Flaming Lips' festive movie ready

By Kev Geoghegan
Radio 1 music reporter

The Flaming Lips started work on the film in 2001

Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne says the band's 'home movie', Christmas On Mars, is almost ready after seven years in the making.

The band started work on the low budget film in 2001 and initially hoped to have it ready by 2003.

The Flaming Lips provide the music for the flick, set in a space station on Mars. Most the of the sets were built in Coyne's house in Oklahoma City.

He said: "There's a baby being born on the space station and it happens to be on Christmas Eve.

"My character is this alien super being who shows up in a giant spherical ship. And I'm green."

Home movie

The outlandish idea, which sees Coyne's Martian standing in for Santa Claus, is fairly typical for a band whose live shows are known for people in costumes and large amounts of confetti and balloons.

The Lips' shows often feature people dressed up in costume

He said: "We really just started as a weird home movie, my wife's in it, my brother's in it, two of my nephews are in it and friends who were around at the time.

"And then it became bigger and more of an art film, so it took on more of an epic quality but it still feels like a home movie.

"Well, a home movie that I would make."

The band have not released a new album since 2006's At War With The Mystics and Coyne told Newsbeat that the band are pouring their energy into getting the DVD out before they start recording again.

He said: "We'll probably go into the studio in February until the start of next summer and if it's great, we'll put it out.

"I think there's this weird clichéd thing where a group will go out on the road and then they detox for a while and then they go off and write songs for another record.

"There seems to be the idea that it's this cyclical thing but to me it's not, you're always writing songs and playing shows."