Lana Del Rey for L'Officiel Paris by Nicole Nodland

[JhnMabius 175]

OMG this is so Gael Garcia Marques and "100 years of solitude". Amazing shoot.

Do you mean Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

[Quentin 552]

Here's the translation of the interview, thanks to sbk5 for helping me with the first 3 pages and to LanaDelReyFR for the scans !

 

 

 

First page

 

Despite that what we say, the fashion is not an eternal RESUMPTION. It evolves while watching her time but, certainly, it does not forget. More than ever, the icons of the past inspiring the silhouettes of today. And this, Lana Del Rey had good understood. Better than whomever, she plays persons who are haunting her. In our series, dresses of LACES transforming her into a disturbing HISPANIC diva. In another vein, ethnic capes, kimono jackets and coats robe spreading the fragrance of an ADVENTURER from the seventies. The metallic jackets with golden reflections are perpetuating the myths glam rock and disco, so that the SMOKINGS of the season evoke the bohemian chic of Hollywood erstwhile. Impossible so to not think of the collections who INSPIRED the icon Lana Del Rey.

 

Second page

 

Lana Del Rey is a drug. Of course like in every form of addiction, she provokes negative effects. The rejection, the conviction.

Except in this case, it’s excessive. There is nothing of harmful or what requires some form of prevention.

Let us stop two minutes asking if we need to like her of not, if she’s sincere or not. In either case it’s a debate passing in her. Because, surprisingly, we find a young spiritual girl, smiling and good in her skin.

But why "surprisingly" ? Why does Lana Del Rey provokes so much a priori ?

Certainly because she lives her work to the point of becoming one with it. To the point to give us the impression that she’s living in one of her clips, and that she talks also melancholy as singing.

We revert it for the lack of sincerity.

The amalgam is wrong. With Lana, we are not in regret but in the contemplation of an era. Sometimes, when the moral isn’t there, we fetch some comfort in our souvenirs the most pleasant.

This common approach, Lana applies to a memory and a space-time the most biggest, that's all. She makes living the beauty of yesterday with the one of today.

Basically, she don’t want to make us sad, only comforting us. But no drug is mistress of its effect.

It’s you to test...

 

Third page

 

You are American, but you seem rather to be European in the soul.
Yes completely. I lived for four years in London, I feel like at home. I love the american landscapes, the ocean and the mountains in California, the city of New York, I feel connected to Europe.
 

Rather culturally?
Also. But naturally in fact. I don’t know why.

 

Did it always attracted you ?
No, not at the beginning. I came a bit by accident. I was attracted of California, but I finished in Europe. And I loved it.

 

Your first clips full of american vintage imageries. Do you have these european vintage images too?
Yes, Monaco…Finally the Idea of Monaco. What should look Cannes also. And Paris of course. I've found it very romantic, and combining on my love for certain films, of the nostalgia of my own life, my personal souvenirs, it took shape.

 

Did you went to these places since ?
(She smile.) Yes !
 

Was it on the height of the idea that you had?
(She laughs, amazed.) Oh Yes. Better sometimes. Today I go to so much different places, it's interesting because we know mostly just one place, where we feel connected or not. I traveled a lot and I am bound to the landscapes and to the persons I met, it changed me. It really made another person out of me.
 

It makes you want to live it to your family, your friends?
My sister is photographer, she's doing a good part of my photos since ages. She's really talented. When that has grown into we have continued to do that together. My little brother aged 19, but he comes with me to many places. I have also taken a house in California, we go together.
 

You live that all in Family so?
It's important. And not only the family, with the friends too.
 

Your music please my parents as well the independent rappers, how explain this ?
It just makes me happy to hear that. When I returned to the United Stated, I don't really feel that. I feel more appreciated here.
 

Your musical place is rather here?
Hum, I don't know. I really like the american music, I love The Doors, Nirvana… but at this moment, it's here where it's good. And also in California, there is a musical movement I feel attracted.
 

How do you create your music?
I have met many producers, and I finished by finding these three boys with who I work today exclusively. In general, I have the idea of the song - the texts and the melody for example - and just give them. They will create then the accords and the rhythm.
 

You take your telephone and you record yourself so.
Yes, that's it! I do this. (She mime the scene funnily)
 

You collaborated quite a lot with a french we like, Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), how did you met ?
(She laughs.) Yoann came to London two years ago. He purposed on twitter that we go on dinner, I accepted. I knew nobody, I had no friends here. It was pretty hard. He said to me that he liked my music and that he will be the first person making a clip for her. Some months later, we were at the Chateau of Fontainebleau to turn the clip of Born To Die.
 

Do you had the impression that the chateau was yours?
I felt so close to this place. I believe in another world, above us. Everything was so easy, they gave us the permissions, everybody helped us. We were really happy. Find yourself in the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which we open for you, with tigers, to shoot your clip, at one moment you tell yourself: "Wow!"

 

We asked Yoann if he has a question for you, he want to know if yes or no you were dating (like one french tabloid said).
(Laughs.) No… We are artistic soul mates. He immediately surrounded me.
 

Did he shared some "françaiseries" with you?
Yes, he's so french! He has this esthetic very french, some skills he wanted to use in reference of films like  "L’Année derniere a Marienbad", with black and white and post-pop art skills. When we made the clip of Blue Jeans for example, he wanted that the shooting angles distort my face.
 

Your universe is very vintage, and you evoked your nostalgia, you think that the life was better before?
What was better in 50s and 60s, was that we were really excited about life. There was this renewed sense of freedom after the war, everything was new, the houses, the cars, we married young, we invented the rock’n’roll , Elvis… The people seemed to be not so jaded like today. There happens a lot of unbelievable things, like with the new technologies for example, but it’s different.

 

The happiness was simpler?
I think, yes. There were maybe less reasons of not loving and not being together. The american dream,even the dream of the world, it was the idea of the family. The american dream today, it’s the celebrity. If you ask someone why he’s fighting, he will talk a lot about success.
 

We privileged the personal success to the family you think?
Yes. Maybe before the womens preferred to have a united family or in a more general way, human relations. It felt in the beatnik movement for example, in the poetry, philosophy. That didn't turn around the celebrity. Kerouac and Ginsberg didn't write for becoming famous, they wrote because they wanted it. They just wanted to take speed and stand all the night to talk together of everything and nothing, because they found it pleasant.
 

About your writing, if you wouldn’t sing, would you release your texts?
Oh that’s interesting. (She thinks.) If I thought of having a chance to be seriously taken, I would adore yes. But maybe not in my current position.

 

Fourth page

 

You have habits to write?
No, the only thing, is that I have to be in a good mood. If I meet somebody interesting or if I have a new objective, that tempts me to write. Even if I write sad songs, I cannot write when I am sad.

 

You must be happy to write sad things thus.
That's it (laughter). If I sometimes look somewhere else, it's because I'm absorbed by my reflection. I don't want to be sad, nor to think again about sad things.
 

It's rather insulating to write, no?
So much. All this, finally it's as to paint colors of your personal experiences.

 

You see colors when you write?
Yes, and images also.
 

You know the Synesthesia?
No (she seems surprise.)
 

If I say 4, you see which color?
Red

 

And 9?
Black. But 3 is blue (laughter)

 

Well, we shall not too much have time to speak about it roughly, normally when we say 4 to somebody, he sees the figure 4, while synesthetes often sees a color.

I am going to look! It's really interesting because with my producers, sometimes, we say sentences as "Sing more blue" or "It is too pink". And we understand (she thinks.) It's maybe for this reason that in my songs I like specifying things, as the fact that a dress is red, insist on details of colors.

 

Did your entourage discover things on you with your songs?

Oh yes. My brother and my sister always knew that I had a darker artistic sense but, for example, people of my origin city were surprised a lot. Maybe not that by the dark side of texts, rather because they really discovered me author.

 

Your real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant. At what moment did you decide to change your name?

When I signed a small label, at about 18 years. I said to them that I wanted to change my name. They found that strange, but I said to them that I will do it anyway. We made me feel that it was bad, as if it wasn't me.

 

Lana Del Rey is an alter ego thus. Is there others alter ego whom we could discover?

No, I don't felt like I have several personalities. I just had the feeling that the person whom I was wasn't the one who bore the name which my parents gave me. It was a way to become a little more what I am, to get closer to me.

 

It would be almost logical that we choose oneself her first name in fact.

Completely, but you cannot say that because we're going to answer you (she takes a robotics voice): "No my parents called me like that". It was rather hard, people asked me why I changed my name, they found me strange. Me, that gave me a lot of happiness. When I go to the bed every night, I am happy to be who I wanted to be.

 

It's not strange to be judged by people who think that you're not logical when you are convinced of being it?

Yes it is. But I say nothing. There is nothing to say.
 

Otherwise, you can show them the Brit Awards of best international singer you just won (in front of Rihanna!) and tell them: " I forgive you! "
(She laughs for a long time.) Yes!

 

Moreover, what types of message do you receive on the Internet?
Well... (It seems to touch her.)
 

You are going to look?
(She has a serious tone.) Yes. I see the messages.
 

Fifth page

 

"I haven't had an easy path. There, it was a successful year, but that wasn't always like that. And when you're successful, people think that you don't deserve it."

 

Sixth page

 

"Find yourself in the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which we open for you, with tigers, to shoot your clip, at one moment you tell yourself: 'Wow!'"

 

The extreme love and the extreme hatred are as well aggressive?
No. It's always pleasant to receive positive messages. After, you know, I do not believe in the worship, the idolization, that's why I try to stay focus on the writing and the music. I want that these people know  that we are all at the same level. But sometimes the hatred can be... very aggressive.

 

You've already cried by reading things?
I don't know... Yes. I was very upset by the lack of professionalism of some journalist, as in the New York Times or Rolling Stone, who wrote false things, when they are supposed to be references. And you realize they're not.

 

You already said yourself by reading a criticism: "they're maybe right after all"?
Sometimes yes. But I believe in what I make. I know that what they say has nothing to do with what I am. It doesn't mean that that doesn't bother me. What annoys me in fact it's that there are people who act like that, it's beyond my own ego. This wickedness makes me sad, but for them.

 

Let's forget them then, hop, and let's discuss about marks! Of H&M to Jaguar, what makes you legit as much in an accessible and popular mark as in an other one more inaccessible and more luxurious?
Already, the link between Jaguar and me is obvious because I adore racing car. I love driving, it's my passion. H&M, it is more an initiative from them that I accepted.
 

To seems so accessible as inaccessible, that's it finally to be an icon?
Maybe, even if I don't think my collaborations with these marks provoked that. It's always delicate to answer this kind of question (she knocks down her fruit juice.)

 

Icons do not make that!
Here we are, you see! (Laughter).

 

In Gods and Monsters, you sing "life imitates art", what that means what?
For example, in the clip of Video Games I put images of the Chateau Marmont. After this video, I found myself in a situation which allowed me to go there and to stay. As a result, I even tattooed it on my arm (she shows her tattoo.)
 

It's a kind of pass for life over there?
I hope! It is on my f******  skin all the same! (Laughter). But you see, "the life imitates art", it's also when I was inspired by one director on whom I begin writing, and that I meet him then by chance in a studio. There we begin working together, and we create a new universe. That, is super-interesting. Or it's like to have lived some time in a trailer park when I was 18, to make my first record, and have enough money today to buy one and leave with it on tour to sing my songs.
 

And the success, removes fears or strengthens them?
That depends to whom you speak. For my part, I have very simple pleasures. I always liked making long walk, meeting people anonymously, speaking to them. I like feeling free. It inspires me to write also. But it's more complicated today, because I am less anonymous. This way, the success can change your way of living. But if you speak to a young ambitious pop star who has for only objective to be at the top, I think that the success would make rather disappear her fears and would make her very happy.

 

Seventh page

 

The success can make happy thus.
What can make you happy, it's to receive the respect from the other artists for example. Have a call from persons who make the same thing as you and who say to you that they find you talented.

 

That has already frightened you the idea to be successful?
(She thinks.) Hum I haven't had an easy path. There, it was a successful year, but that wasn't always like that. And when you're successful, people think that you don't deserve it. If you obtain it, we're going to make life hard for you and prevent you from taking advantage of it. It's like that, the man is like that.
 

You could live without this success, or it's a drug?
No, I could, completely. I love so much the persons with whom I work in my label which I could work in it. I like the music. I don't need to be the one who sings, I also like writing for the others. Projectors, that doesn't fascinate me. The writing, yes.
 

The rest it's a bonus?
Yes. When it's good (Smile).

 

What that brings to your texts to interpret them yourself?
Put your voice on your words allows exactly the life to imitate the art, because you are the person who says it, who shows it to the world. You put it the feelings which it needs.
 

What would you say to anybody to urge him to write?
Write if you feel that you cannot live without. Me, that makes me spend sleepless nights. I get up in the middle of the night and I begin writing.

 

Even if there is a man with you?
Yes! (Laughter). But it's ok, he's an author, he writes every time also. I recommend to everybody a book which I like very much, "Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires", because he learns you to feel at first good and, by feeling  you good, you cause the events which are going to make you happy. And when you're happy, you're creative.

 

[VegasBaby 895]

Here's the translation of the interview, thanks to sbk5 for helping me with the first 3 pages and to LanaDelReyFR for the scans !

Bless you.

 

 

What would you say to anybody to urge him to write?

 

Write if you feel that you cannot live without. Me, that makes me spend sleepless nights. I get up in the middle of the night and I begin writing.

Beautiful.

 

 

You already said yourself by reading a criticism: "they're maybe right after all"?

Sometimes yes. But I believe in what I make. I know that what they say has nothing to do with what I am. It doesn't mean that that doesn't bother me. What annoys me in fact it's that there are people who act like that, it's beyond my own ego. This wickedness makes me sad, but for them.

Lana gives no fucks.

 

You've already cried by reading things?

 

I don't know... Yes. I was very upset by the lack of professionalism of some journalist, as in the New York Times or Rolling Stone, who wrote false things, when they are supposed to be references. And you realize they're not.

 

Poor Lana.

 

Lovely interview. The part about Synesthesia was so interesting.

[rways 405]

Omg i just saw that on the last pic there is which products they used for her hair! Maybe i can bring them to my sister so she could do her hair this way!

[Rafael 3,513]

You see colors when you write?

Yes, and images also.

 

Interesting. Many artists have synesthesia. Marina also got it

[ADDICTEDTOLANA 1,387]

Really interesting interview!! 

[Moises 41]

I'm dying, she looks so perfect and beautiful, favorite shoot ever 

[Alex 21]

all of those.

 

This is so perfect. I think this is now my favorite shoot. And I thought  numero couldn't be beat. 

 

*imagines outtakes*

In love w/ your sig. Can I have a link?

[Chris Cuomo 3,324]

all of those.

 

In love w/ your sig. Can I have a link?

You're the second person to ask where it's from. Haha. It's from http://www.spring69.com/ among several other pictures. They're all posted in the LDR misc thread- last page. Thanks to evil for the finds

[Lanakai 662]

The book she talks about in the interview, you can get for free in PDF form. I've got the link if anyone wants it!

[MermaidTrailerHeaven 456]

My God she photographs so beautifully.

 

I know!!

 

She looks breathtaking.

 

I want to try wearing my hair like that! I love it on her.

[cola 384]

any idea on where to buy this?

[PinUpGaloreLana 1,399]

I don't get this pic   Is she floating or

 

OMG I GET IT NOW. THOSE LONG BLACK THINGS ARE WINGS LOL

And yeah it looks like shes floating.

SHES LIKE A RAVEN OR SOMETHING  

[YayoYesYou 74]

The book she talks about in the interview, you can get for free in PDF form. I've got the link if anyone wants it!

Yes please!

[Whoopiedoo 444]

Hmm, could this be a hint of what the new record might be like?

[elara 0]

This photoshoot is flawless, Lana looks amazing in all of these pictures

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FLbEaOFXvtA

 

cola video monologue?   

[Creyk 11,726]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FLbEaOFXvtA

 

cola video monologue?   

 

I really hope so

[cola 384]

when does this magazine come out what was the release date?

[DanCastro 962]

I cried.