Born to Sing - Lana Del Rey.mp3

[00:00.65]how are ya?
[00:01.14]I’m good, better now.
[00:03.11]Good stuff, so, you know the story has been told, over and over again,
[00:07.25]in a record amount of time, in the shortest time possible, it’s insane,
[00:11.35]so I just want to talk about now,
[00:13.30]and just talk about your interests,
[00:15.02]talk about what you want to talk about, what do you want to talk about?
[00:18.28]Me? I’d like to talk about anything other than myself,
[00:21.93]Yeah, I know, what a crazy few months you had huh?
[00:24.69]It has been different, yeah.
[00:27.18]You have said…
[00:28.30]one of the things I really like has been a constant throw out the press
[00:32.02]that you’ve had to do is that you said
[00:34.18]this has always been something you wanted to do, to make music,
[00:36.85]that It really lives and dies with the music, that’s it, the rest is whatever. Right?
[00:40.34]I like writing and I like singing, um,
[00:42.53]but I’m passionate about it because I enjoy the craft of it,
[00:46.17]but I do actually have a big outside life, outside music,
[00:50.16]Included in that, in those interests, um film,
[00:53.60]I mean, you…you are really into the ardour that feels really cinematic,
[00:56.76]I mean when you listen to it.
[00:58.15]Well, I’m definitely interested in like having a cinematic soundscape,
[01:01.66]like having a record, and I do, I do like film, yeah, I do.
[01:07.74]Did it kind of play any role at all, On the album Born to Die?
[01:10.24]I mean did you…you mean it’s impossible to make cinematic sound of music
[01:13.99]without having a scene in your head, right?
[01:15.99]That’s true, you know I think when I wrote the songs,
[01:19.15]I was sort of looking back to moments in my past
[01:21.88]and trying to paint pictures with my words about the way that things used to be.
[01:27.10]And when I met Emile Haynie
[01:28.61]who sort of been the famous hip pop producer for the last 10 years,
[01:31.69]Could I just stop you there and also point out for those who are listening that
[01:33.97]he’s probably the classiest beat maker in New York City. Emile Haynie
[01:36.43]He’s really classy, you know when I met him, when I met Justin Parker,
[01:40.72]I feel like I met, um, my music soul mate,
[01:44.03]and you know, Emile’s beat plus Larry Gold’s string composition really sort of
[01:50.10]started to make it cohesive, kind of gorgeous sound for the entire record.
[01:55.23]Because, you know, Emile makes modern day hip-hop soul music, I think.
[01:59.78]Yeah, like when I found Emile we were sort of an unlikely duel,
[02:04.07]but he knew exactly what I was talking about when
[02:06.92]I describe the sound of the record I was trying to bring out,
[02:10.25]and we’ve just been, God we are together so much, you know.
[02:14.00]I bet you…there’ve been times recently where you wish
[02:16.88]you were back in the studio in that safe place with him and just making beats.
[02:18.09]Yeah I do, a lot of the time, but you know,
[02:21.05]I’ve really found like a musical family within the three producers that I met
[02:26.42]and you know Emile’s been amazing, really supportive like, Emile
[02:28.88]he’s not even moving on to another project yet,
[02:31.07]we’re still working on like a mix tape to release in the summer.
[02:34.38]Awesome, fantastic, we’re gonna continue to talk to Lana Del Rey,
[02:37.87]and we’re gonna play right now the track from her new album born to die.
[02:44.46]just kinda…how cool is made of that all, by the way?
[02:46.96]Just gorgeous, it was crazy.
[02:48.85]Amazing, isn’t it? It smells of music in that.
[02:50.92]It does, the band was just like in heaven,
[02:53.52]Did they check out the Bing Crosby plaque on the wall?
[02:55.75]I don’t know if they saw that.
[02:57.38]We spoke briefly when you were in New York City once,
[03:00.19]shopping on 5th avenue
[03:01.47]I wasn’t shopping, I was like sitting on the corner,
[03:05.21]and they were all like, oh she now have fancy,
[03:08.61]
[03:09.66]You fancy, you think you get fancy huh?“
[03:11.90]I was like, great
[03:13.51]So you’re back up here in the UK,
[03:15.72]and I suppose given that it was very recent,
[03:17.93]we should give you a chance to talk about
[03:19.18]what happened last night with the Maccabees,
[03:20.54]you know, it’s early for…to be not doing a show,
[03:23.15]and it never hurts anybody more than a musician
[03:25.19]than has to cancel so what happened?
[03:27.41]No one wants to cancel but I just really wasn’t feeling very well
[03:32.24]and you know I was…I did the Meadville sessions earlier and afternoon,
[03:36.42]pretty much by the end of that I was pretty certain
[03:40.83]I couldn’t really go on stage
[03:42.19]but like I said I could’ve but you know never really had to cancel the show before…
[03:48.07]It’s gone to serious, you hear that?
[03:50.97]All of a sudden it got too serious there for a second
[03:54.25]all of a sudden it was like the end of The Incredible Hulk for a second,
[03:57.30]I would start crying, and you would start crying, and Craig would start crying,
[04:00.34]and everyone would cry a little bit,
[04:01.97]and we’ve thought better of the end…we don’t wanna go there.
[04:06.02]Hahaha
[04:08.16]Now that we’re talking about the live thing,
[04:10.13]because not everybody necessarily I think should feel
[04:14.40]once they make a record they need to rush on and perform it,
[04:17.50]I mean if you think about yourself
[04:18.80]and the essence of what you are trying to do with your art, with your craft,
[04:21.08]and you feel very comfortable in the studio
[04:22.59]working with your producers and the people around you,
[04:24.82]you know for instance some people when they think about public speaking
[04:28.15]it make them wanna throw up
[04:29.54]Yeah, most people.
[04:30.62]Yeah, I mean how do you feel when…
[04:31.74]I mean there’re some musicians for instance,
[04:32.48]if I say Dave Grohl one of the thing
[04:35.25]you know you look forward to most about being foo fighter is
[04:37.25]he goes “pull up and play alive man”!“
[04:39.11]But how do you feel when you think about the idea,
[04:41.61]if you see your manager come and say “at least do a tour”,
[04:43.90]how does it make you feel right now?
[04:46.04]Well it kind of depend on the day for me
[04:48.07]like obviously like I’m sort of more, you know, like I do well in the studio,
[04:53.15]because I like putting things together kind of with my producers and things like that,
[04:59.36]but you know ever since I went on the road
[05:01.89]and I realized how many people were out there,
[05:04.51]I actually feel pretty good you know on the road, I like to travel
[05:07.75]but you know I also really like Brooklyn I like being in New York so I miss home
[05:12.48]and I…you know it really depends on the show,
[05:15.27]like if it was…I probably wouldn’t play a really giant show,
[05:18.31]I would probably you know…but so long as they are kind of small I…
[05:20.90]I have a good time.
[05:22.43]Yeah right, and many who’ve gone before here
[05:24.06]whether it’s Neil Young or Bob Dylan or most recently Adele,
[05:27.97]these are the artists that say
[05:29.67]“look, if there’s nothing interesting what I have to do live, “
[05:32.57]then I’m gonna pick and chose how I present that”
[05:35.43]have you thought about like making it more special for you in the future?
[05:38.59]Yeah, definitely, I mean everyone on my team is totally aware
[05:42.07]that I like to cap every venue of 900 people
[05:44.63]so yeah those artists are good examples,
[05:47.48]people who did things on their own terms,
[05:49.64]and I think that people that I involved with like they are involved with me
[05:51.72]‘cause I’ll do things the way I want,
[05:54.77]what I really cared about was that the record was good, and so I mean…
[05:59.99]Too good now, huh?
[06:03.43]I know, it’s Ellen, off to their races.
[06:07.29]There you go, that horse is bolted, welcome to the modern world.
[06:09.82]And this has been an really interesting experience, I wanna talk about that in a sec,
[06:13.50]but let just make it light again and let talk about A$AP Rocky,
[06:17.23]this guy is just a real breath of fresh air for American rap music,
[06:22.27]and I know what a beagle you are as well.
[06:24.59]Well, I mean, you know I like the best of the best,
[06:26.77]I don’t like it all, but I mean you know like I feel like
[06:29.50]energized by yeah like good rap music.
[06:33.18]You are a very intriguing character,
[06:34.52]you know I just started see your music in the way you know
[06:36.74]you are the kind of subject matter of your song I think
[06:38.74]you find yourself meeting a hero in some
[06:39.97]pretty interesting environments you know.
[06:41.47]Oh I like that prediction.
[06:43.11]Right. And this’s been an fascinating experiment
[06:46.13]watching this all happen from my point of view,
[06:48.27]for one very specific reason which is the music that you’ve made,
[06:51.80]the art that you’ve tested along all the videos and photographs,
[06:55.08]the way that you’ve present yourself be honest or otherwise,
[06:59.03]that’s your, that’s entirely your business by the way,
[07:01.36]but I believe it’s absolutely honest,
[07:03.24]but what is done is it conjured up an essence of time that’s come before us,
[07:09.57]and yet it’s found it’s way to people in the most modern way imaginable.
[07:13.77]Right
[07:13.80]Have you thought about that? And if not, can you now?
[07:17.81]Well when I was putting the clips together
[07:19.98]like I wasn’t really going necessarily for a vintage feel,
[07:24.34]I just knew that I love the quality of vintage film,
[07:28.32]but I didn’t think that people would really
[07:29.99]think that like a hearkened back to bygone eras so much.
[07:34.48]When did you sort of become a digital kid?
[07:36.81]Because you grew up in the middle of nowhere,
[07:38.71]the internet’s become something that’s changed the way…
[07:42.01]you know, everything’s distributed and discovered,
[07:45.68]but predominantly music has been completely transformed
[07:46.66]and the industry has redefined itself,
[07:48.16]I mean when did you sort of become a digital kid
[07:49.78]and discovered that it could work for you as an artist.
[07:52.26]I mean like in terms of being a digital kid, I had different phases of it,
[07:56.85]like I remember when I was 14 years old,
[07:58.61]instant messenger came about so like we all met our bf over instant messenger.
[08:03.49]It’s like carry a pager of digital isn’t it?
[08:06.08]Yeah, I just remembered when that happened
[08:07.51]it’s like you just can freaking believe it,
[08:09.16]you’re like talking to like the most popular senior in high school
[08:12.34]and like “can you sneak the house to meet down the block”,
[08:14.92]that was crazy, and then you know,
[08:18.65]I didn’t really pay attention to the internet
[08:20.73]like I’ve always been a big believer in the internet
[08:23.67]know a lot of people who are sort of you know trying to use it
[08:27.42]to unify the world in a good way, and make our world one, you know, one small globe community
[08:33.44]where information could travel quickly and you know help could travel quickly,
[08:37.69]so I mean I never actually thought about in terms of like furthering my music,
[08:42.33]I was always putting up music videos on Youtube since I was really young,
[08:45.90]just because it was a passion of mine,
[08:47.75]I liked editing and things like that,
[08:49.91]but I always thought like if anything went well
[08:53.04]it’s because someone came to one of my shows,
[08:56.48]The traditional approach, “hey that’s good music, I’ll tell someone about it”
[08:59.67]Yeah you know I mean that was how I read about
[09:03.96]other people sort of getting their music heard, but…
[09:09.05]It’s interesting though because now
[09:10.20]that’s just a given these days in how we discover music,
[09:13.04]but this is a superb saga way here I just come up with in my head,
[09:17.54]this is on some broadcasting, this is classic broadcasting material.
[09:19.99]Back in the day, you have to rely on classic singer songwriters like
[09:24.05]Bob Dylan or John Byer to get the message across you know,
[09:26.95]they were the modern day information carriers, back in the day.
[09:30.72]Maybe.
[09:31.57]They were, I mean that’s to a certain extant how things change works to a song,
[09:35.27]you got a track with Bobby Womack on his forthcoming new album,
[09:38.84]with Damon Albarn and Richard Russell.
[09:41.08]I do
[09:41.95]How was that experience for you, working with legend?
[09:44.40]It was good, I mean I think they want me to come in after,
[09:49.35]like the day they saw me on Jewels,
[09:51.72]so really they just you know…
[09:53.84]Bobby wanted me to freestyle on just some of the tracks he had, Bobby
[09:58.89]he wanted me to just make a chorus,
[10:00.35]so that’s why I did, and it’s been a while now, but it was beautiful.
[10:05.97]Well I’ve heard the track
[10:07.07]Oh have you?
[10:07.96]Yeah, and I can tell you that it’s incredible,
[10:11.20]and there’s a note you hit on that song where you go hiiiiiii
[10:15.97]and your voice cracks, and I was like “this sounds like Bobby”,
[10:19.84]and it’s not, it’s you
[10:22.06]Oh shoot
[10:22.86]There you go
[10:23.82]Hey that’s…I haven’t heard it,
[10:25.67]I’m glad they’re gonna use it, you know.
[10:28.26]Well fingers crossed, I think it’s amazing, fantastic,
[10:30.16]I can’t wait for people to hear that side of you with that track,
[10:33.29]it’s gonna be good, interesting.
[10:34.95]Lot of things to look forward to, you know,
[10:37.18]in terms of this year, ideally having achieved so much in terms of what’s conventionally successful
[10:42.04]with lots of people watching Video Games, listening to the songs and the album,
[10:45.09]you know, you made it, you did it, congratulations,
[10:49.68]you’re a modern day hero,
[10:50.78]what do you want to look back on 2012? 2012
[10:53.62]And what do you ideally want to have achieved?
[10:56.54]I mean I think the same thing, as I sort of wanna achieve every year,
[11:00.36]which is just to have no regrets, and live gracefully,
[11:03.68]and I wanted to make a good record, and I did that, so that’s cool.
[11:08.77]Yeah, you did, and you know I hope you enjoy that process of getting it out,
[11:14.22]and the way people react to the music,
[11:15.75]‘cause you know as well as I do that’s what really matters,
[11:17.95]and thank you very much for your time Lana Del Rey.
[11:20.77]Thank you.
[11:21.85]And we’ll catch up with you when the time’s right,
[11:23.89]you’ve started planning any show out here again in the summer
[11:26.17]or is it too early to say?
[11:27.48]Um, thinking about festivals, kind of have to figure it out.
[11:31.18]It’s nice to talk with you.