The Flaming Lips

Wayne Coyne talked to the magazine upon the release of "At War with the Mystics" for the May 2006 issue.

A new LP means a tour. What makes a great show? To me it's not worth leaving the house to watch some grown men play their guitars. I want the audience and the band to drift off together into the extraordinary. It's not that different from being at a football game and having your team win on a last-second touchdown.

Is the Audience part of your calculation? Always. I see bands wasting six hours perfecting their monitor mix. We'd rather have space for guys in giant sun costumes than put monitors there. I've never had anybody from the audience come up and say, "Your monitors sounded great." But virtually every night that we send those sun costumes and naked women out there, someone will come up and say, "Aw, man, that was the greatest thing--the guy in the sun costume was going crazy, and this woman had big boobs, and she was acting like she was fucking Jesus Christ!" That's rock and roll.

What's with the white suit? I like that when I'm in an elevator, people say, "You look just like I thought you would." And I know what they mean. When I meet people like Paul McCartney and they don't look like they should, it takes away from running into them. If Santa Claus came down the chimney in a fucking jogging suit, you wouldn't even know it was him.

Aren't you supposed to prance around in ripped jeans? By the time people began to recognize me at all, I'd already gone for being an adult. I wasn't trying to look as if I were still 22. But some people get caught up in that. We were just in Brazil with Sonic Youth. I swear Lee Ranaldo was wearing the same shoes he had on when he stayed at my house 18 years ago. I didn't say anything, but I knew.