What Keeps The Flaming Lips' Frontman Wayne Coyne Going : All Songs Considered This week, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton sit down with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to discuss his musical influences, the creative process, his career that spans thirty years, and the band's amazing new album The Terror.

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Guest DJ

The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Guest DJ

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/176577450/176582582" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wayne Coyne (center) with the rest of The Flaming Lips. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of the artist

On this edition of All Songs Considered, Wayne Coyne, singer and creative force for The Flaming Lips, joins hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton to share songs and events that shaped his childhood, including the eery effect of a classic from The Beatles. We also hear an "amazing piece of dramatic, freaky music" from Tom Jones, and a contemporary cut from Beach House that's one of Coyne's current favorites.

The Flaming Lips consistently push the creative boundaries of music without making any apologies, and the band has been doing it for 30 years, with thirteen studio albums and countless other projects, including a completely re-imagined version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. The Lips' latest, and highly anticipated upcoming album, is called The Terror, which you can now hear in its entirety on NPR's First Listen series, before it's released on April 16th.

On this edition of the program Coyne also gives us a look into The Flaming Lips' creative process and finding beauty in imperfection. "Anybody can make it perfect," Coyne says, "and perfect is the enemy of almost anything good in the world."

Guest DJ Wayne Coyne

Cover for Strawberry Fields Forever

The Beatles

  • Song: Strawberry Fields Forever
  • from Strawberry Fields Forever
YouTube
Cover for The Terror

"Look...The Sun Is Rising"

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/176577450/173552090" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

The Flaming Lips

  • Song: "Look...The Sun Is Rising"
  • from The Terror
Cover for 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Tom Jones

Tom Jones

  • Song: Thunderball [From Thunderball]
  • from 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Tom Jones
YouTube
Cover for Dark Side of the Moon

The Flaming Lips/Stardeath and White Dwarfs

  • Song: Money
  • from Dark Side of the Moon
YouTube
Cover for The Terror

You Lust

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/176577450/173554031" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

The Flaming Lips

  • Song: You Lust
  • from The Terror
Cover for Bloom

Beach House

  • Song: Myth
  • from Bloom
YouTube
Cover for The Terror

Try To Explain

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/176577450/173586001" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

The Flaming Lips

  • Song: Try To Explain
  • from The Terror