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Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) Has A Really Interesting Take On Protest Music In The Trump Era
Since Trump was elected president, I’ve been hearing musicians saying stuff about how punk rock needs to stand against Trump. Do you feel any responsibility to write more political lyrics these days?
No. No. I think, really, just the opposite. To me, in my everyday life, I despise him so much. I keep hoping that his train wrecks and he gets killed or whatever, you know? David Bowie dies, and fucking Donald Trump lives on. Carrie Fisher dies, and Donald Trump lives on. Why can't he just be one of them? He's fucking 70, you know?
Anyway, that’s me being bitter. But no, I don't think music does that. Music is, when it's at its most powerful, it's your comforting friend. When you're having deep personal pain, frankly, you don't really give a fuck who's president—whether it's Obama or whether it's Hitler or whatever. I remember the year my father died. I didn't give a fuck who was the mayor. I didn't give a fuck about any of that. But music, when it's at its most powerful, it's there with you and you can relate to it. Our music doesn't really work any other way except for that way. Maybe you're the only person that understands this [pain], but this music understands this with you. We want to be there with you in this pain. When we think, "Oh, we should make protest music," that’s just us being stupid and silly. And we've done [2006 song] "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.”
You went through a little phase of writing protest songs.
We did it as a joke. Which I regret now. I don't regret the music. But I regret that we didn't just spend our time doing something more emotional or something. I think some of that is silly. But I really don't think music does that. My proof would be, there couldn't be any more freedom of music and expression than there is right now. If music had that much power, Donald Trump wouldn't even exist, you know? Let alone get elected. If you want to protest, you can't do it abstractly. Music only works as an abstraction.
I was listening to At War With the Mystics the other day and was surprised to be reminded you actually name-checked Donald Trump on that album.
I know! I'm not proud of—at the time, he [was] this kind of celebrated loudmouth that everybody would wish they could ignore but he's just so stupid that you can't help but pay attention. I think that's the exact thing that happened to us with this election. For whatever it's worth, Hillary Clinton could’ve come to Oklahoma City, where we live, and I would have been bored. As an opponent of Donald Trump, I'm a thousand percent for her. But as an entity that's interesting and exciting and all that, I probably wouldn't have even gone to see her. I went to support Bernie [Sanders].
http://www.newsweek.com/wayne-coyne-donald-trump-protest-music-flaming-lips-552899
No. No. I think, really, just the opposite. To me, in my everyday life, I despise him so much. I keep hoping that his train wrecks and he gets killed or whatever, you know? David Bowie dies, and fucking Donald Trump lives on. Carrie Fisher dies, and Donald Trump lives on. Why can't he just be one of them? He's fucking 70, you know?
Anyway, that’s me being bitter. But no, I don't think music does that. Music is, when it's at its most powerful, it's your comforting friend. When you're having deep personal pain, frankly, you don't really give a fuck who's president—whether it's Obama or whether it's Hitler or whatever. I remember the year my father died. I didn't give a fuck who was the mayor. I didn't give a fuck about any of that. But music, when it's at its most powerful, it's there with you and you can relate to it. Our music doesn't really work any other way except for that way. Maybe you're the only person that understands this [pain], but this music understands this with you. We want to be there with you in this pain. When we think, "Oh, we should make protest music," that’s just us being stupid and silly. And we've done [2006 song] "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.”
You went through a little phase of writing protest songs.
We did it as a joke. Which I regret now. I don't regret the music. But I regret that we didn't just spend our time doing something more emotional or something. I think some of that is silly. But I really don't think music does that. My proof would be, there couldn't be any more freedom of music and expression than there is right now. If music had that much power, Donald Trump wouldn't even exist, you know? Let alone get elected. If you want to protest, you can't do it abstractly. Music only works as an abstraction.
I was listening to At War With the Mystics the other day and was surprised to be reminded you actually name-checked Donald Trump on that album.
I know! I'm not proud of—at the time, he [was] this kind of celebrated loudmouth that everybody would wish they could ignore but he's just so stupid that you can't help but pay attention. I think that's the exact thing that happened to us with this election. For whatever it's worth, Hillary Clinton could’ve come to Oklahoma City, where we live, and I would have been bored. As an opponent of Donald Trump, I'm a thousand percent for her. But as an entity that's interesting and exciting and all that, I probably wouldn't have even gone to see her. I went to support Bernie [Sanders].
http://www.newsweek.com/wayne-coyne-donald-trump-protest-music-flaming-lips-552899
We need it now more than ever because it's been a really effective tool at fighting the establishment but it was interesting to hear the perspective of an actual artist, particularly one who deals in the abstract. I might have to go listen to At War With The Mystics again.
