During her stay in Melbourne, Lana Del Rey was interviewed by Cameron Adams before her first performance at Palace Theater. Below you can read the interview
“I’m a great singer,” Del Rey said while in Melbourne.
“I love to sing. I’ve always loved to sing. That should have never have even been an issue. (My) record is so beautiful and so unusual. I did all those songs in one take.”
Internet naysayers labelled Del Rey’s divisive Saturday Night Live performance in January weak and over-hyped.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Del Rey says of the venom. “I knew it wasn’t going to be something that was for everyone when I did it. Nothing I ever do gets an across the board positive response. My career has taken on different stages from having nobody listening, to having some people listening, having people I never think would like my music liking it and people who I thought would love it turning into people who hate it.
“You don’t know what to expect. But if you’re a person who wants to become a beautiful writer you end up writing just for the sake of writing to enhance your soul’s experience. It becomes about the art again when people tell you they hate your music because it’s between you and yourself again.”
Del Rey, 26, is in Australia for a sold out tour that culminates in a Splendour in the Grass performance this Saturday.
Despite the hype albatross, her album Born to Die debuted at No.1 in Australia and has gone platinum. It is one of the biggest selling albums of 2012 globally.
“It’s hard to figure out what all that other stuff was about or where the hype came from,” a calm Del Rey said. “I’m not the kind of person who ever made mainstream music. But I’ve lived a very peaceful life for the last ten years. I don’t do controversy in my personal life. If it comes I deal with it peacefully. I don’t care what people say. There’s a couple of different worlds going on. We can tour anywhere in the world. The people who like my music can come and they like to be there. The rest of it is a different world, the world that the other people live in.”
Del Rey’s first sold out Melbourne show at the Palace Theatre demonstrated her vocal prowess – there was nowhere to hide with stripped-back arrangements – and her cinematic approach to music.
Some audience members were surprised at the headline show’s brief running time – ten songs and 45 minutes.
“It’s pretty short. We’ve done the festival circuit for the last three months, it’s more of a festival set. I have to change my string players in every country I go to, it’s become impossible to do longer shows.”
International success has opened up doors for Del Rey. She’s signed with a US modelling agency and is the new face of clothing giant H&M.
While she has been linked to movies, Del Rey is working on them behind the scenes, with offers to score four upcoming films.
“It’s the only thing I actually wanted to do. I always wanted to score films. Some of the most brilliant people have reached out to me to score their movies. That’s the world I live in. I was never very good all the way up front, but behind the scenes I always did a good job because I always knew what to do, I knew how to match the visuals with the music. That is something I feel excited about, hopefully that will become where things go in the future.”
Del Rey is performing one new song, Body Electric, in Australia. It will be one of seven brand new songs on a re-release of Born to Die later this year.
“It’s going to be called The Paradise Edition,” Del Rey said. “It’s the follow up, the after-world songs. It’s really good. It’s the final statement, the final thoughts on that record.”
Meanwhile the singer said reports she had a slumber party at the Chateau Marmont with Lady Gaga and Lindsay Lohan earlier this month was a Hollywood fantasy.
“The girls had a sleepover, I was working. I actually live at that hotel, I had left that night, but I know they were staying at the hotel. I’ve never met Gaga, but I know Lindsay. She’s great. Lindsay has been working for a really long time, that makes her a really interesting person.”
Del Rey spent 90 minutes after her Melbourne show signing autographs for fans in a dingy back alley.
“I just wanted to say hi to everyone. I’ve talked to a lot of people online from Australia. Australian people are warm and respectful, they’re not trying to trick you, they like you for the music and I appreciate that.”
Lana was also photographed by Morganna Magee before her first gig in Melbourne:
Photoshoots > 2012 > Morganna Magee x— 3 Pictures were added —x
