“Whenever we go into making a record, we do believe that we’re making 'something,'" says Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. "There are ideas there, but at the same time, it’s also true that the best art is accidental – a happy by-product of something you weren’t intending to do."

Grand concepts and lucky moments collide beautifully on The Terror, the newest sonic trip to come from rock's reigning kings of experimental mood music. Coyne admits that the band wasn't really planning on recording an entire album, saying that the group "simply made music that appealed to us on a primitive level. We’re always recording anyway. It’s like what I tell all artists: ‘Be working hard, but be ready for the surprises.’"

Co-produced by the band (which also includes Steven Drozd, guitars, keyboards and vocals; Michael Ivins, bass, keyboards; Kliph Scurlock, drums; and Derek Brown, guitars, keyboards and percussion) Scott Booker and longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann, The Terror took shape mainly on computers and keyboards, with most of the recording taking place at Fridmann's Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York.

Although there is an element of the full band on the album's expansive nine tracks, the project was mainly the work of Coyne and multi-instrumentalist Drozd. "Probably 80 percent of what we’ve done since Zaireeka [1997] have been just Steven and I putting things together," says Coyne. "The group is always involved in everything we’re doing, but the tracks don’t have drummers and bass players and things like that."

Between the band's Pro Tools setup, Fridmann's studio and the extensive collection of hard-to-find gear and unique synthesizers Coyne and Drozd utilize, Coyne says, "We're able to let our minds wander and create. There isn’t anything we dream up that we can’t do.”

The Flaming Lips' The Terror will be released in the UK on 1 April in the US on 16 April. The album can be ordered at this link. On the following pages, Coyne walks us through the the record's nine cuts.