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[elllipsis 1,441]

oops, i started typing the sunday times one up without posting here, sorryyy

 

The mysterious Lana del [sic] Rey is behind the song of the year. Does it matter who pulls her strings, asks Dan Cairns

 

Even by the breakneck standards of the digital world, Lana del [sic] Rey's year has been a fast once. The 24-year-old New Yorker, real name Lizzy Grant, started generating interest in Britain in the spring, when her song Video Games and, more important, the video for it that she subsequently posted on YouTube began to create a stir. In the five months that have followed, Grant's pseudonym has been dropped so many times, and the hype/mythology machine smoked so vigrously, that, inevitably, a backlash has begun. So far, so virally predictable. What is refreshing - or plain insane, depending on your viewpoint - is that a backlash against the original backlash is now rapidly gaining support. And what is easy to forget, amid all the hubbub, is that Video Games is quite simply the song of the year. Yes, it's that good.

 

Back to the chatter, though, for it is deafening. Every constituency is manning the barricades. Fans acclaim Grant as one of the best new singers of her generation. Detractors, meanwhile, post poison about her rich dad, self-mythologising back story, mysteriously deleted debut album and suspiciously voluptous lips, the last presumed by the doubters to be surgically enhanced (Grant has, surely unwisely, created the debate herself, responding on one website: "Right - I didnt [sic] get surgery whoever the f*** u [sic] are - i [sic] didnt [sic] even have a house to live in let alone $ to f*** w [sic] my face.") Behind the scenes are management, label executives and publicists whose air of micromanaging secrecy sommunicates not confidence, but anxiety. That's a pretty rich, not to say putrid, brew.

 

Yet, and it is important to remember this, the main bullet points of the marketing plot are working with a smoothness beyond the wildest dreams of any team tasked with launching a new artist. Radio is hugely supportive (Video Games is predicted to rise to the Radio 1 A-list this week); other influential tastemakers are jumping on board. What this once ideal and fractious scenario says about the new lines of communication between artist and fan, and the obstacles that - the democracy and egalitarianism of the web notwithstanding - are placed in the way of them, is about much more than Video Games or Lizzy Grant. She just happens to be the most recent and glaring example of this new commercial culture. She also happens to be very pretty. Does that make her a fair target? Well, let's ask her.

 

Sitting in a London hotel room, her fake-nailed fingers clamping a succession of cigarettes, the singer is easily identifiable as the retro femme fatale who stares expressionlessly at the camera in Video Games, yet utterly different: one minute hard-eyed and verbally robotic (ending some answers with an abrupt and terminating, "Um yeah"), the next seemingly unsure of herself, inarticulate or unedited. Some of her replies are so hair-rasingly, well, wrong, almost Miss World-like, you wonder why she was ever let loose with an interviewer.

 

Talking about the failure of her debut album, and her musical influences, she says: "When I started listening to people I consider to be musical icons, my tastes were sort of confirmed in my own mind. And that's why, you know, even though nothing good ever happened, I was deterred from trying to be a noteworthy artist. But I wasn't deterred from making things that I thought were beautiful. In fact, I haven't listened to anything new for 10 years, because, you know, I like what I like. I mean, sometimes I find things that strike me, but in general I have names - I like, you know, Jeff Buckley, he was a show stopper. When I see footage of him live, I just think, "He's unbeatable." Kurt Cobain, just his face alone was, like, enough. He didn't even have to sing, his presence was scary, sick. Elvis, Frank - and Bob Dylan."

 

Then there are glimpses of another, much clearer and less bewildered or regal person, as when she returns, again, to the shelving of her first album. Overseen by the Paul McCartney and Regina Spektor producer David Kahne, and either self-titled or called Nevada (the internet is unclear on this), the album was preceeded by a well-received EP in late 2008. A few tracks can still be found online, and songs such as Kill Kill, Kinda Outta Luck and, especially, the blowsy, strings-drenched pop-noir of Yayo are audibly the work of the same artist you can hear on Video Games and its double A-side, Blue Jeans: woozy, nostalgic odes to glamous with a murky underside, to love on the wrong side of the tracks, and as visually evocative as anything seen on Grant's own videos, which feature grainy Super 8 footage spliced with television new snippets, the Stars and Stripes swaying in the wind, and the singer herself, dressed  in vintage clothes. If these songs are anything to go by, it must have been a remarkable record. So. presumably, the shelving of the project (and Grant's management seem determined to sit on it, preferring to big up her new material) must have been devastating. And have made her wary?

 

"Oh, I'm wary," Grant agrees. "Incredibly wary. But I'm not jaded. I'm nervous, definitely - probably more than most people you might meet this year. I don't think I've really left anyhing [behind], stylistically; my new songs are still autobiographical and cinematic. Having the record just shelved for two years, that's difficult for anyone, especially when you're younger and you make it with a famous producer, which David was.

 

"It was an exciting time and, making the record I thought... it's not that I wanted anything to be larger than life, I just thought, "Well, here I am, I'm on my way to not having to do anything else in life." And to have absolutely no reaction, and no recognition, and no nothing, after you make a record that you think is perfect, you definitely start to think, "Well, good try, but you'd better go find something else that works." Because, if you keep chasing something that isn't working, you'll drive yourself insane."

 

The precise reason the album was shelved is as much a mystery as why anybody around Grant felt it was okay for her to enter the publicity fray with stories such as her time spent living in a New Jersey trailer park (albeit, apparently, an unusually bohemian one). Her father is a multi-millionaire domain-name entrepreneur and philanthropist. Then there is the effort to market her as an indie artist - her new releases are coming out on a small label, Stranger Records - when even cursory research reveals that she has major-label dollars behind her, and that she is working with a small army of the usual bespoke-songwriter suspects.

 

Such nervousness and sleight-of-hand tactics are baffling - who cares if she's not totally "authentic" (whatever that means) or bears traces of manufactre? Yet neither Grant nor her handlers are forthcoming about details they consider awkward - and they are a little too energetic with the opposite, with results that are what would be politely described as bearing signs of embellishment (I'd say enhancement, but let's not go there.)

 

Her team cannot, however, be solely blamed for such distractions, although these seem at best unnecessary and at worst counterproductive. We are all culpable, and perhaps need to refocus on what really matters - and, for starters, ignore the darker end of the hype and airbrushing. You sense that Grant is becoming aware of the pitfalls of her current situation. Talking about some of the comments posted beneath her videos, she says: "Obviously, you're not going to enjoy ones like "Oh, look at the hype" and "This will all be over before it begins"." Then, forlornly, she adds: "If I could do it over, I thing I would just post the song." Ah, "just" the song.

 

Well, perhaps that's the point. Listen to Video Games' incredible bridge, on which, as harp and piano ascend, the singer captures the rapture/wistfulness one-two of love, singing, almost sighing, "It's you, it's you, it's all for you", then tell me you're still bothered by her lips or her percentage. It will say far more about you than about Lizzy Grant if you are.

 

 

 

@elllipsis, lola did the Sunday Times interview so if you haven't started or haven't finished, there is no need to start/finish it

 

That's all right, I hadn't started yet.

 

I'll do the El País translation instead.

 

[FROGGO 2,804]

That's all right, I hadn't started yet.

 

I'll do the El País translation instead.

 

 

Fantastic! I'll mark you down for it

[Viva 3,168]

so if you need help in spanish/portuguese  I can help. Not the most organized person tbh but... but I can offer a extra pair of hands and eyes .

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

I saw Duke speak about this earlier...how can you make youtube videos go slower? 

[FROGGO 2,804]

I saw Duke speak about this earlier...how can you make youtube videos go slower? 

 

...I...I don't know myself @@DUKE? 

 

oh, I think this may be it? @

[lola 6,637]

VH1

 

VH1: Did you ever hear from Paz de la Huerta?

LDR: Um... oh gosh. Well, you wanna hear a little story?

VH1: Absolutely!

LDR: So I was singing in Paris a couple of months ago, for Thanksgiving, I was singing for this show and there's this girl in the audience and she's gorgeous, I can kind of only see her silhouette, she's getting like her tits out and I'm like, "God, that's unusual." I'm singing "Video Games", right? So I go off stage, I go upstairs and my manager's like: "You'll never believe it, Paz de la Huerta was, like, getting her tits out, like, what, to the song." I was like: "My vision is complete. My life is fucking made" and so I've been at peace ever since that moment.

 

LDR: I'm sure, like, Coachella, one day, you know. Why not? I mean I'm probably not the best candidate for, like, fucking Coachella, you know? I, like, stand there and sing, you know, not that exciting. So that's probably why they weren't, like, dying to have me on stage. You know what I'm saying?

VH1: Well, it's probably their loss.

LDR: Aw, thanks grandma.

VH1: Yeah, absolutely.

 

 

Radio 6 (people who stutter and say "you know" and "like" this much shouldn't be employed at radio stations tbh)

R6: Hey, welcome back, folks. We are joined in session by Lana Del Rey. How are you today?

LDR: I'm good, how are you?

R6: Pretty good. Now, I was looking through your bio and it said that you spent some time living in Lake Placid.

LDR: It's true.

R6: And Lake Placid is kind of the olympic town of New York State, they had the 1980 Olympics there and I have family that's from there.

LDR: I know, you said that. That's amazing!

R6: Yeah, it was kinda trippy so I wanted to kinda just say "Hey!", you know.

LDR: You want to shout out.

R6: Custard Mustard N Brew, cause lots of people sleep on that place. They tore it down but it was a really good burger joint.

LDR: Yeah, it was the only place in town to go to to get vanilla ice cream.

R6: And they dipped it in hard shell stuff?

LDR: Yeah, they did. You dip it in cherry sauce and it hardens. It was the best. It wa famous. It was famous for years.

R6: Yeah, it was famous for that.

R6: Now, aside from that, your album "Born to Die" is out today and... it was out yesterday... next week it's out? All right, at least we've got somebody from the record company.

LDR: Sorry!

R6: It' coming out next week so... it's a great song, "Born to Die", we've been playing it on the show, everybody really, really seems to like it and they really seem to like you. You have a really good, kind of like, down home personality, like you said, you were born in Manhattan, spent some time upstate and now you're here, you know, kind of, like, blowing up. Does the hype kinda, like, bug you out in little ways every once in a while?

LDR: Not really. I mean only because it's been so long that I've been sort of singing now, it does feel different 'cause the circumstances are different but you know, the music is the same still, thank god, and, you know, I have my amazing band with me so, yeah.

R6: Would you like to introduce them for us?

LDR: Yeah, definitely! Well, I have Blake on guitar and then I have Byron on keys, Pudge is my drummer and CJ's on the bass.

R6: And I imagine that you guys are from New York, right?

(someone from the band): Philly!

R6: Philly! Ah ok, everyone's from around there, ok cool.

LDR: Yeah, Philly, Detroit and yeah, New York.

R6: Someone had to represent. Being a New Yorker myself, nice Strat. Now, with all the things going on in the world today, a lot of people listen to your song and someone said to me the other day that when "Born to Die" comes on, they look at the speakers.

LDR: Do they?

R6: You know, some songs, like, you kinda, like, hear in the background, like, if something comes on they stare at the speaker, it's almost kind of a.. it has, I guess an esoteric essence to it that makes people want to listen to it.

LDR: Well, I like that you heard that. I take that as a compliment.

R6: Oh no, it most definitely is.

LDR: I've done that a couple of times, I think I remember once I heard Antony and the Johnsons for the first time, I stopped in my tracks and I... yeah.

R6: Well, it's one of those things that's great. Now, you had a good production team on this thing, you know? You got Emile, Justin Parker and Robopop. Was it cool working  with, like, three different people, getting it all together?

LDR: Yeah, definite-- Well, for this track or for the record?

R6: For the album.

LDR: Yeah, I mean, like, you know, it's amazing. I really found my musical soulmates in making this record and, like, I kept it really simple and kept it within the same family and, like, now I know that we'll just be working on all the records together from now on. It's just amazing, working with Emiley Haynie, he was sort of more of a famous hip hop producer, comes from that world, started with Eminem ten years ago and also Larry Gold who's been in classical music for the last forty years, conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra so it's been good.

R6: Yeah, you have a wide range of producers to work with to get your sound 'cause your sound is something that has a lot of different elements into it and you kinda merge them seamlessly, I think.

LDR: Well, thank you.

R6: Well, I think you're very welcome and thank you for coming on the show and I'mma let you do what you do.

LDR: Okay.

R6: You're gonna play a song for us, what song are you gonna play?

LDR: Yeah, I think we're gonna play Video Games for you first.

R6: Excellent.

LDR: Okay, good.

R6: Here's Lana Del Rey with Video Games!

 

LDR: **Video Games**

R6: Oh, you just smashed that. You smashed that, Lana, that was amazing. Lana Del Rey, ladies and gentlemen, back in a moment.

 

R6: We're back here with Lana Del Rey who used to play guitar but now you got nails. What's the finger for? Come on! That's the first time I ever got flipped off by a nice lady across from me who's about to sing a wonderful song as I give her props. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. We found out that the records is coming out next week.

LDR: Right.

R6: Now, when you wrote "Video Games" and you put it up on the web, it was one of those things, it seems like an instant classic, I mean the way you were playing the piano and it sounds like a song you've heard forever and it's been around forever and the melody's just so infectious. When you started writing other songs, were you using that as a benchmark?

LDR: No, not at first because when I first started playing it for people it actually didn't get much of a reaction at first because it was kind of just on the demo it was just me and pianos so people said "Oh, that's a nice song but move on and, you know, try and write something upbeat" but um...

R6: Like "Born to Die".

LDR: Yeah, another song to kill yourself to.

R6: You seem like such a happy person.

LDR: I know, I am.

R6: I didn't have any pre-expectations but I did think you were probably going to be wearing a black leather jacket.

LDR: Did you?

R6: And you are!

LDR: I know, I know.

R6: 'Cause... "Born to Die", you hear that and you think black leather jacket.

LDR: Definitely black leather jacket kinda girl, I know.

R6: So, a couple more things here. Now your influences are obvious on the album, can you tell us some of the great singers that you've listened to kind of cone your own little voice?

LDR: Yeah, I mean I found different... I found different people at different times but I ended up sort of listening to all the great masters of every genre. Obviously Frank Sinatra. When I found him, I couldn't believe his voice. Same with Elvis, just two golden voices. Kurt Cobain just because he was so amazing, you know, I. like everybody else was fucking under his grunge spell.

R6: It's okay, we'll move on, she apologizes.

LDR: Right, sorry about... oh my god. Sorry about the swearing.

R6: Don't worry about it, it happens. You're a musician, you know?

LDR: Right. Bob Dylan was probably the other person who was, like, the most influential.

R6: You've listed people that actually sing from their heart.

LDR: Yeah, I mean... You know, like, in terms of the writers, I mean Kurt and Bob, like, wrote their own songs and, I mean, lyrically, I mean they were sort of wrote from an autobiographic standpoint so I relate to that.

R6: Ok, cool. Now you're going to be doing some UK tours. LanaDelRey.com is your e-mail so if people wanna get in touch with you and find out where you're gonna be and come to see you and play and all that kind of good stuff, they can go there. I want to personally thank you for coming in and fellas, and you're gonna play us another song and hopefully you keep your mouth from...

LDR: Sorry...

R6: It's usually the other way around, it's usually me saying something stupid.

LDR: Oh god...

R6: It's cool, it's cool, don't worry about it.

LDR: Ok, cool.

**more fucking rambling about her fucking swearing fucking once**

LDR: Ok, we're gonna play "Born to Die" for you

 

LDR: **Born to Die**

R6: Lana Del Rey, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for coming in.

LDR: Thank you for having us.

R6: Ya kicked it.

 

[Quentin 552]

@@maru

20H TF1 was aired 30/01/2012

C à vous France 5 16/11/2012

Le grand journal Canal+ (the video isn't on their website anymore, can't find it on youtube) 30/01/2012

Le grand journal Canal+ with Bobby Womack 28/09/12

 

i'll start to translate the liberation interview now

 

EDIT : The concert privée was filmed on 23/09/11 and aired for the first time on 07/03/2012

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

Obviously I choose the one where Lana has a fucking monologue about Video Games. 

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

omg lol she just said 'Yeah it's a...yeah it's a...yeah it's an obvious thing' 

 

Lana 4 speech therapy 2013??

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

April 20th, BBC Radio 1 (with Fearne Cotton)

 

 

 

 

April 20th, BBC Radio 1 (with Fearne Cotton)

Fearne: Hello..Lana Del Rey can you hear me? Or people with Lana

Lana: FEARNE! Is that you?!

Fearne: YEAH! Yes we’re speaking!

Lana: Fearne, I didn’t know you were on the other end!

Fearne: I’m here! I’m here! How are you?

Lana: Arhh. I’m good! I wish I was seeing you face to face, I have to say.

Fearne: I know, I wish this could be a face to face situation. Next time, it has to be.

Lana: Kay, kay good.

Fearne: I’m so happy that you’re doing this live lounge for us, it’s about time as well, I’ve waited long enough for this to happen.

Lana: -laugh- I know, I know.

Fearne: Um, I’ve got to start off before I even talk to you about anything; I just have to thank you for writing video games, a song that was the soundtrack to my whole summer last year, and a beautiful one at that. So thank you.

Lana: Oh, Fearne, God. I can’t thank you enough for everything, but you’re welcome

Fearne: But it’s just the best song, I really, it was just a seminal moment for me. I had a bit of a rubbish start to last year, and that song and everything getting better was sort of quite a moment, and it was all quite of just synchronised. So where are you in the world right now?

Lana: We’re coming to you from Hollywood, California. We’re at Village Studios here.

Fearne: Nice.

Lana: And uh, it’s beautiful.

Fearne: And in L.A at the moment is the weather nice? Because it’s like stormy, hailstones, awful here.

Lana: I know, it’s stormy there. No, it’s so nice here, it’s sunny.

Fearne: So jealous.

Lana: I know, I know, you would love it.

Fearne: So uh, we’ve done this live lounge a bit differently because you’re a very busy lady and I was desperate to not let this one go and I wanted this live lounge to happen so desperately. So you’ve already recorded this session for us at Maida Vale

Lana: Yeah

Fearne: When you were at Maida Vale, who did you have down there with you, was it kinda like a whole band? Orchestra? How did it work?

Lana: Um, yeah I had half the band this time. I had Byron who was on the keys, and Blake who plays electric guitar, and then we have this four piece string quartet, who’s been with us on and off in Europe and who are pretty amazing. So we kind of just did a romantic break down of what we usually do.

Fearne: So it’s just sort of slightly stripped back version of the song?

Lana: Yes

Fearne: Lovely. Um, let’s just talk about ‘Video Games’ a second, that’s how I became aware of you. I had seen the video online, a friend of mine said ‘have you seen this girl?’ and I said, oh my god, I need to play this on the radio. It was an instant love for me with this song. What gave you the idea for this song initially? How was you inspired?

Lana: Well…it was really like um... a lot like all the other songs I had written that were sort of piano and voice, and not too spectacular, more just about the everyday way that things are. Which kind of in the end after like 10 years of writing made me happiest to write about in the end, nothing too fancy based, just documenting the way things used to go. And I felt like I was journaling through my songs, and I don’t know. Justin Parker and I were in London at… I don’t know I think Sony Studios, and he had 3 chords that reminded him of me, and I just sort of started swinging back and forth with my words, like –singing- ‘Swinging in the backyard, pull up in your fast car’ and just kind of rhyming it out, and you know I knew I always know what I wanna sing when I feel moved…which isn’t very often! But when I do, it comes to me really clearly, it’s a funny thing.

Fearne: The video is also so beautiful, it was just instantly striking, I just watched it on repeat, again and again, and it’s just a simple idea

Lana: Did you?

Fearne: Yeah! I just love the old references, and it’s just a really atmospheric video that I think is extremely moving and just kind of refreshing where in the music industry where people splash out and spend millions making videos, and you just kind of cut together this beautiful little montage of things that move you, I guess.

Lana: Well, thank you, I mean that was why when you reached out to me I was so grateful, and you know when you played Video Games on the radio it meant so much to me, because when I made that song and the video, I really felt like I did it my way. Like they say necessity is the father of invention, and you know I really at the time was just guided by my intuition. Like when it came to making that video, just putting clips together of things that moved me and that made me...that I thought were beautiful and when you said you liked the video and the song it meant a lot because to me the editing of the video and the writing of the song were personal and I felt like there wasn’t too much of a direction for either one, I felt like it was a small window into a day, and I always hoped that song would translate and that it was something I could sing live all over Europe and not have to sing something else that I think didn’t have integrity or that wasn’t right for me. And so now that I can do that, it’s a good thing.

-One of her live lounge songs played-

Fearne: Hi, back to Lana Del Rey in the live lounge, we’ve already had a chat about a few things, the video for video games, the song writing behind it, and just a catch up with her to see how she’s doing.  So, obviously she’s had an interesting year, the last 10 months have been a whirlwind; I just want to ask Lana what happened after I first started playing her on Radio 1. Obviously, you’ve had such a whirlwind since then, you were signed, and then your music spread like wild fire, with those YouTube hits clocking up day after day, it must have been bizarre that unravelling after you slogging away writing songs for so many years

Lana: Ha yeah, a little bizarre, yeah

Fearne: I mean, have you had to digest it, have you kind of stopped and gone ‘okay...This is actually happening’

Lana: Yeah, I have you know I wish I had the time to enjoy it the way someone like me should enjoy it. You know because I’m a lover of art and music, I’m happy myself when good things happen to good people and to friends that I know, but I do feel like it has been more difficult than fun, and you know the important thing is that each song sounds the way it’s supposed to, and that you know they’re fully formed and speak for themselves and I didn’t have to compromise with the record, and in my mind my own personal little masterpiece because it fits me so well. But the stuff that comes with it….a little messy

Fearne: It’s so difficult. I was watching this whole situation unfold, from the second I played you to the point where you’re internationally famous, and it is sort of concerning to see such a negative side of how the industry works that way and how people can jump on something when you know obviously seemingly you made it overnight, when I know, the people who know you, know you were slogging away at this for a long time.

Lana: Yeah...It’s a…yeah it’s an obvious thing it’s like you wanna know my history… All you have to do is ask someone. Anyone!

Fearne: How do you cope with people judging you on a daily basis? Are you dealing with it?

Lana: I don’t know, it depends on the day, you know to be honest, when I was doing music before I was more involved, you know I was living in New York, in Brooklyn and La Bronx, and I was kind of more involved in my community and the projects I was doing a little bit more than my music. Maybe 50/50 and so I think when I get upset about things I try and do the things I was taught which was throw myself back into service and see how I can be useful to people around me and try and get out of my own way because I don’t know sometimes it bugs me

Fearne: I’m sure it does. I mean looking at the lovely positives, what have been the really wow moments for you, where you’ve been awe struck by the situation you’re in.

Lana: I mean, there’s amazing things, there’s people I’ve met who I really love who um…you know I wouldn’t have met if they hadn’t heard my music, who I really feel I have good relationships with and have been really sweet to me. And that’s really why I got into music in the first place to meet people who want to make art forever and so, you know in some capacity so that’s a gift! Meeting different artists and things like that

Fearne: Defiantly. People lapping it up on the texts! Which I’m really happy to see. Craig in Luton ‘That was awesome!’ ‘Moved me to tears’ says Andrew in Stanford, ‘cried throughout that song’ says Louise. Let it out girlfriend, it’s alright to cry. ‘OMG, Goosebumps right from the first note, amazing, I love Lana Del Rey from Sara in Bristol who’s ripping out a bathroom, quite romantically ripping out a bathroom during Lana warbling away just sounding so beautiful. Professor Green, if you’re still listening, I will get to your question for Lana in a bit, so stay there. So Lana, all lovely things happening to you this year, you won a Brit award in February, I mean that must have been quite a moment for you

Lana: Yeah it was amazing, yeah it was nice to win an award in a country that supports me the most, you know

Fearne: And I got to very briefly meet you, for about 45 seconds

Lana: I know! I was just thinking about that. We were standing outside in the wind, it was freezing

Fearne: Trying to look glamorous in the freezing cold!

Lana: Yes! We did look glamorous

Fearne: You did, defiantly! And it was so nice to have a brief chat with you then, because we had a slight email relationship, so it’s lovely to meet you!

Lana: It was good to see you in person, amidst our crazy company. Boy George was running around!

Fearne: Yes he was! He was that was so funny! He kind of had this big hat, running around

Lana: Yeah he was!

Fearne: Mental!

Lana: I know!

Fearne: Also, Video Games has been nominated for an Ivor Novello award which is just massive, it must be nice to be recognised for your song writing specifically.

Lana: Yeah it is a sweet thing, it’s a sweet thing

Fearne: Up against Nero? And James Blake as well. So that’s really great company

Lana: I didn’t know that…interesting

Fearne: Also, let’s talk about fashion because the fashion darlings have embraced you fully, you’ve done the cover of Vogue, huge designers throwing clothes at you, a bag named after you! Is that something that surprised you, was you expecting this side to happen?

Lana: I have to say…my family laughs because I’ve never exactly been fashion forward, but I think the thing I have in common with people I’ve met in the fashion world is that I’m very much myself with everything I do, even with what I wear, which is always the same which is jeans and a racing jacket, that’s it. And um a lot of people that I met initially just kind of designed collections to the music and started to get to know each other that way, so I’m not the most fashion forward person.

Fearne: Like you said, if you keep it authentic and stick to what you know, people believe it, and that’s an important thing in fashion because there are no rules you can sort of do what you want really

Lana: Yeah you can, defiantly

Fearne: There’s been so many rumours flying around in the press about you, one today is that you’ll be working with Cheryl Cole, Is that true? A possibility?

Lana: Well…Cheryl’s working on a song, yeah that I had written, and it’s perfect for her, and she really likes it, so yeah!

Fearne: That’s very exciting; did you actually get to meet her? Did you work with her?

Lana: Uh, no. Nu uh. We kind of talked to each other through other people

Fearne: Yeah, your people speak to her people etc. Other rumours flying around, obviously people always trying to pry on your private life which I bet is a nightmare. One day you’re dating Marilyn Manson, the other Axel Rose, um do you look at these stories and kind of laugh or ignore it?

Lana: Um sometimes, we were in Europe, we went to Italy and Spain when a lot of those things were written, so I was um, I was doing like European TV promotion, I only heard about it through my Mother.

Fearne: I mean, meeting Axel Rose must have been amazing anyway, because I know you’re a big Guns N Roses fan, so was that quite a special moment?

Lana: Yeah I mean I am a Guns N Roses fan, like anyone else, and I was at the shows before that they had and they were special shows in venues that only hold 1,000 people here in Hollywood, which was just really unusual, so yeah I had just met Axel because we had mutual friends here in California, that’s all there really is to it

Fearne: Also, you’ve got a really special show coming up for us because we’ve got our Radio 1 Hackney Weekend in June, which is just going to be massive because Jay Z, Rihanna headlining on the Saturday and Sunday night, and you’re going to be there as well!

Lana: I can’t wait, I really can’t wait

Fearne: They’re really nice weekends actually, because you really get to see other bands and appreciate the music so um yeah

Lana: Yeah I never get to do anything like that, go to festivals, so I’m excited

-Lana’s cover of Goodbye Kiss plays-

Fearne: Lana Del Rey covering Kasabian that was really lovely wasn’t it, and I think she’s chosen a song that really suits her voice, and means a lot to her and people loving that again on the text. Mitch in Bristol ‘I would marry her today if I could’ I think he likes it! Um, ‘Hello there! Loving Lana Del Rey, so haunting, beautiful girl, and beautiful voice!’ Thank you, Sarah from Herardshire! –more text quotes- So basically people really loving that. Uh the video of that covering that song is up right now on the BBC 1 homepage, so have a look. Professor Green, if you’re still clinging on there, you’re probably thinking oh get on with it Fearne, I will get your question to Lana after this. So that’s the first part of my chat with Lana Del Rey from last night. What a lovely lady, a lot of people tweeting and texting saying what a lovely lady, so down to earth, most lovely speaking voice ever. Some people going ‘have you got a girl crush Fearne?’ 100%! Yeah I’m not trying to hide that, she’s amazing, I love this girl. Believe it or not, I talked for longer with Lana than already played out. As I said, if you guys left me in that room with her, I’d still be up there having a chat with her, such a lovely lady. I’ve got a message for you from somebody-

Lana: uh oh

Fearne: No, no nothing dodgy. I think you know of him or like him, but have a listen, I can translate because he’s from South London, and so have a listen.

Professor Green: Hello Lana! Um, we haven’t met, my name is Professor Green, and um I’m an artist from East London, Hackney. It does have an H in it, but I don’t pronounce it, that’s how we roll in East London!

Lana: -laughter-

PG: I know you shouted me out in your Sun interview, thank you very much for that, and sorry to put you on the spot, but I have no other channel of getting in touch with you, cuz you don’t follow me on twitter, but um I was just wondering if you’d be up for perhaps working on something for my 3^rd album later on in the year. If not, don’t worry I won’t be too embarrassed if this has only gone out to a few million people. Hope your well darlin’, take care, bye.

Fearne: Wow, he’s really cool with you there

Lana: Wow! Lucky for you Professor Green, I just happen to think you’re perfect, so of course, yeah.

Fearne: This is happening?

Lana: Well yeah, he’s amazing, we’re gonna have to make it exclusive though, he can’t be featuring tonnes of teeny boppers on this 3^rd record.

Fearne: Yeah! You have to be the leading lady in this scenario

Lana: Yeah! Exactly!

Fearne: I’ll have a word with him, I know him, and I’ll have a chat

Lana: Fearne! You’re so good, you know how it is Fearne, you know how a girl has to keep her

Fearne: Right! I know where you’re coming from, this is gonna, I’m gonna work on it, this is exciting

Lana: You tell the professor that I’ll be following him in no time

Fearne: Right Professor Green, this is serious now, she has said yes, don’t muck her around, do get no other women on the album, it’s going to be Professor Green with a great album, with one massive song on it with Lana Del Rey and no other chicks, that’s what she wants out of the deal. Professor Green, you lucky lucky man. 

 

 

 

[FROGGO 2,804]

April 20th, BBC Radio 1 (with Fearne Cotton)

 

 

 

 

April 20th, BBC Radio 1 (with Fearne Cotton)

Fearne: Hello..Lana Del Rey can you hear me? Or people with Lana

Lana: FEARNE! Is that you?!

Fearne: YEAH! Yes we’re speaking!

Lana: Fearne, I didn’t know you were on the other end!

Fearne: I’m here! I’m here! How are you?

Lana: Arhh. I’m good! I wish I was seeing you face to face, I have to say.

Fearne: I know, I wish this could be a face to face situation. Next time, it has to be.

Lana: Kay, kay good.

Fearne: I’m so happy that you’re doing this live lounge for us, it’s about time as well, I’ve waited long enough for this to happen.

Lana: -laugh- I know, I know.

Fearne: Um, I’ve got to start off before I even talk to you about anything; I just have to thank you for writing video games, a song that was the soundtrack to my whole summer last year, and a beautiful one at that. So thank you.

Lana: Oh, Fearne, God. I can’t thank you enough for everything, but you’re welcome

Fearne: But it’s just the best song, I really, it was just a seminal moment for me. I had a bit of a rubbish start to last year, and that song and everything getting better was sort of quite a moment, and it was all quite of just synchronised. So where are you in the world right now?

Lana: We’re coming to you from Hollywood, California. We’re at Village Studios here.

Fearne: Nice.

Lana: And uh, it’s beautiful.

Fearne: And in L.A at the moment is the weather nice? Because it’s like stormy, hailstones, awful here.

Lana: I know, it’s stormy there. No, it’s so nice here, it’s sunny.

Fearne: So jealous.

Lana: I know, I know, you would love it.

Fearne: So uh, we’ve done this live lounge a bit differently because you’re a very busy lady and I was desperate to not let this one go and I wanted this live lounge to happen so desperately. So you’ve already recorded this session for us at Maida Vale

Lana: Yeah

Fearne: When you were at Maida Vale, who did you have down there with you, was it kinda like a whole band? Orchestra? How did it work?

Lana: Um, yeah I had half the band this time. I had Byron who was on the keys, and Blake who plays electric guitar, and then we have this four piece string quartet, who’s been with us on and off in Europe and who are pretty amazing. So we kind of just did a romantic break down of what we usually do.

Fearne: So it’s just sort of slightly stripped back version of the song?

Lana: Yes

Fearne: Lovely. Um, let’s just talk about ‘Video Games’ a second, that’s how I became aware of you. I had seen the video online, a friend of mine said ‘have you seen this girl?’ and I said, oh my god, I need to play this on the radio. It was an instant love for me with this song. What gave you the idea for this song initially? How was you inspired?

Lana: Well…it was really like um... a lot like all the other songs I had written that were sort of piano and voice, and not too spectacular, more just about the everyday way that things are. Which kind of in the end after like 10 years of writing made me happiest to write about in the end, nothing too fancy based, just documenting the way things used to go. And I felt like I was journaling through my songs, and I don’t know. Justin Parker and I were in London at… I don’t know I think Sony Studios, and he had 3 chords that reminded him of me, and I just sort of started swinging back and forth with my words, like –singing- ‘Swinging in the backyard, pull up in your fast car’ and just kind of rhyming it out, and you know I knew I always know what I wanna sing when I feel moved…which isn’t very often! But when I do, it comes to me really clearly, it’s a funny thing.

Fearne: The video is also so beautiful, it was just instantly striking, I just watched it on repeat, again and again, and it’s just a simple idea

Lana: Did you?

Fearne: Yeah! I just love the old references, and it’s just a really atmospheric video that I think is extremely moving and just kind of refreshing where in the music industry where people splash out and spend millions making videos, and you just kind of cut together this beautiful little montage of things that move you, I guess.

Lana: Well, thank you, I mean that was why when you reached out to me I was so grateful, and you know when you played Video Games on the radio it meant so much to me, because when I made that song and the video, I really felt like I did it my way. Like they say necessity is the father of invention, and you know I really at the time was just guided by my intuition. Like when it came to making that video, just putting clips together of things that moved me and that made me...that I thought were beautiful and when you said you liked the video and the song it meant a lot because to me the editing of the video and the writing of the song were personal and I felt like there wasn’t too much of a direction for either one, I felt like it was a small window into a day, and I always hoped that song would translate and that it was something I could sing live all over Europe and not have to sing something else that I think didn’t have integrity or that wasn’t right for me. And so now that I can do that, it’s a good thing.

-One of her live lounge songs played-

Fearne: Hi, back to Lana Del Rey in the live lounge, we’ve already had a chat about a few things, the video for video games, the song writing behind it, and just a catch up with her to see how she’s doing.  So, obviously she’s had an interesting year, the last 10 months have been a whirlwind; I just want to ask Lana what happened after I first started playing her on Radio 1. Obviously, you’ve had such a whirlwind since then, you were signed, and then your music spread like wild fire, with those YouTube hits clocking up day after day, it must have been bizarre that unravelling after you slogging away writing songs for so many years

Lana: Ha yeah, a little bizarre, yeah

Fearne: I mean, have you had to digest it, have you kind of stopped and gone ‘okay...This is actually happening’

Lana: Yeah, I have you know I wish I had the time to enjoy it the way someone like me should enjoy it. You know because I’m a lover of art and music, I’m happy myself when good things happen to good people and to friends that I know, but I do feel like it has been more difficult than fun, and you know the important thing is that each song sounds the way it’s supposed to, and that you know they’re fully formed and speak for themselves and I didn’t have to compromise with the record, and in my mind my own personal little masterpiece because it fits me so well. But the stuff that comes with it….a little messy

Fearne: It’s so difficult. I was watching this whole situation unfold, from the second I played you to the point where you’re internationally famous, and it is sort of concerning to see such a negative side of how the industry works that way and how people can jump on something when you know obviously seemingly you made it overnight, when I know, the people who know you, know you were slogging away at this for a long time.

Lana: Yeah...It’s a…yeah it’s an obvious thing it’s like you wanna know my history… All you have to do is ask someone. Anyone!

Fearne: How do you cope with people judging you on a daily basis? Are you dealing with it?

Lana: I don’t know, it depends on the day, you know to be honest, when I was doing music before I was more involved, you know I was living in New York, in Brooklyn and La Bronx, and I was kind of more involved in my community and the projects I was doing a little bit more than my music. Maybe 50/50 and so I think when I get upset about things I try and do the things I was taught which was throw myself back into service and see how I can be useful to people around me and try and get out of my own way because I don’t know sometimes it bugs me

Fearne: I’m sure it does. I mean looking at the lovely positives, what have been the really wow moments for you, where you’ve been awe struck by the situation you’re in.

Lana: I mean, there’s amazing things, there’s people I’ve met who I really love who um…you know I wouldn’t have met if they hadn’t heard my music, who I really feel I have good relationships with and have been really sweet to me. And that’s really why I got into music in the first place to meet people who want to make art forever and so, you know in some capacity so that’s a gift! Meeting different artists and things like that

Fearne: Defiantly. People lapping it up on the texts! Which I’m really happy to see. Craig in Luton ‘That was awesome!’ ‘Moved me to tears’ says Andrew in Stanford, ‘cried throughout that song’ says Louise. Let it out girlfriend, it’s alright to cry. ‘OMG, Goosebumps right from the first note, amazing, I love Lana Del Rey from Sara in Bristol who’s ripping out a bathroom, quite romantically ripping out a bathroom during Lana warbling away just sounding so beautiful. Professor Green, if you’re still listening, I will get to your question for Lana in a bit, so stay there. So Lana, all lovely things happening to you this year, you won a Brit award in February, I mean that must have been quite a moment for you

Lana: Yeah it was amazing, yeah it was nice to win an award in a country that supports me the most, you know

Fearne: And I got to very briefly meet you, for about 45 seconds

Lana: I know! I was just thinking about that. We were standing outside in the wind, it was freezing

Fearne: Trying to look glamorous in the freezing cold!

Lana: Yes! We did look glamorous

Fearne: You did, defiantly! And it was so nice to have a brief chat with you then, because we had a slight email relationship, so it’s lovely to meet you!

Lana: It was good to see you in person, amidst our crazy company. Boy George was running around!

Fearne: Yes he was! He was that was so funny! He kind of had this big hat, running around

Lana: Yeah he was!

Fearne: Mental!

Lana: I know!

Fearne: Also, Video Games has been nominated for an Ivor Novello award which is just massive, it must be nice to be recognised for your song writing specifically.

Lana: Yeah it is a sweet thing, it’s a sweet thing

Fearne: Up against Nero? And James Blake as well. So that’s really great company

Lana: I didn’t know that…interesting

Fearne: Also, let’s talk about fashion because the fashion darlings have embraced you fully, you’ve done the cover of Vogue, huge designers throwing clothes at you, a bag named after you! Is that something that surprised you, was you expecting this side to happen?

Lana: I have to say…my family laughs because I’ve never exactly been fashion forward, but I think the thing I have in common with people I’ve met in the fashion world is that I’m very much myself with everything I do, even with what I wear, which is always the same which is jeans and a racing jacket, that’s it. And um a lot of people that I met initially just kind of designed collections to the music and started to get to know each other that way, so I’m not the most fashion forward person.

Fearne: Like you said, if you keep it authentic and stick to what you know, people believe it, and that’s an important thing in fashion because there are no rules you can sort of do what you want really

Lana: Yeah you can, defiantly

Fearne: There’s been so many rumours flying around in the press about you, one today is that you’ll be working with Cheryl Cole, Is that true? A possibility?

Lana: Well…Cheryl’s working on a song, yeah that I had written, and it’s perfect for her, and she really likes it, so yeah!

Fearne: That’s very exciting; did you actually get to meet her? Did you work with her?

Lana: Uh, no. Nu uh. We kind of talked to each other through other people

Fearne: Yeah, your people speak to her people etc. Other rumours flying around, obviously people always trying to pry on your private life which I bet is a nightmare. One day you’re dating Marilyn Manson, the other Axel Rose, um do you look at these stories and kind of laugh or ignore it?

Lana: Um sometimes, we were in Europe, we went to Italy and Spain when a lot of those things were written, so I was um, I was doing like European TV promotion, I only heard about it through my Mother.

Fearne: I mean, meeting Axel Rose must have been amazing anyway, because I know you’re a big Guns N Roses fan, so was that quite a special moment?

Lana: Yeah I mean I am a Guns N Roses fan, like anyone else, and I was at the shows before that they had and they were special shows in venues that only hold 1,000 people here in Hollywood, which was just really unusual, so yeah I had just met Axel because we had mutual friends here in California, that’s all there really is to it

Fearne: Also, you’ve got a really special show coming up for us because we’ve got our Radio 1 Hackney Weekend in June, which is just going to be massive because Jay Z, Rihanna headlining on the Saturday and Sunday night, and you’re going to be there as well!

Lana: I can’t wait, I really can’t wait

Fearne: They’re really nice weekends actually, because you really get to see other bands and appreciate the music so um yeah

Lana: Yeah I never get to do anything like that, go to festivals, so I’m excited

-Lana’s cover of Goodbye Kiss plays-

Fearne: Lana Del Rey covering Kasabian that was really lovely wasn’t it, and I think she’s chosen a song that really suits her voice, and means a lot to her and people loving that again on the text. Mitch in Bristol ‘I would marry her today if I could’ I think he likes it! Um, ‘Hello there! Loving Lana Del Rey, so haunting, beautiful girl, and beautiful voice!’ Thank you, Sarah from Herardshire! –more text quotes- So basically people really loving that. Uh the video of that covering that song is up right now on the BBC 1 homepage, so have a look. Professor Green, if you’re still clinging on there, you’re probably thinking oh get on with it Fearne, I will get your question to Lana after this. So that’s the first part of my chat with Lana Del Rey from last night. What a lovely lady, a lot of people tweeting and texting saying what a lovely lady, so down to earth, most lovely speaking voice ever. Some people going ‘have you got a girl crush Fearne?’ 100%! Yeah I’m not trying to hide that, she’s amazing, I love this girl. Believe it or not, I talked for longer with Lana than already played out. As I said, if you guys left me in that room with her, I’d still be up there having a chat with her, such a lovely lady. I’ve got a message for you from somebody-

Lana: uh oh

Fearne: No, no nothing dodgy. I think you know of him or like him, but have a listen, I can translate because he’s from South London, and so have a listen.

Professor Green: Hello Lana! Um, we haven’t met, my name is Professor Green, and um I’m an artist from East London, Hackney. It does have an H in it, but I don’t pronounce it, that’s how we roll in East London!

Lana: -laughter-

PG: I know you shouted me out in your Sun interview, thank you very much for that, and sorry to put you on the spot, but I have no other channel of getting in touch with you, cuz you don’t follow me on twitter, but um I was just wondering if you’d be up for perhaps working on something for my 3^rd album later on in the year. If not, don’t worry I won’t be too embarrassed if this has only gone out to a few million people. Hope your well darlin’, take care, bye.

Fearne: Wow, he’s really cool with you there

Lana: Wow! Lucky for you Professor Green, I just happen to think you’re perfect, so of course, yeah.

Fearne: This is happening?

Lana: Well yeah, he’s amazing, we’re gonna have to make it exclusive though, he can’t be featuring tonnes of teeny boppers on this 3^rd record.

Fearne: Yeah! You have to be the leading lady in this scenario

Lana: Yeah! Exactly!

Fearne: I’ll have a word with him, I know him, and I’ll have a chat

Lana: Fearne! You’re so good, you know how it is Fearne, you know how a girl has to keep her

Fearne: Right! I know where you’re coming from, this is gonna, I’m gonna work on it, this is exciting

Lana: You tell the professor that I’ll be following him in no time

Fearne: Right Professor Green, this is serious now, she has said yes, don’t muck her around, do get no other women on the album, it’s going to be Professor Green with a great album, with one massive song on it with Lana Del Rey and no other chicks, that’s what she wants out of the deal. Professor Green, you lucky lucky man. 

 

 

 

HOLY SHIT. THANK YOU 

[Pin Up Paradise 463]

HOLY SHIT. THANK YOU 

No problem! Ill aim for 1 or 2 a day depending on how long they are. I think that interview has sent me into a permanent state of sleep.

[elllipsis 1,441]

@@maru

 

El País interview (translation from Spanish)

 

 

Lana Del Rey: “People lied a lot about me for money”

 

The artist Lana Del Rey, one of music’s main figures at the moment, speaks a few hours before her performance at Sónar

 

Daniel Verdú - Barcelona, 15 June 2012

 

Only one hour earlier, the record company calls and offers us an interview with Lana Del Rey, one of music’s main figures at the moment and about whom much has been written lately - accusations of being a manufactured product and merciless criticism. This hasty appointment hours before playing at Sónar, her first concert in Europe, only increases the sensation of precaution and protection of a supposedly fragile artist. Sitting barefoot in a little leather sofa with a cigarette in her hand, all that preconceived notion crumbles. Extremely approachable and gentle, without any star affectations and with a much more restrained beauty than in her videos and photos, Elizabeth Grant (New York, 1986) looks like everything but a manufactured product. Rather, she looks like a girl who wanted fame so that she could meet her idols, but these invited her to the party only to tear her to pieces.

 

Q (Question): Do you smoke a lot?

A (Answer): If I have a show, yes. Because sometimes I get a little nervous. I wasn’t today, but everyone keeps asking me if I am so I’m starting to worry…

 

Q: It’s the first concert in Europe, why Spain?

A: In the interviews I gave here they never lied, I feel that I am respected. I was in Santander for 4 months when I was 16, I have friends here and I feel great.

 

Q: Do you think people lied a lot about you?

A: Yes, sometimes. For money, for good headlines. I wouldn’t give any interviews because I don’t have much to say. However, before I’d even given any, there was already a lot of stuff written about me. It’s sensationalism, as always.

 

Q: The mystery that you cultivated around you didn’t help, don’t you think so?

A: I don’t know! [She says it in Spanish] But it wasn’t intentional, I was just a quiet person. Now I don’t know what would have been better.

 

Q: Is it hard for you to constantly be called a manufactured product?

A: Yes. It bothers me because of my music and my lyrics, which I spent a lot of time writing. Also because of my family, I worry that they might think I’m having problems or that they read those awful things. We have a great life together and I don’t want my reputation to turn me into something useless for the people I care about. I’m very well settled in my New York community where I’ve been doing work for the last 10 years and I don’t want that to change, to not be able to help anymore. And, well, these things make you very uncomfortable.

 

Q: Do you have any regrets?

A: I wrote about what was going on in my life. But maybe I would have liked things to have been easier, like I said I’m a very quiet person.

 

Q: What about this obsession with authenticity? Doesn’t it seem necessary to justify the existence of a character/persona in pop, nowadays?

A: People think I’m a character because I changed my name, but that’s it. I’ve tried to lead a life that suits me perfectly. And if it seems like a character it’s because I do things exactly the way I want to. But people don’t like that because it seems weird to them. Well, and it is: I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I don’t listen to pop music… But Elizabeth and Lana Del Rey are the same person.

 

Q: You wear a crucifix around your neck. Are you Catholic?

A: Yes and I go to church. But I try to understand God in light of my own experiences. When all of a sudden you see your idols saying unpleasant things about you, when you see people whom you’ve read and worshipped not respecting you, you become someone else. You don’t live for other people anymore, you live only for yourself and your inspiration. I believe in a God whom I’ve personally reached. But I wear this cross [hanging around her neck] because I like diamonds [laughs].

 

Q: You arrived in Europe amidst its collapse. Are you worried about the crisis?

A: I think about it every day. I worry about it more than about my reputation. There’s no real way of getting out of this, we’re too many and we’re exhausting all the resources. I attentively follow Richard Branson’s investigations in space, the progress in nanotechnology, new resources… That’s what I dedicate my time to.

 

Q: Do you miss your former life?

A: I miss the community work I used to do in New York, because there’s not much point in life if you live only for yourself. And that’s definitely a negative aspect now.

 

Q: You won’t deny that being a star has its advantages.

A: What I wanted is to be respected by other writers, because writing is what I like to do. I wanted to have friends who were artists and people with an interest in progress, in technology, in finding answers to life’s problems. I didn’t find them. I would be fine if it had been a smooth ride, but it wasn’t.

 

 

 

Cute interview. I had no idea she'd spent 4 months in Santander when she was 16! (I guess that last question & answer gives a bit more context to what she recently said re: Barrie + not knowing any "worthwhile" people; she's disillusioned... but yeah, this is OT so I'll just shut up, sorry.)

 

---

 

I'll transcribe the one from Channel V at Splendour In The Grass now.

By the way, that interview in CatRadio is not in Spanish, it's in Catalan. That will probably... complicate matters.

[Quentin 552]

Next Libération interview

 

Lana Del Rey, the Black Dahlia
 

Only one video posted on YouTube, "Video Games" was enough to make this young american pop singer the phenomenon of the season. So, buzz or bluff ? Encounter in Paris, with a strange creature taken out of a 50's movie.

 

She asks two hours of preparation for the photo shoot (hairstyle, make-up and stylism), advised by a funny bird called Johnny Blue Eyes. She, it's the musical phenomenon of the moment, Lana Del Rey, 25 years, plastic UFO.

 

Three months ago, a clip circulates on the web and has a gigantic and immediate success. Video Games present a series of extracts from film noir, young skaters and stars of hip-hop, all found on YouTube and assembled in an artisanal way.

 

In the middle of these pictures, Lana, young woman with a fascinating physic, lolita of the fifties to the gangsta of the modern times, sings her loving dramas in a sweet and warm voice. The pout is sulky, the video goes around the planet and projects the young woman at the rank of starlet 2.0. The excitement begins.

 

The public falls under the spell of the mystery singer, excited by that mouth, swollen with collagen obviously, and by the dramatic melodies which escape from it. But many people on the internet love to hate what they consider a purely marketing product and have fun searching the drawers of the web in search of the "before Lana". Parodies of the clip or sites mocking her lips multiply.

 

Frightened young woman or femme fatale

 

When she finally leaves her room, a white dress and roses on her head, to join the team of Jean-Baptiste Mondino on the roof of a hotel in Paris, we believes her straight gone out from YouTube. Same slightly wavy hair, same fifties makeup.

 

Her steps are slow, her wrongfully timid voice resembles that of a naive high school girl, she has glances of a stray hind. Lana Del Rey is not really at ease, especially when the photographer explains to her that he will make a close-up on her lips. Panic : "Oh no, not my mouth."

 

This hemmed mouth that causes so many jeers is not frankly assumed by the interested, who, after negotiations, will let herself do and even have pleasure in taking the pose. The hind caught in the headlights turns into a femme fatale.

 

Lana then removes her stage costume and puts on jeans, white shirt, black ballerinas, and orders a cappuccino. She poses in front of her the few cigarettes she stitched from different people, settles, the legs as tailor, breath finally.

 

Closely, we see the false eyelashes, the ultra pronounced makeup, but also guess a pretty young girl with delicate features. The night before, Lana Del Rey turned her new video, Born To Die at Fontainebleau with Yoann Lemoine, author under the name of Woodkid of the sublime Woodkid Iron : "He's a genius, he gave me everything I dreamed he totally respected my universe."

 

This is the first time that Lana Del Rey sets the foot in Paris and she did "not even had time to go see the grave of Jim Morrison". The following week, she will record two TV shows and will perform on the stage of the Silencio and the Nouveau Casino.

 

What a flood of requests for Lana Del Rey, born Lizzie Grant 25 years ago in the middle of Manhattan. The family – her parents are real estate agent and professor, she has a little brother student and a little sister photographer – then migrated to the north of country, at Lake Placid, before sending Lana, at 15 years, to a boarding school of the corner: "I lived in my head. I was not really alone, I was thinking a lot, I tried to understand who I was, what I wanted to do."

 

Lizzie/Lana returned to New York at 18 and, after her studies of philosophy quickly interrupted, begins to write her first songs and play them in clubs. The concerns of the young Lizzie are the same as today : "Love and my vision of the future, a kind of fantasy about my future. The dream of a better life, inner peace."

 

And then, Lizzie became Lana : "I wanted a group name. I chose Lana Del Rey because I find the sonority really nice. There was no break between Lizzie Grant and Lana Del Rey, but Video Games drew so much attention that internet users have searched and tried to figure out who I was. I created a sound world for the album (1) [to be released mid-January, at Polydor, note], which corresponds to the visual world of my clips. I did not invent a second personality, I would become insane and more importantly, I do not need any."

 

Lana makes her clips with iMovie

 

All doubts are allowed since the appearance of this girl out of nowhere. Is it really her who has directed her first videos as she claims ? How did she get such a buzz in a record time ?

 

A legend runs according to which a press agent, announcing her departure, would have delivered to all her contacts her last "crush" : Video Games. Lana opens wide the eyes : "Really ? It is so romantic", exclaims she while going up in the acute ones.

 

The truth would be simpler: "I put the video on my YouTube account and each day, I saw the number of views increase. Thirty days later, Radio 1 diffused the title when the animator Fearne Cotton said that she adored the song, then a lot of influential artists followed, like The Weeknd or Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid). It was at this time that I met people from majors. Today, I have two managers to which I am very close."

 

Lana Del Rey works mainly with three people : Justin Parker, a composer and producer in London, her best friend Dan Heath, composer of movie musics in Hollywood, and Emile Haynie for the hip-hop rhythms.

 

The inspirations of the singer are mostly visual : the cinema of the fifties, the landscapes that she knows (Brooklyn) or not (Monaco, Paris) and which "overwhelm" her.

 

Musically, Lana said she still needed a very orchestral background and hip-hop rhythmic : "it gives a different beauty and tension which reminds... I don't know... life."

 

As for the clips, she confirms, almost offended, being the director : "I work with iMovie. As for the Word software, you copy/paste, it's really easy. I had a problem of copyright with certain elements which I used, I had to remove and replace seven seconds. But most people were glad that I use their images because they loved the clip."

 

Her popularity, does she scare her ? "Now yes. You know, I do not like to be in the middle of  a polemic, it's not in my nature." She does not know if she feels armed enough, encircled or strong at the moment : "I love singing, but it isn't the most important in my life. If this became too difficult to support, I would stop." Her ultimate accomplishment, she ends up giving with a certain coquetry, would be "to be a good person".

 

(1) Lana Del Rey still has five songs to produce for her record and a song to record for the one of Damon Albarn.

@@elllipsis You've joined six days ago and you're helping...

[elllipsis 1,441]

Next Libération interview

 

Lana Del Rey, the Black Dahlia

 

Only one video posted on the internet, "Video Games" was enough to make this young american pop singer the phenomenon of the season. So, buzz or bluff ? Encounter in Paris, with a strange creature taken out of a 50's movie.

 

She asks two hours of preparation for the photo shoot (hairstyle, make-up and stylism), advised by a funny bird called Johnny Blue Eyes. She, it is the musical phenomenon of the moment, Lana Del Rey, 25 years, plastic UFO.

 

Three months ago, a clip circulates on the web and has a gigantic and immediate success. Video Games present a series of extracts from film noir, young skaters and stars of hip-hop, all found on YouTube and assembled in an artisanal way.

 

In the middle of these pictures, Lana, young woman with a fascinating physic, lolita of the fifties to the gangsta of the modern times, sings her loving dramas in a sweet and warm voice. The pout is sulky, the video goes around the planet and projects the young woman at the rank of starlet 2.0. The excitement begins.

 

The public falls under the spell of the mystery singer, excited by that mouth, swollen with collagen obviously, and by the dramatic melodies which escape from it. But many internet users love to hate what they consider a purely marketing product and have fun searching the drawers of the web in search of the "before Lana". Parodies of the clip or sites mocking her lips multiply.

 

Frightened young woman or femme fatale

 

When she finally leaves her room, a white dress and roses on her head, to join the team of Jean-Baptiste Mondino on the roof of a hotel in Paris, we believes she straight is gone out of YouTube. Same slightly wavy hair, same fifties makeup.

 

Her steps are slow, her wrongfully timid voice resembles that of a naive high school girl, she has glances of a stray hind. Lana Del Rey is not really at ease, especially when the photographer explains to her that he will make a close-up on her lips. Panic : "Oh no, not my mouth."

 

This hemmed mouth that causes so many jeers is not frankly assumed by the interested, who, after negotiations, will let herself go and even have pleasure in taking the pose. The hind caught in the headlights turns into a femme fatale.

 

Lana then removes her stage costume and puts on jeans, white shirt, black ballerinas, and orders a cappuccino. She poses in front of her the few cigarettes she stitched from different people, settles, the legs as tailor, breath finally.

 

Closely, we see the false eyelashes, the ultra pronounced makeup, but also guess a pretty young girl with delicate features. The night before, Lana Del Rey turned her new video, Born To Die at Fontainebleau with Yoann Lemoine, author under the name of Woodkid of the sublime Woodkid Iron : "He's a genius, he gave me everything I dreamed he totally respected my universe."

 

This is the first time that Lana Del Rey sets the foot in Paris and she did "not even had time to go see the grave of Jim Morrison". The following week, she will record two TV shows and will perform on the stage of the Silencio and the Nouveau Casino.

 

What a flood of requests for Lana Del Rey, born Lizzie Grant 25 years ago in the middle of Manhattan. The family – her parents are real estate agent and professor, she has a little brother student and a little sister photographer – then migrated to the north of country, at Lake Placid, before sending Lana, at 15 years, to a boarding school of the corner: 'I lived in my head. I was not really alone, I was thinking a lot, I tried to understand who I was, what I wanted to do."

 

Lizzie/Lana returned to New York at 18 and, after her studies of philosophy quickly interrupted, begins to write her first songs and play them in clubs.  The concerns of the young Lizzie are the same as today : "The love and my vision of the future, a kind of fantasy about my future. The dream of a better life, inner peace."

 

And then, Lizzie became Lana : "I wanted a group name. I chose Lana Del Rey because I find the sonority really nice. There was no break between Lizzie Grant and Lana Del Rey, but Video Games drew so much attention that internet users have searched and tried to figure out who I was. I created a sound world for the album (1) [to be released mid-January, at Polydor, note], which corresponds to the visual world of my clips. I did not invent a second personality, I would become insane and imortantly, I do not need any."

 

Lana makes her clips with iMovie

 

All doubts are allowed since the appearance of this girl out of nowhere. Is it really her who has directed her first videos as she claims ? How did she get such a buzz in a record time ?

 

A legend runs according to which a press agent, announcing her departure, would have delivered to all her contacts her last "crush" : Video Games. Lana opens wide the eyes : "Really ? It is so romantic", exclaims she while going up in the acute ones.

 

The truth would be simpler: "I put the video on my YouTube account and each day, I saw the number of views increase. Thirty days later, Radio 1 diffused the title when the animator Fearne Cotton said that she adored the song, then a lot of influential artists followed, like The Weeknd or Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid). It was at this time that I met people from majors. Today, I have two managers to which I am very close."

 

Lana Del Rey works mainly with three people : Justin Parker, a composer and producer in London, her best friend Dan Heath, composer of movie musics in Hollywood, and Emile Haynie for the hip-hop rhythms.

 

The inspirations of the singer are mostly visual : the cinema of the fifties, the landscapes that she knows (Brooklyn) or not (Monaco, Paris) and which "upset" her.

 

Musically, Lana said she still needed a very orchestral background and hip-hop rhythmic : "it gives a different beauty and tension which reminds... I don't know... life."

 

As for the clips, she confirms, almost offended, to be the director: "I work with iMovie. As for the Word software, we copy/paste, it's really easy. I had a problem of copyright with certain elements which I used, I had to remove and replace seven seconds. But most people were glad that I use their images because they loved the clip."

 

Her popularity, does she scare her ? "Now yes. You know, I do not like to be in the middle of  a polemic, it's not in my nature." She does not know if she feels armed enough, encircled or strong at the moment : "I love singing, but it isn't the most important in my life. If this became too difficult to support, I would stop." Her ultimate accomplishment, she ends up giving way with a certain coquetry, would be "to be a good person".

 

(1) Lana Del Rey still has five songs to produce for her record and a song to record for the one of Damon Albarn.

 

@@elllipsis You've joined six days ago and you're helping...

 

What can I say, I have no life I'm very generous.

 

 

[Cinnamon Girl 75]

i dont know any languages other than english but if you need someone to transcribe interviews id be happy to help!!

lana interviews are my weakness 

[elllipsis 1,441]

@@maru

 

Channel V at Splendour in the Grass

 

 

 

CW (Carissa Walford):  I’m here with Lana Del Rey, Miss Lana Del Rey, post-performance here at Splendour in the Grass 2012. How was the show?

LDR (Lana Del Rey): It was good.

CW: Feel good?

LDR: Yeah, better than I could have hoped for. Really good.

CW: I was there and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even get to the front and so I thought the best way to see you was to go underneath the stage for a little bit.

LDR: Oh no! *laughs *

CW: The sound under there was amazing!

LDR: What?! *laughs*

CW: I kinda sat there by myself because I was…

LDR: You were under the stage?!

CW: I was under the stage! Is that bad?

LDR: Did you see up my skirt?

CW: No no no, I was… I couldn’t see anything!

LDR: Oh right, yeah…

CW: This is the problem. I couldn’t see anything but I could hear…

LDR: It’s all about the music.

CW: …I could hear everything but I did obviously see the set at the start and it’s just so classy and artistic and… You did such an amazing job.

LDR: Thank you!

CW: I really did go into another world.

LDR: Thank you!

CW: I loved it.

LDR: I really appreciate it.

CW: Who would have thought, you know, way back when you thought maybe you might give this all up. I don’t know what we would do, I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t experience that performance just then…

LDR: Ahhh!

CW: But what would you do? If you weren’t doing this...

LDR: What would I do if I wasn’t doing this? Well, for the last 10 years, I mean, I’ve worked sort of in, uh, I mean, I guess you would just kind of generalize as service work in Manhattan, in New York, and music was kind of an afterthought that sort of, you know, like I started writing at night, um, after work and after school, um, so I think I’d just go back to that, being more involved in my community in New York. *laughs* This sounds like a Miss America uh… answer!

CW: *laughs* Miss America for 2012.

LDR: Yeah.

CW: You studied metaphysics?

LDR: Mm-mm.

CW: Tell me about that!

LDR: Well, it depends on what branch you study, um, I was interested in the origin of reality and how it came to be, basically how we came to be right here right now, and the history of the soul and where it goes after this life is over, and so it was just this like in in-depth… yeah, 4 years of school.

CW: Where do we go, please tell me. Somewhere special and pretty.

LDR: I don’t, I don’t know where we go but I know that we have to be very good to…

CW: To go to a good place.

LDR: *laughs* To go to a good place, yeah.

CW: And were you studying as well as writing your music, or was that a separate thing?

LDR: Yeah, I mean, my last 2 years I told my teachers I was gonna be a singer so they gave me an independent course and I lived, uh, I lived outside of New York in New Jersey and started making my record with this guy who was kind of a famous producer in Manhattan named David, and so, I mean, it was on my mind, it was something I wanted to do. I didn’t really think it would work but, um, I really wanted it to happen.

CW: Now, post-Saturday Night Live performance, obviously with all that backlash, do you feel like now you still have something to prove with your music?

LDR: Um… I mean, I never felt like I had anything to prove. I felt like, you know, they were a bunch of assholes for being so critical…

CW: *laughs* Love it!

LDR: Um, you know, because like… I mean, like, you know, I was a person who wanted to become a really beautiful poet and I wrote my songs and, like, made a record that I loved and I thought that there was kinda where the focus should be and, for me, I felt like I’ve kinda walked on this road alone for a really long time, so I never really feel like I have to redeem myself ‘cause I don’t really talk to that many people, so I kinda do my thing.

CW: Yeah. And why, why do you do your thing? Why do you love music so much? Why do you do what you do? Do you think.

LDR: I think because when I was younger singing was one of the only things that I thought I might be good at. There wasn’t that much else that I knew how to do very well…

CW: And this is what it was and you just went with it?

LDR: Yeah, yeah, I thought it’d, it’d be good if I could do something that, yeah, I loved. *laughs*

CW: It’s good to be able to not work a day in your life and actually enjoy what you do, right?

LDR: Um… Yeah, it’s nice to do what you love. I mean, it’s important and I think when you start doing that other doors start opening and you realize it’s the right thing to do.

CW: I’m absolutely obsessed with your album Born To Die, it’s, I know it’s cliché but it changed my life and it’s my favorite album so far of 2012.

LDR: Wow.

CW: I mean, from those classic sounds of uh, Born To Die to that hip-hop flavor that you bring in um, Off To The Races, now obviously influenced by the 50s and 60s… Why did you fall in love with those eras?

LDR: I mean, I didn’t really find those eras, those eras found me, like, I have just kind of a naturally classical disposition and so when I started writing by myself people came up to me and asked me why I liked the 50s, why I liked David Lynch, and then I started looking into the 50s and watching David Lynch but I kinda was well suited to, like, all those kinds of things before…

CW: How did you even get to know those kinds of artists, was it your parents that introduced you?

LDR: Mmmmm... no.

CW: Or did you just, sort of did you own research?

LDR: Oh just later, I guess just later on, just started researching, I don’t know, everyone I… all the greats. Yeah.

CW: Well, I really loved in particular how your music videos have evolved, from Video Games…

LDR: Thanks!

CW: …which is, like, your own homemade style, to your latest one Summertime Sadness with Jamie King! How the hell did you get to work with her and all the people that made that cinematic film clip of yours?

LDR: Um, well that is actually one of the nicest things that’s happened to me. Um, James has become one of my dearest friends and I met her in California and she came up to me with her husband, who’s an amazing director and it was when I was singing, like, at a hotel and she told me that she loved the record and then uh, a couple of months later we got back together and she wanted to, you know, we’ve just been friends and she wanted to be in the video and her husband directed it and our good friend co-directed it, Spencer Susser, who’s also a good director in Hollywood and we just became a little family!

CW: I like it!

LDR: Yeah.

CW: Have you become best friends with A$AP Rocky as well because I know he’s a fan and…

LDR: *laughs* With A$AP Rocky?

CW: …you liked my t-shirt, remember?

LDR: Oh yeah, of course, of course, of course! Yes! She’s wearing an A$AP Rocky t-shirt.

CW: Yeah, I made that especially for you ‘cause I thought “I wanna impress Lana Del Rey”.

LDR: Thank you, I appreciate it, I appreciate it! * laughs*

CW: And everyone keeps saying to me “Why didn’t you put Lana Del Rey’s face in the t-shirt?”

LDR: No, this is way cooler!

CW: Come on! That would be a bit obvious!

LDR: That was the right way to get to me, that’s like dating someone’s sister to get to the girl, it’s really good.

CW: And I thought I may freak you out if I have your face on my shirt while I’m interviewing you, but anyway, I’m glad you’re impressed.

LDR: *laughs*

CW: I wanted to ask you, with National Anthem and featuring him in that video, did you get any backlash from, that, Grassy Knoll, you know, reenactment?

LDR: Um…

CW: Obviously with Americans being so patriotic?

LDR: To be honest I didn’t hear anything about it.

CW: Neither did I, that’s actually why I wanted to ask you!

LDR: I, actually didn’t, I actually didn’t hear anything about it, I mean…

CW: It’s kinda interesting, then.

LDR: You know, like, I was, you know… I tried to be respectful, um, but sometimes…

CW: Oh yeah, you did it tastefully but, you know, haters are gonna hate! *laughs*

LDR: Yeah, that’s true. No, everything actually was okay with that.

CW: Now, we know naturally you’re just a fashion icon, you’ve recently done a collection for H&M – absolutely flawless, I have to say – and it doesn’t seem like you’re, you know, a celebrity headlining the campaign, it just seems like you’re just a model and you just fit in so well. I wasn’t surprised at all when I saw that. Are you into fashion as much as you are into your music, does it kinda go hand in hand?

LDR: I mean, the fashion world is kinda something I never really had much to do with until, you know, they kind of came to my rescue when everyone said they hated my record, they were kinda like “Don’t worry about it, you’re amazing”.

CW: Oh! ‘Cause you’re signed with NEXT Models…

LDR: Uh uh, uh uh.

CW: …and that happened, like, not that long ago?

LDR: Not that long ago. Yeah, I mean, I wear the same thing every day, I mean, I do like to wear flowers in my hair but I wear jeans and like a navy blue sweater every day pretty much, so I’m not that fashionable, but uh…

CW: Oh, you are, let me ensure you, you’re a fashion icon to everybody, including myself.

LDR: Uh uh, yeah…*laughs*

CW: Now, tells us about the EP Paradise Edition of Born To Die. What’s different about that?

LDR: Ah, well there’s just 7 new songs on it, so it’s just things I’ve been working on for the last 7 months, just… it’s just like an afterthought on the rest of the record and it’s just kind of like a final… a final thought, yeah.

CW: Just to put that whole album to rest before you move on to the next?

LDR: Yeah, yeah ‘cause I don’t want to make another record for a little bit so I’m just kind of gonna finish this one. *laughs*

CW: Yeah. Finish this one, have some time off, hopefully? Before the next one?

LDR: Yeah, you never know. Come back to Byron Bay.

CW: Come back to Byron Bay and hang out.

LDR: Lie on the beach… Yeah.

CW: Chill out and maybe make the next record here.

LDR: That’d be nice. I actually recorded 3 songs in Sydney yesterday.

CW: Oh, did you? Oh, will that be on the new album?
LDR: No, it’s for something else.

CW: Oh, what is it for?

LDR: It’s for, uh, I’ve been working on scoring these movies, actually.

CW: Oh, amazing!

LDR: So it’s for soundtracks, yeah.

CW: You can’t tell me the movies, can you?

LDR: Oh, I wish I could! I probably… No, I can’t, sorry.

CW: No, you can’t. Ah, I tried! Anyway, thank you so much for having me. Pleasure, I feel very honored.

LDR: Thanks for everything, you’re really sweet. Thank you!

 

 

 

This interviewer is SUCH a fangirl.

Also, when interviewers and interviewees constantly speak at the same time --->

 

Once again I need a little help figuring out a word/expression. It's roughly between 6:37 and 6:41, when the interviewer says "did you get any backlash from your ???, you know, reenactment?"; no idea what she says.

EDIT: Added it, thanks @@jess9715! I did not know that.

[jess9715 156]

@@elllipsis

 

She asks "Did you get any backlash from your, that, Grassy Knoll, you know, reenactment?"

 

So much stuttering

 

The Grassy Knoll is where JFK was shot in Dallas, TX btw :)

[DUKE 2,530]

I saw Duke speak about this earlier...how can you make youtube videos go slower? 

Just click 0.5x or 0.25x... prepare to laugh your ass off, to be honest.

[elllipsis 1,441]

Doing the Corriere.it Exclusive interview from March 12th next.