Homer Flynn – The Residents

This was the era where the Residents in that Eskimo period, especially with the sleeve, created what people often recognize as the Residents in terms of that large eyeball mask and the top hats and the tuxedo.

Can you talk to me about that look that was developed around that period?

Back at that time, the Residents wanted a completely new and different faceless look for each new project.

And if you go back and look in the '70s, there's, there's quite a few of them.

But when Eskimo came along, they wanted something ...

They felt like, "This is special.

This is gonna be a special album.

We want something really different and unique." So the first idea that they came up with was like a, a silver globe, a gigantic Christmas ornament with a top hat on it.

And so I went down to LA and started talking to costume manufacturers, and they all went, "No, no, no. That'll never work.

That'll never work.

It'll fog up on the inside, and you can't see, and it's hard to hear, and it's hard to breathe." So I went, "Yeah, okay.

All right." Uh, and I went back, and, and we got together and met.

And at that point, the idea of the eyeball came out.

In a way, the eyeball is similar to a silver globe in that each one sends the message back that we're looking at you.

I mean, a globe would reflect the people that are looking at it, and the eyeball obviously is looking at you.

They really wanted something different, and ultimately that's what they got with the eyeballs.

The eyeballs ultimately have become [laughs] no pun intended, an icon.

It's really their symbol at this point.

And nobody, nobody really anticipated that going in.