Lorde talks online “cleanliness,” subtweeting and new luxuries (“I’m gonna buy a double bed.
Lorde talks online “cleanliness,” subtweeting and new luxuries (“I’m gonna buy a double bed. I’m just gonna do that”)
Since the release of The Love Club EP eight months ago, this 16-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand has been deservedly blowing up the scene, and now Fader has a great interview up in which Lorde seems preternaturally savvy about the project she entered herself into after getting signed at age 12 (“I’ve always been very into cleanliness — there aren’t many photos of me online, and I do all my social networks and everything is very much the way I want it to be seen”) and just pretty cool in general:
“Royals” pokes fun at canned images of luxury. If not gowns and diamonds, what luxuries do you actually crave? A big luxury for me at the moment has been time, because I’ve been so busy always. Just being able to go to a house party or eat dinner at home, those sorts of things I’m definitely understanding the value of… But I’m gonna buy a double bed, I’m just gonna do that. Even now spending more than $50 on something I’m like, Ohhh, I don’t know. Money is like, weird.
What’s the appropriate response to a subtweet? I don’t know man. You should do the sassy, passive aggressive, slightly ambiguous thing. Tweeting is funny — you should just reply, anything. It doesn’t matter what you say, because they’ll know that you know.
As a young woman, have you felt it necessary to call attention to the control you’ve taken over things? Or to remind people that you’re both a writer and singer? Absolutely. I think a lot of women in this industry maybe aren’t doing so well for the girls. I’ve read interviews where certain big female stars are like, “I’m not a feminist.” I’m like, That’s not what it’s about. She’s great, but I listened to that Lana Del Rey record and the whole time I was just thinking it’s so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to, you know: “I’m nothing without you.” This sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff. That’s not a good thing for young girls, even young people, to hear.
Your mother is a poet. Did she put a lot of importance on writing well? I’ve always written short fiction and read short fiction. Short fiction is like the most difficult thing to do, because everything’s got to be short and clear and potent because you’ve got like 15 pages to create this amazing thing that people will remember. So I guess that stuck with me in writing songs. I guess in general, if you can say something in five words rather than 20, and it’s still cool, you should.
The reign of our Lorde is only going to get more bountiful; I sneaked a listen to a future single off her debut album, out September 30th, and it’s even better than anything she’d done so far.
[Fader]