The Flaming Lips forthcoming double-album, Embryonic, will feature MGMT and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O.
The guests appear on different tracks. Coyne told Swiss website Die Klangschau this week: "I just called [Karen] up in her hotel room and we did it right over the telephone. It's pretty absurd."
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' singer appears on at least a "couple" of Embryonic's tracks.
"For us, making a double record means that there's more room to be strange," Coyne added. "When [you] are making a very precise ten or 11 tracks, you want a really focused mood with an arc in it.
"With a double record, you're allowed to be abstract, freaky and unfocused - and that appealed to us" Wayne Coyne
"Whereas I think with a double record, you're allowed to be abstract, freaky and unfocused - and that appealed to us. We really wanted to have the songs overtake us."
Groove-focused album
The result is a more "groove"-focused album that fans "might not even recognise [as the Flaming Lips]". Alongside cameos by Karen O and MGMT, there are also contributions from a "weird mathematician guy from Germany". He does "some spoken word stuff."
"It's been very stressful because you just don't know if you're losing your minds or what - but I think for a group like us, we have to lose our minds. Because there's too much of your mind that knows how to make records."
Embryonic will be released in September.
"Reggae is more freeform than the blues. But more important, reggae is for everyone": Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
“Part of a beautiful American tradition”: A music theory expert explains the country roots of Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and why it also owes a debt to the blues
