Indianapolis Star
March 13, 1995
Robyn Hitchcock
This Cult Figure Returns To The Limelight With Rhino's Extensive Reissue Series
"It wasn't my goal to be recognized. I didn't sit there posing in front of a mirror, telling myself that someday they're all gonna recognize me and know who I am. The people or the artists that I always liked were cult figures," says Robyn Hitchcock, regarding his critically-acclaimed-but-less-than-commercially-spectacular career.
"I'm a shadowcat, really," says the fast-talking Englishman. "A shadowcat is something beautiful that sneaks up on you while you're not looking. I'm not saying that I am. But I like to think my art is, anyway."
For music fans who are unfamiliar with Hitchcock's twenty-year career, Rhino Records' new nine-CD reiusse collection, which focuses on his fertile mid-career (between 1980-87), serves as a way for the uninitiated to discover one of Rock's most eccentric and prolific artists.
Since his last A&M studio album, Respect, was released in 1993, Hitchcock has recorded a three-song seven-inch vinyl EP for K Records in Washington. Now he is also about to embark on a solo tour to promote the Rhino reissue series.
"I'm not signed to any label in The States at the moment. But there's an enormous amount of material coming out. There's a whole album called You & Oblivion [Due in stores on March 28], which is all unreleased songs from the mid-'80s."
Yet, Hitchcock's most famous cohorts, The Egyptians, are not working with him at the present time. "I'm working by myself these days. The Egyptians are on ice for the moment. We spent a lot of time doing things together. And you can basically just get tired of being in a three-legged race. I've also gotten more and more competent in performing my songs on my own -- which is something I could have never done ten years ago."
Or twenty years ago, for that matter. Hitchcock's musical abilities didn't come naturally to him. "I was inclined musically, but I didn't have much innate musical ability," Hitchcock admits in his English accent. "I used to reach up and hit the keys of my grandparents' piano, and I couldn't understand why the sound of it didn't make sense. I had seen other people play things, and it sounded really coherent.
"Very slowly, over the years, I, sort of, worked out how you played the guitar and the piano. And the people I played with along the way, sort of, taught me other things."
Hitchcock would spend most of his adolescence and teenage years "incubating" musically. It wasn't until the mid-'70s that Hitchcock began his professional career. "The Soft Boys came about in late 1976, and I had probably already written 50-100 songs by then. I had, sort of, worked out how you did it (although none of those songs were any good). It was a very slow process, believe me."
Regarding the evolution of his songwriting skills, Hitchcock says, "My songwriting technique has changed over the years. Early on, I would basically write poems and try to set them to music. But I had no idea how the music should fit. Now, I sit and play until I have a title. And if that works, then I know that I might have a song. And then I'll go down to the laundromat and actually write the lyrics. I used to write the lyrics first. Now I'll get the title -- and probably a melody -- and then I'll fit in the lyrics. In the beginning, the lyrics were the easiest, and the music was the hardest. But it's definitely the other way around now."
Hard work is one thing. Inspiration is quite another. The key, according to the quick-witted Englishman, is to take full advantage of those key moments that flash through your muse when you least expect it.
"The important thing is not finding the lightning bolt [of inspiration], but rather the important thing is to try and extend the period of the lightning bolt -- so what actually strikes in a nanosecond is stretched to half an hour. Imagine the potential of that if you could do it with the orgasm [Laughs]. You gotta try and create that state of being 'full-on'. It just goes away, and you have to wait for it to come back. It's like anything else: you have to re-charge. I think too much self-consciousness just kills everything."
The key is to keep working at your craft, and not to wait for the muse to find you. "I'm always working on songs. But I think that before I make another album, I want to make sure that I've got the right songs. I've got something like twenty albums out there now. And with the Rhino series, there's a lot of stuff out there. So before I add to that library of songs, I want to take my time and think about what I want to put out."
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