Justin Parker, a 34-year-old ex-footballer, wrote the chord progression for Lana Del Rey’s viral hit Video Games. Parker has just been nominated for the Ivor Novello songwriting awards for his contribution to Video Games.
In an interview with The Independent, Parker spoke about the writing of Video Games and his experience working with Lana Del Rey:
“I wrote the chord sequence for the verse at home in Lincoln and thought ‘that sounds like a Lana song to me…She was amazing, she followed every chord. She wrote the lyrics and it was all written in three hours. There’s a melancholic side to her and we’ve both had dark times, so it was a natural progression for the song to feel that way.”
Apparently the record company didn’t like the track and refused to release it.
“No one [Interscope Records] liked it…We thought it was really special but they didn’t think it was a single”, Parker said.
According to the BBC, Parker worked with Lana Del Rey as a writer for around 12 months. They wrote a total of 12 songs, 5 of which made the it onto Born To Die.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO1OV5B_JDw
