The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips Bio

The Flaming Lips are a Grammy award winning rock band from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band formed in 1983 with founding members Wayne Michael Coyne (January 13, 1961) on guitar along with his brother Mark Coyne (November 19, 1962) on vocals, Michael Ivins (March 17, 1963) on bass guitar and Dave Kotsa on the drums. The band released their first EP, ‘The Flaming Lips EP’ in 1984 before Mark Coyne left the band. Wayne Conye took over main vocal duties and release their first full length album, ‘Hear It Is’ on Pink Dust Records in 1986. By 1990, with new drummer Nathan Roberts and new guitarist Jonathan Donahue, the band released another album titled ‘In A Priest Driven Ambulence’ with producer Dave Fridmann. The album caught the ears of Warner Bros. Records and signed the band to their label, releasing their major label debut ‘Hit to Death in the Future Head’ in 1991. While The Flaming Lips were experimenting with their rock sound a number of album releases, the band’s mainstream breakthrough came in 1999 with the release of ‘The Soft Bulletin’ album. ‘The Soft Bulletin’ was a hit in the underground music scene and also received favourable reviews such as five stars from The Rolling Stone Album Guide and 10/10 from Pitchfork amongst many others. The Flaming Lips followed this up with their next full length album, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ in 2002 which earned the band a Grammy for Best Rock Metal Performance for the final track off the album, ‘Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)’. The band continued their success throughout the 2000’s with five more albums and received 2 more Grammy awards for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (‘At War with the Mystics’) and Best Rock Instrumental Performance (for the single “The Wizard Turns On”). The band is set to rumoured to release their next album, ‘Dead Lips’, in 2020. The current band members are Steven Drozd (June 11, 1969) and Derek Brown both on guitar, keyboard and backing vocals, Jake Ingalls on keyboard and guitar and Matt Duckworth Kirksey and Nick Ley on percussion and drums. Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins are the only remaining founding members.