Wayne Coyne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Wayne Coyne | |
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 Wayne Coyne, 2006
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Wayne Michael Coyne |
| Born | January 13, 1961 |
| Origin | Norman, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Alternative rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, actor, director |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1983-present |
| Label(s) | Warner Bros. Records |
| Associated acts | The Flaming Lips |
Wayne Michael Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.
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[edit] Early life
Wayne Michael Coyne was born in a Pittsburgh hospital January 13, 1961. He grew up in Oklahoma City and was the fifth of six children. Having little interest in school, Wayne preferred listening to music and playing pickup football. He and his brothers dubbed themselves “The Fearless Freaks” for their brutal backyard football games. Tommy Coyne, Wayne's older brother, described the games as a "semi-civilized gang fight." [1] "The Fearless Freaks" consisted of druggies and dropouts.
Wayne earned money in high school as a fry cook for Long John Silver's. During his work, the restaurant was robbed. Wayne and other employees were held at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground. Wayne believes "this is really how you die...one minute you're just cooking up someone's order of french fries and the next minute you're laying on the floor and they blow your brains out. There's no music, there's no significance, it's just random." [1]
At age fifteen, Coyne purchased his first guitar.
[edit] With the Flaming Lips
Coyne formed the Flaming Lips in 1983 with brother Mark singing lead and Michael Ivins on bass guitar. Mark later left the band, and Wayne assumed vocal duties. Critics described Wayne as a punk rocker on acid. [2] Wayne admits that he often experimented with LSD: "When we were young, I think we took too many drugs. So we like to make weird music." [1]
During large-crowd festival performances, Wayne makes his entrance by descending from an alien mother ship (a nod to Parliament Funkadelic[3]) in a bubble, and floating across the audience. Coyne has also been known to pour fake blood down his face via a hidden tube during live shows. Wayne does this to pay homage to Miles Davis who, after a performance, had blood on his suit because a police officer had beaten him.
Flaming Lips concerts also feature confetti cannons, lasers, images projected on to a screen, dozens of large balloons, and a stage filled with dancers dressed as Teletubbies. [4] Before performing, Wayne can be seen helping the stage crew. [1]
[edit] Wayne’s Experimental Art
In 1996 and 1997, Wayne developed “The Parking Lot Experiments,” where forty different tapes were distributed. The band instructed forty cars to start the tapes at the same time, resulting in a surround sound. A parking lot of over 1,000 people gathered for this experiment.
The parking lot experiments led to the experimental album Zaireeka, which is made up of four stereo tracks, each on four different CDs. The four CDs are meant to be played simultaneously in order to hear the complete tracks. Wayne believes Zaireeka embraces "...a kind of anarchy in art. It was like an art happening -- you have to bring four sound systems together. Sometimes you get great synchonicity; other times, it sounds haphazard. You get to hear music in a whole new way."[5]
[edit] Wayne’s Directorial Debut
Wayne began making his science fiction film, Christmas on Mars, in 2001. It was a low budget project and principal photography was shot on a set in his backyard. The different parts of the spaceship set were built by Wayne.[1]
The film tells the story of the first Christmas on a colonized Mars. In the film, Wayne plays a super being who is curious about a baby being born on Mars.
Christmas on Mars was shown for the first time at the Sasquatch! Music Festival inside of a circus tent. The Flaming Lips took the tent with them on tour, showing the movie after each performance. "The concept was to come up with another one of those midnight movies, like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' that I went to see as a teenager, all toked up, before the days of cable."[5]
[edit] Other projects/appearances
- Bradley Beesley directed a 2005 film about Coyne and the Flaming Lips, The Fearless Freaks, which features much footage of Coyne's early life, as well as his narration about his experiences in the band.
- In 2003, Coyne provided lead vocals on "The Golden Path" by The Chemical Brothers. This track was released on the Singles 93-03 album (CD1, Track 13).
- In 2005, Coyne recorded "Marching the Hate Machine (Into the Sun)" with the electronic-duo Thievery Corporation on their album The Cosmic Game.
- On May 24, 2006, a video of Coyne was shown at the graduation ceremony at his old high school, the Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In the video he spoke of not being a high school graduate, working at Long John Silver's, selling marijuana out of his apartment, and the value of life experience.[6]
- In 2006, Coyne appeared in a Swedish music program called 'Musikministeriet'[7] ('The Ministry Of Music'). He was featured in every episode, beginning and ending each one with a few eloquent words about that particular episode's theme, and his opinions about it.
- On January 1, 2007, Coyne appeared in Pasadena, California's annual Rose Parade on the "Oklahoma Rising" float with members of the Flaming Lips, and other celebrities who claim Oklahoma as their native state, including astronaut John Herrington, 2006 2006 Miss America Jennifer Berry, creator of "Desperate Housewives", Marc Cherry. It was the state's centennial birthday.
- Coyne and The Flaming Lips guest starred in an episode of the television show Charmed.
- Coyne and The Flaming Lips appeared on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, playing at the Peach Pit. They sometimes show the clip at live concerts.
- Coyne sings on the opening track, "Revenge", of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's album with David Lynch, "Dark Night of the Soul".
[edit] Personal Life
Wayne Coyne lives with his wife Michelle in a compound of four houses in the same neighborhood he grew up in. Each Halloween, Wayne dresses up to scare trick-or-treaters that come to his home. He feels that it is good to scare children, because when they grow older, there are things "that are horribly scary...you can't just run away from them or turn on a light and it runs away."[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f The Fearless Freaks. Dir. Beesely, Bradley. Perfs. Wayne Coyne. Shout Factory, 2005.
- ^ Curtis Ross. "Transmissions From The Lead Lip. " Knight Ridder Tribune Business News 13 April 2007
- ^ Joan Anderman, Globe Staff. . "The Flaming Lips: as honest as they are quirky: [THIRD Edition]. " Boston Globe [Boston, Mass.] 8 Sep. 2006,C.16.
- ^ Jon Niccum. . "Space Case: Wayne Coyne transports the Flaming Lips' extraterrestrial sounds back to Wakarusa. " McClatchy - Tribune Business News 6 June 2008
- ^ a b Jonathan Takiff. . "All about the Flaming Lips, straight from the psychedelic mouth of Wayne Coyne. " McClatchy - Tribune Business News 23 May 2008
- ^ James Montgomery (2006-05-26). "Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Delivers Bizarre High School Graduation Address". MTV.com. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1532605/20060526/flaming_lips.jhtml. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
- ^ Musikministeriet info on SVT
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wayne Coyne |
- Official bio from The Flaming Lips website
- IMDB on Fearless Freaks
- 2006 OKC Classen Commencement Speech Part 1 on YouTube
- 2006 OKC Classen Commencement Speech Part 2 on YouTube
- 2008 Wayne Coyne interview with Jon Niccum
- Wayne Coyne Interview in SPIN's January '09 Issue
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