By: Nancy Dunham

The Flaming Lips

For all the cool things that can be said about Wayne Coyne, perhaps the coolest is that he just doesn’t take himself that seriously.

At a recent concert outside of Washington, D.C., the frontman and founder of The Flaming Lips spent 20 minutes or so working with the band’s roadies to set up equipment before the show. And with his help, one of the typical Lips high-energy extravaganzas was underway.

“I love it. I love it like I love my wife and my family and my dogs,” said Coyne of his band and its music, “but I am completely untrustworthy – a fanatic. I don’t climb mountains or shit like that. So, I put my energy into music and I act like it’s the most important thing in the world. But I know it’s not. Everybody should love the things they do in their lives, the people in their lives, more than [they love] some stupid rock band. I know that.”

Let’s face it, you don’t hear many rockers who have won three Grammy Awards plus a multitude of critical and commercial kudos dissuading people from obsessing over the music they create. Yet perhaps that self-effacing manner is why Coyne, who in 1983 started the psychedelic rock band that has morphed into something of a cultural phenomenon, is so much more successful than many of his peers. While the majority of his contemporaries in other groups have long since disbanded or are now relegated to shows at small venues and state fairs, Coyne and his bandmates still play amphitheatres and have fans pining for new material.

The Early Years

What started as something of a lark for Coyne, his brother Mark and bass guitarist Michael Ivins – who has said that rampant drug use as kids is what led them to make “weird music” – has developed into one of the most influential bands of the day. The Lips could even be considered role models for alt-rockers with Coyne serving as the wise elder statesman. But it wasn’t always that way, and the path has been long and twisted.

The Flaming Lips circa 1989

After releasing its self-titled debut in 1985 with Hear It Is following in 1986, the band played a Buffalo, New York show supporting the Butthole Surfers. That show resulted in Coyne meeting Jonathan Donahue who later became the group’s sound technician and guitarist.

Despite what Coyne and Ivins call a more cohesive feel to their sound, it wasn’t until 1991 that the Lips signed to Warner Brothers. The Lips’ major label debut, Hit to Death in the Future Head, was released in 1992 and was quickly followed by Donahue’s departure to focus on his other band, Mercury Rev.

It took several more years – where the band appeared everywhere from MTV’s annual Spring Break broadcast to a lip-synched performance on Beverly Hills 90210 – for the band to build buzz. Of course, that was helped by a bit of PR when 90210 cast member Ian Ziering – in the role of Steve Sanders – said, “You know, I’ve never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!”

The band flirted with commercial success at various times only to stumble and land back in cult status. In 1996, it seemed the Lips would implode due to an array of injuries and odd accidents. Then various strange musical experiments, including 1997′s Zaireeka, a set of four discs designed to be played simultaneously, created the impression that Coyne and his band were just plain odd.

“Sometimes you want everything to be like it was with your first album where everything is new and anything is possible,” Coyne said. “If you have enough experience you always know everything involved. We have made about 12 records by now and you get in these quagmires. It can be difficult.”

The Flaming Lips

But, according to Ivins, a brotherhood of sorts is what has always keeps the band moving ahead musically.

“I would hope that in the big picture that we have arrived at this point that we are making Flaming Lips music, our own sound,” said Ivins. “It’s odd to look back at ourselves. I think for a while we were making record collection music and stumbling accidentally on twists and turns in music. We never actually sounded like we wanted to sound. At points earlier in our career we thought that birthday party stuff sounds cool and then we got it wrong and had some weird songs. Since the late 1990s, we were able to make or break or at least get a handle on how to really use the language of music – the melodies and lyrics – and put them together in a way that made sense.”

That language of music, according to Coyne, isn’t always easy to grasp but you simply have to keep trying. Because even when difficult, it’s often through the process of doing it, of just going into the studio and working, that meaning can be found and magic can happen.

“The worst thing that happens – I think it happens with all things – is you walk in there and you think you have this great song or great ideas and you record them and they are just boring,” Coyne said, “and they are not thrilling you, they are not thrilling [others] and you don’t even pursue them. What we have learned is that is going to happen but you still have to work through them anyway and keep going. I think you just have to keep fighting and if something hits you, you have to have the imagination and energy and make something happen.”

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  Sometimes you have to make music really at the edge of what you’re comfortable with. We aren’t one of those groups that want to make the same song over and over. -Wayne Coyne  

Having A Ball

Confetti, lasers and balloons are just some of the props that have engaged audiences since the band was quite young. And to the delight of fans, including Vince Herman, founding member of Leftover Salmon, Coyne doesn’t show any signs of stopping.

The Flaming Lips :: Coachella 2004 by Jay Blakesberg

“[We saw The Flaming Lips] a few years back and at one point Wayne gets up, sings and [the floor] starts to dissolve. Then suddenly we look down the eight-story atrium and he’s laying there with what looks like blood pouring out,” said Herman of a classic Coyne theatrical stunt he began in various forms almost 20 years ago. “It was amazing. I am a huge fan.”

Such antics are what sets the band apart from others, according to Ivins.

“When you start out in a band there is a general level of insecurity that you have to overcome to forge your way,” said Ivins. “We just kept going on and doing things. In a lot of ways, people compare us with Pink Floyd in that sort of way. That is something we have always tried to aspire to. You come to see The Flaming Lips show and you walk into a different world.”

The band first began entering that “different world” with wild New Year’s Eve parties, but soon realized every night could be New Year’s Eve if you played it right.

“We always upped the ante [every NYE], threw more stuff in to make it more exciting,” said Coyne. “Then we started thinking that we should do this every night. Why not make our shows a celebration every time, make these things permanent parts of the show?”

The band shoved personal insecurities and self-consciousness aside and began to bring massive numbers of balloons, buckets of confetti and other props into the shows until they struck the tone they wanted.

The Flaming Lips

“Think of New Year’s Eve and these other cliched markers in people’s minds,” said Coyne. “Regardless of where you were – at a hotel, some boring party – when you got home you turned on the television and watched the ball drop in Times Square and wished you were there.”

In thinking through the musicians that made the biggest impact on them – The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and others of that ilk – the Lips realized that those groups mirrored culture which, of course, made them even more relevant.

“Everything about it is an art form – the way you stand, where you stand, how you play,” said Coyne. “People don’t come to rock shows just to hear the music. You don’t go and say, ‘I heard the Rolling Stones.’ It is an event that really goes beyond listening. There may be purists out there that think the show can overwhelm the music, but I’d think not many. I always think about a Pete Townshend quote – who was never about just playing music – [where he] said he never lets the music get in the way of the show.”

Ivins goes even further, noting that The Flaming Lips’ concerts are beyond a “show” classification.

“It is a performance so it should be big and exciting and bombastic and not a bunch of guys just standing playing instruments,” said Ivins. “Plenty of bands do that. We aren’t all that interested in that. We are into being able to do everything with video screens and confetti and balloons, making [the concerts] New Year’s Eve and birthday parties and a celebration every night. We are out here celebrating life and are able to let the audience know it’s all right not to worry, to just uncoil at this time and jump around and have a good time.”

And what about that giant plastic ball that Coyne climbs into and launches so that he can roll around on top of the audiences?

“That image of me in the bubble,” said Coyne reflectively, “you never know the thing you are doing that is going to capture some unique essence. The space bubble thing I did at a Coachella show, I did it and I don’t even know when we were doing it or why. You fear you will do something like that and pick up the reviews the next week or the next morning, and people will think it’s a dumb gimmick. With that, we played this giant festival with Radiohead and The Cure and I picked up the paper the next day and I was on the front page of the paper in that giant bubble. That’s what people remember at the shows. I think you just get lucky and you capture something people love.”

Behind The Music

The innovative stage shows and ever changing music of the Lips has led journalists and fans alike to consistently wonder what master plan Coyne and his bandmates follow to keep their music fresh. On October 13, the band will release their twelfth album, the 18-track Embryonic, that’s already garnered a plethora of chatter for being edgier and more psychedelic than anything since 2002′s breakout Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Wayne Coyne

“I’m glad to hear when people enjoy it,” Coyne said. “We never know what to think. We have embraced recording with computers. It’s a fascinating, strange way to make music, sort of piecemealing things together, sound by sound.”

In a way, this new album was perhaps more experimental than most in their catalog as it was born from an impromptu session between band member Steven Drozd and Coyne.

“Steven’s a great drummer and I’m not a good bass player but we still said, ‘Let’s get some stuff out and just bang around, see what develops.’ We didn’t know what would come of it and we were surprised by things that happened,” said Coyne. “You do stumble upon these little accidents, these grooves that are exciting when you find yourself moving in some direction that you weren’t prepared for. There are all these cliches about recording that [say] musicians instinctively go where [the music] takes you. That’s bullshit. That’s why you have the same people making the same song over and over and over again.”

Yet Coyne said with experience comes a form of intuition, which guides many musicians through rough patches, prying their holds off certain parts of songs so they can move on and develop more artistically.

“It’s interesting to see if we have any intuitive skills,” said Coyne. “A lot of [Embryonic] is almost a first take. Perhaps a section of the songs we lock in and then it gets intense, or whatever the word would be. When people say, ‘We like it,’ we say, ‘Oh, good,’ because sometimes you have to make music really at the edge of what you’re comfortable with. We aren’t one of those groups that want to make the same song over and over.”

Coyne is modest about his music, saying that a combination of luck and timing made his band move from “not very good” to a powerhouse while changing their sound. Coyne and Ivins both indicate that the Lips are the opposite of many other bands that took solid music and developed a stage show. For the Lips the show, in a way, came before the solid musical footing of the band. Now that the band members have been in the business more than 20 years, they feel more comfortable than ever letting experimentation lead the way musically.

“That’s our style,” said Coyne. “We would do a lot of things in the computer that didn’t sound the way we expected. We would go to great lengths to make sounds sound spontaneous and real. That gives it an air of authenticity. Sometimes we want to take everything and make it perfect. Everyone can take a sloppy drumbeat and throw it in a machine and make it perfect, but ‘better’ isn’t always in time, it isn’t always perfect.”

The Flaming Lips tour dates are available here.