Last night, at the kick-off for GMFridays — a new free monthly concert series leading up to the Gasparilla Music Festival and featuring a range of fine-grade talent — organizers announced just which acts would be playing the third annual GMF, held Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9, 2014, at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park . And it's gonna be one for the record books.

Headlining Saturday night's festivities, on their only Florida stop next year, is Oklahoma-bred psychedelic rock heavyweights and three-time Grammy winners Flaming Lips, led by the visionary grandiosity of Mr. Wayne Coyne (Q&A after the jump) with creative guidance by his ridiculously talented bandmates, multi-instrumentalist whiz Steven Drozd, bassist/keysman Michael Ivins, drummer Kliph Scurlock, and since 2009, aux player Derek Brown.

Also performing: Latin Grammy-winning Venezuela disco/funk/Latin rock collective Los Amigos Invisibles, Cali-born, Brooklyn-based soulfully roots driving indie rockers Delta Spirit, alt country grinding Drive-By Truckers former Jason Isbell, and super beardy New Orleans groove licking troubadour, Anders Osborne.

More acts will be revealed in the coming weeks, but if you're already on board, two-day general admission “Early Bird” tickets are on sale right now for $40. But hurry up, Early Bird tickets are limited and the prices rise to $60 from there. Two-day VIP tickets are also offered for $150, and single-day tickets will be made available closer to the date of GMF, provided the fest hasn't already sold out by then. Which it very well might; the 2013 edition drew nearly 10,000 attendees, edging up on the event's capacity.

Check out an interview with Wayne Coyne after the jump, conducted this past summer by one of our freelancers, Barry Lively, who got the opportunity to chat with Coyne at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville. We’ve been waiting for just the right occasion to share the transcripts, and this seems like the perfect one…

Lively had driven 14 hours straight from Tampa to Louisville to make the Saturday afternoon interview, and he and Coyne chatted down by the river, with the water creeping up to their feet and dragging in sticks, trash and unidentifiable debris to the shore. Lively kept it light, discussing Coyne’s favorite cartoon from his youth, how The Banana Splits may have influenced the Flaming Lips sound, Coyne's penchant for posting pictures of roadkill on Instagram, books that have impacted his life, and other more music-mattered topics

Barry Lively: What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon growing up as child?
Wayne Coyne: A cartoon called Jonny Quest. He and his adventurous scientist father would travel the world and everywhere that they’d go, they’d discover THE MONSTERS, and that would happen every show.

What about live action shows?
Yes there was one in the 1960’s called The Banana Splits. The music reminded me of the Monkeys and the Beatles.

Would you say that some of your music was influenced by and sounds like the music from The Banana Splits?
You’re right, I would say that!

Do you tend to add more elements or take away more elements from a composition until it feels right?
I suppose it just goes all over the place. Occasionally you may be working on something that seems like a bigger arrangement and you walk away from it and come back to the studio and 10 of the tracks are turned off and it sounds great.

On the album Zaireeka, we struggled with the elements of how to make a song and realized we should leave it up to our listeners. This way, you could take away or add according to your tastes. Our arrangements can get pretty out of control and bombastic. I think, ultimately, it’s hard to say. Music can be very elastic and you can add or take away and it can become very resilient. There is no cut and dry “do it this way”; but we just keep on trying till we figure it out.

Why do you post pictures of roadkill on Instagram?
I try to take pictures even if I see a dead squirrel or a bird on the road; I notice things. It isn’t that I am looking for them. Why do I Instagram and Twitter? It’s to say, ‘Here’s what’s going on in my life’ without trying to make it seem fantastical. This is what I did today and I am really lucky to see a lot of great stuff. It’s fascinating, and I think people are drawn to that. I recently posted a picture of a turtle that was just hit and still alive. I try to show people the creatures that are alive amongst us ’cause it makes for a more colorful wonderful world. I don’t go on many rants but when I see someone hit a creature and just drive away, I get upset.

Have you read a book in the past five years that has impacted your perception of life?
I tend to read the same books over and over. One of them I look at quite often (which I forget the name of) is a book about all the taboos in life and how stupid they can be. But the book has taught me how to embrace them, where as most people think are off limits and that has helped me evolve my perception of life.

[We researched the matter and all signs seem to indicate the book he’s referencing is, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos. At least, he was quoted in places talking about it, namely on Amazon.com.]

How many shows do you play a year?
We don’t really do that many as we are constantly recording and doing movies and video stuff. You may see us play somewhere at the beginning of the summer and somewhere else at the end of the summer but we are not playing that many shows. I like the perception that we are really big road warriors. (Flexes his muscles and laughs.)

How much time in a year do you spend with your bandmates?
We are constantly around each other doing stuff and we love it. It’s more like a family.

You’ve said before that life is one big joke. Was there a specific precipitating moment when you adopted this attitude?
I think someone had misquoted me. No, I don’t think of life as one big joke. I think it’s best to know what is not a big deal and what to laugh at. I try to laugh at most things that are not devastating and heartbreaking. It’s best to spend most of your day trying to see the beauty in the world and not focusing on the negative. People say complaining is just a measure of how egotistical we have become.

This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2013.