Homer Flynn - The Residents - The Strange Brew

The Residents don’t give interviews, so when they have something to say, Homer Flynn says it for them. He is their art director, their spokesperson and part of the Cryptic Corporation that has looked after them since 1976. Eskimo is currently on the road. The 1979 album, with its invented vocals and wind treated as seriously as music, reaches the stage this autumn with inflatable icebergs, projections and five new songs.

Homer tells me how a 20-minute slot at a San Francisco event grew into a full production. He explains why the first costume idea, a giant silver Christmas ornament with a top hat, was talked out of existence by costume makers, and how the eyeball that replaced it became The Residents’ symbol. We also get into the Mole Show and the Emulator sampler, the Freak Show comic and CD-ROM, the 100 archive boxes Hardy Fox kept, and The Lonely Wound, the new Residents album Homer says is in its final stages.