LANA DEL REY FOR GQ.CO.UK

"My look? I'm going for 'I live in Monaco but don't f*** with me'," laughs Lana Del Rey. A delightful combination of wide-eyed naivety and trash-talking savvy, the 24-year-old New Yorker (born Lizzie Grant) is dressed in vintage high-waisted jeans by Versace and a folksy horse-print jumper when GQ.com meets her in London's Soho. Currently riding a colossal wave of hype thanks to viral hit "Video Games", Del Ray is slowly adjusting to her life in the spotlight: "I'm always just surprised when someone writes something about me" she says guilelessly. Here she talks about admiring Kurt Cobain, dancing like Snoop Dogg and asking the "invisible whoever" for advice...

GQ.com: Which question are you bored of answering already?
Lana Del Rey: I'm a little embarrassed by the "gangster Nancy Sinatra" thing. That was supposed to be a joke. No one listened to anything I did for eleven million years so I put all this stuff up on my Facebook page, [but I was] just kidding. You know how these things happen - if a big blog prints something about you then everyone just takes it. I remember one day I had eleven Google Alerts about it…

Are you more comfortable with the whole David Lynch association?
I would have been more comfortable with it if it had been something that was only mentioned a few times. But of course the David Lynchtip is not a bad way to go, is it? I didn't really know he was an influence but when I was 17 I kept singing in bars and everyone kept coming up to me saying, [adopts quizzical hipster tone] "Are you a fan of David Lynch?" I looked it up and realised that basically everyone thinks I'm a f***ing weirdo. I think it was because I was singing about disturbing things while being sort of happy.

Can you describe the way you dance?
I drop it like it's hot. You should come to my show. My dancing is Hawaiian-inspired but I also get a little fresh when it comes to my faster songs. I get down. Literally. You'll see. [laughs]

Which British man do you think has great style?
I would have to jump on the Mark Ronson bandwagon. [adopts indeterminate "British" accent] He always looks really noice.

Which lyric are you most proud of?
There was an older song that you've never heard called "Pawn Shop Blues". [sings] "In the name of higher consciousness / I let the best man I met go / Because it's nice to love and be loved but it's better to know all you can know." Because I remember I'd met someone so special and famous but I knew he wasn't enlightened about how to be a good person. I knew it would get in the way of me becoming a nice person. That's a difficult choice to make.

What's your hangover cure?
I don't drink. I used to a long time ago. I used to drink a lot, but that was seven years ago now. It's something I still think about all the time but I'm much safer without it.

How did you meet this famous person?
Um, it was in a self-help group. [laughs]. He wasn't that famous. I justthought he was famous…

TV famous or movie star famous?
Rock star famous.  Just middle of the road ish. To me he was famous because I didn't know anyone who was wildly recognisable. I remember thinking it was exciting at the time.

Do you get chatted up a lot?
By boys, you mean? Yes! I do. [giggles]

Do they hope you're going to sing about them?
Maybe so. I think the musicians do. The rest of them just hope I'll be their girlfriend. [squeals with delight] People are really talkative in New York. Someone always comes up to me and says hi during the day. I always say, "Oh, it's nice to meet you, thank you, but I'm actually married." Then I've had a lot of people say, "But are you happy?" I think that's the creepiest question. It's funny, but nothing is f***ing sacred!

You're a huge Nirvana fan. How exited are you by the Nevermind reissue?
Well, I'd have to say I'm not that excited because I already have everything. Bootlegs? No, I have all the stuff regular people would. But I mean, on a scale of one to ten how excited am I about ever having heard them and loving them? Just off the charts. Come to think of it, the first music video I ever saw was "Heart-Shaped Box" on MTV when I was eleven. It wasn't even the music at first, it was just him. [deep breath] Him is enough - totally. [smiles]. Two nights ago I watched Live At Reading, which I never saw [before]. I was sitting there watching it with my friend. It's weird when you see something that you have never seen about someone you love. It's like finding a gem. You don't want it to end.

Can you recommend a good book?
Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - that will help you. I'm listening to audio books now. I've actually been listening to newscasts on this new movement in biology of creating human life through synthetic chemical compounds. I couldn't believe that was really happening.

What's the oddest request you've had from fans?
I've gotten strange messages. I've had people be really persistent - asking me where I'll be all the time and can they come and just meet up. You know, you get it all. But it was kind of the same fanbase for a really long time since I was 17. I can honestly say it's only in the last three months that there have been more people at all who have listened to me. There are new fans out of nowhere, which is strange. I've gotten poetry - it's good too. Are there lots of "sweater / better" rhymes? No, that's all me. [laughs] I can't believe that's the one you like.

What was the first hip-hop record you became obsessed with?
The first Biggie Smalls track that I really loved I would say, just like everyone else, was "Juicy". I realised what cool was. I wasn't that young - I was 15 and my best friend at school, who is still my best friend today, was actually my teacher. He was a white English teacher who played basketball and listened to hip-hop. I didn't know what everyone thought was cool. He played Biggie Smalls for me in his car. I didn't really know that there was that space for storytelling in songs. I thought, "Everything I thought I could do, I was right about." You could keep it really smart. Some of the people I met were pretty traditional and I was [already] singing some sort of weird things pretty young.

The video for "Kinda Outta Luck" features a number of well-dressed men. What should every man have in their wardrobe?
I guess it does - I've never thought about that! That's a good question. I go for almost everything because I'm jumping worlds a lot. I like a good suit - Scott Disick-style. I like the whole pocket-square style but I also like getting back to basics - the wife-beater and jeans.

What's the most important item on your rider?
I don't have a rider. [giggles] I'm not that demanding. In New York I pretty much live in diners - I order French Fries, Diet Coke floats and lots of coffee. In New York, The Waverly is a good place to be if you want to relax because of its big, sparkly red booths.

Have you ever fired a gun?
Only a few times. I'm much worse than I thought. My uncle takes me to the shooting range sometimes - just a rifle and a handgun. It's really loud too. Last time the shells were flicking back and skimming my face - I thought, "Jesus Christ!" I think if I was a little stronger I'd get into it.

How many tattoos do you have?
I only have one. [reveals small design on her hand] It was scarily unpainful. I looked away and then looked back and it was there. I thought, "You can do a lot of bad things in one second that you can't take back." I did it five years ago. I think by the time I die I'll only have one more.

What music do you love that would surprise people?
I don't have that many guilty pleasures because I don't like that many things. It's hard to say what people think of you - my tastes haven't changed. I've listened to the same thing since I was 15. I've been listening to film scores lately because that calms me down. Particularly Thomas Newman's score for American Beauty - it's just sick.

You're up on the ceiling covered in roses?
Yeah, in my mind! [laughs]

How important is religion to you?
Like so many people, they always state the difference between faith and religion. The faith that I've come to find is a science of my own through lots of trials and errors. I've been through so many different walks of life that I've needed to ask a lot of questions that no human power can answer. I've had to seek a lot of guidance. I've had to pray a lot because I've been in trouble a lot. But it's not until you do that that you realise there are answers out there to be found.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
To thine own self be true. Seek and ye shall find. There's a science to prayer, I would say. I think sometimes when you're really faced with a huge life dilemma or problem and you've turned to every sort of thing for answers, sometimes the last resort is to pray and to put out a question to the universe in your mind. Even when you put your question out there, you ask that invisible whoever "What do I do?" you sort of get answers; you forget the problem all over again.

Who, in your opinion, is overrated?
I wouldn't answer that even if I knew! Everyone? [laughs] I can think of many people. As Fran Lee said, "Just because you feel entitled to share your life with everyone doesn't mean you should do so." [pauses, smiles] Such a bitchy thing to say...

Originally published on GQ.co.uk in September 2011. Read the original post here.