Drew loves the Flaming Lips. They are his favourite band in the world. So, when he had the opportunity to talk to Wayne (singer/guitarist) before their Birmingham show, he wasn't about to ask them who their influences are and leave it at that, oh no. The final interview was too huge to print in its entirety, so we've split it into two parts, of which this is the first.

Are drugs an important part of your existence and music?
Naw, we don't do any more than anyone else. People think we must take them all the time and record our records on drugs and stuff but.. no...

So, you're not a 'psychedelic' band, then?
No, no... people seem to associate the event of your imagination veering away from whatever is 'normal' to like, "Oh, that's because they take drugs", or whatever.... Or any time that you seem to veer into anything that has maybe a couple of melodies going on, people seem to think that's psychedelic. And, well, sure - if you think that's what psychedelic is. To me, I've always thought of psychedelic as being... you know - kinda Grateful Dead and stuff like that. So, I don't really think of us as being sort of psychedelic. We just like to do lots of different types of songs...

So, why do you write songs about animals and jelly and stuff?
I just think that there should be no limit, you know.... there shouldn't be any one thing that you either write about or won't write. I just see it as a limitless sort of thing - you can write about anything you want. Bands often seem to have a sort of agenda - what they sing about and talk about and stuff...

So, yours is to have fun then?
Nah,... not really to have fun. Just that it should be a limitless sort of thing. That you should be able to have all kinds of emotions, all kinds of ideas - why be just limited to what people think rock and roll should be about.

Like complaining and stuff...
Right.. it can be complex. It can be a billion things. So we just try to make songs out of whatever comes to our minds. But it's not like the first thing we think of, we think 'Oh, that's a great song' because we do try to work hard whenever we get ideas and stuff. But so far as subjects we talk or write about - it could be anything.

Do you enjoy touring?
Oh, you know.. I think there are elements that are a lot of fun, but then it's like anything - when you do it a whole bunch all the time, it gets kind of tiring and you wanna go do something else. Sometimes it's a lot of fun, sometimes it's kind of a drag - but you take the good with the bad and it's never really that horrible. If it was ever really horrible we would just go home, you know...

I guess it could be worse... you're not laying bricks in winter or anything...
Right - in a lot of ways we're really lucky to be able to do the kind of music we do and have any kind of audience at all really. 'Cos it's sort of.. really, there isn't any hope of becoming any kind of a mainstream success. It just seems that we're lucky to have any kind of an audience at all, and a record company that puts out our records and all that stuff.

So, are you looking forward to a UK tour? You've not played here much in the past...
Yeah, I know. We hardly ever have. The last two or three years we've come over and done festivals, but we haven't toured in Europe that much at all. We toured Germany years ago and then we did the Chili Peppers tour this year. But we've been over here a bunch and not played any small shows and stuff but, yeah I like it and we know a lot of people in London and stuff so it's easy.

You guys seem to live for music...
Of course we do. But we're not like disciplined or anything in that sort of way. And we are able to do it, that's the thing- we don't have to scrape together money and time, this is what we do. But sometimes it gets to be too much, like when we were making our last record. We had really come off a couple of years of making a record and touring and doing an EP and touring and touring and then as soon as we got done we had already scheduled time to make another record. And we were pretty tired of the whole process even before the last record. But not idea-wise, just always having to do it - you know, it's a lot of people's time and money and people's schedules and it's hard.
Especially after doing it consistently for a couple of years or so. Even when we get done with this tour, we go home and we play about three weeks worth of shows in the States, go out with the Jesus Lizard at the beginning of the summer and then I think we head back over here for some festivals again. So until July or whatever, this is just what we do - and some of it will be great and some of it will suck but...

Has the new record lived up to expectations?
Oh yeah, everything in the last couple of years has gone past anything we ever expected. I really don't expect people to like our stuff at all. People get used to knowing what music should sound like and ours, well, just, uh...it just goes all over the place. So anytime I see a good review or whatever, I'm thankful, but I never take it seriously although I'm glad. But when people get into it, then that's the best thing in the world that music can do - we've never really looked at ourselves as wanting to be 'big'. I mean, in the UK that's what being a band is all about. It's all this, like, success and charts and all. But while that exists in America, there's this whole other sub-level, where people just want to play at their own level and make records and play to a whole different audience. And that's sorta where we come from - we never wanted to be on the cover of Billboard magazine or to be in Melody Maker. It's just really not our trip... And the fact that there's enough people out there to create a popularity is great. and if tomorrow everybody forgot about us then that's okay

You've had a good few years at least...
Yeah, we make weird music - we don't expect MTV to play us every day. We NEVER thought this was the only band we were gonna be in, but this is the only thing I've ever done and I never figured it would have any appeal. We just like to play weird music - and doesn't everybody? You know what I mean? And the fact that we've been able to keep doin' it - for the sort of thing that we do we've made TONS of money and I sometimes think 'God, it's just not fair'. And I see so many bands out there who do good music, who care about what they do and then I see so much shit, you know.......

Do you have any ideas of where you're heading when you make a record, or do you just go and see what happens?
Erm... I think it's like most peoples lives - I think that you really have a.........When you ask people what they like, sometimes they hesitate but they can tell you a list of a thousand things they hate. But there is music we love.. and when we go make a record, we never really like what we do but we dwindle it down to stuff we know we don't hate. And if we're like 'We don't hate that' then we'll keep it for a while. We try to get away from what we hate and stick with the things that end up being on the tape. But it's not like we go in there clueless - we have songs and ideas and new ways of approaching songs because, after you've made six or seven albums, if you keep writing in the same way it would get boring.

Do you ever go into the studio thinking 'Let's use different instruments' or whatever..
Well, we would never do it for the sake of it. But we always like to try different things - and every song we do is really even different from the next one, in the way we approach it. But we're guilty like everyone else of doing stuff just to get away from being stuck. Like 'Oh, guitar is boring - why don't we use some other things'. And people say that guitar is dead, but honestly guitar is neither alive nor dead - no instrument ever is - it's the ideas in your head, it's what you're doing. and I try to remember those sorts of things because it's too easy to be like 'Ah boy, these guitars - they get boring' and it's NOT the guitars, it's your fuckin' ideas, you know? And that's really us just trying to get ideas and push concepts of what you can do with music and bands. And if people like it then fine because we don't look at our own stuff and go 'Yeah, we're doing experimental stuff here and we're weird.' It's just what we do and there's plenty of other bands out there we think are great...

Do you think it's gonna keep going for ever?
Oh, I hope so. We wouldn't wanna do it if we got in a situation where we didn't like what was happening or if it was embarrassing to keep going. But I hope that the idea of a rock band can change to where it isn't just this vehicle for views and revolution and all that - which is good sometimes, but mostly is just bullshit...

The Flaming Lips were talking to Drew, in May 1996.