Lana Del Rey talks Coachella headliners, her Grammy nominations, and why she loves Valentine's Day

I want to ask you about the upcoming Grammys. Congratulations on Did you know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Getting nominated for Album of the Year. Looking back at when we made this record, what does creating this work mean to you?

I didn't think I was going to make this album until I met him Mike Hermosa; He didn't consider himself a musician at all, he was a photographer, but he played, and I really liked some of the stuff he played. Then I turned that into an unexpected album for myself. I knew it was going to be an album after I sang incidentally to about four of its four-chord licks. I didn't expect to get four songs out so quickly, but once I get four songs out, I always feel like I'll write an album, if I think it's good enough. She wrote “Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard,” “Let the Light In,” “Grants,” and “Taco Truck” during the same time period. And with that little foundation, I said to myself, “Oh, okay, I'll just keep doing this until the end.” So this album kind of found me. Things didn't really go the way I thought they would that year, we had a lot going on, so I wasn't really sure what kind of life or legs the album would take. The other thing that I think pushed him was actually the album covers. We took almost as long to make the cover as we did to make the album. It was a slow process. But I really liked our album covers, and once I saw them all, I felt like there was a different energy about them. It's kind of like a picture is worth a thousand words.

One of my favorite songs on the album is “A&W“, which received a Grammy nod for Song of the Year. I think it offers one of the best musical transitions of the year; the song takes you on a journey. What was the intent behind the epic switch in the middle of the song?

That song sat in Jack Antonoff's mailbox for nine months. It was supposed to be a song, and when I finished making the album, I asked him to listen to it. You actually left the machine out, and it didn't include the “Jimmy Cocoa Puff” part you go to. He felt really strongly that he should. And I wasn't sure, because I wrote Jimmy's part 13 years ago, and I rewrote it with him two years ago. So I recreated it WhichAnd I made a different interpretation that was a little more flexible. At the time, I wasn't really sure if the move diminished the importance of the song, or if it took away from it in a good way, or if it moved it from a place to a better place. Ultimately, I would have preferred this song to move to a happier place; I don't want her to land in this sad place. So, it's interesting: When Jack has a really strong opinion, I've definitely learned that he's worth trusting. Sometimes our musical inclinations are very different, but with this music, I'm so glad we followed our inclinations. If you ask me, I didn't think this song would get any attention. But I'm really happy about it. I think it's great.