Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey splits opinion
Singer-songwriter splits opinion. Some succumb to her melancholic, cinematic take on pop, while others insist she is a manufactured charlatan, writes Shaun Curran
For someone as talented as Lana Del Rey, it might surprise some to find out that the singer-songwriter dreads performing in front of an audience. "Getting on stage is the part I like least about my job," admits Del Rey, one of pop's most contentious figures. "I love to write and produce music, but everything that comes after that is difficult for me."
As far as the singer goes, this opening gambit might not quite be on par with the "I wish I was already dead" quote that caused a stir in recent weeks, but it gives a suitably accurate glimpse into the Lana Del Rey enigma. With her major-label debut album, Born to Die, having sold 5 million copies, all should be well in the 28-year-old musician's world.
Yet, as the two sample sound bites suggest, that is far from the case. Del Rey is a complex character; one who divides opinion. For everyone taken with her melancholic, cinematic take on pop, there are others who will insist she is nothing but a manufactured charlatan with little substance.
"I haven't yet found that easy path towards happiness," she says. "It's been years since I've felt at peace. That's been my theme in life: trudging the road to happiness. Definitely a happy destiny, but it's trudged.
"For me, there are moments of pure happiness, but you can't achieve that over a sustained period of time. You try to make those as many as possible. Happiness is not a static state, it's an active state. That's the ancient Greek definition - it's not a state of rest, it's a process."
If creating music - music that has proved incredibly popular with some of the most devoted fans in modern pop - doesn't offer her that route to happiness or peace of mind, then it makes one consider what could. "By being a patient person," she says. "By surrounding myself with those I love and by being generous and seeking serenity. In general, I have found that devoting your life to the people around you and caring for them is the true road to general happiness."
In the few past interviews that have ranged from the emotional to the faintly disturbing, Del Rey has spoken about believing in alternative ways of being.
"My life has gone through various incarnations, mostly transitions. But I don't consider myself to be someone very provocative or radical - I embrace a lot of traditional things. But I believe in alternative lifestyles and in alternative relationships. I think we've lost the kind of cultural and personal liberation that we were exploring in the 1960s, when people were talking about experiencing a new concept of freedom. That was a much more exciting notion than the freedom we talk about now."
Her third album, Ultraviolence, has just been released and has much to live up to after Born to Die, with its viral hit Video Games helping Del Rey reach over 100 million YouTube hits. Unsurprisingly, given her nature, the fruits of Ultraviolence - "I love the idea of having a one-word title because I think that has a beautiful simplicity" - were formed in solitude.