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onstage.
Nardwuar: Amazing.
Wayne: Nick Cave almost did
once. But I said, “Look, I think you
have to rely on nature’s own...”
Nardwuar: Were you onstage with
him?
Wayne: I was onstage with him,
and he was having some trouble
because he had eaten some of the
chicken on Lollapalooza 1994 and
it didn’t agree with him. He said, “I
can’t go up there. I’m Nick Cave,
and if I do one of those “rrrraaarrrhh”
sort of screams, the whole
thing’s going to let out,” and I said,
“Nick, you’ve got to believe…”
Nardwuar: You are Wayne Coyne,
and Wayne what do you play? You
play the recording studio, don’t
you?
Wayne: Well, I mean people have
said that and that’s a great compliment,
and the way that music
works, that really is my instrument
in a way. But when I’m onstage,
you know, I’m not actually playing
the recording studio up there ‘cause
it would be too big, I mean I’d have
to carry it up there every night. So
onstage, I play sort of a fake guitar
that has sounds coming out of it
that I don’t actually make. And I
have some puppets that I play with,
and I have lights that I swing
around, I have some fireworks that
I set off. I do things that are exciting.
I keep the show going. It doesn’t
mean that music and singing
and all that stuff isn’t exciting, but
I mean, frankly, I don’t dance. I
don’t do any kind of sexy dancing,
so I sort of feel like, you know, if
you don’t dance, you gotta do
something. You gotta look crazy,
like the way you do or something,
you know. [laughs]
Nardwuar: Thanks very much,
Wayne Coyne. And now Wayne
Coyne, welcome to Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, home of
Jason Priestley from Beverly
Hills… did I spit on you there?
Wayne: Three or four different
times.
Nardwuar: Sorry about that, at
least it wasn’t blood. Ba-boom!
Wayne: Right, but I think blood’s
better, now that you’ve spat on me
that much. No, I didn’t know that
he actually is from here.
Nardwuar: Yes he is, and I guess I
was wondering, did you ever hang
Jason Priestley when you did
Beverly Hills 90210 or did you ever
get in any fights with Shannen
Doherty?
Wayne: No, I think they were actually
both not on the show when we
were there. I think they were
already gone.
Nardwuar: What a rip-off.
Wayne: Well I agree, because we
walked into it thinking “Man, we’ll
be walking into them.” But I never
followed the show that closely. I
mean I knew what the show was all
about, but when we were on there I
think it was already the second
rung of folks. Who would that be? I
don’t remember. But they were real
nice to us, and they were all real
famous. I didn’t know who they
were, but I was busy [laughs] that
couple of years.
Nardwuar: Wayne Coyne,
Canadian connections. On one of
your records you have a Canadian
flag. On Oh My Gawd there’s a
Canadian flag. What are the
Canadian connections?
Wayne: Well, I mean, we watched
some, uh…
Nardwuar: A Canadian flag on the
Oh My Gawd record.
Wayne: There is, I know. I’m trying
to think…
Nardwuar: You’re friends with
Heather Graham, aren’t you?
Wayne: Yes.
Nardwuar: And Heather Graham
was in a movie with…
Wayne: With…
Nardwuar: Mike...
Wayne: Mike…
Nardwuar: Myers, who is…?
Wayne: Who’s Canadian!
Nardwuar: Who’s Canadian, so
there’s a Canadian connection for
you!
Wayne: Right, but I don’t know
Mike Myers.
Nardwuar: I know but you know
Heather Graham. How do you
know Heather Graham?
Wayne: I guess because she takes a
lot of drugs and listens to music.
Isn’t that how we get all our
Flaming Lips fans? [laughs]
Nardwuar: Ba-boom! Now
Wayne, talking about Canada, did
you have some bad gigs in Canada
early on? I read about some bad
gigs happening in Canada.
Wayne: No, I think when you travel
across Canada you travel from
what seems to be civilized, sophisticated
metropolitan cities like
Vancouver…
Nardwuar: Be careful…
Wayne: Over to Montreal or
Toronto, but there are some places
in between which are wonderful
but aren’t necessarily rock’n’roll
art Meccas… is that, I’m being
polite, right?
Nardwuar: Well not really,
because The Guess Who are from
Winnipeg. Don’t dis Winnipeg
there, Wayne “Cone.”
Wayne: I’m not dissing anybody…
Nardwuar: Wayne “Cone.”
Wayne: I’m…
Nardwuar: Wayne “Cone.”
Wayne: [laughs] I’m just saying
that you don’t expect that there’s
always going to be an audience
there, but we want to go and sort of
see what these places are like anyway.
I remember playing in
Calgary to probably about four
people at one of the nice resorts
there, where you go and sort of play
while people drink beer and battle
off their winter colds. But we did
stay at a hotel that was right outside
of the leftovers of the winter
Olympics, and we watched… I
think we watched porn for a couple
of days. But we couldn’t see it very
well…
Nardwuar: You watched the
scrambled porn?
Wayne: We did.
Nardwuar: I’ve done that too.
That’s fun, isn’t it!
Wayne: Back in the late ‘80s,
before there were satellites or anything,
so it was scrambled, but if
you got lucky, you could see it
scrambled. And I think — this is
just for me, and I don’t think I’m a
weirdo — I think porn looks better
scrambled.
Nardwuar: Wayne Coyne of The
Flaming Lips, tell me about
Oklahoma City being a test market.
Where you’re from, Oklahoma
City, is a test market. Very interesting.
Tell the people about that.
Wayne: I think that is a polite way
of saying that it’s the bland middle
area, where if it works there, it’ll
probably work anywhere, and this
is the truth. The McRib was tested
there, and it didn’t work, and that’s
why you don’t get the McRib now.
But MTV was tested there, and it
worked, see? That proves that we
know what we’re talking about.
You’re not going to give us some
meat that’s been pressed up to look
like a rib. We’re from Oklahoma,
we know what a rib tastes like. But
MTV, where you get women walking
around with no clothes on, and
you get to hear rock’n’roll, now
that’s something that Oklahomans
want.
Nardwuar: And here comes
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips
testing quite a bit, now you’re testing
the blood thing, some achievement.
A big achievement, testing
the blood and stuff like that. Now
what about this mic thing you have,
the video mic, what’s the video
mic, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming
Lips?
Wayne: We live in such a great scientifically
diverse world these days
that you can actually 23
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