Lana Del Rey made a name for herself with a series of Youtube videos, and even more headlines with a recent performance on Saturday Night Live.
Now, the singer gears up to release her debut album, “Born To Die,” on January 31.
"Sonically, I always knew exactly what I wanted," Del Rey tells MTV. "That's really the only thing I do know. The rest of it was sort of up in the air. I've been a writer for a really long time, and a sort of bad composer, but a composer nonetheless. It was something I did alone for some time and then became a collaborative effort as I met better and better people."
Those people include Brit Justin Parker, who composed much of the music on the album, Philadelphia legend Larry Gold, who's arranged strings for the likes of Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, and producer Emile Haynie, best known for tracks by Kanye West and Eminem. Del Rey calls them "her crew," and they helped shape her ideas into an album that mixes both the light with the dark, the sadness with the sweetness.
"Justin started lacing the tracks with melancholic chords, brought out the bittersweetness that I wanted, and Emile kind of kept it really dark and f---ed up with his heavy beats, and Larry kept it soaring and gorgeous with his strings," Del Rey explained. "Everyone knew the direction I was going in, and it was very much a collaborative effort."
Del Rey will be all over TV in the coming weeks to help spread the word about her new album, and she's also making plans for a full-blown tour tentatively scheduled for October — one that she's already making special arrangements for.
"I'm capping every venue at 900 [capacity], because I don't want to perform for more [people] than that," she said. "So what I want to do is do three nights in New York, at like Irving Plaza, and then three nights at the El Rey in L.A., and then, in between, do 15 cities, and cap it at 900 venues. And everybody [at her label, Interscope] is onboard, so that's what we're going to do."
Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey – Video Games
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VIDEO: Lana Del Rey performs on Saturday Night Live
