Lana Del Rey interview

For six years now Lana Del Rey has attracted and foiled critics with pop music that does not sound
like any of her peers. The mild, smoky voice, the judicious use of rap production, the juxtaposition
of classic American images and sounds with hyper-contemporary, crass language, from these
elements Lana makes music that feels at once familiar and strange.

Lust for Life is her most ambitious album yet, and as Lana explains in her third Complex cover
appearance, it emerged from a period of self-examination that, when it ended, left her "looking at
everything else" the world has to offer. Hopeful and questioning, the album engages with the
tumultuous and oftentimes terrifying politics of 2017 on songs like "God Bless AmericaAnd All
the Beautiful Women in It" and "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing." Elsewhere, this
more expansive worldview means features from artists like Stevie Nicks, Playboi Carti, Sean Ono
Lennon, and ASAP Rocky. "I was ready to have some of my friends jump on the record," she
says,"[and] they were all naturally a little bit lighter than me."

Lightness is, in some ways, the operating principle for Lana Del Rey right now. At 32, her career is
no longer "guesswork," the way it was when she first began. The questions of authenticity and
agency that greeted her upon arrival are irrelevant. There's only Lana Del Rey.

You were living in New York when you put out Born to Die and I know that you went from being
like normal New Yorker who rides the subway to Lana del Rey who's on Page Six and is the
subject of long thinkpieces in the Times.
That was fucked up. It just changed it. I remember I was working somewhere else and I was on my
way back from there and I was getting on the 6 train, and TMZ was behind me the whole time.

Your first three covers are all fairly serious, sort of oscillating between kind of almost sad and
maybe a little bit aloof on the Honeymoon one. This is the first one where youre smiling.
Well, the Honeymoon cover I thought was more just casual. I felt like I was in a more casual space.
But this was definitely in an even more lighter space altogether. My sister, Chuck, shot it, but we
shot it in the parking lot behind the scenes of my Love video. We didnt know if we were going
to get the cover but we definitely knew I was gonna smile. We took a couple frames, and we
developed it that week, and I felt like that was the one.

For being a fairly dark time to live in the world, its kind of interesting that this is actually your
most optimistic work, at least in its titling and its imagery. Whats the genesis of that?
Well there was a little bit of a shift in me naturally. I felt like I had kind of said a lot and done a lot
through the records. I was ready to have some of my friends jump on the record [and] they were
all naturally a little bit lighter than me, so that was kind of happening in my world. I felt like two
years of recording really dark tunes would not be fun.

--The last two albums, Honeymoon and Ultraviolence, it seemed like you concentrated on
making stuff for yourself, and perhaps for your core audience. With this record, it at appears
that there is a more expansive ambition.
I would consider it as a not turning away from the possible bigger-ness of it, compared to the
other two. Before, I felt maybe I wanted to be more protective of my own space and stuff with the

Is it freeing now to feel that you can do whatever feels good in the moment?
Yeah. It is actually.

Do you feel like that played into the larger ambition of Lust for Life?
Rockys on the record, and when hes in town and Im here, Im just down at the studio anyway. Or
the same with Abel, you know? Ill just go down and listen to what hes working on. I realized, Why
do I not have my friends on my record? It was pretty natural but I guess with Abel, everything he
does now is so big, so at another time maybe that wouldve felt like a little bit scarier or
something, but now it just feels right.

What do you mean?

Well, hes super out there and hes got a lot of radio stuff so I dont know if I wouldve known what
to do with a big radio song. Im not saying I have one on this record

But if you are to have one, you feel confident that it would be exciting?
That I would be happy, yeah.

--What is the measure of success for you?

The one thing that stayed the same is, for me the measure of success with the record is just that it
gets finished. [Laughs.] For real.

The other thing Ive noticed is that almost all the people that you work with are men. Is that
something you ever think about, or that bothers you?
Well, its weird because the people in my close production life are men. I guess Im thinking of like
Rick [Nowels] and my two engineers, Dean Reed and Kieran Menzies, who have changed my whole
musical life and my sound and my records. But in my personal life, theres just so many women.
Well theres not many female producers, for sure. Theres some great female songwriters though.
Thatll probably change.

---When you think about yourself as a songwriter, how do you think youve changed from Born
to Die days to what youre writing now?
Maybe just the ability to integrate my own experiences with what Im observing. To be able to
reflect back, like a good mix of inner world, outer world.

Toxic relationships were very much the fuel of a lot of the writing on those first albums, as you
have moved to a sort of happier, more solid place, perhaps making better life decisions
Trying.

--How do you think about your romantic life, and how do you think about it within the context
of your songwriting?
I feel like in this record thereswith the songs that are love songs, or about relationships, I feel
like I come off almost more annoyed about the way things are going rather than like, Oh, poor
me. Theres like a moving that I get from my own stuff, because sometimes my own stuff is a little
bit revealing to me, you know, about myself.

With a lot of artists who write very personal stuff, when they get to this point in their career it
sometimes gets more difficult to unearth and reveal those things because of success and fame
and the work.
Thats so true.

Do you feel like its a greater challenge now?

Yeah, but Ive never been somebody who turned away from really hard work. Im always looking
to put the footwork in. Like with the mixing, if it takes eight months I will mix for eight months. If
the master doesnt come back right Ill find someone else to do it. With the personal stuff I mean,
if I feel like Im just not getting it right Ill just keep on trying different things until I feel like Im
hitting my stride in that department. I dont know, finding your own path is not for the faint of
heart. Its the harder path. Its easier to just keep doing the same shit over and over again and
then be surprised when its still the same results. Somehow thats easier than just doing
something different.

A lot of what got written about you in the beginning, and in a somewhat real way, you had
developed a character. I imagine a large part you, and then perhaps something thats imagined.
As youve gotten further and further into your career do you feel like the lines between those
things have changed or blurred?
I mean, thats what most of the thinkpieces are about. You know, theres a lot of stuff I couldve
not said in the songs and I said it anyway. It didnt always serve me to talk about some of the men I
was with and what that was like, and then not comment on it further. So thats some of my
experiences and where I lived and what it was like. It wouldve been easier to just not say that and
then deflect all of the questions about it afterwards.

So do you think that was sort of overstated?

I didnt edit myself when I could have, because a lot of its just the way it was. I mean, because Ive
changed a lot and a lot of those songs, its not that I dont relate but A lot of it too is I was just
kinda nervous. I came off sort of nervously, and there was just a lot of dualities, a lot of
juxtapositions going on that maybe just felt like something was a little off. Maybe the thing that
was off was that I needed a little more time or something, and also my path was just so windy just
to get to having a first record. I feel like I had to figure it out all by myself. Every move was just
guesswork.

It wouldve been very raw and unfocused. There was no Slim Shady for Eminem at 22, but at 26
he had the full 360 package.
Jay Z talks about that too, like how he really, really lived by the time he was 26. There was a real
perspective he was coming from. So, yeah, its a real age where...

--How do you negotiate what you keep for yourself and what you are ready to share?
Sometimes I just cant resist to just tell it like it really is for myself and the way that I feel.

Extraidodo otra entrevista:

SN And your record, do you have favorite songs? Do you have ones that have your biggest
messages or ones that you think are the most helpful to all the people that love your music? All
the old women like me and the little girls that are listening?

LDR I knew that the first song I wanted to put out was Love because of everything you and I have
been talking about so far. Its just the age-old thing: love is all there is. And I really was feeling that
way. I made a lot of records for myself, chronicling my own stories, and Ive played so many shows
now, Ive seen all the same kind of kids and grown-ups coming to the shows, and I really wanted to
make a record for them. And then, Ive been friends with Abel [Tesfaye] from The Weeknd for a
long time, and I knew I wanted to put the title track, Lust for Life, out second because we have
so many mutual fans and I knew they would love it. And then CoachellaWoodstock in My
Mind I wrote on my way home from Coachella when things were getting hostile between North
Korea and the U.S., and all those failed missile launches, which happened the day after the first
night of the festival. I feel lucky to be able to speak my mind through music right in the present
moment. I think one of my favorite tracks on the record is called Yosemite. The chorus is [begins
to sing] We did it for fun, we did it for free, I did it for you, you did it for me, we did it for the right
reasons.

Fame can be isolating, but you are making a real effort to not let it be.

Its going to be isolating. Period. Unless you stretch past it. But it takes so much footwork. Getting
over the uncomfortability of being the one person in the room who everyone recognizes. The last
few years, Im out all the time: clubs, bars, shows. For years I was more quietly in the mix, always
through the back door, do not tell anyone Im coming. And now Ive relaxed into it where Ill just
show up. I dont need a special ticket. Ill just go sit wherever. It feels a little more like Im myself
again.

What makes you happy?

Im really simple. I love nature. I like hikes. Being by the waterI dont always get in. I love the
elements. Playing an outdoor festival. Love that feeling.

What bums you out?

Feeling like going backwards.

Which of your albums is the most autobiographical?

All of them. The last recordI listen to a song like Terrence Loves You, and I just really feel for
myself at the time. The person Im singing about[sings] You are what you are/I dont matter to
anyonedid I really just say I dont matter to anyone? Thats fucking crazy.