DAMN. I'm excited about this.!
New @vmagazine out July 6
Photos @stevenkleinstudio
Styling @robbiespencer
Interview #stevienicks
Text @willwrightsHighlights of the interview:
Stevie Nicks: So, let us start here on your new record. But let us first touch on the fact that your first record was called Born to Die. Now this [record] is Lust for Life.
In between that, what is it that affected you enough to go from Born to Die to Lust for Life? Because Born to Die is pretty dark and Lust for Life is pretty light. If you have a lust for life, that’s a pretty strong statement.
Lana Del Rey: Yeah, they’re complete opposites, and it’s funny because when I chose the title, I didn’t think about it right away. It was the title of the first song I wrote for this record. But there are so many things that have gotten me to the point that I’m at now. One of them is just time. And because
I do write everything myself, I just wanted to chronicle how I was feeling honestly, in the moment, for each record. So, I had a lot of stories that I wanted to tell that I hadn’t told yet up until this point. And now, through the last four records, I got out a lot of those stories and a lot of those feelings, and for the first time, I’ve caught myself up to real time. And now,
I’m at this place where I feel like I’m really present, and when I’m reading the news, I’m really reading it, whereas before I was a little bit in my own head. So, there’s definitely been a feeling of freedom and lightness being in the present moment. That brings on that lust for life feeling, when you don’t have all of those feelings about the past weighing you down. I remember an interview that you did once where you said, “Around every corner there’s an adventure waiting to happen,” and I’m kind of in that zone right now. I just feel like whatever each day brings me is something that I need and I want. It’s just time. Time has brought me here.
[...]
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. It’s 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 I’ve played so many shows now,
I’ve 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, I’ve 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 “Coachella—Woodstock 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.”
[...]
LDR: And
that’s been the theme of my record: being in touch with what it takes to do things for the right reasons. All the actions that you need to take beyond just the words and all the decisions that I knew I wanted to make this year. And that song [Yosemite] is special because it’s really a song about surrounding yourself with people who put their art and love first, who do it for the right reasons, not just for the money. And
I have a couple of songs, like “God Bless America,” and another song called, “When the World Was at War We Just Kept Dancing,” which is about what we’ve been talking about: trying to stay positive, and just believing that things are going to be okay. And if it feels like they’re not going to be okay, we’ll try and make them okay individually and then together.
Definitely more at the source, it's an interesting read!
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