#John: FIRST OF ALL I call Yoko mother but in the NORMAL parent way. she calls ME Daddy because Sean calls ME Daddy.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Look, I don't have the audio of this interview so maybe there's extra context that was cut out... but it is HILARIOUS to me how defensive he got when LITERALLY no one asked.

[lanadelreyfiles-blog]

Lana Del Rey says Donald Trump helped shape her album ‘Lust For Life’ — and the world needs feminism more than ever. The singer has returned to the world of music with her fourth studio album in five years. By Jacqui Swift for The Sun (UK). LANA DEL REY’s latest album glitters with an all-star cast. On ‘Lust For Life,’ her most impressive album yet, Lana teams up with heavyweights such as The Weeknd, Stevie Nicks, Sean Ono Lennon and A$AP Rocky. They are the first collaborations in her career so far, which spans five studio albums, including four in the past five years — an impressive work rate for the Los Angeles-based star.

We find Lana in upbeat mood in Santa Monica. “Welcome to our studio,” she says, all hugs and smiles. This is where we made the album and you must have a tour.” The studio belongs to Rick Nowels, her long-time producer and co-writer, who has worked with Nicks, Madonna, Tom Petty and Brandon Flowers.  Platinum discs cover the studio walls.“I’m so proud of Lana on this record,” Rick says. “The way she spontaneously writes and her ideas have just blown me away. So you’ve heard the record — which tracks did you like?” I tell him my favourites are the title track, which features The Weeknd, ‘13 Beaches,’ ‘White Mustang’ and her stunning duet with Nicks, ‘Beautiful People Beautiful Problems.’ The day before the interview we were taken to Dr Dre’s No Excuses studio, where Kendrick Lamar has recorded his past two albums, ‘Damn’ and ‘To Pimp A Butterfly.’ Lana is relaxed for our chat, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, sipping takeaway coffee. We play nine tracks through mighty speakers that reveal the full glory of Lana’s new record. Lana says: “It’s me at my most present. At my most integrated. I feel like it was me just getting to be myself in real time, which was good. I didn’t go backwards on this record and it feels a little bit less cathartic. But it’s still really personal, which is a hard balance sometimes to try and come from, wherever you are at authentically with the lyrics, but not go further than you want to in terms of revealing things. I feel I got the right delicate balance.” The album first began life with the brilliant title track, which Lana says she wrote a while ago. “That song changed quite a few times in the process from when it was first written until now,” she says. “We got Abel (Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd) to come down and feature on it. In the beginning, it had more a Blade Runner feel and less of a Shangri-Las feeling. A year went by and I realised that song didn’t feel like it was done. We started reproducing it to have more of a Sixties feel. I don’t know if that was because we’d written (first single) ‘Love’ at that time, which had a nice throwback feeling. I thought the whole record was going to feel that way originally.” So what changed? Lana says writing the album during the American election had a big impact. “I couldn’t ignore what was going on,” she says. “I didn’t really know the UK would have its own upheaval and confusion right at the same time. I was like, ‘What the f***?’ So were my friends. We were waking up early in the morning and calling each other to say, ‘Did you see that? Then in the studio we noticed we hadn’t been able to stop talking about politics. Then we stopped trying to not talk about it and let the record become about that.” Her track ‘God Bless America - And All the Beautiful Women In It’ was influenced by Republicans’ attacks on women’s rights. Lana says: “That is a great symbol of a song that is just about what the title says. At the time, I was thinking about the US where women were so vocal online and my friends in person. This was before the Women’s Marches and when there was some rhetoric being thrown around that everyone was uncomfortable with. What if they took away Planned Parenthood and birth control and shut down clinics? What are women supposed to do? So before the women’s marches started, I wrote that song very quickly and Rick loved it. It has really cool earth-tone keyboards on there. It feels like a good grounded song.” When quizzed in the past about her views on feminism, Lana has not been keen to discuss it. She doesn’t like labels or being labelled as anything. Today she says: “In my life I’ve got a sister and surrogate sisters. Things like that. Women have always been such a big part of my life. We were always just friends, there was never much need to rally. If there ever was a time, it really does feel like now and people are doing that.” Lana, 32, adds: “When I was in my early and mid-twenties, I didn’t really know what place I was going to go to as a woman. I don’t know if I’m going to get married. You’re still figuring things out. When I was younger in school, the word ‘feminism’ wasn’t really used. But it was a very important word for my mother’s generation. It’s a way more relevant question in the last eight months than it was five years ago. Honestly, now it’s my pleasure to talk about it. It feels more of a question that is relevant rather than something that could be used as a grenade against me, which sometimes I am willing to sacrifice just to annoy someone.Not you! There have been people in the past where I have been like, ‘F*** you!’” While being more relaxed personally, Lana agrees she also has more self-belief than when we last met. That was to talk about her 2014 album ‘Ultraviolence.’ “Yes,” she replies. “I think I’ve got some extra confidence. Music is a job and it’s like a second job keeping everything really normal. I still do so much myself. I drive here, I stop at the gas station and I get my coffee. I still go out.” Having been stung in the past in interviews, Lana decided not to do any for the album that followed ‘Ultraviolence,' 2015’s ‘Honeymoon.’ Today, she admits she has since developed a thicker skin. “I think so,” she says. “In the past not only were the people not friends, I knew they hated me. It was worth not giving a good interview just to have them not get what they want! A lot of artists are never going to alienate a fan because they don’t do anything weird or say anything that is a little off. I am not one of those people, I am learning! The only two times it has bothered me is when I was told the journalists were fans.” “I personally love the old-school approach where the journalists, the paparazzi or photographer would have the number of the artist and had an ongoing conversation with them — rather than go in all guns blazing. I feel like it is easier to get the truth out with sugar. It is nice to be able to just talk about the music. But sometimes some want to know what you are doing on Wednesday . . . well, that’s kind of my day off.” A standout track on ‘Lust For Life’ is the anthemic ‘13 Beaches,’ a song about Lana escaping the limelight on an empty beach. “I love that you notice that track,” she says, smiling. “It seems like a luxury problem but it’s this abstract concept of needing to go to so many beaches just to find one where no one is there. For me, so I can use that space — that actual, physical space and time — alone to think and to write and meditate. That was definitely one of the earliest songs, where I was still feeling a little bit impeded by being more noticeable in public.” Two collaborations on ‘Lust For Life’ represented special moments for Lana as a music fan. One is her duet with Fleetwood Mac legend Stevie Nicks on ‘Beautiful People Beautiful Problems.’ Lana insists she was nervous about performing with fellow American Stevie but calls the duet a “career-defining moment”. Another was working with Sean Ono Lennon on the dreamy ‘Tomorrow Never Came.’ Lana says: “That was the only one I thought was not ‘my’ song or not for myself. I wasn’t really thinking about anyone in particular when I wrote it. I had my little lyric about (John) Lennon and Yoko and I thought, ‘I wonder whether Sean would feel comfortable singing on a song where I shout out his parents?’ So I got his number and I FaceTimed him. I didn’t know him, so I was super-nervous. But as soon as he answered, he was just so excited. Then I was so proud that I’d followed my heart and I felt really rewarded for that. He has become such a sweet friend since then. And doesn’t he sound like his dad on the song? He sounds like himself but like his dad too. Rick also said that to him." Lana played an outstanding show on Monday at Brixton Academy in London. And we found time to talk about her plans, visually, for her upcoming live sets. We also chatted about her ongoing working relationship with rapper and producer A$AP Rocky. She says: “We are the class of 2011! I met him and Tyler The Creator then and it’s great that we are all still making music. Making this album has taken me full circle. I’ve moved forward and I just want to lean into that feeling. There’s been a lot of unexpectedness but I am good and everything about this record feels new.” ‘Lust For Life’ is out now. Lust For Life ★★★★★