Lana Del Rey Says That She’ll “Die An Underdog”
Lana Del Rey, Billboard award-winner, Golden Globe and Grammy-nominated artist, Met Gala attendee, and cover girl of this month’s Interview Magazine–has said that she will “die an underdog.” So… is she suggesting something will happen between now and then? No, Lana was just singing some more self-inflicted blues as she got interviewed by her Norman Fucking Rockwell co-writer/co-producer, Jack Antonoff, and claimed she’ll end her career being misunderstood. I wonder if she brought a little tiny violin to the interview with her or if they had one already prepared?
Lana and Jack got deep, but before she declared herself an underdog, she talked about her new album, Chemtrails Over the Country Club, which is supposed to come out later this year. Lana said it’s inspired by her “beautiful siblings” and the Midwest. Nobody tell Lana that Oklahoma and Arkansas aren’t technically in the Midwest or it’ll blow her entire weed-infused mind:
It’s funny, the record was Midwestern-sounding before I even went to the Midwest. What’s interesting about having a true muse—and it sounds kind of ridiculous—is that you’re at the whim of it. When I’m singing about Arkansas, even I’m wondering why. The one way I would describe the Midwest, Oklahoma in particular, is that it’s not cooked or oversaturated, and there’s still space to catch that white lightning.
Back in June, Lana got shit for posting the face of a Black Lives Matter protester standing on top of a cop car, as well as the faces of other protesters. But Lana told Jack that she believes the future is now thanks to BLM:
There’s no way we’re going to get it wrong. We’re really on the right path. The #MeToo movement was not just a passing movement. Black Lives Matter, no way in hell that’s going away. People talking out about mental health, there’s no way they’re not going to seek even more genetic testing to find out what they’re predisposed to. All the scariness and worriedness and disappointment at the same time is like being in a big rocket that is shooting us into a new emotional place, and we’re going to come out of it and be like, “I don’t want to go shopping. I need to go talk to somebody about something.
Lana then got into being an underdog because while people were out there buying shoes, she was talking about ~serious~ things:
I subscribe to the idea that what’s going on in the macrocosm, whether it be in the presidency or a virus that keeps us isolated, is a reflection of what’s going on in the individual home and inside bedrooms and what people intimately talk about. I think there’s been existential panic for a long time, but people haven’t been paying attention to it because they’ve been too busy buying shoes. And shoes are cute. I love shoes. But now that you can’t go shopping, you have to look at your partner and be like, “I’ve lived with you for 20 years, but do I even know you?” You realize maybe you’ve only ever allowed yourself to scratch the surface of yourself because if you went any deeper, you might have a mild meltdown for no reason, just out of the blue, and no amount of talking could explain why. It’s just a part of your genetic makeup. You could just be prone to panic. I think a lot of people are that way. I got a lot of shit for not only talking about it, but talking about lots of other things for a super long time. I don’t feel justified in it, because I’m not the kind of artist who’s ever going to get justified. I will die an underdog and that’s cool with me. But I was right to ask, “Why are we here? Where did we come from? What are we doing? What happens if this insane, crazy, sci-fi crisis happens, and then you’re stuck with yourself, and you’re stuck with your partner who doesn’t pay attention to you?” I’m not saying it’s more relevant than ever, but my concern for myself, the country, the world— I knew we weren’t prepared for something like this, mentally. I also think it’s a really good thing that we’ve gotten to this point where we have to bump up against ourselves, because it’s not going to be the same when the Beverly Center reopens.
I hope that underground artist Lana one day sees some of the success she’s been looking for. After her arduous struggle of being nominated for over 35 different kinds of awards and selling millions of records, I understand Lana’s underdog plight. Poor thing. Maybe there’s a spell she can cast to give herself a boost?
Pic: Interview