Three decades ago, Steven Drozd joined The Flaming Lips and immediately found himself in a weird place — and not just because he'd joined the famously weird psychedelic art-rock band.
"Well, it was weird because, by the time I joined The Flaming Lips , they were one of my favorite groups. ... I moved to Norman in 1991 from Austin, Texas, and I met Wayne (Coyne , the Lips' frontman and co-founder) and Michael Ivins (co-founder and former bassist) a couple of months after that. They were looking for a drummer, and it just happened I had just moved to town," Drozd recalled in a spring interview with The Oklahoman .
"It took me a couple of years to get over just being a fanboy ... but now it's been 33 years."
In that time, the Houston native has emerged as The Flaming Lips' secret weapon — or as secret as one can get when frequently performing for thousands of fans while wearing a glittery cloak and surrounded by a confounding number of instruments.
"Wayne casts a very big shadow ... and he's always excelling at trying to create a new thing on stage. The intent has always been to create a stunning live show; it's just a matter of the means that we have," said Drozd, who settled in Oklahoma City in 2005.
"At first, I thought I didn't want to perform with all the extracurricular shenanigans and hoopla and hijinks. But then I realized, 'No, I don't think I want people just looking at me ... that much.' I'd rather you look at the pink robot that's being inflated."
How are The Flaming Lips saluting their hometown with an OKC 'Summer Freak Out?'
Fans will get to partake of all the shenanigans, hoopla and hijinks and, of course, otherwordly music involved in the Lips' legendary live performances during the band's hometown "Summer Freak Out" Friday, Aug. 30, and Saturday, Aug. 31, at OKC's Zoo Amphitheatre . The "Fearless Freaks " previously recorded their first live concert film, " UFOs at the Zoo : The Legendary Concert in Oklahoma City," at the OKC Zoo's venerable venue in September 2006.
Formed in OKC in 1983, the Lips are marking their 40th anniversary as a band and celebrating the enduring influence of two of their seminal albums at the OKC Labor Day weekend shows.
At Friday's concert, the alt-rockers will perform in its entirety their trailblazing 2002 album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots ." For their Saturday show at the newly upgraded OKC venue , the experimental rockers will play their 1999 masterwork "The Soft Bulletin" — ranked No. 3 on Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s — track by track.
"From the beginning, Wayne and I, we just hit it off writing songs together. It feels like we hit our stride on 'The Soft Bulletin' and just kept going from there," Drozd told The Oklahoman.
"And if you haven't seen the 'Yoshimi ' show, it's pretty fantastic. We do have these giant pink robots that get inflated at the beginning. ... So, our live show just continues to evolve. It continues to get bigger and better and brighter."
General admission to the Lips' hometown shows is free with RSVP, but all the free tickets have been claimed. Fans can join the waiting list for free tickets at https://okczooamp.com.
How does the collaboration between Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd keep The Flaming Lips moving?
Drozd, a superlative multi-instrumentalist, and Coyne, the Lips' Space Bubble -commanding, rainbow unicorn-riding frontman , are the primary songwriters and creative drivers for the three-time Grammy Award-winning band.
"To meet someone like Steven, I didn't even realize how insanely talented he was. It's still kind of mind-boggling, like, 'Oh, yeah, f--k, you can do that. That's amazing.' He can play any instrument, and he drums and he sings. So, it's really insane that he likes writing music, and he likes writing music with me. I mean, that's a lot of combinations there that you could never think would be possible. And our tastes are very similar," Coyne told The Oklahoman.
"Anything that you're doing creatively, this kind of collaboration, this is the stuff that makes it so much richer and so much better and so much more unique. ... Each of us is for the other the connection to, 'That's inspiring. Now, let's get to work.'"
Ahead of the OKC "Summer Freak Out," Drozd spoke with The Oklahoman about his three-decade run with the Lips and his brotherly bond with Coyne:
Q: Since your dad was a musician, has music always been your creative outlet?
He played saxophone and clarinet, stuff like that, and he wrote music for a little while. But he had to take care of his family; he had five kids. So, his dreams of being a famous, popular entertainer were not really realistic. ... He mostly just played in cover bands when I was growing up. ...
There's just so many different ways to do (music): I have a beautiful piano in the living room, and sometimes an idea starts there. Sometimes, I'll sit down at my drum kit that I have at home, and an idea actually starts with a drum beat. It just can go in so many different ways.
There's not really one way, obviously, I approach making music. A lot of times I'm not even trying to make anything, just an accident will happen and it's like, 'Hey, I should record that and make something out of it.'
Q: How did you and Wayne together become the creative nexus of the band?
They hired me as a drummer, but they didn't know that I played guitar and piano and other stuff. Once we got comfortable with that idea, then he and I just started writing stuff together pretty quickly. ...
I think some people would be like, 'You're the drummer. We don't want to hear any of your ideas' — or at least that used to be the notion. There was a joke way back when: 'What was the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the group?' 'Hey, guys, I have a song.' ... But with Wayne, he's really encouraging and is always up for new ideas, new anything.
Q: What makes you and Wayne good bandmates and collaborators?
From the get-go, he felt like an older brother to me, because I have two older brothers about his age. I don't know, we just hit it off. We just clicked.
Until very recently, we hadn't worked on new music, and it's the longest we've gone, ever, without working on new music, since I've been in a group. So, it was strange, and then all of a sudden, it just felt like, 'Hey, let's start making some new stuff.' So, we did, and it just feels completely natural. ... It has been 33 years, so we don't even really have to think about it anymore.
Q: Why do you think The Flaming Lips have been around for 40 years and counting?
I think a big part of why we're still together and still touring and still doing stuff that people are interested in is because we try to change with the times or change as we go. A lot of bands, they make a couple of records, they get stuck in that one sound, and that's just what they do for the rest of their career, whatever. And that's fine. But I think that would probably kill us, if we did something like that. Even if it doesn't seem like we're going through any big changes, we feel like we're going through changes. So, that helps us feel new and fresh. ...
Wayne has an incredibly strong work ethic, and he's so determined. ... And I think another factor is (the Lips' longtime manager) Scott Booker . Scott has been the steward of keeping the ship on course and on track, and he's just been brilliant with how he handles our business and our finances, our money, dealing with people and how we tour, all that. ... I actually call Scott and Wayne 'the elders' — those who came before me. (chuckles)
But the combination of those two guys and us wanting to do new stuff — new stage show, new lights, new video and all that — being a constant, I think that has helped us stay, I guess, somewhat relevant. I mean, we're playing bigger shows now than we did a few years ago. ...
I hope we make it to 50 years, and we can talk about it again in 10 years. Wayne says it a lot, 'We're just going to keep playing until one of us just keels over.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm cool with that.' ... I don't know how long The Flaming Lips will go, but we're going to keep going as long as we can.
Flaming Lips' OKC 'Summer Freak Out'
- When : Aug. 30-31.
- Where : Zoo Amphitheatre, 2101 NE 50, OKC.
- General admission: Free with RSVP, but all the free tickets have been claimed. Fans can join the waiting list for free tickets at https://okczooamp.com.
- Seating : First come, first served.
- Information: https://www.facebook.com/okczooamp .
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Steven Drozd eager for hometown 'hoopla and hijinks' of Flaming Lips' OKC 'Summer Freak Out'
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