As the Residents got to work on their 1979 album “Eskimo,” the band turned its attention to the farthest reaches of the North, says Homer Flynn, a spokesman for the always anonymous members of the Bay Area art-rock collective.
“The Residents, back in the ’70s, were exploring a lot musically,” says Flynn, president of the Cryptic Corporation, which has managed and represented the Residents for decades. In the lead-up to “Eskimo,” the group got deeply into non-Western traditional music, eventually landing on that of the Inuit culture, he says.
But the Residents don’t just make facsimiles of things that already exist, Flynn adds.
“They wanted to create something that was unique and original, but had an authentic feeling to it,” he says, of the Residents in creating new music and meaning inspired by traditional stories and songs. “They felt like there was a lot of room there to explore and create their own sound.”
The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) Show Caption1 of 7The Residents, seen here around the time of their 1979 album “Eskimo,” will perform that album in full for the first time ever at Exotikon at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of the Residents/Crypto Corporation) Expand“Eskimo” is entirely the Residents’ own sound. Percussion and guitar are present, but synthesized wind effects and reportedly many handmade instruments are banged and blown to create its ambient electronic soundscape. Its themes unfold via lyrics that mix chants and ’70s advertising slogans into a mythical story of life in the Arctic Circle as the corrupting influence of Western culture edges closer.
In other words, it’s the Residents at their most wonderfully weird, creating music to make you feel things serious, silly and sublime. And, until now, it’s an album the band has never fully played live, Flynn says.
“For years and years, there were a lot of conversations about presenting ‘Eskimo’ live,’” says. “But they always felt pretty strongly that it needed to be more of a theatrical context than a concert.”
At one point, Flynn says, Glenn Max, a programmer at London’s Southbank Centre, and a friend of the band, had an idea to present it live in England.
“They were remodeling the Southbank Centre and Glenn, who was a huge ‘Eskimo’ fan, got really excited about trying to find a place to put it in London on ice – ‘Eskimo and ice,’” Flynn says. “And, of course, they loved that, and, of course, it never really happened.”
Then, two chance happenings arrived almost at the same time. An audio engineer working on the Residents’ back catalogue for Cherry Red Records finished cleaning up the multitrack tapes from the “Eskimo” sessions. And, just over a year ago, the Residents were invited to appear at A Night of Ideas, an annual event at the San Francisco Public Library.
“They felt like they were back in the studio with themselves in the ’70s,” Flynn says of the “Eskimo” tapes. Which led to the decision to perform pieces from “Eskimo” at the library event. “It came together as effortlessly as anything they have ever done.”
Now, on Saturday, June 8, the Residents will play “Eskimo” in full for the first time ever at Exotikon 3, a music and arts festival that brings together surf rock and psychedelia, Tiki and lounge culture, performance art and exotica for two days at the Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.
In an interview edited for length and clarity, Flynn talked about the history of “Eskimo,” the creation of the signature Residents’ eyeball-and-top-hat masks, and why the Residents chose to remain anonymous for more than 50 years now.
Q: Talk about the Residents’ decision to play “Eskimo” at Exotikon.
A: When the suggestion of Exotikon came up, they thought, “Well, OK, let’s just jump back in there and expand it.” So that’s really the way it worked. At this point, they’re far enough away from the idea of feeling like it couldn’t be a concert, and feeling like let’s explore this.
They’re taking a lot of samples from those tapes, creating a lot of new stuff, some brand-new pieces. They went back and started doing research on Eskimo folk tales, and just found some really fascinating and interesting stuff that they hadn’t seen back in the ’70s. So they’re taking some of those as a jumping-off point for the new pieces.
Q: It’s not going to be a note-for-note replication. It’s kind of a remix?
A: I think a remix is a good way to approach it. That’s kind of the Residents’ style.
Q: Will it only be “Eskimo”-related songs at Exotikon?
A: It will be mostly “Eskimo,” but they’re also working on an extended encore that kind of goes across (the band’s catalog). They also have an EP they did recently called “Dookietown,” and there’ll be songs from that too.
Q: As someone who was there when they were creating this, what was it like to watch “Eskimo” being made?
A: They enjoyed creating what they felt like was the Eskimo band. Of course, there was no Eskimo band to mirror or reflect. At the same time, they always felt like the band, and the album was made up of sound, with wind being a primary sound, the Eskimo band being a primary sound. But once again, all these sounds are then melded together to create a unique sonic experience.
Q: We can’t always make out lyrics, though sometimes things pop through, like “You deserve a break today,” or “I don’t know how to pray.” What inspired the lyrical choices?
A: I know that part of the theme of the album is that you have this kind of pristine culture that exists unto itself beyond the Arctic Circle, that then is intruded upon and ultimately corrupted by Western culture. So the whole idea of something like ‘You deserve a break today’ [a McDonalds’ jingle in the ’70s], this is an echo of that corruption.
That’s where a certain amount of it comes from. But one of the early theories for the Residents was something called “phonetic organization,” where lyrics were ultimately compiled or written more based on the sounds than the meanings. They felt like ‘Eskimo’ was a perfect place to be doing that. So there are a lot of places where those kinds of chants are what they felt like were Eskimo-like vocal sounds.
But then, it being the Residents, it’s not like the words don’t have any meaning. So the idea of bringing in a certain level of absurdity, along with that, once again was something that really kind of charmed them.
Q: Some contemporaneous reviews recognized the idea of corruption of a pristine culture. Others saw the album as a satire of how Western culture viewed or treated Indigenous people.
A: I think that’s true. I think that’s true.
Q: And “Eskimo” was the first place the eyeballs with top hats were worn by the Residents?
A: Well, it’s the first place they were on the cover, shall we say. There was a compilation album that Ralph Records put out right before that. [“Subterranean Modern”]. And there was a picture, one of the more famous pictures of the Residents, at the Golden Gate Bridge a few months before that. But this was the first album cover and really kind of spotlighted it.
Q: And as the graphic design and art direction guy for Cryptic Corporation, you created the album art?
A: Yeah, I did.
Q: What inspired the eyeballs and top hats?
A: The thought back then was that the Residents wanted a different faceless look for every new release. When “Eskimo” came up, well, they would have went, “OK, this is gonna be really cool.”
The original idea was a silver globe, like a giant Christmas ornament or something. I went down to L.A., started talking to various costume makers, and everybody said, “No, you can’t do that. It’ll fog up on the inside. It’s too hard to see, too hard to hear, too hard to breathe.” So I went back, and they started bouncing ideas, and all of a sudden it came up: Eyeball.
Their original idea, what they wanted to do with the mirrored surface, was to say that we’re looking at you, and reflecting what we see back. In a way, the eyeball became the same thing. The difference being if you put one of these things on they’re only marginally more useful. [He laughs]
I mean, they don’t fog up on the inside and they have a porthole in the front, so you can see out. But it’s really hard to hear. Breathing can become difficult after a while. But that’s kind of the way it evolved.
Q: Why did the eyeballs with hats become the signature look?
A: It just became a trademark. It’s one of those things. We sell merch. I’m the designer. A tour, the merch, is what makes the money, and the Residents’ all-time bestsellers have all been the top hat T-shirts, so in a way that speaks for itself.
Q: The Residents have lasted more than 50 years now. How’d that happen?
A: Well, I don’t know. One of my favorite Bob Dylan quotes is, “There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” It’s very easy to point that directly at the Residents in that so many groups will wind up having a hit, and then they feel all this pressure, either from fans or their management or their bank accounts or whatever, to repeat that success.
And the Residents have never had that handicap. If anything, they have felt more pressure or more stimulation to continue to explore and find new ideas and new directions. Honestly, I think that’s one of the reasons for their continued success. It’s on a worldwide level, it’s not on a massive level, but it’s enough to sustain them.
Q: I’m curious about the resolve to remain anonymous. What was the origin of that?
A: I think it was several things, one of which was a certain amount of freedom. Another is they always felt a much stronger sense of group identity, at least in terms of their creativity. They felt a much stronger tie and bond to group identities than individual identities. They hated this (stuff) where they would see album covers of people that they like where everybody’s competing to get their name or picture on the cover and credits as much as possible.
They felt the cool thing was to have a group identity and really bond and stick to that.
Q: It’s more of a collective approach.
A: It’s a collective identity, completely. They also felt it would provide more space between public identity and private identity. They’re very private in a lot of ways.
Q: Beyond the “Eskimo” show, what else are the Residents working on?
A: They just released a brand-new album, “Doctor Dark.” Our chief collaborator on that was a guy named Edwin Outwater. Edwin is the music director for the San Francisco Conservatory as well as a classical conductor. If you remember a concert a few years ago with the San Francisco Symphony and Metallica, Edwin was the one behind that.
He moved to San Francisco four or five years ago, and one of his biggest priorities when he got here was to to do some kind of collaboration with the Residents.
Q: “Doctor Dark” was inspired by the lawsuit against Judas Priest after two teens attempted suicide, right?
A: There was a film called “Dream Deceivers” about the trial made when it was happening. One of the Residents saw it back in the ’90s when it came out. It completely blew his mind. The most disturbing thing about it was that one of the teenagers was still alive [though very disfigured]. You could not take your eyes off it.
Once again, they couldn’t just take the whole thing and create a version of it. They had to Residents-ize it. A few years ago, the idea came up of bringing in a Dr. Kevorkian kind of character, and then connecting with this survivor. That’s when it all kind of took off.
Q: Given that the Residents are anonymous, they could continue after the last original member leaves if they wanted.
A: Well, you know, it would take the right person, or persons, to come along. And, at this point, I think maybe there’s a person or persons that they’re kind of eyeing in that context, seeing that potential. But we, including the Cryptic Corporation, are certainly open to that.
I mean, what you’re saying is, in essence, the Residents could go on forever. I think … I think they’re quite charmed by that idea.
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