"We made music that wouldn't be in synch"
About this Quote
A tiny sentence that smuggles in an entire aesthetic: the joy of being slightly off. Wayne Coyne isn’t bragging about technical incompetence; he’s describing a deliberate refusal of polish as a kind of philosophy. “Wouldn’t be in synch” reads like a shrug, but it’s a manifesto against the tyranny of tightness - the studio grid, the click track, the expectation that emotion should arrive on time.
The intent is to frame The Flaming Lips’ sound as human before it’s correct. Their best records often feel like they’re wobbling toward transcendence: big melodies, cheap keyboards, drums that lurch, voices that crack, textures that smear. That looseness isn’t an accident; it’s a way of keeping the seams visible so the listener can feel the labor, the risk, the room. In a culture that increasingly edits everything into frictionless content, Coyne’s line champions imperfection as authenticity’s last refuge.
The subtext is also social. “Synch” isn’t just musical alignment; it’s conformity, the pressure to fit an industry’s timing, branding, and genre rules. By celebrating unsynced music, Coyne positions the band as happily out of step with prevailing taste - not as outsiders nursing a grudge, but as artists protecting wonder from professionalism.
Context matters: coming up in an era moving from analog messiness to digital exactitude, Coyne’s ethos reads like preemptive resistance. It’s not nostalgia. It’s insistence that the glitch, the drift, the near-miss can be the point - because that’s where personality leaks in.
The intent is to frame The Flaming Lips’ sound as human before it’s correct. Their best records often feel like they’re wobbling toward transcendence: big melodies, cheap keyboards, drums that lurch, voices that crack, textures that smear. That looseness isn’t an accident; it’s a way of keeping the seams visible so the listener can feel the labor, the risk, the room. In a culture that increasingly edits everything into frictionless content, Coyne’s line champions imperfection as authenticity’s last refuge.
The subtext is also social. “Synch” isn’t just musical alignment; it’s conformity, the pressure to fit an industry’s timing, branding, and genre rules. By celebrating unsynced music, Coyne positions the band as happily out of step with prevailing taste - not as outsiders nursing a grudge, but as artists protecting wonder from professionalism.
Context matters: coming up in an era moving from analog messiness to digital exactitude, Coyne’s ethos reads like preemptive resistance. It’s not nostalgia. It’s insistence that the glitch, the drift, the near-miss can be the point - because that’s where personality leaks in.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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