The Unstoppable Lana Shea

I recently had the amazing opportunity to interview one of my favorite independent artists, Lana Shea. Last year she released her first solo album Duality as well as the hot new track “Poor Girl Sangria” and I could not wait to talk to her about them. Starting her music career in Los Angeles, she’s living in Portland now and was able to join me on a Sunday morning call.

Thank you Lana you so much for joining me. How are you doing today?

Pretty good. I’ve got my coffee going. Most mornings when I have a cup of coffee in my hand, I’m in a pretty good state.

I would describe you to people as a hip hop artist who can also sing, but on your new album Duality, there’s more singing than usual. Is that you trying to branch out more and see what you can accomplish, or just doing what you really want to do?

It’s really funny because there’s people who think of me as a rapper who sings, and there’s people who think of me as singer who raps sometimes. The first thing that I was doing in LA was writing songs and playing guitar at open mics. I think of myself as a songwriter first, and then a vocalist second. Yeah, I can sing, and I can rap, and I can do poetry. It’s awesome because I’m really glad that I’ve had the experiences that I’ve had in the hip-hop world to give me a chance to work out those skills and feel more confident in my rap abilities. It’s definitely something that I’ve had a lot of fun doing and I have a lot of passion for it, but it’s kinda like one finger on the hand. The rapping is one thing, the song writing is one thing, singing is something, the concept and content, that’s something. I do think that Duality ended up about half and half, half rapping/half singing, and that sort of all fell into the title “Duality”, which is two sides. But it was very unplanned. I never know what’s gonna come out. I never know if I’m gonna be dropping some hard-core feminist lady bars or it’s just gonna be folksy sing-song style. I just let it come out and then I’m like, “Alright.”

So as far as the style goes, it just comes out, and whatever happens happens?

Yeah, I’m really big on respecting inspiration. I kinda feel like it’s a big ol’ magical gift from the universe. Often times I’ll have just one line of something that comes to me, and it’s like, here’s a new little morsel I’ve been given, and how am I gonna work with that? It just depends on what mood I’m in, and what producer I’m working with. It’s like half the idea has a life of its own, and then half I have to finish letting it come into being.

In the first track, “Duality”, there’s a lot of emotion and even self doubt. Was there a lot of self doubt involved in bringing on this new album?

I definitely had lots of confidence and lots of self doubt throughout my whole career, and I don’t think I’m unique for that. I think that’s a thing that happens any time from putting yourself out there, releasing art. Of course I’ve had a lot of support and have people who love what I’m doing, so I’m gonna keep doing it. But you also have a lot of haters. You get a whole bunch of support from a whole bunch of people and then one super negative thing from somebody and that’s the thing that stays with you. I don’t think there was necessarily more self doubt than usual in this project, but then again it was my first solo album and I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself to allow myself to be as vulnerable as I could be and also make it as good as I possibly could. It came together pretty organically. I didn’t sit down at the beginning and say “This is what we’re doing. We’re making an album, and here’s all the work we have to do. I was supposed to just be doing an EP, just a few songs. Between me and the main producer Tristan [Calder] it was like, “Dude. It’s an album.” It kinda had a little bit of a life of its own, like “Oh my god. Look at it. It’s growing. It’s getting bigger! It’s too big for an EP! It’s gonna have to be an album!”

With the track “Thyself” there’s such a focus of people really knowing who they are. Who you are, what you are, and what you want to get out of life, do you feel like those are questions you feel like you have a good handle on yourself?

Yes….In a way. I guess I would say that at certain times or in certain moments I feel very, without a doubt, connected to exactly who I am, knowing who I am. But as is included in that track I felt like I give my inner shit-talking self a little verse on there because I felt like it was appropriate to be honest. Probably five of six days out of the week I’m totally grounded, rooted in who I am and what I’m doing, and the other one or two It’s like “Uhhhhhhhh I suuuuuck. You’re terrible.” I also enjoy this concept I heard from Paulo Coelho, who wrote The Alchemist. One of his favorite things about life is that he’s a total mystery to himself. That he doesn't know what he’s gonna be like, or want, or need, or think every new morning he wakes up and it’s so exciting to find out. I like that concept of keeping in mind that we’re never done growing, and we’re never going to get to the point where we pass the test, and that you’re good to go from here on out. That’s just not how things work. I can know who I am very deeply and have my beliefs, and at the same time be aware of the fact that any day it could shift, and that’s okay.

“Awesomeness” is a very fun song. Was there any specific inspiration, or was it just something fun you wanted to play around with?

I think when I was writing that song I was kinda jumping around from being in LA to the East coast, doing some political marches in New York and DC. I was all over the place when I was writing that song, so the inspiration is probably across the board for me. I was basically just having fun, and at the same time recognizing all the problems that we have around us. I’m like, I know I have it really good and also WHY IS THIS WORLD SO FUCKING DIFFICULT? God damn it!

For the song “Makeup” I saw you had a very simple version on the piano you posted. What it turned into on the album drastically shifted the tone of the song. What made you want to make it what it is? It’s a sad song, but it seemed to evolve into a ballad of independence.

I definitely get very sad sometimes, and I’ve dealt with a lot of depression which I feel like everyone has. But I don’t like to make sad songs. That’s not my favorite thing to do. Sometimes I can’t help it. They come out. I really respect people who are open about sharing when they are going through something difficult but for me, I don’t feel good about that. I don’t like sharing when I’m sad. I would rather be completely alone in a dark hole during those times and then come back out when I have something happy and positive to say because I am overwhelmingly a very positive person. So I think a part of that song really came from me working with Tristan. That just came from us working together and me having this idea. It wasn’t a fully fleshed out song yet at all, just an idea. And he had some really cool song ideas. It was more like “Yes, that’s the direction I want to take this in.” It was starting out as feeling kinda shitty, and I wanted to bring it up a little bit. That’s one of the most amazing things about collaborating with people I think. You can take something you’re not really sure what you’re doing with it, and they can just put their spin on it and breath some different energy into it and it just takes a whole different direction.

You have a lot of empowering messages for women in a lot of your tracks, especially”Us Too”. What kind of pushback have you received for having that be such an important part of your work?

I feel early on I had plenty of encounters with really angry random dudes on the internet who were mad at me for being a feminist or whatever, but I think I’ve just blocked them all. When you have overwhelming support from people that you feel like you’re on the same page with, and then you have some outlying people who you would never be friends with if you met with in person, and they’re really hating what you’re doing, it’s sort of like, I don’t really think that matters. With “Us Too”, that’s been pretty well supported by everyone. It was partially around some of this “Me Too” movement, “Times Up”, the Golden Globes last year I think. I feel like it’s so unfortunate that this whole culture of sexual assault that we have in our society has been summed up in three words like “Oh, the Me Too Movement?” Like, what are you even saying by that? So I knew I wanted to write something about it. And this song was definitely one of the first times where I had a serious case of writer’s block, which I reference at the beginning of the song. I couldn’t say it. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to say it. I do think about how I don’t want to alienate people necessarily, even though I’m very comfortable saying everything I need to say, but at the same time I have grown up in this same patriarchal culture where I don’t want to be a “bitchy, nagging woman” because I have a negative conception of that just like we all do through no fault of our own. But once it started flowing, once I had that beat from Amp Live it was like: Writer’s block, writer’s block, writer’s block, and then whooosh! Oh okay, there it is.

And the quote that’s at the end of that song, where is it from?

See, it was in the inquisition when the witches burned.

Took out all the women making their opinions heard.

And ever since, that feminine has been obscured.

But the balance will return when you challenge what you heard.

That’s all me. That’s actually the first time I have ever recycled any of my old bars. I used that line in some freestyle thing a few years back. It was just these four lines that I felt were very powerful and perfect and sum up a lot of why I think we’re where we’re at. And I was like, “I have to use these again.” I don’t even know where they went, I just know I rapped them before. I don’t know on what, so I was like “fuck it.” That was one of the last things we did on the album too. I was like “Tristan, can we add this? It needs to be on here.”

Do you feel like the song “Questions” refers to putting yourself out there as an artist, or putting yourself out there in terms of relationships?

It’s pretty much the duality of both of those concepts at the same time, and I think I was sort of aware of that as the song was coming together. During the process of creating this album I moved from L.A. up to Portland where I grew up. Some of it was awesome, and exciting, and tumultuous at the same time. I would be going through a lot and it was really difficult, and then would come out the other side and be really happy and really calm, balanced and stable and grounded about how I was moving forward. I think this song came from a moment of coming down from feeling really anxious and nervous, not sure about what I was doing musically. I had come down from that an was sort of looking back at myself, laughing about how freaked out and anxious I can get. That’s why it’s a lot of questioning yourself. What do you get for put yourself out there? What do I get? And then it’s just all good.

What were the main reasons for coming back to Portland?

It wasn’t something that was planned, or anything I thought it would do. I kinda grew up between Portland and southern California. I lived in L.A. doing music for a long time. I came here on a visit and I think that all of the cells in my body were responding to the oxygen in the air or something. I had to come back to Portland. When I decided to move back to Portland I had no idea that I was getting ready to make my first album. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I got to spend a lot of time with my dad who lives up here who’s a jazz musician. I spend a lot of time in his basement just writing music. It was kinda the perfect place for me to come back to, and Portland has such a creative music scene. There’s so much cool stuff happening up here.

What happened with the Luck and Lana Kill the Computer project and those relationships.

So, Kill the Computer [Tristan Calder and Brandon Hale] produced most of the tracks off Duality. They are still a huge part of my sound, which is awesome. I’ve known them for so long. The Luck and Lana Kill the Computer project was a really, really awesome thing I got to do pretty early on in my career. We put out two albums, did some touring, it was really fun. It was a good experience and then it was time for me to move on. And that’s probably about as much as I can say about that right now.

Obviously I want to talk about your newest release, “Poor Girl Sangria.” Is this the biggest song you’ve released?

Just as far as audience and numbers go. Most of the audience is in Mexico because of the DJ who produced it [Fito Silva], but also...it’s catchy as shit! Not only is it getting a huge response from Fito Silva’s audience in Mexico, it’s also getting a big response from like, my little cousins. It’s one of the biggest collaborations that I’ve done. I always have people who are down who listen to my stuff as soon as it comes out, but this was like, Whoa!

How did that collaboration come about?

Man, it was so great! I love the internet. Fito discovered me through a track I did this year with a producer names Great Dane out of L.A. who is an amazing music producer who I am a fan of. I was just stalking his beats for a while and finally something worked out and he was into it. He had never let a vocalist rap on any of his music before, so I was really stoked about that. He’s a very well respected producer, so that exposed me to a whole bunch of other producers who pay attention to what Great Dane is doing, and one of those producers was Fito Silva from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. When you release projects with someone and a new audience hears about you, there will be sort of a plethora of up-and-coming producers saying “Hey, I want to work with you. Check out some of my beats.” which is awesome. It is a blessing to have people want to collaborate with you, but at the same time, a lot of it ends up being not that genuine. Like, “Here’s a person who’s getting attention. I want to get some of that attention.” With Fito, he did not hit me up immediately wanting to collaborate. He just started interacting with me online, and he was really supportive. He started listening to my stuff which got me listening to his stuff, and then it was like, oh my god. And he’s just such a fun producer. I was definitely impressed by what he was doing. So after we had built a little bit of a common rapport with each other, it was like, we should do something together. I had this Poor Girl Sangria idea kinda floating around in my head, so I recorded the song, sent it to him, and he produced around it. It was better than anything I could have imagined. And then it got picked up by and electronic music label out there in Mexico [XDM records] which is dope because technically that makes this my first label release, which is very exciting.

What’s next for you now?

I have some really fun collaborations that are coming together that I can’t talk about yet, cuz y’know I don’t wanna jinx anything. But I think I’ll end up doing a little bit of touring in the for Duality. It’s an album that I put a lot into, and I love it. I kinda agreed with myself that I would focus on sharing this album for however long it takes before I get too sucked into a new project. I want people to be able to hear this project because I put a lot into it and it deserves to have a life.

Aside from all of the work that you’ve been putting in, do you have any current obsessions?

I am really into quantum physics. Now, “really into” might be a little strongly worded, but I’m very interested and I have a few books that I’ve never read all the way through but I pick them up and go through them from time to time whenever I get a chance or have some down time. It’s just one of those things along with honoring inspiration. I feel like anything that kinda comes to you that you might be interested in, even if you don’t know why, you owe it to the universe to explore it. So that’s been quantum physics for me for a little while. It’s something that I try to do some reading up on. Yeah...I’m kinda a nerd.

Thank you so much for doing this, so thank you. I can’t wait to see what else you’re gonna be putting out.

I really appreciate it. Thank you as well.