The Eye - Ranch

Alternative rock band from Omaha, Nebraska, USA, led by Tyler Owen. Formed in 1998. Line-up: Tyler Owen - guitars, keys, vocals, random instrumentation (The Bottom Line, Tribal Eye, Loveseat, Grasshopper Takeover, Citrus) Former musicians: Peter Rom - guitar Billy Slater - drums Dean Butterworth - drums Jason Kirby - bass Forrest Sprague - harmonica Janice Foy - cello Mike Lesniak - trash can Perhaps the title of THE EYE's debut album sums up the self-perceived life of frontman Tyler Owen. ""The Joy of Diving" is both the fear of success and the love of failure," Owen says. "Ultimately, it's about skirting responsibility for your own actions. In my own experience, I've always had something to fall back on, alleviating the necessity of success." That may be true in his mind, but to the outside observer, nothing could be farther from the truth. The EYE has been rocking the Far West and West Coast for nearly six years, sharing the stage with heavy-hitters 311, The Samples, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Winebottles and many more. Their mix of poppy yet creative alternative rock has won them fans throughout their local scenes, whether it be in Colorado, California or Nebraska. A natural born musician, Owen, born and raised in the cornfields of Omaha, NE (not literally, of course), has been playing and producing music since he was thirteen years old. His first band, The Bottom Line, modeled themselves after old-school rockers The Replacements. "Two of the guys were in the school band," Owen recalls. "On Friday nights in the fall when we had a gig (usually at one of the Catholic girls' schools) the two bandies would be busy performing at our high school's football games. That left our keyboardist and myself the responsiblity of setting up the equipment. Inevitably and invariably, we would instead drink warm beer out of his trunk in the parking lot before the shows...we didn't play a single, sober show until our last gig in high school, as a matter of fact. It's a bit embarrassing." In the last seven years, however, Owen has been clear headed enough to record or release nine full-length recordings. Two with Colorado-based Tribal Eye, three with his former band Loveseat (their album, "Applehands and Yellowcans" went on to sell approximately 16,000 copies), one solo project (which sold over 6,000 copies), one for fellow Nebraskans Grasshopper Takeover, one for Miltona's own Citrus and his latest project, THE EYE. In 1995, Owen and bassist Jason Kirby teamed up with guitarist Jesper Andreasson to form the band Loveseat. Eventually they completed the group with drummer Chris Novicki, whom Owen had met while an extra on the set of "Murder, She Wrote" (don't ask). Loveseat played the LA club circuit for nearly two years, and released three albums: "...Day and a Half

Members

• Dean Butterworth
• Mike Lesniak
• Billy Slater
• Janice Foy
• Peter Rom
• Tyler Owen
• Jason Kirby