The Naked Eyes

City Weekly: What’s the new Naked Eyes songwriting process like?

Dylan Thomas Roe: You just play something perfect and it just comes out of you, it feels like the song existed before you did and just manifested itself through you.

Andrew Milne: When it’s all coming out of everybody so fast, that’s great. It just feels good and you know it should.

CW: What music have you been inspired by lately?

AM: I recently started listening to a lot of Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield. And The Out Crowd, they’re a cool band.

DTR: I’ve been listening to a lot of Piedmont blues lately and Delta blues, which is like ragtime blues on the guitar.

Jared Phelps: I started listening to The Beatles a lot.

CW: What inspires you, literature-wise?

AM: A Wrinkle in Time. I’ve also been reading Power of Now.

JP: The Alchemist.

DTR: I read The Prophet recently. That was a good one. A fast read.

Sammy Harper: I started reading Choke the other day.

CW: What outdoor recreation do you enjoy when you head back to Ogden?

JP: We go to this river in the summer and swim there.

AM: And we’ve done so for the last few years consecutively. It’s called Caveman’s Revenge. This river is badass.

JP: It’s got three waterfalls, a big-ass bridge and a rope swing.

CW: When you aren’t writing and playing music, what do you do?

AM: We went to Nobrow the other day and saw Big Sky Tribunal.

DTR: I make jewelry in my friend Arash’s garage. We take recycled gems and get metal from the hardware store. It’s all handmade.

JP: [laughs] We like crafts.

DTR: I do charcoal [drawings]. I like to hustle people at pool, too.

SH: I’ve been skateboarding a little bit more. 9th and 9th is the shit. I like to cruise bowls, whoever has a mini ramp— I’ll skate that.

CW: Where in the city can you find The Naked Eyes on off-days?

AM: I go get a sandwich at Caputo's and say hi to my buddy at the fish market.

JP: I really like going to the D.I. I went to the Coffee Garden the other day. Nobrow’s a good spot to hang out.

SH: I’m a thrift-store kid. I collect ‘80s movies. VHS.