Flaming Lips - Race For The Prize - Features

JoE Silva talks to producer Dave Fridmann about the making of a Lips success story.

Much like George Martin before him, producer Dave Fridmann has attained ‘Fifth Beatle’ status inside the space rock continuum that is the Flaming Lips. And while probably no one would relish having themselves referred as ‘the Fourth Lip’, Fridmann’s key position within the band’s creative machinery is incontestable. Long on a slow boil, the career of the Flaming Lips rocketed into the mainstream with the 1999 appearance of their LP The Soft Bulletin. Released on the back of their ultra-ambitious Zaireeka album (the four-disc outing where all the CDs can be played simultaneously if you’ve got the gear handy), the success of The Soft Bulletin came as something of a surprise to those who never figured on the band eclipsing their indie status. Fridmann, who’s been working with the Lips since 1990’s In A Priest Driven Ambulance, has long considered himself ‘a member of the team’. Phone-shy and hard at work polishing the Lips’ latest release (At War With The Mystics), Fridmann checks in by e-mail regarding his role: “They have the final say, of course, but it’s mostly left to me to patch it together. We all collaborate on the tracking process, though, because we usually come up with nice little changes to the main melody.”

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 39
Filed under Back Track

/mtm/features/flaming-lips-race-for-the-prize

New users, please register here

Please enter your details below to set up your new account. Fields marked with a red asterisk * are required.

Your name
*First name:
*Last name:
Job title:
Company:

Account settings
*Email address:
	Please make sure your email address is correct, as we will send you an email with a link to activate your account.
*Username:
	Choose a username between 7 and 100 characters in length, without spaces or unusual characters. You may use your email address as your username, but note that it may appear in community areas of the site where others can see it.
*Password:
*Confirm password:
	Choose a password between 7 and 100 characters in length, without spaces.
	Remember me on this computer

Your address and contact info
Address 1:

Town or city:
County or state:
Postcode or ZIP:
Country:
Telephone:
Fax:
Website:

	By registering to use the Music Tech website you agree to allow us to contact you with our Music Tech email newsletters featuring news, competitions, exclusive content and special offers, as well as with communications from our carefully selected music technology retail and manufacturer partners. If you provide phone and post details we may contact you by those means as well with special offers relating specifically to Music Tech Magazine and our other publications. WE WILL NOT PASS YOUR DETAILS TO ANY THIRD PARTY. If at any time you wish to stop receiving our email newsletter, simply follow the Unsubscribe instruction on our newsletter. Contact us by email of post if you wish your post or phone details to be removed from our database.

MTM 57	Back Track Siouxsie and The Banshees Spellbound	MTM 56	David Shire All The President's Men JoE Silva gets the lowdown on the making of a soundtrack classic.
MTM 53	Backtrack JoE Silva finds out how one man’s boyhood dream became a career reality.	MTM 52	Backtrack Nirvana - Negative Creep
MTM 51	Backtrack Spoon - Everything Hits At Once	MTM 50	Back Track Todd Rundgren, International Feel
MTM 49	Back Track JoE Silva gets the lowdown on 11 hectic hours at Ocean Way Studios’ Nashville branch.	MTM 48	Backtrack JoE Silva finds out how rock’s biggest duo crafted the sound for their fifth studio LP.

Flaming Lips - Race For The Prize

Sign in to download this article

New users, please register here

See also...

Menu