"My big sister studies German and is a film student, but also doing a business degree. I have friends all over." She has three siblings. Lots of my friends are into sports, lots of them are into art, drama. She's not sure when, or if, she'll graduate, and has no specific college plans: "I read and write so much anyway, I don't feel I'm particularly missing out." When she did attend school, she says, "I'd float. "I don't know how school's going to go," she says. Lorde has more than a year of high school left, though she hasn't been to class in a while. Her hometown, Devonport, is a seaside suburb of Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city, which hosts a naval base. She flies back to New Zealand tomorrow, where she'll have a week of downtime before more touring.
"My credit card was declined," she says, laughing. She recalls a recent shopping excursion in London, where, emboldened by her success, she decided to splurge on a couple of things from Comme des Garçons, which came to £780, and a hideously expensive cardigan that fit wonderfully and cost more than the Comme pieces combined. On "Royals" she critiques rock and hip-hop fantasies even as another part of her covets them. The family is middle-class – "standard," is how Lorde describes it, noting that her father drives a Toyota. Her mother, Sonja Yelich, is an award-winning poet who has been included in the Best New Zealand Poems anthology series four times, and whose last collection imagined the grim life of an American Marine in Iraq.
(It's where her moniker comes from.) "I'm really interested in the Ivy Leagues, the final clubs, all the really old-money families, the concept of old money." She sings about class from a privileged position, although one that boasts more cultural than financial capital. The refrain – "Everybody's like, 'Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece'" – is defiant but also a touch bittersweet: "We'll never be royals." "I've always been fascinated with aristocracy," Lorde explains.
"Royals" is a song about both succumbing to, and calling bullshit on, the allure of hedonism and materialism.
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