Lana Del Rey sat down with Scott Simon from NPR today to talk about her new album, her influences much more. You can listen and read to it below:
Lana Del Rey is one of the biggest names in music right now. She packs venues around the world, sings in the new Disney movie Maleficent — all of this from a woman who used to be known as Lizzy Grant, and remade herself in part with a viral video sensation called “Video Games.”
Del Rey is about to embark on a European tour, but first, she spoke with NPR’s Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON: Allen Ginsberg was an early influence?
LANA DEL REY: Yes, he was an early influence — the whole beat poetry movement, and Vladimir Nabokov, and Walt Whitman.
Do we hear this in your music, do you think?
I think the thing I really got from Ginsberg was that you can tell a story through kind of painting pictures with words. And when I found out that you could have a profession doing that, it was thrilling to me. It just became my passion immediately, playing with words and poetry.
Not everybody has thought it’s a good idea to have lines like “He hit me and it felt a kiss.”
Definitely. But that’s been the theme of my career. The thing about me is, coming from an alternative music background and singing for nine years, being basically invisible, I’m so used to writing for myself — and at the end of the day, I do it because I feel like I have to. So when I’m recording or writing, I don’t have other people in mind. It’s not always comfortable for me, but I don’t not say what I want to.
You’re perfectly entitled to say, “Listen to the song” by way of answering this, but since this is an interview, what are you trying to say in a song like “Ultraviolence”?
There are so many things, really. I guess one of them is a personal experience I had with a person who believed in breaking you down to build you back up again. And although that mindset didn’t really agree with me, there was something freeing in letting go, for me, [with] this particular sort of guru-esque character. It’s a little bit about being in love with the act of surrendering, about being confused whether that’s a good idea.
There are some people who are very uncomfortable with the idea of women surrendering.
I know. It’s just that I don’t feel uncomfortable with it. The act of surrendering sort of puts me in a different mindset that allows me to be more of a channel — because I’m not holding on so tightly to things, I’m letting go, and I find that in letting go I become more of a channel for life to really happen on life’s terms. I mean, maybe that sounds sort of metaphysical, but that’s honestly how I feel.
I want to ask about another song: “Pretty When You Cry.”
The way you heard it recorded is the way I freestyled it. I made it up on the spot with my guitar player and left it as it was with that session drummer, and just called it a day on that song. Like the vocal inflection has its own narrative, it’s not all lyric drive, it’s just kind of moments in time that are meaningful to me left as they were, kind of untouched. The fact that I didn’t go back and try to sing it better is really the story of that song, because that’s sort of me revealing to you a facet of myself: I don’t care that it’s not perfect. That’s why that song is more important in that way than what I’m actually saying.
Is Lana Del Rey a character played by Elizabeth Grant?
No. Lana Del Rey is exactly who she’s supposed to be: Free enough to be her own person, and that’s exactly who I am. I’m not like a persona. I’m not a caricature of myself.
When you have a gift — and even people who can be a little exacting with what they think of as your lyric content, part of it is they believe you have a great gift. Do you feel it’s something you owe to yourself, you owe to the world, to keep in good repair and to give people something?
Not really. I feel a strong relationship with God and I feel my ties are with him. That’s how I honestly feel. Everything I do, I do it for somebody I’ve never met before, something in the great beyond. That’s my primary relationship, really, is with something divine. I feel a connection as real with that as I’ve ever had with anybody on this earth.
Lana Del Rey’s‘s brand new album ‘Ultraviolence’ is out in Europe on June 16 and in US on June 17!
Buy ‘Ultraviolence’ here:
Deluxe Edition
Standard Album
Deluxe Box Set (includes LP Picture disc, delude CD digipack and four 12×12 art prints)
The upcoming new album of Lana Del Rey will be out on Monday, June 16. Listen to four tracks below:
BROOKLYN BABY (audio) – http://goo.gl/2rmKD4
ULTRAVIOLENCE (audio) – http://goo.gl/jwLHIx
SHADES OF COOL (audio) – http://goo.gl/r3gx6q
WEST COAST (video) – http://goo.gl/ImEiYL
7 million albums sold to date. 12 million singles sold to date. 1 billion video views on YouTube globally.
‘BROOKLYN BABY’ shot straight to number 1 on iTunes in 59 countries after going live yesterday.
Lana will be releasing her new album “ULTRAVIOLENCE” on Monday 16t June on Polydor. Recorded at Dan Auerbach’s (The Black Keys) Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and produced in the main by Auerbach himself, “ULTRAVIOLENCE” follows Lana’s stunning debut album “Born To Die”. Fresh off the back of a sold out tour in the US, Lana is coming to Europe for a number of festival dates including Rock En Seine, Vida, Bravella and Glastonbury.
TRACKLISTING
- CRUEL WORLD BONUS TRACKS
- ULTRAVIOLENCE 12. BLACK BEAUTY
- SHADES OF COOL 13. GUNS AND ROSES
- BROOKLYN BABY 14. FLORIDA KILOS
- WEST COAST
- SAD GIRL
- PRETTY WHEN YOU CRY
- MONEY POWER GLORY
- FUCKED MY WAY UP TO THE TOP
- OLD MONEY
- THE OTHER WOMAN
‘ULTRAVIOLENCE’ will be available in standard and deluxe editions on download, CD and vinyl. A Collectors Box edition is also due for release. The box will include a Deluxe LP Picture disc – 2 x LPs on heavyweight vinyl, a Deluxe CD digipack and 4x12x12 art prints.
Lana Del Rey recently tweeted out that she would be releasing this new song called ‘Brooklyn Baby’ and so she did!
‘Brooklyn Baby’ is the fourth track on Lana’s second album, ‘Ultraviolence’, which is due out June 17th on Interscope. The song’s appearance follows closely on the heels of the album’s title track, which the singer dropped on June 4th, and earlier releases ‘West Coast’ and ‘Shades of Cool’.
Pre-order ‘Ultraviolence’ and get ‘Brooklyn Baby’, ‘Shades Of Cool’ and ‘West Coast’ right away here.
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Lana Del Rey gave an interview to KROQ and KISS FM yesterday (June 6) and talked about ‘Ultraviolence’, her celebrity crush and much more. Listen to it below:
[Interview for KROQ here]
Down on the west coast, they got a saying…
Lana Del Rey is set to release her eagerly awaited new track “West Coast”. Currently melting online with anticipation “West Coast” is the first cut to be taken from Lana’s forthcoming album “Ultraviolence”.
Written by Lana and the legendary writer Rick Nowels “West Coast” was recorded in Nashville and produced by Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys.
Commenting on “West Coast” and “Ultraviolence” Lana explains “The record is finished and it’s beautiful – it’s so wrong and exquisite. It is absolutely gorgeous – darker than the first.
Lana is currently on tour across the USA and Canada with dates in Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, San Francisco, Montreal, Vancouver and many more. She will also be appearing at key festivals around the world, including Coachella, Rock En Seine, Vida, Bravella, Bergenfest and Glastonbury.
Lana captivated the world with her debut single “Video Games”. Her debut album “Born To Die” went triple platinum in the UK and she has sold over 6 million albums and 12 million singles globally, including her release “Young And Beautiful” taken from the soundtrack of the hit movie “The Great Gatsby”, her massive worldwide hit “Summertime Sadness and her haunting version of “Once Upon a Dream” taken from the soon to be released film “Maleficent”.
Tom Odell covered ‘Video Games’ by Lana Del Rey live on BBC Radio 1. Watch the video below:
