Dan Auerbach: 'Ultraviolence is so personal, Lana Del Rey is a true eccentric'

Ultraviolence producer and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach has spoken out about the experience of working on Lana Del Rey's new album, heaping praise upon the 'West Coast' star.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the rocker tand producer discussed stepping out of his comfort zone from blues to pop-noir - and lauded Lana Del Rey for her work ethic and artistic vision. 

"She's a true eccentric, and, you know, extremely talented" said Auerbach. "She has a definite vision of what she is and what she wants to be, musically and visually, which is cool. [Drummer Patrick Carney] and I have always just been, like, ‘You can take our photo, I guess,’ but she just like looks at this whole thing as this big art project that she gets to do, which is great."

Speaking of how he came to work with Del Rey, Auerbach recalled a meeting through friend Tom Elmhirst: "We went out one night with some people, some friends of Tom's and she was there hanging out, and I had never met her before. She didn't really know my music, I didn't really know her music, to be honest. I knew about her because, you know, she's in the press so much. But we just hung out and we like talked about music and realized we had things in common." 



He continued: "What started off as 'Let's get together for a couple days with some musicians’ turned into two weeks doing an album." Auerbach admits he didn't have to do much to the songs: "Her demos were so good, her songs were so strong that I wanted to get my musicians in who I love and get my sound that I get here with her songs and that's it. I didn't want to mess it up. She sang live with a seven-piece band. That's the whole record – a seven-piece band with her singing live. It was crazy."

Auerbach also revealed how Del Rey inspired him to take a more personal approach to The Black Keys' upcoming new album, Turn Blue. 

"I learned a lot recording with other people and watching them sing about personal experiences," he said. "Even Lana, watching her record these songs that are extremely personal and make me uncomfortable, there's something great about that."