Photos by Nathan Poppe
When people give you a heads up that a unicorn is going to get wheeled throughout a concert crowd, it doesn’t actually sink in until you’re standing in the way of the glowing, horse-sized creature. Confetti, balloons and a Griswold family christmas amount of lights accompany most Flaming Lips shows but there’s always a surprise, too.
If you could peak inside the mind of Steven Drozd then I’m sure it would resemble the above video. It would definitely need more robots though.
Earlier this month, the Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist unveiled the Mutating Cell Ensemble at the ACM@UCO Rocks Bricktown music festival. More than a dozen student musicians played alongside Steven in a bizarre, loud avant-garde performance. I helped shoot the concert with Delo Creative and this sneak peak is visually bonkers. I’ll share the final video with you upon its release.
Until then, try to prepare your mind and eyes for musical madness with push ups and 24-hour songs.
Some days you sit at home and relax. Then there are other days where your band hosts an intergalactic music video shoot with a fake baby and creepy glowing tentacle lights. I think the Flaming Lips call that a Tuesday.
The lively people at Delo Creative invited me to take part in shooting a series of Flaming Lips live sessions. The fearless freaks played a good portion of the tunes from their newly released thirteenth studio album, “The Terror.” My target was drummer Kliph Scurlock, and you’ll be able to see his handiwork when the videos are released over the next month or so. Meanwhile, watch Wayne get interviewed by a horrible monster named Gorburger.
Stay weird Oklahoma City.
