Yet Another Conversation with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne – HuffPost 4.16.12
Mike Ragogna: Dude, when we get talking, it’s like an hour and a half later.
Wayne Coyne: (laughs)
MR: Wayne, the internet has to get popular someday, right?
WC: Well, look, Mike, since this is supposed to be a short interview, if we start talking about the internet, this is going to turn into an epic weeklong discussion.
MR: You’re right, who cares about the internet anyway. Stupid internet.
WC: The internet is the greatest thing ever though, isn’t it? We’re so lucky to live in a time when it happens. I don’t understand it, like a lot of things that happen. I don’t really understand it, but I’m so glad that it exists, it works and it helps me.
MR: Thank you, Al Gore. It helps us, one and all.
WC: It does, unless you don’t have a computer, then you wonder what people are looking at all of the time.
MR: Okay, you have a new project–The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. That could be my favorite title of any of your albums, but not really. Cute though.
WC: Well, the “Fwends” part of it, we didn’t want to make it seem so serious. We’re very lucky that we get to travel all around the world, we get to meet amazing people, and sometimes, it’s amazing musicians who will play music with us. But we don’t want to make it like we have these great friends and you’re nobody. So that’s why the “Fwends”…not taking it all so seriously.
MR: You have some cool “fwends” on this, just how did you get this fwendly ensemble?
WC: Well, some of them…I don’t think we knew they were our friends until we approached them about doing our music. For example, I wanted to do something with Erykah Badu. You have to remember I live in Oklahoma City. She lives in Dallas, which is about three hours away. My wife’s sister also lives in Dallas and at one time lived in the same neighborhood as Erykah Badu. So I’ve been kind of secretly stalking her for a while with the thought that maybe she would allow us to do some music together. Well, she was working at a studio down there and I know the people at the studio and I said, “The next time she comes in, you’ve got to text me and let me see if I can talk to her.” Well, lo’ and behold, on my birthday, just a couple of months ago, on January 13, she texted me. “Hey, Wayne, it’s Erykah Badu, Happy Birthday. Let’s get together and make some music.” I didn’t realize it could be that easy. So, lucky for me, she got a hold of me and I said, “Let’s do some music together,” and within a couple of days, we were doing stuff.
And some of the people have been our friends–or “fwends” as we’re speaking here–for a while. I’ve known the Coldplay fellows, but mostly Chris Martin, even since before their very first single, “Yellow,” became big. We were playing a show with them in Scotland on the day that this huge song of theirs–now in hindsight–went to #1 in Britain. We were playing a festival and we’ve gotten to know them as friends and they was real special times, and I think Chris has made an effort, as I have, to remain friends, to know what’s going on with each other. A lot of it is just that people end up liking each other’s music and like each other and say, “Let’s do something!”
MR: Let’s do something as in “Let’s Do It” featuring Yoko Ono?
WC: I think Yoko probably sent about 10,000 versions of different things. Because she’s so gracious, she allowed us to take these recordings that she did and we’d take little snippets of what she would say. This is the thing that you can do through the marvel of computers now. We recorded quite a few tracks where she was doing stuff, and then we took that track and then we combined it with parts of other tracks. It’s a song virtually of Yoko Ono throughout the song screaming, “Do it, do it,” as only someone like Yoko Ono could command you to do. But, she never really did it in real life. These are little snippets that we put together and put music behind it. That’s kind of the nature of a lot of the things we’re doing on this recording. With some of these artists, we only have a little bit of time to do something and you don’t really know what’s going to happen. Sometimes we take things then later turn them into songs and turn them into things that sound like performances and it sounds cool.
MR: Actually, sir, you have a lot of things on here that sound cool, for instance, Bon Iver on “Ashes in the Air.”
WC: Exactly. This is a strange coming together. A friend of mine was following the singer Justin Vernon on Twitter and mentioned to him, in a Twitter kind of way, you should get together with The Flaming Lips, they’re doing all of these collaborations. You should get together with The Flaming Lips and do a song.” And he replied, “I should, let’s do it.” So immediately after that, I tweeted Justin Vernon, and before you know it, we had each other’s phone numbers. I said, “Just send me a little piece of music and we’ll make something of it.” Probably a day or two later, he sent me a little synthesizer piece of music that to most people wouldn’t seem like anything. But I already heard a little bit of what we could do with it. It was just a little three minute synthesizer part. But, that’s what I had asked for, something that we could begin to work with. Myself and the other members of The Flaming Lips turned it into a little bit of a song and sent it back to him, he wrote some lyrics, added a little bit more to it, it went a couple of times back and forth, and we really have this great track. Even though, I’ve never met him in person and I don’t think I’ve ever really talked to him, all this is done through email, Twitter, texting, and I guess just psychically hoping to love and understand each other.
MR: Beautiful, man. Is that the same approach that you used with “That Ain’t My Trip” with Jim James of My Morning Jacket or “You Man Human” featuring Nick Cave? Did you use the same process when you have that kind of relationship with the artists?
WC: Well, the Nick Cave one… As we’re speaking, right here, I’m getting a text from Bon Iver saying I’m going to get a vial of his blood within a couple of days. How perfect is that for your show?
MR: Wayne, how are going to get a vial of blood from Yoko Ono?
WC: I don’t always know. I think it’s like a lot of things, you just have to hope that it works out. With art, especially with music, if you try to figure out everything before you get going, it kind of drives you crazy, so you kind of have to do this leap into this little bit of the unknown and say, “I don’t know, let’s see what happens,” especially when asking someone for their blood. Some people view it as a sacred fluid. I don’t. Everyone has some blood and I’d like to keep as much of mine in my body as I can. I’ve taken mine out and made posters and things. I think it’s a great substance.
MR: Wayne, let’s explain to readers and the audience how you’re going to use this blood for the double vinyl album you’re putting out.
WC: Are you familiar with the way a picture disc is made? These are vinyl records. A picture disc… well, you get two of these clear pieces of vinyl and you put a picture between them and you glue them together and it looks like one record, but it’s really two thin pieces put together. Instead of putting a picture in the middle of these two clear vinyls, I’m going to put some specimens of everybody’s splattered blood and splash it in there like a glass specimen. I don’t know how the world will react. I can only make five or six of them. I hope I can exchange them with someone who has disposable income, loves these artists and can pay for it. I think some of the artists themselves might actually buy some. We’ll see what happens. There’s talk about grinding some up in the vinyl of the records. It will depend how much blood I get. Some people are just going to bleed into a little cup and send it to me. Other people like Ke$ha sent me a big bunch of it.
MR: Ah, Ke$ha is another one I was going to ask you about. What was your collaborating with her like?
WC: She’s really fantastic. I suppose there’s a version everybody plays out in their head of a young, spoiled pop star and that’s how some of her music is portrayed anyway–snotty and outrageous. But, in real life, she’s very creative and enthusiastic and fun and up to try anything. The song is called “2012.” I had a conversation with her. She wanted to do a big, dramatic end of the world. But I thought that it’s just an arbitrary date and I liked that she liked the idea. She recorded a little forty second piece of music right onto her laptop, singing and playing some piano, and emailed it to me an hour later while I was working on some music here in my studio here. The Ke$ha track is a little of an email collaboration, then on the phone, and at her studio in Nashville. It reminds me of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” She can sing her ass off. It’s pretty impressive. So I would have her do layers and layers and different nuances. I think it’s a really special recording. We started to record some other things that might be on her next record. I just really love her. The way that she’s creative and approaches things makes it a lot of fun, and it opens up a whole world.
MR: Okay, drumroll, please for “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton.”
WC: Did you want me to play it or jump in?
MR: Whatever, that’s your cue.
WC: I didn’t know this was really happening. Mastodon took it upon themselves to take this beautiful little Flaming Lips song, which is not very much like what they do, and did a beautiful version of it. I was surprised and overwhelmed by it, much like I think the audience will be. I heard it and went, “Oh my God, they’re doing this.” A lot of times when I’m around them, they’re at festivals and shows and they’re utterly outrageous people to be around, in the best way possible. But I had no idea what a cool, sensitive side to them there was. I think it was a great compliment that they took this beautiful Flaming Lips song and made it beautiful again.
MR: I know you’re going to be working on a musical that’s coming out at some point, but let’s not talk about that now.
WC: When we get going…this will never end.
MR: (laughs) Ah, yes, but Wayne, as always, a question that remains. What advice do you have for new artists?
WC: In today’s environment where there’s this seemingly collapse of what we feel like is organized record companies–what we really mean by that is that they can’t make as much money any more because so much music is out there for free–you should always pursue what you love. If you are doing what you love, you can’t fail. Failure may mean different things to different people. It may mean you don’t make any money or you don’t have any friends or you’re not famous. But to do something that you love, whether it’s raising your children, helping homeless animals, making music or whatever it is, it is in itself a great, great reward. So when I see young people and they say they want to have a life in music. I would say, “Well, you can do music and you can have a life. I don’t know if making music will give you a life. But, if you’re like me, I am so compelled to do music that I would do it anyway.” I am lucky that I get to pursue music and what I can get out of it and make of my life. But, if I weren’t famous enough to be on your show, I would still get up everyday and make music because I love it. I don’t know if it’s good advice or bad. But what the world is, given the luxury to do what you love, you should try that first. If you don’t like that, you can always go get a job you hate.
MR: As always, an amazing visit, Wayne. Thanks. And let’s mention it again, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, which is a vinyl release for Record Store Day.
WC: Yeah, Record Store Day. It’s a big deal here.
MR: Vinyl doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, unlike the internet.
WC: It seems to be having a great resurgence and for good reason. I don’t think everybody’s releases will be as well done and loved as The Flaming Lips’. We have the luxury of controlling every bit of it. We have a team of artists, and I say that not in a pretentious way at all. Down in Dallas at the record plant that’s responsible for making these records, they’re hand-making each one of these vinyls. Now, if it was going to be 10 million of them, we couldn’t do that. But it’s 10,000 of each of two records, so we’re making 20,000 of them. If you get to have it and hold it and touch it, it’s really special and made with a lot of love.
MR: We’ll talk again soon? Maybe for the musical?
WC: You keep having a show and I’ll keep coming back.
MR: Thanks so much, Wayne. I really appreciate it.
Transcribed by Brian O’Neal