Did you play festivals before Bonnaroo in ’03 or was that mainly in Europe?

There weren’t that many festivals that you could play. More and more hippie festivals were springing up and people were doing small ones. Bonaroo, I think, is still the biggest one in America. Coachella is big, but I don’t think it’s as big as this. I don’t know. I can’t remember.

I don’t think we were a very good festival band back then. We would always acclimate our show to what we felt like was its maximum thing. And I think because we were able to play more festivals, even in Europe, you felt like, “Well, let’s do more stuff.” Being exposed to that bigger audience let us do bigger things. I think that’s why even now we can play on, it’s not the main stage but one of the big stages, and really have a great big crazy show ‘cause we’ve been allowed to do it.

Which is far different than when I saw you on the Lollapalooza Second Stage in ’92. I think you had a bubble machine…

We did! At Lollapalooza we did…

And I remember you covered A Flock of Seagulls’ “Space Age Love Song.” It was so perfect.

Yeah. We always tried to do things. We’d use smoke machines and projectors and strobe lights and stuff but when you got to play outside during the day you’re like, “What are we gonna do now?”

I remember Jesus and Mary Chain played Lollapalooza and used a smoke machine and lights during the day. Yeah, they were in the pavilion but it was a waste. It was like, “Guys, come on…”

I know. I don’t think they handled it very well. I try to have the philosophy that’s like do these things as if this is what you wanted to do and you just find a way to make it work. Instead of being like, “Well, we don’t want to do it this way.” That’s never gonna work. That’s never gonna work in your life. The way you approach these things is the way your life is.

We’re lucky. We’ve been able to do things for a long time. We’ve been lucky that it gets to change, and we aren’t always the ones that make the change. Things just change and you have to change along with it ‘cause I think it would be very boring to be that same band that we were in 1983 when we started out. I want to evolve. I want to change. I want to do different things. I want to be a different person. I think our music and our audience allows that.

As far as the Flaming Lips are concerned, it’s great that you still have held on to your DIY approach as far as putting together your stage setup…

Yeah but I see that with people all the time that you wouldn’t think. That’s why I love Miley Cyrus. She’s the same way. When she’s on her thing, she’s the one doing it. When she says, “Let’s see if we can get the Flaming Lips here to play,” she’s the one doing it. When you’re around her and Damien Hirst…there are all these people that you think, “Oh, someone’s doing it…” They’re doing it. That’s why I love it so much. I get to do my thing. Of course, I want to do it. I’m the one who wants to have it be my way. And when I’m around people that are like that it’s a…yeah, it’s great.

Now, when you’re recording, it’s your recording studio because you’ve kept a consistently busy schedule…?

Well, [producer] Dave Fridmann has his studio in New York that he’s had since the mid-‘ 90s and I have my own studio. But, mostly we’ll do a bunch of stuff , almost everything goes through him in the end and gets this other hue, this other dimension, and he’s really the master. We create a lot but then we get there and there’s a lot of sifting through and all that. So, it’s a good combination.

It’s always one of the best things of having your own studio because you can always put down and work on ideas without waiting.

Yeah, well, it’s just the way you live. That way you’re not waiting to go do something. You’re just doing it, and usually if you have one idea that leads to two or three. And if you’re just doing them, by just doing the ideas, you run into three or four more. And then that attracts other people and you get more help and you get more enthusiasm.

Previous to going in the studio, the technology wasn’t there either. It took a lot to have a big Pro Tools set up. I think, just in the right time, we were able to get this big space made. We were able to get a Pro Tools rig that didn’t need so much attention. Our producer’s thing, he’s got technicians and he’s a master…

My studio is like my house. Anywhere you go, you can draw pictures. You can make music. There’s a bunch of junk lying around, but it’s all there. You can just start to create something whereas his studio, anything you do it’s by the master. Everything is pristine. Everything works. Everything is happening, and that’s why it sounds so crazy because he’s making sure everything that you do is already great.

We wouldn’t live that way. It’d be like every day you’d have to go and make sure that the cable up in the ceiling to the speakers is…he’s like that.

But that’s what it is. It’s different people with different intensities of what they like about music and recording and all that. If I loved what he did, I wouldn’t love what I do. I’m glad he’s obsessed with what he’s doing and I’m obsessed with what I’m doing and we get together. I could do my thing and he gets to do his thing and it makes this bigger, better, richer thing.

You’re credited with helping to pick two unknown bands – Royal Teeth and Black Pistol Fire – to play this year’s Bonnaroo…

I did but I’m not really sure I was the final gauge. I mean, I wasn’t really concerned about how it all happened. I was glad to help the people when they asked me. So, I think I’ve run into a couple of bands that thought I picked them, and I said, “I’m not sure if I did but if I did, good.” So, it was a couple that got filtered from a bigger group into a couple smaller groups. I don’t think I was in the final group but I was close to the final…

Pages:« Previous Page