Flaming Lips to Release Album About Addiction

The title of the upcoming Flaming Lips album The Terror may provide some insight into the dark inspiration behind it. Frontman Wayne Coyne revealed that the main influence behind the record was the drug addiction of fellow band member Steven Drozd, who is now recovering. “It was probably the worst time of his life,” says Coyne. “I knew he was really, really struggling. He was in a bad way.” Instead of working with the band on recording new music, Drozd holed up in a different studio to record a series of “horribly creepy” tracks, the melodies of which will actually make it on to several songs of the new album. “Not all the pieces were audible, but he had these things saying ‘you are not alone,’ and then the other voice saying, ‘I am not alone.’ Back and forth between some horrible internal dialogue. It was truly devastating,” Coyne says. Drozd was hospitalized before a Florida show in 2010 due to an alleged overdose and his crippling battle with addiction was depicted in the 2005 Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks. The Terror is scheduled to be released sometime this fall.