Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd plays polka for ACM@UCO master class

Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips speaks about his musical influences during an ACM@UCO Master Class on Wednesday at Stage Center in Oklahoma City. (Photo by John Clanton/The Oklahoman)

Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd spoke Wednesday night during a master class for students of the University of Central Oklahoma’s Academy of Contemporary Music.

And he played polka music for them.

My colleague George Lang was on the scene for the master class; click here to read his story.

Drozd, 40, became Wednesday the second prominent musician to speak at ACM@UCO’s master class series. Roger Daltrey of The Who, which provided Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime entertainment, visited the Oklahoma City school in October.

The discussion was moderated by ACM@UCO president and Lips manager Scott Booker. Drozd started the two-hour session talking about his earliest musical influence: his father, who played saxophone with the Lips on PBS’ “Austin City Limits.”

When Steven Drozd was growing up, his father led a polka band called Vernon Drozd and the Texas Brass, which recorded several songs in the late 1960s. Sitting behind a drum kit, Steven Drozd pounded away to “Juarez, Mexico,” a 1969 recording by his father the younger Drozd had on his iPod Nano.