“I hope to spend the remainder of my life just making more stuff,” says singer/songwriter/actor/dancer/entrepreneur Lana Love during a recent phone chat. Lana already has quite a resume under her belt. In her teens she appeared in international musical productions for Disney and Nickelodeon; she’s found herself on US television shows on networks like HBO, Discovery Channel, and Telemundo; and she’s opened for the likes of Snoop Dogg and Wu-Tang Clan. During our chat, we discussed the possibilities of NFT ventures (something she’s currently working on) at length, in addition to Malinche, a Netflix documentary written by Nacho Cano and orchestrated by Hans Zimmer, for which she is credited as the lyricist: “The highlight [of my career so far] for me was writing a show that just got picked up by Netflix… They flew me to Madrid, I lived there for a while, I wrote Flamenco lyrics, translated it, cast it, and played in it.”
Lana is currently preparing for the release of her self-titled EP, which drops October 1st. Earlier this month she released “Ego Go,” her latest single, which features her backed by only a piano and strings, and which she has referred to as, “an internal dialogue between my Ego and my Self.” The emotional whimsey of the song and accompanying video are a stark contrast to previous single, “American Love,” a moody alt-pop track about the smoke and mirrors of the American Dream. She tells me this contrast was one of the ideas behind the EP: “Each song is a concept, so I wanted each song to be different. ‘American Love’ is about the defaming of fame, ‘Lost Boys’ is an anthem for anyone who’s been wronged by a lost boy… Each one explores the dark side of humanity.” Lana also tells me that it was important that the EP feel “real,” so she took an old-fashioned approach to recording it: “It’s all live instrumentation and recorded from analogue to digital. I wanted the EP to be as real as possible, so I wanted to make sure it was sonically as real as possible, too.”
When I ask Lana Love about her biggest musical influences, she tells me that it’s a few women of recent history who have provided some of the biggest inspiration for her: “I’m obsessed with Lady Gaga, especially the Joanne album, and Lana Del Rey. Any female in the music industry has dealt with sexual assault on some level, and I resonate so much with their strength and the way they transformed that pain.” And for those in the SoCal area, this Friday Lana Love will be playing her biggest show since the pandemic yet, which will feature her own music, in addition to some of that which inspires her. On August 13th she will be headlining “From the Heart” at the Redlands Bowl, with the Cool Classics Ensemble and “Music by Lloyd-Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Elvis Presley, Puccini, Lady Gaga, Michelle Le Grande, and some inspiring originals from her upcoming album.” She tells me that she’s very excited to be playing the 6,000-capacity outdoor venue, suggesting that we need more events like this these days. “We need more love,” she tells me. However, funnily enough, when I ask her if she’s had any favorite reactions to her music, she tells me that it was actually hate mail that she received about her “American Love” video that was her favorite.
“Someone sent me hate mail. They sent me hate mail on three different platforms [laughs]. They called me a Trumpette and completely missed the point of the song. I wasn’t making a political statement, but I had the flag, which I think set him off. That was sort of my goal [laughs]. But I did reply to him. I sent him a link to what actually inspired the song.”
