Arizona Republic
May 22, 1990
Briton Pursues Music, Not Fame
by Salvatore Caputo
After all, he weds instantly memorable, bouncy (dare we say, Beatleish) melodies to lyrics like these: "Everyone worries so much about themselves/ There's nothing happening to you/That means anything at all".
Cheery thought, huh?
It's definitely not your usual radio fare. When I play phone tag with Hitchcock at a tour stop in Houston, he is surprised to hear me say I heard
the song "Flesh Number One" on the radio.
"Was it a college station?" he asks, as if incredulous that his songs have any commercial viability.
You don't expect much airplay when you write songs like "Queen Elvis". It's a tune that talks about a gay man who adopts the Presley persona: "It could break your sister's heart/Coming out's the hardest part/When you're Queen Elvis".
Ask Hitchcock what exactly appeals to him as song subjects and the list is long: "Vegetation, weather, architecture, fax, religion, deformity, decay, emotional cruelty."
He pauses, then adds, "In fact most things, except sport and politics -- all the things men are supposed to talk about in bars."
Obviously, Hitchcock -- who's in his mid-30s -- is not full of the usual Pop-musician swagger. "There are enormous presuppositions about what we are supposed to be like."
"I'm no revolutionary," the British songwriter says. "I don't want to attract too much attention. If you're a revolutionary, you inevitably are misunderstood and then you get killed. I'm not interested.
"I'd hate to be an ex-Beatle; I'd rather be me."
His band's original name was The Soft Boys -- not your swaggering Rock name. Now it's The Egyptians (except he is not touring with a band this time).
It's an acoustic tour that brings him to Scottsdale today.
Does he prefer solo work to touring with a band?
"No. There's no preference."
But he does favor handmade music.
"I try and make records not to sound too good. I don't appreciate velvet technology."
He prefers recording himself and his band "live" in the studio rather than using multitrack recording techniques.
"That's how it was in Elvis Presley's day. Technology isn't going to write a song, any more than icing is going to be a cake."
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