel's The Master Hey System is one of them, I constantly need it so I can keep in touch with my creativity. I have the certainty that all these books that helped me once, will still be helpful in the future: what worked once will work twice!

Same for the movies, I know i can count on The Godfather, Virgin Suicides, Scarface, American Beauty...

 

Do you rely on these movies to cheer you up?

 

These aren't the lightest, happiest one but they hold beauty in them. And really, they help me to cheer up (laugh).... It's the same for the music, I keep listening to Nevermind from Nirvana - always, it' the only album - the rest is made of a list 50 songs with which I drive my people crazy. Honestly I can live whistle only listening to the same damn songs (she turns on her iTunes): Eagles, Beach Boys, Elvis, Chris Isaak, Bruce Springsteen...

 

The Elvis' song is Edges of Reality, is it where you live?

 

Yes, exactly!

 

Did you have to take strategical decisions to which you weren't prepared?

 

Those decisions you're talking about are meaningless compared to the real decisions I had to make in my life... It's nothing compared to what I had to do once. It means nothing when you have seen people fall down and die and be powerless. Those little frustrations that belong to the music industry are ridiculous – if I say yes, it's yes, if I say no so it's no. Where is the problem? Never mind if everybody hate me or whether I keep making music or not. None of this matter.

 

Where does this distance, almost cold heartness came from?

 

I used to live on the fast track, dangerously... I wish people didn't attacked me so violently but I'm not going to complain – many of my friends died, so I put on perspective a bad review. Even though I think it's quiet unfair because the music is sonically beautiful, I keep listening to it, I like it. (Translator note: I had a hard time deciphering it in french, it's was poorly translated from english)

I used to make music for my own because I was the only one listening to them. They're like the soundtrack of my life.

 

Your album Born to Die has been re–release today with 8 new tracks, it completely put it back in balance. People said that you were quitting music.

 

I went back to recording studio just after Born to Die came out, without any pressure... I had nothing to do with my days. Each time I had a free weekend in LA, I would go to a recording studio in Santa Monica, under high influence of Pacific (Translator note: wtf??). I took my time, I worked slowly in a span of 7 or 8 months. Songs like Bel Air, which I love, came very fast and naturaly... I started to work on movie scores, at home far from everything, it gave me a new perspective, away from the stage. I've been living a very quiet life for the past 10 years. Writing for cinema take me back to that place.

 

How do you write for cinema?

 

I'll show you how, it'll be easier. I come with a sampler of my voice that I recorded on my own, at home with my computer using GarageBand, then I show it to Daniel Heath (she makes us listen to a few minutes of one of the song she is working on: the a cappella melody is incredibly pure, her voice keeps switching between her higher and deeper register with incredible ease. It has nothing added to it, just her voice but it's already set for harmonies, strings, arrangements)... This is what I give him by telling him what instruments or sound should be added. And he sent me back this (we heat the same song enhanced with strings and lush piano arrangements. You can recognize the song from the first version even though it was completely raw. It's amazing it feels like those strings were already there at the first place). My songs are full of informations even in it primary state and Daniel knows exactly how to translate my visions.

 

Do you always keep in mind those strings when you compose?

 

They're essential to me, I hear them in my head while I'm composing the melody. The strings and the voice: this is where I start. I listen to a lot of movie scores, it's my DNA, Giogio Moroder or Thomas Newman...

Luckily, even though I'm not a great musician I manage to get what I want thank to my team who translate in music and in arrangement what I had in my mind. I explain everything in every details and they understand what mood, vibes, colors I want to have. In Bel Air, I wanted to hear children's laugh on the playground and rain – it symbolize the end of the summer, lost love, the clash of two worlds. I love being in a studio, this is the place where I'm very particular on details, where I'm the happiest. I would love to master the technical side (of the production) because right now I depend on a sound engineer, he is fiddling those mysterious buttons for me. Being independent in the middle of the night would be great, but on the other side I would miss the teamwork.

 

The strength of your new songs is the very specific mood/sound – unlike those from BtD we didn't impose any – almost parasite – hip hop beats to them.

 

It was the natural progression, I found myself back in a deeper vibe from the 60's, more americana, more peaceful... I didn't want to send my songs to producers anymore so they can add beats to them. I wanted them to be more natural. For instance, I have never been happy with This Is What Makes Us Girls' production on the album. This is the only one that I would re work on if I had the possibility. I feel like there's two albums on this new version of BtD, those 8 new songs make an album on their own that represent me as I feel for today. It's still me but without any enhancement.

 

In NYC your life seemed to be cadenced by rituals, do you have made some new ones in LA?

 

I spend my life in my car. And since the Angelenos go in bed early, the city and the highways are all mine by night. I take the Sunset Boulevard around 2 am, I drive down to the ocean, I get a walk and go home. In the morning I get up early, read the newspapers while drinking coffee, then I call my little brother and my little sister, everyday at the exact same time. I depend on my rituals, they're essential when everything around you is so unstable. I also have some when I go visit my father in Florida. We go fishing on a boat in the Everglades, there are also hiking at the Laurel Canyon down LA, they're still haunted by ghost from the 60's. I genuinely feel the vibrations from my old convertible Mercedes: the tragedies, the darkness...

 

Does singing go with rituals as well?

 

I'm constantly singing, in front of my computer or with my boyfriend (she sings a long part of a melody she is working on – shrivers)... They are less production on the new songs so you can hear my voice better and its texture. Maybe I'm taking less risks but it's a song that says "I don't give a fuck, I do what what I want to do!". Many songs such as Body Electric, Summertime Sadness or Cola came from free styling. Sometimes all it needed was a cord from Rick Nowels' piano for me to jump on it and get started. My music is very much influenced by cinema so it's only natural path for me to work with musicians from Hollywood. They're my rock.

 

Among the new songs, you brought back Yayo, one of your main song from your first album released under the name of Lizzy Grant. Will it be re released?

 

Just like for Yayo I'd like to rework on the production of a few songs such as Kill Kill or Mermaid Motel. They mean a lot to me, they tell my life, my story more than any other songs... my trip to Coney Island where I reloaded my energy... But I don't like their production, I can't release them as they are. I recorded them 6 years ago, what seems to be an eternity... Yayo, it's a turning shift in my life. A trigger. My first video... Really funny.

 

Were your parents supportive of your career at the beginning?

 

They're ex hippies, music has been very present in our household. My father is a songwriter – for country songs. My mother is a singer in the choir from our local church, I used to sing in there as well - very nervously but with joy. They have always been backing me even before music, when I was troubled... I don't drink anymore but I used to drink a lot in my youth. People helped me a lot, this is why I'm highly involved in alcohol rehabilitation. I'm there, night and day in those center, to help the people who try to get out of this – like I used to when I was 15 or 16. I'm alive, I enjoy each second of calm, each second of din, each second of meditation, each second of compagny. I'm very grateful to be alive. Every morning I say thank you.

 

 

 

[Lad 8,795]

Mermaid Motel and Kill Kill recorded 6 years ago? Maybe acoustic demos but Lizzy you recorded them on early 2008. Plus, HOW SHE DOESN'T LIKE MERMAID MOTEL. Oh and Yayo was her first video? I've always thinked it was Kill Kill.

Pacific, maybe she's talking about the Pacific Ocean?

Very good translations, thank you Myriam and Lily! And it's a very good interview, she talks a lot more about her past music and only said 'sonically' once.

[Sitar 22,173]

It is now my only goal to become a music critic or whatever so I can interview Lana Del Rey and she can sing me early versions of her melodies and play me acapellas from her laptop.

[NEAL 739]

That was an interesting interview. So many new bits. The bits about studio buttons is esp. cute.

 

she lets us listen to a few minutes of a song that’s still in working: an acappella melody of an unbelievable purety. Her voices constantly changes ranges with a dazzling beauty. Her song, even if still ‘naked’, carries the track of the chords and arrangements.

 

Thank you myriiiam and Lily, I'd really appreciate if you guys could post all of those past French interviews, esp. the ones at CANAL+ and Prive Concert and/or Taratata, and translate what the Questions were, albeit we could kinda guess from her answers.

 

It is now my only goal to become a music critic or whatever so I can interview Lana Del Rey and she can sing me early versions of her melodies and play my acapellas from her laptop.

 

Your whole sentence, I understood that as you want her to sing while sitting on your lap for an interview. I really have to take some nap.

 

I go to Sunset Boulevard at around 2 in the morning, I go down towards the ocean, I take a walk and then I return.

Each time I had a free weekend in Los Angeles, I used to go to a studio in Santa Monica, very influenced by the Pacific.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sisrRiKPTjI

[DominicMars 1,761]

Okay, I recall her previously saying she was unhappy with some of the production of AKA and David Kahne in previous years, but as far as I remember (earlier this year i believe, possibly on NPR) she said she was working with Haynie (on Paradise) and that she loves working with him and his production style.

 

Yet, in this interview she says she dropped the hip-hop beats because she didn't want to just send her work to somebody to add a beat.

 

Isn't that, in a sense, what Haynie did to the BTD tracks? Or perhaps it was a reference to working with The Nexus and other BTD era collaborators?

[evilentity 13,303]

Unlike these of the album, you are not imposing hip hop beats that almost ruin them.

unlike those from BtD we didn't impose any – almost parasite – hip hop beats to them.

 

I couldn't have put it better myself.

[M.I.A. 224]

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH

[Monicker 3,030]

See, this is a great interview, at last. And it paints her in a very different (favorable) light. More of this kind of interview, please.

 

A few points:

 

Do you still read as much as you used to?

I can’t seem to stay focused on a book I haven’t read before. I sometimes listen to audio books, but otherwise, whether it’s with literature or music I have a tendency of constantly returning to a bunch of classics.

I think this explains and sums up a lot about her in general, the obsessive personality, the almost neurotic repetition, the pathology, the resemblance to Intense World Syndrome, as PrettyBaby once suggested.

 

Concretely speaking, how do you write for cinema?

I’ll show you, it’ll be a lot easier.

I start with an acapella that I record, alone at home, on my computer, on GarageBand, and then I let my arranger Daniel Heath listen to it (she lets us listen to a few minutes of a song that’s still in working: an acappella melody of an unbelievable purity. Her voices constantly changes ranges with a dazzling beauty. Her song, even if still ‘naked’, carries the track of the chords and arrangements.)

That’s what I give him, and I already start evoking which instruments and sounds we should add to it.

And then, that’s what he offers (we find the same song, but enhanced with symphonic chords and opulent piano arrangements; exactly what the first version was suggesting. It’s very astounding: you have the impression that the musical chords were already on the first naked acapella, when in fact they weren’t!)

My songs have a lot of information, even at a primary stage. And Daniel knows exactly how to translate my ideas.

Revelatory. FINALLY.

 

Gosh, she really should release a whole record of her a cappella home demos. But, of course, there’s not a "market" for it. I would kill a baby elephant for that kind of release though.

 

Also, hello dream job. I’m going to put Daniel Heath out of commission and take his job, BRB guyz...

 

Do you always think about the chords when you’re composing?

They are fundamental to me, I hear them in my head while I’m writing.

Chords and voice: that’s where I start.

That sort of contradicts certain things she's said in past interviews. The truth probably lies half between being a full composer and being solely a melodist. But i think it's that she used to compose more fully in the past and has more recently let others handle the chords. The credits on Paradise list her as only having written the melody on every song except Yayo, which just lists it as being written entirely by her.

 

I listen to a lot of movies’ soundtracks, it’s in my DNA, like those of Giorgio Moroder or Thomas Newman…

Miraculously, even if I’m not a big musician, I always seem to acquire from my team what I had in mind. I explain everything in the smallest details and they understand the ambiance, the mood, the color that I’m searching for.

In Bel Air, I wanted the sound of children’s laughter in the park, but also rain: it symbolized the end of summer, the death of love, the collision of two worlds…

I adore the studio, that’s where I’m most meticulous and joyful. I would have loved to know more about the techniques because I rely on a sound engineer that frisks around with all these mysterious buttons.

Being independent in the middle of the night would be great. But I would miss team work.

OMG, hire me, Lizzy, cum on. I will teach you about engineering and i am well versed in film music! We can eat chocolate cake and spaghetti together...

 

The strength of these new songs lies in their vibes and ambiances. Unlike these of the album, you are not imposing hip hop beats that almost ruin them.

It’s a natural progress, I’m immersing into a more sixties ambiance, more Americana, more peaceful… I don’t feel like sending my songs to producers so they can add more beats to them …

See, there is a god and it is good.

 

Among these new songs, you chose to revive Yayo, one of the songs of your 2010 album under the name of Lizzy Grant. Will this album ever be re-released?

Like I did for Yayo, I would like to redo certain songs like Kill Kill and Mermaid Motel. They mean a lot to me, they are the most autobiographical out of all the songs, my sprees to Coney Island …

But I don’t like their production, I can’t re-release them as they are. I recorded them 6 years ago, an eternity…

Oh come on, Liz, 6 years is an eternity? Really now? But you mostly listen to music from over three decades ago. Oh well, guys, i guess AKA is gonna remain our little hidden treasure. Now we just need to find it in lossless...

 

very nervously but with pleasure

I love the ring that this has to it, i think i'm going to use it for a title.

 

 

Also, in the intro paragraph:

 

In the mid 50s, Elvis shocked strict America with his sensual gipsy look and his long ghetto capes.

Uh, Elvis wearing his silly capes in the '50s? Two decades collapased into one.

 

Lana Del Rey angers everyone

Pardon?

[evilentity 13,303]

It’s a natural progress, I’m immersing into a more sixties ambiance, more Americana, more peaceful… I don’t feel like sending my songs to producers so they can add more beats to them … I want to keep them natural.

I also rejoiced when I read this.

 

See, there is a god and it is good.

Actually, I'm male and evil.

[greymillenium 541]

OMG. She mentioned Camus! He's the source of my favorite quote:

 

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

[ExoticFlower 890]

Got this off evilbay. The cover is just...

[evilentity 13,303]

OMG. She mentioned Camus! He's the source of my favorite quote:

Eh, even Dubya referenced Camus.