They mistook my kindness for weakness
I fucked up, I know that, but Jesus
Can’t a girl just do the best she can?
~read the full lyrics here~

Annie Mac premiered Lana Del Rey‘s new song ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’ on BBC Radio 1 this evening. Lana also gave an interview which you can listen to here or read below.

The song is available in various iTunes stores and is available to stream on Spotify. Click here for other places and be sure to check out the music video below, shot with friends by Chuck Grant.

Lana will be releasing another song called ‘Venice Bitch’ which will be available on September 18. She is planning to release her next album early next year, and is considering releasing a poetry book beforehand.

Below is the Radio 1 interview transcribed as text. Please click here to listen to it as aired live.

ANNIE MAC: Big day for you, new music going out to the world.
LANA DEL REY: Yeah, I’m so excited.
AM: I’ve succumbed to this song. I’ve listened to it five times in a row. I wanna take your hand and go wherever you’re leading me on this song.
LDR: Aw thank you so much.
AM: The lyrics are so beautiful. Lyrics of temptation and affirmations. And I’m interested in the kind of perspective you’re speaking from in the song as well, because at the start it seems like you’re speaking from a female perspective, but then there’s the “I’m your man” affirmation all the way through.
LDR: Well the song is kind of about this time I took a walk late at night with the guy I was seeing, and we stopped in front of his friend’s apartment complex, and he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “you know, I think we’re together because we’re both, you know, we’re both similar, like we’re both really messed up and I thought that was the saddest thing I ever heard. I said “you know, I’m not sad like I didn’t know what’s what you thought you were relating to me on that level.” And I said to him like, “I’m actually doing pretty good” and he was upset and that was when I wrote the song, because I’ve had to do this so many times where I had to sort of step into that role where I was showing the way and I was sort of being like the brighter light. That’s why it’s so cool that you’re playing it because I sort of thought I would just put it out and it would be one of those things that I Felt good about just to have out there for myself, but ti’s cool to be able to share it with people too. I didn’t expect to do that.

AM: You’re saying about him having this perception of you that he thought you were sad and kind of messed up, even though you felt you were in a good place. Is that kind of the analogy for the perception of you as an artist as well? You came out smiling on your last album with a big, beautiful grin on your face. Have you felt that before, people putting you into a box as such?
LDR: I think it’s because when I came out, like around 2011, it was just so not ok to be different or like to have a little sadness or to be working through stuff. At the time everything was really polished, all of the music that was coming out. But now though, there’s so many artists who are similar to me and nobody’s perfect so it’s really interesting. It’s so cool for me because my music still has a little place in the culture because it’s really mixed out there.
AM: I’ve always thought that one of the great things about you as an artist is that you are unfailingly honest. It feels like you are really expressing who you are and, as you say, if you are sad you wanted to sound a certain way or reflect exactly how you were feeling at the time. It feels like you’re in your own lane in a world out there where people feel they have to conform to certain trends, but you’ve always kinda stuck to your own lane and done what you want to do. Have you felt tempted to go and jump on bandwagons or had pressure from people going “well maybe you should make your music sound like this”?
LDR: Well thank you so much for saying that and that’s why it makes me smile that you’re even playing this song. I’ve never really felt tempted to go much bigger, I’m always more inclined to go deeper which is almost harder becuase sometimes things get more obscure. But I have people I work with who want that song, who want the big song, and I’m like “ok find someone to write it for me”. By the way, I’m not opposed to singing someone else’s song, I love the idea of that. I hear songs like Rihanna sings and I think wow I don’t even know how you would even start writing that, they’re so beautiful. I mean at some point I could sing something that’s really catchy and sparkly.

AM:Is this a bigger project? Are you seeing an album coming out of these sessions?
LDR: Yeah, I have an album. We have like a collection of songs that I sequenced and I really love. I don’t think it’ll be out until the top of next year, just because I’m actually working on a little book of poetry. I think I’m just gonna self publish it and put it out beforehand, which is kind of random but it’s kind of another one of those things I just want out there for me. I literally might just drop these little books off at some book stores in Silver Lake and like beg them to sell them, but it’s kinda cool.
AM: This album then coming sometime next year, was there any kind of creative path that you really wanted to go down or were you just kind of writing and having stuff come out of you?
LDR: Yeah there was, it was in the vain of a rural canyon sound. And it’s kind of transformed a little bit because now there’s some surf elements to some songs. I mean it’s not really surfy, but a lot of like electric guitar. A little Red Hot Chili Pepper influence in there.

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