Lana Del Rey and Zach Bryan have joined forces and finished a song together, and Del Rey didn’t hesitate to announce the news with a cryptic Instagram post.
Del Rey shared a carousel post on Instagram Sunday (Sept. 13) documenting what appears to be a recent recording session in Massachusetts with the country musician. The post starts with a video of Bryan walking through the studio, where several paintings of whales are seen throughout the space. The carousel moves on to a series of selfies, including one of Del Rey with Bryan and her husband, Jeremy Dufrene.
“Whale, we finally got our song done. And that’s no Lie,” Del Rey wrote in the caption.
Del Rey didn’t officially reveal the title of the mystery song, but the caption seemingly gives fans plenty of clues, and some questions as well. She goes on to thank Bryan, as well as “Sam and Shelby,” for making the trip to Massachusetts while she and her collaborators were working to “bring back Mother whale and moonlight roll on.”
Whatever those phrases ultimately mean for the song, the whale imagery could be central to the theme of the project. The paintings featured in Del Rey’s post are adorned with the words “Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean,” a line from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
Del Rey also gave a shout-out to Melinda and Doug, whom she described as “so aspirational,” thanking them for helping her and Bryan get something “that our fam is gonna treasure forever.” Melinda and Doug Kirkpatrick are the Massachusetts-based artists behind Flowerness Farm, a creative and agricultural project that includes Melinda’s paintings and the couple’s Diary of a Secret Mermaid project.
The Instagram post gives fans a glimpse into Del Rey’s ongoing creativity as she develops her long-awaited country-leaning album, Stove. She has been teasing the project — then titled Lasso — since January 2024, and earlier this summer, she said the album had been finished for some time while she was working on a companion project.
For Bryan, this collaboration adds on to an impressive list of his already existing collaborators and partners, which includes Bruce Springsteen, Noah Kahan, Kacey Musgraves and John Mayer. Bryan and Del Rey have crossed paths before: They both headlined Alabama’s Hangout Music Festival in 2024 and appeared at Stagecoach the following year. Bryan also previously shared an acoustic cover of Del Rey’s “Video Games.”
View the full Instagram post below.
