Our Interview with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips

I spend a lot more time than I wish I did wondering what in the Fuck is wrong with us. Not so much on a day to day level, but at the core illusion of the world as it's spinning around at this increasingly devious pace.

People seem incapable of thinking anymore, I mean really thinking, especially those that are in a public position with the potential to provoke an open dialogue. It's a pitiful shame.

It seems that the majority of current minds willing to dive head first into their own fears for the betterment of anyone willing to listen are musicians.

SYFFAL is well aware of this personal relationship with music. We love music and we love musicians. Through our fandom we've come to find that the very artists whom inspire us most, also seem to find our site to be a breath of fresh air in a scene overrun with ordinary.

I can think of no better collective that exemplifies the struggle and beauty of this journey that we're currently sharing than The Flaming Lips.

They are infinitely interesting, and GODDAMN does that Wayne Coyne have a glorious head of hair!

- Roy Wyeth Jr.

**The following interview took place over the phone on April 13th, 2011. Rick Gershon from Warner Brothers was cool enough to hook up the SYFFAL with the Wayne Coyne. Wayne & Joel have since sketched out matching tattoos and gone shopping for shoes together.**

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Wayne Coyne: Hey Joel.

SYFFAL: Wayne, how the hell are you dude?

Wayne Coyne: I'm great! Rick gave me a bit of a warning about what we might get into, so I'm prepared.

SYFFAL: Oh no. What did he say?

Wayne Coyne: Well, he's always on my side, because I do so many of these in a row that I don't always know the *tone*. So he just lets me know. But I'm up for anything, ya know? I claim that I'm beyond embarrassment, but I'm really not...so you're going to find out.

SYFFAL: Our goal is not to embarrass you, but basically to ignore all music conversation as it pertains to everything else that everybody else has already asked you.

Wayne Coyne: *laughs* Perfect. Yeah.

SYFFAL: I have many, many Jesuses, or Jesusi as I call it in the singular. You are one of my many Jesuses. So I kind of look to you as being a sort of fatherly figure in my mind, where I can turn to you to make myself feel better about having weird thoughts. So thank you for existing.

Wayne Coyne: Well see, this is going wonderful. Already that's the greatest thing that someone has said to me today so far. Alright.

SYFFAL: Well, now that the blow-job's out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty. I've actually been less than a foot from you. In 2006, a band that I was in opened up Lollapalooza. And on the day that you played, I was using one of the AWESOME air conditioned bathroom trailers...

Wayne Coyne: Right. Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Lollapalooza... it get's Fuckin' hot up there! Yeah.

SYFFAL: So I was urinating in the left urinal, I look to my right, and I'm peeing next to Wayne Coyne...

Wayne Coyne: Well, when you first said it, you said "I stood next to you", but what you really meant is that you peed next to me.

SYFFAL: Well, yeah. I didn't want to scare you away...

Wayne Coyne: No, yeah. I'm into it.

SYFFAL: I was totally freaked out because I had just talked about taking the golf carts across Grant Park to go see The Flaming Lips, and then I'm peeing next to you.

So, I was giving autographs afterwards saying, "Yeah, I peed next to Wayne Coyne, it's on my resume, whatever." But I thought of something, we could've been best friends like five years ago. Now tell me if this would have been out of line: If I would've looked at you as we were peeing, looked you in the eye... Looked down. Looked back up and said, "Nice Coyne Purse."

Wayne Coyne: See, I would have not answered you. Because as everybody, I *assume* everybody, already knows, that when we're forced to pee with each other; we don't talk. You know, we just look ahead. We do what we must do and we'll talk outside. But that's an uncomfortable situation. I have people do that all the time and I try... Well, normally I'm a very accommodating person, but we're peeing, and we're going to get this done and it's just uncomfortable to be peeing & talking. You're trying to hold your farts in... There's just a lot going on. So, to me, I think you took the morally right stance there, by just acting like "Look dude, I really want to talk but..."

SYFFAL: Right. That was the thing. I didn't want to intrude. I mean we're already exposed, not that we're checking each other out over the separator or anything... Damn, I'm glad that I didn't do it, but...

Wayne Coyne: Yeah. All dignity has already been compromised, of course...

But you know, I considered the same thing once. We were playing a show in Kilkaney, Ireland and Bob Dylan was playing right after we got done, and that's what happens at these festivals. Normally, Bob Dylan would have his own bathroom, and maybe we would too, but you never Fuckin' know where you're going to be at these things, so you just go where it's convenient. And I feared, I literally FEARED that I would be standing next to Bob Dylan and he's like struggling to pee 'cause his prostate is swollen or something. It would just crush every last grain of Fuckin' coolness that I saw in him. So I don't want that stuff to happen.

There's a story of Nina Simone using a bathroom at one of the last giant English festivals that she played, she got trapped in there. People had to come and help her out of a shitty, outside, port-a-john. I mean, dude, that's the end of the world. It's like, "Oh my god!" ...you know?

SYFFAL: There's probably a lot of mosquiter's tweeters in those things.

Wayne Coyne: Well, I don't know about that. But that shit, it is just human shit sitting just a few feet away from you down in the bottom of that thing. I'm not that frightened of it, but at some point you're really like, "Wow, this is really what the world is..."

SYFFAL: Actually, it's kind of weird, you know the blue kool-aid that's in the porta-potties? I can no longer sit and wipe, I actually have to stand and wipe because I got my arm in there one time as a child at a state fair.

Wayne Coyne: WHOA... wait, you, wait, what do you mean? I'm not sure I really understand what happened. You were wiping and-

SYFFAL: I was sitting on the porta-potty. I was at a state fair. I was doing my business. I reached underneath with my wad of toilet paper, I wiped myself and pulled my arm out and it was fucking blue.

Wayne Coyne: Oh, I see! You were too close to the water in there.

SYFFAL: Exactly. So ever since then, I think I was 7 or 8 years old, I now have to stand and wipe out fear of skimming.

Wayne Coyne: Well, Joel, this is an unreasonable fear. I mean why would that happen again? Even if it happens, what does it matter? A little bit of blue water, who cares?

SYFFAL: I was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt. And there was a line of people outside, Wayne.

Wayne Coyne: *laughs*

SYFFAL: I had to shove the hoodie into the toilet, go out and just kind of rock the tshirt that I was wearing underneath in the cold and act like, "No, there's no reason why my right hand is blue. I was tie dying this morning."

Wayne Coyne: I know. But any reasonable person would say, "That's a bummer" and not think any less of you, or think you're stupid. We have these fears of like, 'if someone saw me shit, they would think I'm like less of a human' ...but everybody shits.

SYFFAL: I've read the book.

Wayne Coyne: Sometimes I think the bravest people in the world, they just shit and they don't care what people think, because, yeah, why should we care?

shit, are you going to get over this thing?

SYFFAL: I don't know! This was 22-23 years ago, and I'm still standing and wiping. It's at the point where my oldest child is done toilet training, but we're still working on the wiping. I don't want to be the one to show him how because he might be looked at as a weirdo if he ever has to poop in front of people: "Dude, he's standing and wiping? What is wrong with this kid?"

Wayne Coyne: Well, you're not going to do that! You're going to say to yourself, "You know? I had this traumatic experience and now I'm finally over it because I talked to Wayne from The Flaming Lips, and he ASSURED me that I can now move past this embarrassment of the blue sleeve in public." You're just going to start not worrying about that.

SYFFAL: But Wayne, it's been 23 years, my technique is off. I can only reach from the back.

Wayne Coyne: That's not necessarily a bad thing. But I would suggest to your son, you know, that there's a lot of ways you can do things. But for him, he doesn't know what embarrassment, humiliation and all that is yet. For him, you can make it easy, when he's in first grade and he's pooping, do it the old fashioned way. When he get's older, and he wants to talk to you about it, then he can do the reach around, or whatever way he wants. That would be my suggestion.

SYFFAL: So wait, you're telling me that I can sit AND go from the back?

Wayne Coyne: I think you can do whatever you want, really. And you can really do it without any embarrassment or shame. I'd just go with whatever's easiest. I don't want this psychic pain for you, and I don't think you should have any psychic pain over this incident anymore.

SYFFAL: There is a block to my psyche, my reiki healer was telling me that the other day.

Wayne Coyne: *laughs* Well, you're going to work on this. Let's talk again in a bit and let's see where you've gotten with it, okay?

SYFFAL: Okay. I'll bring it up to the wife and see if she's okay with it too, because she's kind of gotten used to this oily handprint on the opposite wall across from the toilet where I just kind of lean myself forward and take care of it.

Wayne Coyne: *laughs*

SYFFAL: So I'll paint over the oil spot and start fresh.

Wayne Coyne: Well how long into the relationship did she find out that you've got this weird affliction?

SYFFAL: I think it was the honeymoon. She was like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and I'm like, 'I'm wipin' my ass... What's it look like I'm doin'?' Next thing you know, she's on the floor crying. I had to order room service, I mean, it was bad Wayne.

Wayne Coyne: You are obviously one of those couples that will leave the door open, and while your wife is there, you can shit in front of her.

SYFFAL: Right, well we have a 3 year old and 1 year old twins. So if we close the door somebody could get murdered.

Wayne Coyne: See that's what happens with kids. I don't have children of my own, but I've been to people's houses, people talk about shit and piss and vomit and diarrhea, and everything is free. And maybe that's the way it should be.

SYFFAL: We can talk about shit while we're eating too.

Wayne Coyne: As we should. Eating makes you want to shit. Doesn't it? Or maybe it *causes* you to shit. Maybe it doesn't make you *want* to shit.

SYFFAL: Right, it's not that I really want to. But yeah, there is a cause and effect there. Eating does cause the bowel movement.

Wayne Coyne: Totally. Yeah, yeah.

SYFFAL: So now that you kind of know that I'm weird, I know that you're weird from a purely artistic standpoint. But I know that you're a lot more human than you give yourself credit for. So...

Wayne Coyne: *laughs* I'm going to take that as a great compliment. That might be the greatest thing that anyone has said to me.

SYFFAL: Good, because I'm full of them today dude. So my wife cannot touch velvet. My mother in law cannot touch popsicle sticks. I am deathly afraid of blueberries...

Wayne Coyne: *laughs*

SYFFAL: Are you laughing at me?

Wayne Coyne: Well, I just like how you're so open about this, about your wife and your grandmother, they're part of the thrust of your personality here. I mean, I'm entertained by this, yeah...

SYFFAL: So do you have any of these weird things going on that nobody really knows about besides you, that you might not've even admitted to yourself?

Wayne Coyne: Well, I guess these would fall under the category of like personal superstitions, really. There's nothing to fear about blue water, it just made a psychic impact on you. Um, I would say yeah and I'm not embarrassed about it.

I never take my shoes off in a car or in a plane. You know we'll be on long flights, sometimes for 18 hours on a fucking plane. You know, and immediately people get in there and everybody takes their shoes off.

Well I don't.

For some reason if the plane crashes under whatever circumstances, if I'm able to be alive, it'd be better if I had my shoes on.

SYFFAL: Now that I think about it, that's also one of the reasons I sleep with my wallet in my pocket.

Wayne Coyne: Our very first trip to Los Angeles, me and the bass player Michael Ivins, we were driving in a car and our trailer flipped over and it caused us to go into the ditch. We both had taken our shoes off, and I remember there being this sort of weird moment because we had to get out and it was cold & muddy and we're like, "Fuck! We have to put our shoes on!"

I think we thought, 'Man, we should be more prepared for the hazards of the world. And if we just drive with our shoes on, the next time this happens we'll be much more prepared'. We were being very pragmatic I suppose. But I still think I have that as a leftover. I don't ever want to forget that I'm in public and I'm at the mercy of whatever happens to me. But when I'm at home, you know, I kick back.

SYFFAL: So your shoes do come off at home? Your not one of those guys that always has to wear them?

Wayne Coyne: I definitely can take my shoes off at home. *laughs*

SYFFAL: That's good, cause that's the second step of relaxation. First it's admitting that you're about to relax, taking your shoes off, and I think third or fourth is masturbation, but I haven't really finished the book yet.

Wayne Coyne: Well, now I think there's something we agree upon. Now we're starting to feel each other out.

SYFFAL: So soon we will have another conversation and I will let you know how myself and my son are progressing in the "sit-wipe", because the "stand-wipe" is obviously something that needs attention.

Wayne Coyne: You know, I actually don't think you need to get over it. I think by you having these very personal, potentially embarrassing things that you... I mean, I've only been talking to you for ten minutes and I know everything about you and your entire family, I think it's great. I have a couple of friends that are the same way...

No one ever talks about anything and most people, they dread having to talk about anything having to do with ever having to take a shit or peeing or masturbating or liking something that somebody might think they're weird for. I'm glad to talk to people who don't hold back, you know. I'm entertained by it.

SYFFAL: Good, because I don't really have a filter for my mouth, I mean, I try to utilize tact and respect for the people that I'm speaking with, but I see no reason not to discuss with the 85 year old lady at the grocery store, the bowel movements of my wife and children. She might be able to offer me some input, like you have with wearing shoes in a plane or in a car. She might be able to offer me some insight that I might not otherwise receive.

Wayne Coyne: Well, no, I just think that that's a great quality. I wish more people were like that. Because in the end you don't just end up talking about shit, you end up talking about a lot of things. But you get this feeling, as I do with The Flaming Lips philosophy, that we are not restricted. We're not restricted by what is made to be the more conservative approach to speaking about our lives. We just say Fuck it, hey I'm thinking about this, are you? It's like "Yeah, why not?". So I applaud it.

SYFFAL: Good. It's an openness that we now share. So if you ever come in contact with that blue dye in a porta-potty, you might remember, "Oh yeah, Joel from Chicago, he's got a fear of that shit".

Wayne Coyne: Or DON'T fear that shit. And just act like, "he seems like he's lived a good life with this horrible incident that's happened to him." I mean, I don't think it compares to having your face burned off in a fire or anything.

SYFFAL: True, they're very minor scars.

Wayne Coyne: Yeah, this thing that your holding, I mean, depending on who you compare it to, it would actually be nothing.

SYFFAL: Right, in the grand scheme of things, it IS nothing.

Wayne Coyne: But what would you have? If we don't have our psychic pain, sometimes I think we'd be boring. So we have to have something. Don't we?

SYFFAL: Exactly. I mean, if everything was a big deal, you know how bad life would fucking suck?

Wayne Coyne: *laughs* Well, I know some people where everything is fucking too big of a deal to them. It's like, "Man, you need to relax! You could have your face burned off in a fire tomorrow, relax."

Now that's good safe advice, don't you think?

SYFFAL: Exactly. Live today like it's the last one, but I mean, the whole "dance like no one is looking", I do not believe in that. Because when somebody IS looking, they could have a video camera and you could then end up on the internet. Dancing. Don't dance in public if you don't have the skills.

Wayne Coyne: Well, no, I think you should do what you like, I suppose that's what it's really saying. To me, I just think that some of that goes too far. I mean, I know a number of people who don't really want to dance *ever*, whether anybody is watching or whether you're dying or not. I just say you should do what you like, and not just because you can get away with it. But a lot of things people like, no one would let them get away with it. So what do you do? It's a struggle, I know.

SYFFAL: They should just stop making shit such a big fucking deal. I mean, I grew up with the father who would slap me in the back of the head and say, "QuitcherBitchin". So I stopped bitching a loooooong time ago.

Wayne Coyne: There's probably something to that though, it just depends on what you were bitching about.

SYFFAL: Something inconsequential, like a skinned knee. Or I touched blue poop water.

Wayne Coyne: Well, as the conversation goes on, I'm getting the impression that you're kind of a wimp.

SYFFAL: Well that's one of the reasons I grew a beard.

Wayne Coyne: I agree, that's why I grew it too. I didn't want people to KNOW I'm a wimp, and I already know I am.

Beards!

I don't want to sound like your dad here Joel, but you need to toughen up a bit, come on!

SYFFAL: *laughs* Duly noted.

Wayne Coyne: I'm helping you here, see?

SYFFAL: You're like a life coach for me.

Wayne Coyne: Well, we've peed together so I feel as though I owe you a little bit.

SYFFAL: Yeah, I mean, I did put that on my resume for the last job I applied for. I did NOT get the job, but it was on there nonetheless.

**At this point the delicious & scrappy Rick Gershon, from Warner Brothers, pops in to tell us to wrap it up, as it's becoming apparent that there is no end in site to this conversation.**

SYFFAL: Okay, so my last question is always about Rick, your aforementioned deliciously chubby PR manager... What is Rick like on a psychic level Wayne?

Wayne Coyne: Rick is a workaholic who could stand some of this advice that we're giving: Don't worry about these little things so much. I think he worries, and he worries, and he worries, and occasionally I'd just like him to be like everything is fine and relax and get drunk and just beat the shit out of somebody.

SYFFAL: Fuck yeah! Well, I love Rick Gershon... more than cheese today because he allowed me to talk with you, Wayne. I totally appreciate you taking the time. Can you just do me a quick favor before I go? Can you repeat after me?

Wayne Coyne: Okay.

SYFFAL: "Del LeFevre..."

Wayne Coyne: Yellow fever? What!?

SYFFAL: No, his name is Del LeFevre. I need you to say, "Del LeFevre is a piece of shit. Love, Wayne Coyne"

Wayne Coyne: *laughs* I'll do it, only because I am at the mercy of your sense of humor:

Del LeFevre... is a piece of shit.

Love,

Wayne Coyne

SYFFAL: WOOOOOO! Fuck THAT PIECE OF shit DEL LEFEVRE! THAT'S A FREE SYFFAL RINGTONE! Thanks man. Wherever you go, safe travels and keep those fucking shoes on my friend.