Lana Del Rey tells us about ‘Lasso’, the world going country and wild plans for Reading & Leeds

Lana Del Rey has spoken to NME about the “music business going country”, what to expect from her new album ‘Lasso’, and feeling “playful” rather than “vindicated” after proving naysayers wrong. Watch our interview above.

Speaking to NME in the winners’ room of the Ivor Novellos yesterday (Thursday May 23) after picking up the Special International Award, the ‘Video Games’ icon was in a jubilant mood as she reflected on her career.

“Because I met my managers 15 years ago, they spoke about this award since the minute I met them,” Del Rey told NME. “To them, it was just the crown jewel. When they heard that I had won one, it was kind of a full circle moment. Especially because I won one 12 years ago to the day – so it’s cool to still be here!”

During her acceptance speech earlier, Del Rey looked back on how naysayers at the start of her career would look down on her songs as “naval-gazing about just about my experience with challenging relationships”. However, much has changed she since. “Now, what we’ve seen is that those songs were not written about a small microcosm of people and women; we’re seeing an acute amount of things written about difficult relationships,” her speech continued. “Even when COVID began, the second epidemic in the United States was interpersonal relationship violence –it increased by 300 per cent.

“I think it’s amazing that female singer-songwriters have the freedom to write about absolutely whatever they want. It was always kind of nerve-wracking to think that writing about relationships would be seen as something self-gratuitous or feigning vulnerability. It’s a very vulnerable thing – not just for women, but for men.”

With Del Rey having just announced her first ever stadium show – and after a packed 12 months that saw her headline Coachella and London’s Hyde Park off the back of her critically-acclaimed ninth album ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ – NME asked her if she now felt vindicated against her detractors.

“No, maybe three years ago there would have been a sense of vindication, but now it just feels playful. I don’t know why,” she replied. “If you hang in long enough, it just feels easy. There’s no vindication, no nothing – I’m just kind of happy to be here.  It’s easy-going in that way.”

Before she found fame, Del Rey had “already singing in the United States for eight years”, before managers Ben Mawson and Ed Millett let her come and live with them on Kingsland Road. Paying tribute to the Hackney area in her acceptance speech, the singer-songwriter also thanked the UK launching her career here to her allow her a career back home in the US.

“I remember every smell, every shop, every beauty shop,” she told NME of her Kingsland Road memories. “I used to get green contact lenses – like, greener than my eyes – for my interviews to get signed. Ben [Mawson, manager] once saw me, and I had these massive extensions as well, and he physically took the little green lizard contacts.

“He stomped them and he was like, ‘You look like a lizard!’ Anyways, there are amazing beauty shops on Kingsland Road: past the fish market, the buses, I remember everything.”

She’s a long way from Kingsland Road now, of course. Del Rey told the Ivors that her current career trajectory feels like “being in a new ship, but I don’t just want to go forward on a stadium tour – I want to figure out how to turn it into a glass ship that can fly!”

The course of that flying glass ship has seen her upcoming album ‘Lasso’ taking her in a country direction. But what can we expect from her 10th LP?

“Oh geez, what can I say now?” she replied. “When I gave Jack Antonoff his award for Best Producer Of The Year [at the 2024 Grammys], I said, ‘Welcome Nashville to Hollywood and Hollywood, welcome to Nashville because the music business has gone, gone country. And it went silent; 5000 people, dead silent. Then the next week, we had three major artists announce big country albums.

“So where’s ‘Lasso’ going? I really have no idea now!”

Are the lyrics of ‘Lasso’ inspired by that same sense of ease, fun and comfort she’s been talking about today?

“Yes, I’d say so,” Del Rey offered. “I’ve maybe less to say in terms of any self-revealing things like on ‘Tunnel’ or ‘Blue Bannisters’ or ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’, and just more melodic. Maybe more American Songbook style?”

Will she be taking that country influence to her upcoming Reading & Leeds headline sets? What about getting some horses on stage?

“Ooh, do you wanna know something?” she concluded. “I actually thought about that!” I fucking did!”

Lana Del Rey headlines Reading & Leeds 2024 this August Bank Holiday weekend. Visit here for tickets and information.

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