THE GHOST OF A SABER TOOTH TIGER

INTERVIEW BY WAYNE COYNE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM
STYLING BY SEAN LENNON & CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL
GROOMING BY BENOIT MOEYAERT AT ART DEPARTMENT
DIGITAL TECHNICIAN - KEVIN TRAGESER
PHOTOGRAPHED AT SUN STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY

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WAYNE COYNE—What do you think happened to you, Sean? Why are you so well-adjusted while other people are such arrogant pricks? We won’t name anybody…

SEAN LENNON—It’s hard for me to say. I think on some level I don’t consider myself to be necessarily that famous. I’m sort of a fringe celebrity by default because of my parents, not necessarily because of anything I did. I grew up with a lot of crazy celebrities being around me and I think it desensitized me to that whole universe. It affects me less because I don’t really care. But I do get impressed sometimes. One time I saw Eminem in a nightclub and I got really nervous.

CHARLOTTE KEMP MUHL—You’re such a dork.

SL—But for most celebrities if I meet them I don’t notice it. With Eminem I definitely got nervous. I don’t know why but that was the one person…

CKM—And you ran away from Prince that one time.

SL—That’s because you were embarrassing me. You were like: “Sean, go say hi!” If you weren’t there I would’ve been fine.

CKM—Prince was like “What the heck’s going on?” Sean looked at him and sprinted in the opposite direction.

SL—I could see it in your eyes. You were trying to force me to talk to him.

CKM—I was waving and winking.

SL—You were embarrassing me.

CKM—You’re so easy to embarrass – I love it!

WC—I would say in the case of both of those, I would feel utterly awkward meeting them because I don’t have a lot in common with the way they do their thing.

SL—You’re the indie Prince, man. You’re like the psychedelic indie Prince.

(Excerpt from Issue 05)

More – www.thegoastt.com

Enjoy more of this on thelabmagazine.com, coming summer 2012!

THE FLAMING LIPS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE CHESSUM

ASSISTED BY KEVIN TRAGESER
RETOUCHING BY TODD AT 4C IMAGING

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ELIJAH WOOD—So you’re in Boston. You’re still on the tour, right?

WAYNE COYNE—We don’t ever think of it as a tour, because to me a tour feels like you’re going to be in Michigan one night and then you’re going to be in Minnesota and Chicago, but what we do is more like you’re in Texas one night and Madrid the next. You jump around, you go to Europe and Asia and everywhere.

EW—So you’re not on buses this time around?

WC—No, we are. We’re getting on the bus tomorrow, and then we’ll be on the bus for the next couple of weeks but occasionally we’ll fly to England and be on a bus there for a week and then we’ll fly back. We’ll drive from Seattle to Texas on a bus; we don’t give a shit about the distance. People don’t realize what a luxurious bunch of self-indulgent laziness you can get up to on a bus. You can lie in bed all day; it’s dark and quiet.

EW—I’ve spent a bit of time on tour buses with Gogol Bordello and you’re right, it’s like a dark cave and you can sleep the day away and then get up and go to your show. You have no concept of where you are at any given time.

WC—But after a couple of dates you don’t really care. Here’s why I think it’s so cosy. This goes back to prehistoric times when humans all lived and slept in caves together. When other people are sleeping it makes you want to sleep and when other people are awake it makes you want to be awake. There’s this urge. We go back to being cavemen – that’s what we really want to do.

EW—And there’s something kind of magical about it as well. You guys have had a pretty incredible year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much work come out of your band so consistently especially with the amazing gummy project and all these collaborations you’ve done. It sort of seems like a crazy creative explosion – what happened?

WC—I think it’s just called scheduling. When you think about people who are art majors in college and they have all this work due on a certain day, it’s amazing how much you can crank out if you have to do it. When given the complete freedom of saying my art is finished whenever I feel like it’s finished, shit can drag on for years and years. Before a band is successful the less they have to adhere to this schedule of release. We’ve definitely fallen into that in the past where it’s like, we might put out a record this year, but it might be next year. And I don’t always think that’s a good thing. I like the idea that we’re going to work now, and tomorrow we’re going to party, as opposed to that nebulous life where you’re kind of working all the time, but not working. When you work on movies you totally see it because everything is money, money, money and if you don’t get this shit done today it’ll be worse tomorrow. I think people in the movie industry understand, more than ever, that now is the time. But I think musicians think they’re in a different world from everybody else and they like this idea of inspiration and motivation but I’m like, “Dude, we’re recording today and whatever it was you thought was going to happen, it’s happening right now.” I like there being some urgency.

(Excerpt from Issue 04)

More—www.flaminglips.com

Enjoy more on thelabmagazine.com, coming summer 2012!