The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Conye on 20 Years of “Yoshimi” and the Time Jack White Gave Him a Fiber-Optic Jesus at a Beck Show
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The post The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Conye on 20 Years of “Yoshimi” and the Time Jack White Gave Him a Fiber-Optic Jesus at a Beck Show appeared first on Consequence.
On July 16th, 2002, The Flaming Lips released their tenth studio album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The follow-up to the band’s surprisingly successful, now-canonized The Soft Bulletin, the record came adorned with surreal paintings of colorful, electronic monsters and unlikely heroines. It was creative and a little left-field — but the Oklahoma act was always creative and a little left-field. For this project to stand out, it’d have to be a new kind of weird, a tall order for a band already two decades into one of the most bizarre careers in popular music.
Enter Yoshimi, a collection of 11 songs that would ultimately help define the legacy of The Flaming Lips.
Featuring tracks like “Do You Realize??” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” the album showcased a new, slightly poppier side of The Lips, taking inspiration from hip-hop and top 40 hits. It was an unexpected turn for a band who, just a few years prior, dropped Zaireeka, a project with such a high barrier of entry that it included four CDs intended to be played simultaneously. This direction, however, whether intentional or not, paid off, as Yoshimi proved to be a timeless, influential, extremely successful work of psychedelia.
Ask frontman Wayne Coyne, though, and he’ll approach the record’s massive cultural mark with a laugh and a shrug.
“At the time, it didn’t feel like it was that significant,” he tells Consequence. “Not to play it down, but it’s like it’s just another song that we were working on, and it doesn’t really matter if 20 years from now people are talking about whatever it is we’re working on. It’s just such a great feeling to be working on something cool, working with cool people, and everybody being in love with what they’re doing.”
Yet, 20 years later, people are indeed still talking about Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. So much so, in fact, that Warner Brothers has seen fit to release an absolutely massive 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of the album. With over 100 tracks of rarities, b-sides, demos, and live sessions, the world of Yoshimi has never been so expansive.
“When Paul McCartney or Neil Young does [a box set], they want to put in the piece of paper that’s got the coffee stain where they wrote the lyrics,” Coyne says of the Yoshimi’s deluxe edition. “And someday I’m sure we’ll do that, I guess, but we just don’t think that stuff matters that much. Our box sets aren’t really like that. It’s really about the music and explaining the music and us trying to remember what the fuck happened.”
As casually as Coyne tends to discuss some of his most heralded work, the emotional impact of his songs is far from lost on him. It’s why you’ll hear “Do You Realize??” every time you catch the band’s legendary live show (which Coyne promises is crazier than ever), but won’t ever hear Coyne bemoan the unspoken obligation he has to include it on the setlist.
“To know that you’re gonna play a song that is going to really affect people, that’s an amazing feeling and that’s amazing every night,” Coyne tells Consequence. “There’s a handful of our songs that we know there’ll be people in the audience who, you know, their brother was just killed in an accident or someone’s mother just passed away or someone’s child was just born. So, we’re gonna sing to those people. We’re singing to everybody, but for those people, this is gonna go all the way to the heart of their mind.”
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, now less than a year away from legally being able to buy a beer, continues to stand as an essential work from an essential band, finding its way into the hearts of listeners’ minds with its wonderfully playful, emotionally complex sonic wonderland.
Check out Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) below, followed by an interview with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, where the singer discusses his relationship with the album, the band’s upcoming tour dates, and the time Jack White gave him a fiber-optic Jesus at a Beck show. You can also find tickets to the band’s 2023 shows here.
The Yoshimi box set is absolutely massive. Did pulling together all of this material spark any flashbacks or memories from the Yoshimi era?
There’s a few of our records, Yoshimi would be one of them, The Soft Bulletin would be another one, that’ve never left us. With The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, it kind of never stopped, you know? Every show we play, a third of it’s Soft Bulletin, a third of it’s Yoshimi, and then a third of it’s just some other stuff. That music is never away from us. And when we were putting together this box set… I don’t know.
Like, when Paul McCartney or Neil Young does one, they want to put in the piece of paper that’s got the coffee stain where they wrote the lyrics. And someday I’m sure we’ll do that, I guess, but we just don’t think that stuff matters that much. Our box sets aren’t really like that. It’s really about the music and explaining the music and us trying to remember what the fuck happened. It just would not be that precious to us to have a piece of paper where I wrote the lyrics to “Do You Realize??,” even though I see now that people would probably like that.
But we don’t remember it as well as we wanted to, because there’s always a lot of music happening and, at the time, it didn’t feel like it was that significant. Not to play it down, but it’s like it’s just another song that we were working on, and it doesn’t really matter if 20 years from now people are talking about whatever it is we’re working on. It’s just such a great feeling to be working on something cool, working with cool people and everybody being in love with what they’re doing.
You just don’t really think, “This is a moment.” I mean, my life is so fucking great. Every day is a fucking moment. You know? It’s all great. It’s not just the music or just a show, you know? Because we’re always playing too. Even when COVID happened, we did these space bubble shows in Oklahoma City. We never stop, we’re always playing. We’re always working on the live show and the dynamics and all that sort of stuff. It never feels like that’s an era and this is a new era.
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
And I would say, I’m gonna be 62 years old in January. So all this stuff happened to us when we were already old. When stuff happens to you when you’re like 19 and 20, it’s like, “Man, this is the fucking craziest shit ever!” But by the time we made the Yoshimi record, we started the band in 1983, so we were already a band for 20 years by the time we made that. We really do just love making records. They don’t have to be acclaimed and the world doesn’t have to remember everything about them for us to love them and love making them.
I don’t want to downplay it, though, either. I mean, the idea that this song, “Do You Realize,” how it’s really become this great statement, it’s amazing. I know some groups kind of have a battle between what is popular about their music and what they think is great about their music, but we don’t. We could love nothing more than having a song like “Do You Realize” be the thing that everybody in the auditorium will know and love and react to.
And then the Yoshimi album being so revered and all that, we fucking love it. It’s the greatest thing ever. We just [thought], even for ourselves, “Eh, 20 years from now, who’s gonna care?”
So playing these songs so consistently for so long hasn’t “ruined” them for you?
I think if we were younger, that might play into it. Like, “I’m not that person anymore that made that song.” But we’re not like that. We get to pick and choose so many songs that we play every night, and then we know that there’s the five or six that you have to play. But [have to] is not the right word. You want to play them, because we know that they join everybody together and that really is why everybody’s there.
To know that you’re gonna play a song that is going to really affect people, that’s an amazing feeling and that’s amazing every night. There’s a handful of our songs that we know that there’ll be people in the audience who, you know, their brother was just killed in an accident or someone’s mother just passed away or someone’s child was just born. So, we’re gonna sing to those people. We’re singing to everybody, but for those people, this is gonna go all the way to the heart of their mind. That’s a great thing to be able to stand up there and know that you’re having such an impact on people and they’re having an impact on us. Their emotions and their energy and all that, when that’s exchanged it’s a great, great thing.
So, no, I mean, I think there are songs that, depending on the night, there could be a reason where I don’t wanna do that one. Because some of the equipment’s messing up or we have to work out this bit and we don’t have enough time. But the big emotional ones, we know those are gonna work. We’ve worked on ’em. We still soundcheck “Do You Realize??” every time. And I feel like it gets better and better. You know, I’m not a very good singer, so I want to sing the song the way everybody knows it’s supposed to be. I want to make sure it’s working and so do all the other guys. There’s a lot that goes into the show. It’s not just playing, it’s everybody’s playing and how it’s blending together and how it works with the videos and the lights and the monitors and all that. You want it to be as good as you can just because there’s a lot of things that can go bad.
So, you work on it. That’s what we do. When we show up to a show, we spend all day working on what we’re gonna play that night. We never show up five minutes before the show and go, “Oh, fuck.” We’re ready.
You guys aren’t strangers to performing albums front-to-back in concert. I know you’ve done Yoshimi in the past and have more Yoshimi full-album shows coming up. Is that a different experience as a performer? Is it any more or less exciting than a typical Flaming Lips show?
To me, it’s not as much fun because you’re kind of… stuck isn’t the right word, but when we do albums like that, we play them in the order that you would be used to hearing them in. I don’t even know if that matters anymore, but it does to us. The first song on the record would be the first song that we’re gonna play that night. And that’s not always the best song to start a concert with, it just happens to be the first song on the record.
You try to make it all as good as you can and you want it to be the song that people know. Some groups will take a song and they’ll expand it or they’ll change it around or do whatever, but we don’t do that. If you know a song of ours, when we play it, it sounds like the song. It’s the tempo of the song. It’s the instruments of the song. A little bit more dynamic, a little bit more expressive, but we’re not veering in and out. It just flows a little less just cuz you know that you’re doing these songs in a row.
Going back to the deep cuts on the new box set, I have to ask about the story behind “Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me).”
[Laughs] Right, well, we were in Detroit playing with Beck. We did this tour with Beck when his Sea Changes album came out and our Yoshimi album had just come out. The Flaming Lips were opening up for Beck, but then also we were Beck’s group. So, we’d go out there and play for 45 minutes as The Flaming Lips, and then we’d shuffle a bunch of stuff around on stage and Beck would walk out and we’d do Beck songs, [which is] a lot to do. It’s a big endeavor; a lot of songs to learn, a lot of instruments changing, a lot of stuff. Kind of a clusterfuck of a tour. But I think by the time we got to Detroit, we had kind of gotten over trying to make it as great as we could. It was kinda like, “Well, it’s gonna be as good as it’s gonna be.” And we started to have fun instead.
So we’re in Detroit, and that’s where Jack White used to live. He came to the show and, I have to say, I’m not sure he got the fiber-optic Jesus for me. I think he just had it. He definitely was there to be backstage with Beck. And I don’t know if he expected us to be backstage or if he thought about it or even cared. This was one of the places where we would all sort of be together in a backstage area. A lot of these places were like, Beck would be in one area and we’d be in another. But in this one, we were kind of jammed together, so I’m not positive Jack White really knew he was gonna give that to me. I think he had it and then he sort of was like, “Oh, hey, you want this?” It’s just always a little bit awkward, you know? I think Beck is awkward. And Jack is great, but he’s aggressive. He’ll be the first to talk in a room. It was an awkward, weird moment because I think Jack was trying to include Beck, and Beck was trying to be cooler than he was or something, and we just didn’t care by then.
And so, he gave us the fiber-optic Jesus. I took it home and then we were doing some session where we needed some extra songs. We didn’t have any extra songs, so we would sometimes just make a song up right there. And I made up that song. It’s not that hard to make up a song like that with Steven and those people in the studio. And you don’t even know what it’s going to be used for, you just need a couple songs and so you just do it and you don’t think it’s great, or you don’t think it’s bad, or you don’t think it’s a joke. You just say, “This is the song we have.” And it was funny. I think everybody thought it was funny, but you never think about it again. You don’t think you’re gonna be talking about this 20 years from now.
So, he gave me the fiber-optic Jesus, and I remember plugging in thinking, “Man, this is cool.” I mean, it’s not that cool if it doesn’t come from Jack White, but it’s cool that it came from Jack White. I think people think that’s something that I would have. It’s not really something I would have. I wouldn’t collect stuff like that. But if Jack White gives you one, then you keep it.
I took it home and I plugged it in the front of my house on the mantle. It was plugged in for about a year, and then it stopped working. I never turned it off. And when I went to see it, I was like, “Hey, I guess the light burned out or something.” Then I saw there was a sticker that said, “Don’t leave this on for more than eight hours at a time.” And I left it on for like a year.
I don’t know where it is now. I mean, I’m sure I still have it. We just get so many things and they’re cool things. You just don’t have room for everything in your house, so I’m sure I still have it. I wouldn’t throw it away.
You guys also recently announced some more shows for early next year. Anything you can preview about what’s to come for Flaming Lips concerts in 2023?
Some of the shows are gonna be Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, where we’ll do the whole record. But even that, it’s only an hour’s worth of music, we’ll still be playing for another hour and a half. The shows that aren’t Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will encompass more. We’re always taking requests from the audience. Like, “What do you wanna hear?” If you’d love to hear something, let us know on Instagram and I have like a hundred people that text me, in-the-know-people, that say, “The audience thinks you should play this.”
And I think the show is bigger and better and just more insane song per song than it’s ever been. I think we would wrongly, lazily have long segments in the set. It wouldn’t be that we didn’t like it, it would just kind of fill in the time. And now, we pick the songs and we work on them, and we make them as emotionally impactful as we can. I think that’s probably the difference between the shows that we’re playing post-COVID. It just feels more… I don’t know, there’s more reason to be emotional. There’s more reason to really sing from your heart and really sing, really be present.
So, the lasers are bigger and video screens are bigger, lights are brighter. So everything that’s happening that’s new, we are always fucking with it and all that. And all the venues that we play now, the sound systems are just fucking insane. I mean, we have to turn them down. We’ll go in there be like, “fuck!”
Everything in this post-COVID concert world is fucking amazing, and not just our shows, but everybody’s shows. I don’t even know how the audience can go to all the shows. There’s so many shows and everybody’s going. It’s like some kind of renaissance is happening. The thing that happens at concerts is something that can only happen at a concert. When COVID happened, music didn’t stop. You can always listen to music in your car, in your house, with your friends, or whatever. But that sort of energy, that sort of thing that happens at concerts, that’s the thing that I think we hone in on more than we used to; things that we can do together. Things that, because we’re all listening intensely, become more powerful. I think they matter a little bit more to us now and we would promise to never take it for granted again.
Catch The Flaming Lips on tour in 2023; tickets are available via Ticketmaster.
The Flaming Lips Live Gallery:
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips, photo by Jen Vesp
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Conye on 20 Years of “Yoshimi” and the Time Jack White Gave Him a Fiber-Optic Jesus at a Beck Show
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