Late fall 2016 I was hired by Drum Magazine to photograph Steve Drozd, lead drummer and songwriter for Oklahoma City based Flaming Lips rock band. My assignment was to capture several unique images of Steve Drozd for the cover and inside opening story for the magazine, along with extra “add-in” shots of live performance drummers Nick Ley and Matt Duckworth.
The Womb
After coordinating with my editor, we decided to shoot the portraits at the Flaming Lips’ warehouse in downtown Oklahoma City. This multi-colored building is known as “The Womb” and is used by Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne as a place to display his art. Like many Oklahoma City photographers I had photographed the outside of this unique building, but had never been inside. I was surprised to find that it was mostly used as warehouse space to build props for the band. In addition, they used it as an office to produce Flaming Lips videos and design merchandise for sale on tours.
