The end of the summer—that particular melancholic time at the end of August and the beginning of September—was made for Lana Del Rey. Her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, will be released on Friday, August 30, so naturally she’s been spending her time giving really insightful interviews, such as this one for the New York Times. Most of her answers aren’t direct, but while they lack explication, they excel in effortless hilarity.
When asked for her theory on why producer Jack Antonoff, who she worked with on Normal Fucking Rockwell, works with so many women artists, she said it is because he… plays many instruments? Lol:
“I think it’s his musicianship. I know a lot of producers who can’t play. He plays the sitar on one of the last things we did! I feel like what I can do in terms of grabbing a melody out of the air, he can do with a very minor chord progression and just like, mmm, magical.”
When asked if she’s nervous about releasing an album at the same time as Taylor Swift, she responded:
“Oooh. Well, it certainly makes me think more about what the [expletive] I’m doing with my life. [Laughs]
I’m mostly at the beach! So, yeah, I was like, I better leave the house and go do something. I mean [long pause, followed by a sigh]. My plan is having no plan, pretty much all the time, which actually works out very well for me. But I do have to sometimes snap out of it and be like, oh, music changes, culture changes. Sometimes people want more from you than what you are giving, so let me step up to the plate a little bit and show up for my songs. I wasn’t really thinking about the Taylor album and then it came out and then I was like, ‘Oh wow.’ I didn’t really realize these were a week apart.”
And lastly, when asked if she has realized her New Year’s resolution was to live “more like an Instagram baddie/YouTube vlogger,” she responded:
“It is going swimmingly. For as much time as I’m able to spend on my craft of songwriting, I’ve also been having fun and being a little badass. Motorcycling, surfing, wearing more neon. What’s funny is that post was a complete joke. But actually I have been having a lot of fun. So I guess there really is a true magic to the written word.”
Of course she it is, and of course she is!
She also says a bunch of stuff about Trump and the need for protest music, but that’s not nearly as entertaining. Read the full conversation here, if you’re so inclined. Just don’t forget, she’s “The Greatest.”