Originally Published November November 1, 2025

The Observer (TO): When did you first discover The Flaming Lips?

Owen: I had Batman Forever on DVD as a kid, and I always found “Bad Days” to be such a fun and quirky song, so that was in my rotation for years and years. 

When I was in high school, I decided to see what other music they’d made on a whim, ‘Oczy Mlody‘ had just come out and I really liked some of those songs, but stumbling onto “Race For The Prize” is what really drew me in. After that, I started delving down the rabbit hole and just fell in love with their music. ‘The Soft Bulletin‘ was the first album of theirs I listened to in its entirety and it had me hooked, it was like nothing I’d ever heard before.

Owen at his first Lips show in Adelaide

TO: When did you decide to start thesatellitehead? And what was the reason behind the channel, the goal etc…?

Owen: By the time I got into the Lips, there was no real archive of their live shows available and no place to find obscure recordings. There used to be pages filling that role, like psychiatricexplorations.com and the SlowNerveActionBored YouTube channel, but they were long gone when I became a Lips fan.

There were so many recordings I really wanted to hear but couldn’t find anywhere online, all I had were a few common bootlegs. None of those bootlegs were on YouTube, so I decided to create a YouTube channel to post them. I had barely anything when I started the channel in September of 2020.

Shortly afterwards, I started digging through old message boards on the Wayback Machine trying to find download links that were still active, trying every Peer To Peer client I could, finding the email addresses of tapers and collectors and contacting them, etc. all in the hopes of getting my hands on as much material as I could. I really just wanted to have everything easily accessible for fellow fans, I never really foresaw my collection growing to be as big as it is now!

Even with over 500 live shows in my collection, there’s still over 100 I’m still trying to track down (sneaky plug for readers to email me at flowersofneptune6@gmail.com if they have any recordings they’d be willing to share! I’m always on the hunt)

TO: What was it about the band that drew you in?

Owen: I just absolutely loved their albums and how they evolved their sound so much over the years, they had so many weird and innovative projects, I really connected with a lot of their music, and admired how they seemed to throw all the rules out the window. Not to mention, their live shows just seemed absolutely electric… I mean, how can you not be drawn in by a guy surfing the crowd in an inflatable bubble?

TO: Do you have a favorite song, lyric or piece of music?

Owen: My favourite song of all time is “Slow Motion” from ‘The Soft Bulletin,’ I guess it’s hard to articulate exactly why… Musically alone it would be my favourite, but I’ve also always been drawn to the theme it has of living this moment of bliss through whatever struggles you’re having. The lyric “It takes a year… to make a day” especially stands out to me.

I often think about the way Wayne put it at their 2010 NYE show “It’s a strange song, I think it’s really about, just… somehow, after you’ve thought about all the stuff that could be bad in your life, you’ve had a moment where you just fuckin’ feel good.”

If I could pick one song for them to bring back to the setlist, that would be the one.

Favorite video artwork.

The sea of confetti after the Hordern Pavilion show in Sydney.

TO: The Youtube Channel is very organized, which is nice, it’s broken down by era, band members, etc… why was that important to organize the channel this way?

Owen: I think I’m just a nut when it comes to organising stuff like that, it’s satisfying to categorise everything, and I’m really glad my channel is fairly easy to peruse through and find what you’re looking for. I’ve got over 800 videos, covering over 40 years of Lips history, so I think that would be a nightmare to look through if it wasn’t sorted properly!

TO: What has been your favorite part of collaborating with the band to produce videos?

Owen: Having any sort of interaction with the Lips is quite surreal and a great joy, it’s something I never envisioned when starting my channel. Being able to hear their perspectives on the songs and performances that have affected me so much is really the best part. It’s probably pretty evident when you look at my channel, but I’m absolutely obsessed with this stuff, so being able to ask them any question I want is a real privilege and I feel extremely lucky to be in the position I’m in. They’ve been nothing but gracious and kind, despite me probably bugging the shit out of them with a million questions!

I’ve only done interview-style videos with Wayne and Michael, but the list should hopefully be growing soon if all goes according to plan!

TO: Do you have a favorite album or period of the Lips’ history? If so, what and why?

Owen: For my favorite album, I’d have to say ‘The Soft Bulletin,’ that’s the record that really kick-started my love for the Lips. That’s the first one I delved into, and it’s just beautiful, it’s hard to put into words really. From start to finish, it’s just this lush, emotional experience that I feel like I can disappear into… if that makes sense.

In terms of live stuff, it’s a three way tie for me between 1992-1996, 2006-2007, and 2022-present day. Those are the eras of shows I go back to the most, the live formation sounds so tight and it feels like everything really falls into place. Of course I love everything else too, but those are the standouts in terms of my taste, and there’s so many great performances to pick from.

Owen and Wayne, photograph recorded by Derek.

TO: Is there anything behind the scenes about producing videos, or managing the channel, that you would share with us? Like managing comments, producing and posting videos etc…

Owen: I make all of these custom video artworks for the audio-only shows, and that seemed like a really fun idea when I only had five bootlegs… but that became a pretty big challenge as I started gathering hundreds of shows! 

I’ve got no graphic design experience at all (which is probably evident) so I really feel like I threw myself in the deep end there, some days I regret the idea, but overall, it’s been a lot of fun to experiment with designs, even if I’m not all that great at it. There’s a few that I’m really proud of! [I’ve attached a photo of some of my favourites]

The video interviews are sort of the same story, I’ve really enjoyed discovering how to edit and honing my skills over the years. Even after five years, making videos is the last thing I think about before I sleep and the first thing I think about in the morning, I just absolutely love working on this channel. I’ve never been as passionate about anything as much as I am about this, it really keeps me going.

TO: What was one interview in particular that you couldn’t believe you got to produce? And why?

Owen: That’s hard to say… There’s a lot of interviews I’ve got lined up in the future that I’m really excited about, but I plan on keeping them as a surprise (terrible answer, I know!). Some of them are members of my other favorite bands, which has been a lot of fun. Sometimes, I think I have a guest locked in, but things don’t pan out, so I don’t want to promise anything I might not get to deliver on.

If I had to pick one I’ve already posted, I’d say that I was very surprised to get a ‘yes’ from Michael, since he doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of interviews.

I’ve even had a couple of occasions where someone will agree to an interview, and then realize they actually can’t remember anything I’m asking about. One example was Jimmy Tamborello of The Postal Service, I told him I had questions about his Lips remixes and covers and he was game – but after reading my questions, he said he struggled to recollect anything… he was super sweet about it though!

I will say however, I’m working on a fairly big Lips documentary video that will have around 15 different talking heads, and some of the people that agreed to be a part of it really surprised me! So I’m really hoping I can seal the deal with all of those and get their interviews done, it’s already a few months in the making. It will be the biggest and most expensive video I’ve ever worked on by far, so I’m really excited to get it rolling. I’ve never edited anything this massive before, so wish me luck!

TO: Do you have a favorite memory of seeing the band live? If so, what?

Owen: I’ve only seen the band live four times, all of which was on their Australia tour at the beginning of this year, so it’s pretty hard to pick. I might have to say the Adelaide show, since that was my first time and they really blew me away with some of the surprise setlist inclusions. I wasn’t expecting “Riding To Work In The Year 2025″ or “Christmas At The Zoo,” and those were absolutely amazing to hear live! It was AJ’s first show, and I couldn’t believe how great the lineup sounded.

Their third show on the tour in Sydney definitely sticks out too, I was riding the high of getting to meet the band the day before, and it might sound nerdy, but anytime you get to make eye contact with the band while they’re playing is always great. I specifically remember Derek nodding at me during “Yoshimi… Pt. 1” and feeling like that was the coolest thing ever!

The fourth show in Brisbane was pretty fascinating for me, their lighting director Joey Burbach was cool enough to invite me to stand at Front Of House to watch the show. Getting to enjoy the Lips‘ set was great fun, but being able to watch Joey and their sound engineer Aaron Robinson do their thing really helped me appreciate everyone that helps make the show what it is! I filmed all the Australia shows, and during the Brisbane one I occasionally panned to their desks to show what they’re doing, I thought it was so cool!

Zac and his goon bag!

TO: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Owen: I feel like I have to add my favourite story about the band, which is when I was lucky enough to meet them in Melbourne. I was walking to the food court in the Melbourne airport when Tommy and AJ came through the security gate, I was wearing my Lips shirt of course, and I told them about how great the shows were, and they were incredibly cool.

Afterwards, I walked past them and then saw Wayne and Derek, I was super nervous but I took a big gulp and approached them. Before I could say anything, Wayne said “Cool shirt!” and I think I said something like “Cool band, last night was great!” But before I could say much else, Derek said “Are you Owen… Satellite Head?” and I think my life officially peaked at that point. The rest of that conversation is a total blur because of how excited I was, but I remember being surprised to hear that Wayne had any idea about my channel. I’d been in brief contact with Derek prior, but I figured the rest of the guys wouldn’t have a clue. That was incredibly surreal, to not only meet my favorite band, but for them to know who I was, it was mind blowing!

I was on the same flight as the band, so I was sitting in the departure lounge by myself when Wayne came over and sat next to me. We exchanged details, and I had a bit of back and forth with the whole group. I was doing my best to act normal, but inside I was absolutely buzzing, they were all just a pleasure to talk to. Derek was incredibly sweet and took some photos of me talking to Wayne, I had no idea he took any until he sent them to me when we were on the flight, I was very touched by that!

I caught up with Wayne after the flight, and he invited me to an Art Party that Zach was co-hosting in Sydney. Even though I was supposed to fly out on that day, I rearranged my whole holiday just to make it, after all, you only live once right?

The Art Party was a lot of fun, I talked with Tommy for a lot of it, and he was just as cool as can be. He’s a trooper for putting up with my barrage of nerdy questions that night! I also spoke with AJ and Matt briefly, and they were just great, I can’t say enough nice things about the whole group. I even got to drink from Zach’s goon bag – which I’m sure sounds absolutely disgusting for the non-Aussie readers, but it’s slang for wine in a bag (I swear!)

It’s hard to put my feelings about that whole trip into words, it was truly unforgettable. It was beyond what I could have ever dreamed of as a Lips superfan, and I feel like I’ve been riding that high ever since! I’m so grateful to those guys for being as inviting and down to earth as they were… Those who say don’t meet your heroes clearly never met the Flaming Lips!

###