The Lana Del Rey Method

I actually read this book called Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He talks about burning every bridge except the one bridge to the thing that makes your heart the most on fire. And I was like, that's definitely singing, but how the fuck am I going to get there? Lana Del Rey has sold 41 million records worldwide. How did she do it? By using a simple playbook for success, it's just about any artist could copy. I mean, where for Billy Eilish? Lana's the best. Incredibly life-changing for me. And Chappell Rohn understood the assignment. It's time that painters, photographers and writers start using it too. At its core, the Lana Del Rey method can be broken down into three incremental steps. Step number one, run with the wolves. One of Lana Del Rey's favorite books, one that she's even encouraged her fans to read, is a beautiful book called Women Who Run With The Wolves. It's a spiritual guide to teach women how to get back in touch with their wild nature. But the real magic of this book that even men can tap into is what happens when you take the word woman and replace it with the word artist. Like this. Some artists choose their path based on what is laid before them. But it is not necessarily what they want. When you reconnect to the soul of your art, instead of only looking at the things that happen to be on display, you ask yourself, what am I hungry for? What do I really want? Finding your own path is not for the faint of heart, it's the harder. Pat. Running with the wolves means marching to your own drop. I'm definitely on my own path. I love the idea of honoring that. There's a real merit to turning inward. Running with the wolves means reclaiming your freedom. Like the reason why biker's and biker culture is so important to me is because we have the same primary principle in mind, which is free. Staying free. And for them, that means being on two wheels on the road, which is why that's like a reoccurring motif for me. Running with the wolves is when you stop trying to be a polite member of society. You know, I'm not a normal performer. Like I do what I want. Like if I feel like in a, you know, weird freaking mood and I want to perform that way, like that's just what I do. I'm not going to be like more normal just because I'm on like a national platform. Running with the wolves means refusing to conform to what's currently popular. Don't negotiate when it comes to your work stand totally firm and take the consequences. In terms of losing fans, I don't care. Period. Running with the wolves means accepting the parts of yourself that are uncomfortable, shameful, or difficult to confront. You know, there's a lot of stuff I could have not said in the songs and I said it anyways. It didn't always serve me. I didn't edit myself when I could have. But running with the wolves will also get you in a lot of hot water. They say things about me no matter what I do. Yeah. You know, it doesn't really matter about the performance. So how do you defend yourself against all these antagonizing forces that will try to take you down? Step number two. Creating an alter ego. There's another book you should know about. It's called the alter ego effect. An alter ego is a useful tool to help you handle the adversity of life with more resiliency. We can explore our creative sides while protecting the fragile self. Rebuilding one's life back up even more beautifully. Consider the physical qualities. What should your alter ego look like? How does your alter ego dress? What's their hairstyle? As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed, but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be everlasting. And then give your alter ego a name. I knew that I wanted a name that sounded sort of exotic and reminded me of the seaside on the Flourady and Coast and Lana Del Rey sounded beautiful to me and I just wanted a name that I could start shaping the music towards. Yeah, it's something beautiful. But remember, this is a process. Don't expect your transformation to be instantaneous. Elizabeth Woolridge Grant started out with her first alter ego, Sparkle Jump rope Queenie. Then came her Bay Jailer alter ego. Then her Lizzy Grant alter ego. And then her Lana Del Rey still spell with an A alter ego. Wow, but if you hang in there long enough, you finally get there. I say you the best days, leaning for big years, but you're very, very, very long. And then you do it all over again. Because being an artist is a constant evolution. Lana Del Rey is about to be 40 years old, guys. What? She's been evolving and reinventing herself for the last 15 years. Blue period, nice rose period, African era, not bad, cubism, crazy, neoclassical era, surrealism, era. Damn, it's not stopped. I've heard that the further along you go down a path, the path gets more narrow. And so it's up to me to try and widen that path. But no reinvention is complete. If you don't build a place for your ass kicking alter ego to safely live in. That's right. You need. Step number three. Create a mother fucking world. When I started singing, I just considered what I was doing in art project. It was always a plan to just sort of create a sonic and visual world that I found to be beautiful. Good artists create individual works of art. But great artists, they create worlds. It's almost like you're in your own personal movie, you know? Definitely. I've got my own world going on. It's easy to make one work of art that's good. Like, you know, good song, a good painting, a good photo. But it's hard. It's creating a complete artistic vision. Cinematic or cast-all, you know, uplifting sounds that, you know, where the melody of the strings tell the same story that the words do. A world that links all those individual art pieces together. An artist really needs a lot of space when they're trying to create something special. A place to cultivate a world of their own, far away from the real world that's around them. You know you've made it as an artist when your name goes from being a noun to becoming an adjective. An adjective that describes your whole cinematic, tragic romance, vintage Hollywood glamour, aesthetic. Luckily for me, I live right inside the middle of the age of the Hollywood sign. And this is how I spend most of my nights. Your world is all the choices you make that frame your art. That world becomes a refuge for other people who are just like you. They enter your artistic universe to help them cope with their everyday life, or to find an alternative point of view, or to feel less alone. I've just been making like moving collages online since I was 17. It's just a passion of mine other than singing. Image is important, but I mean, I'm a writer first. I've been a writer since I was very young, and I'm a singer second. The editing and the visuals and the photographs and the movies those come after. And then you invite collaborators who understand that world also. With Lana, we'll just kind of like have the mic going. Just kind of every sound she makes is what can be the cinematic landscape of the song. Like that last moment when she goes like, oh god. Oh my god. And those kindred spirits help you turn it into reality. Every night I used to pray that I find my people. And finally, I did. I had a vision of making my life a work of art, and I was looking for people who also felt that way. How about you? Are you ready to make your life a work of art? Are you ready to double down on it? It's time to start listening to your inner voice. And to start acting on it. So tell me. Have you created a life for yourself?