| [00:00.65] |
how are ya? |
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I’m good, better now. |
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Good stuff, so, you know the story has been told, over and over again, |
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in a record amount of time, in the shortest time possible, it’s insane, |
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so I just want to talk about now, |
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and just talk about your interests, |
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talk about what you want to talk about, what do you want to talk about? |
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Me? I’d like to talk about anything other than myself, |
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Yeah, I know, what a crazy few months you had huh? |
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It has been different, yeah. |
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You have said… |
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one of the things I really like has been a constant throw out the press |
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that you’ve had to do is that you said |
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this has always been something you wanted to do, to make music, |
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that It really lives and dies with the music, that’s it, the rest is whatever. Right? |
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I like writing and I like singing, um, |
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but I’m passionate about it because I enjoy the craft of it, |
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but I do actually have a big outside life, outside music, |
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Included in that, in those interests, um film, |
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I mean, you…you are really into the ardour that feels really cinematic, |
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I mean when you listen to it. |
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Well, I’m definitely interested in like having a cinematic soundscape, |
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like having a record, and I do, I do like film, yeah, I do. |
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Did it kind of play any role at all, On the album Born to Die? |
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I mean did you…you mean it’s impossible to make cinematic sound of music |
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without having a scene in your head, right? |
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That’s true, you know I think when I wrote the songs, |
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I was sort of looking back to moments in my past |
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and trying to paint pictures with my words about the way that things used to be. |
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And when I met Emile Haynie |
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who sort of been the famous hip pop producer for the last 10 years, |
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Could I just stop you there and also point out for those who are listening that |
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he’s probably the classiest beat maker in New York City. Emile Haynie |
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He’s really classy, you know when I met him, when I met Justin Parker, |
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I feel like I met, um, my music soul mate, |
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and you know, Emile’s beat plus Larry Gold’s string composition really sort of |
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started to make it cohesive, kind of gorgeous sound for the entire record. |
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Because, you know, Emile makes modern day hip-hop soul music, I think. |
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Yeah, like when I found Emile we were sort of an unlikely duel, |
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but he knew exactly what I was talking about when |
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I describe the sound of the record I was trying to bring out, |
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and we’ve just been, God we are together so much, you know. |
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I bet you…there’ve been times recently where you wish |
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you were back in the studio in that safe place with him and just making beats. |
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Yeah I do, a lot of the time, but you know, |
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I’ve really found like a musical family within the three producers that I met |
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and you know Emile’s been amazing, really supportive like, Emile |
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he’s not even moving on to another project yet, |
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we’re still working on like a mix tape to release in the summer. |
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Awesome, fantastic, we’re gonna continue to talk to Lana Del Rey, |
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and we’re gonna play right now the track from her new album born to die. |
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just kinda…how cool is made of that all, by the way? |
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Just gorgeous, it was crazy. |
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Amazing, isn’t it? It smells of music in that. |
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It does, the band was just like in heaven, |
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Did they check out the Bing Crosby plaque on the wall? |
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I don’t know if they saw that. |
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We spoke briefly when you were in New York City once, |
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shopping on 5th avenue |
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I wasn’t shopping, I was like sitting on the corner, |
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and they were all like, oh she now have fancy, |
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|
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You fancy, you think you get fancy huh?“ |
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I was like, great |
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So you’re back up here in the UK, |
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and I suppose given that it was very recent, |
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we should give you a chance to talk about |
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what happened last night with the Maccabees, |
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you know, it’s early for…to be not doing a show, |
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and it never hurts anybody more than a musician |
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than has to cancel so what happened? |
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No one wants to cancel but I just really wasn’t feeling very well |
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and you know I was…I did the Meadville sessions earlier and afternoon, |
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pretty much by the end of that I was pretty certain |
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I couldn’t really go on stage |
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but like I said I could’ve but you know never really had to cancel the show before… |
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It’s gone to serious, you hear that? |
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All of a sudden it got too serious there for a second |
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all of a sudden it was like the end of The Incredible Hulk for a second, |
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I would start crying, and you would start crying, and Craig would start crying, |
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and everyone would cry a little bit, |
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and we’ve thought better of the end…we don’t wanna go there. |
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Hahaha |
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Now that we’re talking about the live thing, |
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because not everybody necessarily I think should feel |
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once they make a record they need to rush on and perform it, |
| [04:17.50] |
I mean if you think about yourself |
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and the essence of what you are trying to do with your art, with your craft, |
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and you feel very comfortable in the studio |
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working with your producers and the people around you, |
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you know for instance some people when they think about public speaking |
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it make them wanna throw up |
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Yeah, most people. |
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Yeah, I mean how do you feel when… |
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I mean there’re some musicians for instance, |
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if I say Dave Grohl one of the thing |
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you know you look forward to most about being foo fighter is |
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he goes “pull up and play alive man”!“ |
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But how do you feel when you think about the idea, |
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if you see your manager come and say “at least do a tour”, |
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how does it make you feel right now? |
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Well it kind of depend on the day for me |
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like obviously like I’m sort of more, you know, like I do well in the studio, |
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because I like putting things together kind of with my producers and things like that, |
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but you know ever since I went on the road |
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and I realized how many people were out there, |
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I actually feel pretty good you know on the road, I like to travel |
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but you know I also really like Brooklyn I like being in New York so I miss home |
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and I…you know it really depends on the show, |
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like if it was…I probably wouldn’t play a really giant show, |
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I would probably you know…but so long as they are kind of small I… |
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I have a good time. |
| [05:22.43] |
Yeah right, and many who’ve gone before here |
| [05:24.06] |
whether it’s Neil Young or Bob Dylan or most recently Adele, |
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these are the artists that say |
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“look, if there’s nothing interesting what I have to do live, “ |
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then I’m gonna pick and chose how I present that” |
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have you thought about like making it more special for you in the future? |
| [05:38.59] |
Yeah, definitely, I mean everyone on my team is totally aware |
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that I like to cap every venue of 900 people |
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so yeah those artists are good examples, |
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people who did things on their own terms, |
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and I think that people that I involved with like they are involved with me |
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‘cause I’ll do things the way I want, |
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what I really cared about was that the record was good, and so I mean… |
| [05:59.99] |
Too good now, huh? |
| [06:03.43] |
I know, it’s Ellen, off to their races. |
| [06:07.29] |
There you go, that horse is bolted, welcome to the modern world. |
| [06:09.82] |
And this has been an really interesting experience, I wanna talk about that in a sec, |
| [06:13.50] |
but let just make it light again and let talk about A$AP Rocky, |
| [06:17.23] |
this guy is just a real breath of fresh air for American rap music, |
| [06:22.27] |
and I know what a beagle you are as well. |
| [06:24.59] |
Well, I mean, you know I like the best of the best, |
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I don’t like it all, but I mean you know like I feel like |
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energized by yeah like good rap music. |
| [06:33.18] |
You are a very intriguing character, |
| [06:34.52] |
you know I just started see your music in the way you know |
| [06:36.74] |
you are the kind of subject matter of your song I think |
| [06:38.74] |
you find yourself meeting a hero in some |
| [06:39.97] |
pretty interesting environments you know. |
| [06:41.47] |
Oh I like that prediction. |
| [06:43.11] |
Right. And this’s been an fascinating experiment |
| [06:46.13] |
watching this all happen from my point of view, |
| [06:48.27] |
for one very specific reason which is the music that you’ve made, |
| [06:51.80] |
the art that you’ve tested along all the videos and photographs, |
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the way that you’ve present yourself be honest or otherwise, |
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that’s your, that’s entirely your business by the way, |
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but I believe it’s absolutely honest, |
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but what is done is it conjured up an essence of time that’s come before us, |
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and yet it’s found it’s way to people in the most modern way imaginable. |
| [07:13.77] |
Right |
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Have you thought about that? And if not, can you now? |
| [07:17.81] |
Well when I was putting the clips together |
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like I wasn’t really going necessarily for a vintage feel, |
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I just knew that I love the quality of vintage film, |
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but I didn’t think that people would really |
| [07:29.99] |
think that like a hearkened back to bygone eras so much. |
| [07:34.48] |
When did you sort of become a digital kid? |
| [07:36.81] |
Because you grew up in the middle of nowhere, |
| [07:38.71] |
the internet’s become something that’s changed the way… |
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you know, everything’s distributed and discovered, |
| [07:45.68] |
but predominantly music has been completely transformed |
| [07:46.66] |
and the industry has redefined itself, |
| [07:48.16] |
I mean when did you sort of become a digital kid |
| [07:49.78] |
and discovered that it could work for you as an artist. |
| [07:52.26] |
I mean like in terms of being a digital kid, I had different phases of it, |
| [07:56.85] |
like I remember when I was 14 years old, |
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instant messenger came about so like we all met our bf over instant messenger. |
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It’s like carry a pager of digital isn’t it? |
| [08:06.08] |
Yeah, I just remembered when that happened |
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it’s like you just can freaking believe it, |
| [08:09.16] |
you’re like talking to like the most popular senior in high school |
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and like “can you sneak the house to meet down the block”, |
| [08:14.92] |
that was crazy, and then you know, |
| [08:18.65] |
I didn’t really pay attention to the internet |
| [08:20.73] |
like I’ve always been a big believer in the internet |
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know a lot of people who are sort of you know trying to use it |
| [08:27.42] |
to unify the world in a good way, and make our world one, you know, one small globe community |
| [08:33.44] |
where information could travel quickly and you know help could travel quickly, |
| [08:37.69] |
so I mean I never actually thought about in terms of like furthering my music, |
| [08:42.33] |
I was always putting up music videos on Youtube since I was really young, |
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just because it was a passion of mine, |
| [08:47.75] |
I liked editing and things like that, |
| [08:49.91] |
but I always thought like if anything went well |
| [08:53.04] |
it’s because someone came to one of my shows, |
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The traditional approach, “hey that’s good music, I’ll tell someone about it” |
| [08:59.67] |
Yeah you know I mean that was how I read about |
| [09:03.96] |
other people sort of getting their music heard, but… |
| [09:09.05] |
It’s interesting though because now |
| [09:10.20] |
that’s just a given these days in how we discover music, |
| [09:13.04] |
but this is a superb saga way here I just come up with in my head, |
| [09:17.54] |
this is on some broadcasting, this is classic broadcasting material. |
| [09:19.99] |
Back in the day, you have to rely on classic singer songwriters like |
| [09:24.05] |
Bob Dylan or John Byer to get the message across you know, |
| [09:26.95] |
they were the modern day information carriers, back in the day. |
| [09:30.72] |
Maybe. |
| [09:31.57] |
They were, I mean that’s to a certain extant how things change works to a song, |
| [09:35.27] |
you got a track with Bobby Womack on his forthcoming new album, |
| [09:38.84] |
with Damon Albarn and Richard Russell. |
| [09:41.08] |
I do |
| [09:41.95] |
How was that experience for you, working with legend? |
| [09:44.40] |
It was good, I mean I think they want me to come in after, |
| [09:49.35] |
like the day they saw me on Jewels, |
| [09:51.72] |
so really they just you know… |
| [09:53.84] |
Bobby wanted me to freestyle on just some of the tracks he had, Bobby |
| [09:58.89] |
he wanted me to just make a chorus, |
| [10:00.35] |
so that’s why I did, and it’s been a while now, but it was beautiful. |
| [10:05.97] |
Well I’ve heard the track |
| [10:07.07] |
Oh have you? |
| [10:07.96] |
Yeah, and I can tell you that it’s incredible, |
| [10:11.20] |
and there’s a note you hit on that song where you go hiiiiiii |
| [10:15.97] |
and your voice cracks, and I was like “this sounds like Bobby”, |
| [10:19.84] |
and it’s not, it’s you |
| [10:22.06] |
Oh shoot |
| [10:22.86] |
There you go |
| [10:23.82] |
Hey that’s…I haven’t heard it, |
| [10:25.67] |
I’m glad they’re gonna use it, you know. |
| [10:28.26] |
Well fingers crossed, I think it’s amazing, fantastic, |
| [10:30.16] |
I can’t wait for people to hear that side of you with that track, |
| [10:33.29] |
it’s gonna be good, interesting. |
| [10:34.95] |
Lot of things to look forward to, you know, |
| [10:37.18] |
in terms of this year, ideally having achieved so much in terms of what’s conventionally successful |
| [10:42.04] |
with lots of people watching Video Games, listening to the songs and the album, |
| [10:45.09] |
you know, you made it, you did it, congratulations, |
| [10:49.68] |
you’re a modern day hero, |
| [10:50.78] |
what do you want to look back on 2012? 2012 |
| [10:53.62] |
And what do you ideally want to have achieved? |
| [10:56.54] |
I mean I think the same thing, as I sort of wanna achieve every year, |
| [11:00.36] |
which is just to have no regrets, and live gracefully, |
| [11:03.68] |
and I wanted to make a good record, and I did that, so that’s cool. |
| [11:08.77] |
Yeah, you did, and you know I hope you enjoy that process of getting it out, |
| [11:14.22] |
and the way people react to the music, |
| [11:15.75] |
‘cause you know as well as I do that’s what really matters, |
| [11:17.95] |
and thank you very much for your time Lana Del Rey. |
| [11:20.77] |
Thank you. |
| [11:21.85] |
And we’ll catch up with you when the time’s right, |
| [11:23.89] |
you’ve started planning any show out here again in the summer |
| [11:26.17] |
or is it too early to say? |
| [11:27.48] |
Um, thinking about festivals, kind of have to figure it out. |
| [11:31.18] |
It’s nice to talk with you. |
