THE FLAMING LIPS

INTERVIEW BY ELIJAH WOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM
ASSISTED BY KEVIN TRAGESER
RETOUCHING BY TODD @ 4C IMAGING

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If you’ve never been to a Flaming Lips show, some might say you’ve never lived. Mirror-balls, confetti, dancing characters from The Wizard of Oz and a lead singer charging across the crowd inside a giant inflatable ball are all part of the travelling circus that make up the Lips’ epic performances. Much of that ‘insanity’ is thanks to frontman Wayne Coyne who’s been producing the soundtrack to alternative rock junkies’ wet dreams for a quarter of a century. They’ve released no fewer than 13 studio albums including the legendary The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot, made a feature film, and scored themselves three Grammys. Coyne may be embarking on the golden age – he turned 50 this year – but not in the way you’d expect. The Flaming Lips are cranking out more awesome music, playing more tour dates, working with more artists, and selling more skull-shaped gummy treats than ever before. Lord of the Rings alumni, music fan and Simian Records founder Elijah Wood was psyched to ask Coyne about his creative process, his recent collaborations and how he came up with those cranium candies. Pucker up Lips fans and read on.

Wayne Coyne—Hello, Elijah Wood.

Elijah Wood—Hello, Wayne Coyne.

WC—What are you doing today? I just arrived in Boston. There was a thunderstorm and the plane felt like it was going to crash. It’s 
a phenomenal thing, air travel. Has that ever happened to you?

EW—I’ve been on flights that were pretty harrowing and frightening. After a flight like that you feel happier to be alive because you may have actually averted death. That’s quite a good feeling, isn’t it?

WC—I have to agree with that. Even though previous to the near-death experience you’d rather not have it, but once on the other side of the near‑death experience you’re really grateful you had it. Once we were flying from New York to Washington and a fucking engine went out on the plane and there was a good 25 minutes where you’re just thinking oh my God, we’re going to die, and then it lands and 15 minutes later we jumped on another plane. I guess you think what would be the chances that we’d get on another plane and the engine would fail on that one, too. You almost feel like you’ve been given a get out of jail free card.

EW—So you’re in Boston. You’re still on the tour, right?

WC—We don’t ever think of it as a tour, because to me a tour feels like you’re going to be in Michigan one night and then you’re going to be in Minnesota and Chicago, but what we do is more like you’re in Texas one night and Madrid the next. You jump around, you go to Europe and Asia and everywhere.

EW—So you’re not on buses this time around?

WC—No, we are. We’re getting on the bus tomorrow, and then we’ll be on the bus for the next couple of weeks but occasionally we’ll fly to England and be on a bus there for a week and then we’ll fly back. We’ll drive from Seattle to Texas on a bus; we don’t give a shit about the distance. People don’t realize what a luxurious bunch of self-indulgent laziness you can get up to on a bus. You can lie in bed all day; it’s dark and quiet.

EW—I’ve spent a bit of time on tour buses with Gogol Bordello and you’re right, it’s like a dark cave and you can sleep the day away and then get up and go to your show. You have no concept of where you are at any given time.

WC—But after a couple of dates you don’t really care. Here’s why I think it’s so cosy. This goes back to prehistoric times when humans all lived and slept in caves together. When other people are sleeping it makes you want to sleep and when other people are awake it makes you want to be awake. There’s this urge. We go back to being cavemen – that’s what we really want to do.

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