Skip to main content

Creativity Quote by Wayne Coyne

"I can see that if this was an album done 10 or 15 years ago, we could see we were moving on to some place else"

About this Quote

Wayne Coyne is talking like someone watching a band age in real time, noticing that the old narratives about artistic progress no longer fit. The line is almost comically clumsy ("some place else"), but that’s the point: it refuses the clean mythology of the rock arc, where every record is either a breakthrough or a betrayal. Coyne’s intent reads as a correction to the way fans and critics flatten a career into eras. Ten or fifteen years ago, he suggests, an album would have been heard as a clear pivot - a signpost on the highway to the next reinvention. Now, it’s harder to claim forward motion with that kind of certainty.

The subtext is about expectations and exhaustion. Longevity in pop and rock comes with a strange tax: your new work gets judged not only on its sound, but on whether it proves you still have "somewhere" left to go. Coyne is quietly deflating that demand. He’s also acknowledging how listening habits have changed; albums don’t land as definitive cultural events the way they once did, so the idea of an LP announcing a new destination can feel like a leftover from an earlier media ecosystem.

Contextually, Coyne and The Flaming Lips have built a brand on big swings and psychedelic reinvention, so this isn’t resignation so much as a reframing. The future, he implies, might not look like a dramatic left turn. It might look like staying in motion without pretending every step is a new continent.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Coyne, Wayne. (2026, February 16). I can see that if this was an album done 10 or 15 years ago, we could see we were moving on to some place else. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-see-that-if-this-was-an-album-done-10-or-15-157564/

Chicago Style
Coyne, Wayne. "I can see that if this was an album done 10 or 15 years ago, we could see we were moving on to some place else." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-see-that-if-this-was-an-album-done-10-or-15-157564/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I can see that if this was an album done 10 or 15 years ago, we could see we were moving on to some place else." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-can-see-that-if-this-was-an-album-done-10-or-15-157564/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Wayne Add to List
Wayne Coyne on Artistic Evolution and Album Context
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Wayne Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is a Musician from USA.

25 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes