National Petroleum Radio
October 27, 1996
British Rocker Robyn Hitchcock Promotes New CD
Robyn Hitchcock, Former Leader Of The Group The Egyptians, Discusses His Latest CD Titled Moss Elixir And The New U.S. Tour He Is Now On To Promote His Latest Work
by Liane Hansen
This is Weekend Edition; I'm Liane Hansen.
It's the last Sunday of October. We've returned to Standard time, now that our clocks are set back an hour. The autumn leaves here are at their peak and jack-o-lanterns will be soon glowing -- a rather perfect time to hear the new recording by Robyn Hitchcock called Moss Elixir. His tunes move from moonlight into shadow, his lyrics are magically realistic, and when he spoke to us from London he waxed positively poetic about fall.
It's beautiful because it's so decadent. It's like somebody walking around with a bag of daylight. And this bag has got a big hole in it, and the daylight's pouring out. And this person's walking along the street and you want to say, "You got a hole in your bag, we're losing all this light." And...and the person would just say, "Yeah?" You know, it's a terrific feeling. We're losing two minutes' light a day, I think, and it...it's terrible. But it...it's also the sunlight that you get becomes gentler. The sun becomes...it's not as feeble as it is in midwinter and it's not as domineering as midsummer. Autumn light is fantastic.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
I want to talk about your violinist, if you don't mind.
Oh yeah, do.
Yeah. Deni Bonet.
Yeah, Deni Bonet.
Oh, I love the music that opens the CD, "Sinister But Happy".
Uh-huh. Well, she's a very elegant player, very intricate. She's...she can overdub herself frighteningly easy -- like a spider could. You know, 24-track spiders. I don't think she's poisonous, though.
No.
I don't know if people...people aren't frightened of Deni in the same way they are frightened of spiders.
She's not sinister but happy, right?
No, she's...she is actually one of the least sinister creatures I know, is Deni. She lives in New York now. But I met her at Mountain Stage. You know, National Public Radio at West Virginia.
Sure.
And she turned up in London. So we started doing bits and pieces together, and she's done some touring with me in The States. You know, she can quickly find a good melodic line. And I think electric-guitar-and-violin is a fantastic combination. I love that sound.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
Let's talk a little bit about some of the stories that are on your new CD. I know you've been quoted as saying, you know, "Words sometimes get in the way." But there are some interesting stories here.
Hmmm.
Where can we tune in to the "Devil's Radio"?
Well, I'm sure you could tune into it very easily in D.C..
Are you talking about talk or bad music?
I think I'm talking about talk. I'm talking about opinions.
Hmmm.
We don't have hate radio in Britain, and I started writing a song...I just imagined the devil listening to a radio set. I mean, I'd written a song mentioning that many years before. About him -- Lucifer -- listening to a, sort of, progressive radio show one night in London. In an exclusive area of North London called "Frognal".
Hmmm.
And I just thought, "Oh yeah, that's the devil listening to the radio. And I just got this new song popping up, 'Devil's Radio'."
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
Your...your horn player on this -- pronounce his name for me?
Oh, Ntshuks.
Yes.
Ntshuks Bonga.
Yes.
Well, he's South African (or he was). He's got this great record out. I, sort of, called it "Flock Of Birds Horns". It's, kind of, emotional landscapes that don't have verses and choruses. It's very different to my stuff. He's almost as an effect. He's...he's not loud enough in the mix, but...but I just thought it would be good to have that pulling in there.
You don't like horns, as a rule?
No. I think probably because of ghastly mellow saxophones, you know? 1974, all that stuff?
Hmmm.
I never really heard the raunchy Rock And Roll sax. Or, you know, Coltrane and Charlie Parker. To me, the sax was this washed-out thing that, sort of, turned up in the '70s. You know, the George Michael thing. [Imitates saxophone] All that stuff gives me what my friend Fletcher calls "the heaves". But there are...
I think...I think it's the equivalent of violin strings in the early, you know, Jazz records where they would sweeten everything...
Yeah.
...up with the violins.
Yeah. Well, there you are. I've got the violin on the records. But, yeah. I mean, both Ntshuks and, in fact, my friend James Fletcher -- who arranged the horns on ... [unintelligible] ... are not conventional sax players.
There's a...a great horn in the...in the background. I'm...I'm hearing. Is it Dave Woodhead in "Beautiful Queen"? It sounds like...
That's a trumpet, yeah.
Yeah, trumpet. It's the...it's the "Penny Lane" trumpet.
Yeah. He said, "Do you"...I've worked with him before. He does stuff with Billy Bragg. And he said, "Do you want the 'Penny Lane' trumpet?" and I said, "Yes, please." So we just pressed that button.
[Excerpt from "Beautiful Queen".]
"Beautiful Queen" is...is a terrific, evocative piece of music. I mean, I felt like I was hearing things that I haven't heard for 30 years. There is a lushness to this arrangement and orchestration.
I have to watch out for that, actually. Because I think the band that I worked with for a long time, The Egyptians, got too lush. But I...It's...it's...what you mean is it's got backwards guitar on it, probably, and a bit of trumpet.
Yeah. You want to be very careful about the word "production". It's not something that you like very much, right?
Well, I don't think it suits me, you know? It works with some people. And I've flirted with it often enough. I mean, either I've never quite been with the right people, or it's just never done for me...it doesn't have that pan-searing effect. You know, if you like, chuck a piece of swordfish into a boiling piece of metal you'll get that hiss and then all that smoke comes up and you get that smell released. and production doesn't seem to do that for me -- it just makes me over-cooked and mushy.
Hmmm.
It has to be fast with me. I have to get the first take. And, you know, if I'm really out of tune I'll do it again. But that's it. I just need the essence of the song.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
Do you think recording is -- I don't know what -- a necessary evil? A drudgery, in some respects?
Yeah. I don't think recording is the ideal mode. I mean, The...The Egyptians, I think we were always better live than on...in the studio. And I think I am, too. I don't think recording's that great. And I reckon most musicians, probably...would go along with that. But it's a dilemma, because when you play live you're expected to get it right. You do your solo. You don't say, "Oh, hang on, I'm going to take that solo again," or, "Gee, I wonder if those harmonies were bad." You know, you...you...as a professional musician you're able to turn it in an hour. And yet you're expected to spend five weeks making a record, you know?
Hmmm.
Why can't you just bung these songs down?
Would you try that, do you think? Just first takes, that's it?
Well, that's the...that's the next thing is going to be...hopefully... We're just sorting out the distributors. But I'm doing a couple of shows that Jonathan Demme is going to be filming in New York. You know, he did Silence Of The Lambs and Stop Making Sense (and all that).
Yeah.
And he's just going to film me doing a couple of shows in front of a small audience.
Hmmm.
I think we're going to have the budget to build a lantern with black-and-white stripes. One side's going to have a green lantern. Did you ever read the Green Lantern comics...
You bet.
...as a kid?
Yes. We have a Green Lantern Number Two.
Wow! Never!
Yeah, really.
I don't think mine...I think mine only went back to the, sort of, 20s (or something).
Yeah.
I just like the colors, and things. And I like the drawings. The perspective was good.
Is it...
And that's why I always wanted to visit America. There was always something about America. It was the comics, then it was Dylan, then it was Captain Beefheart. And there was always something to fantasize about in The United States.
But you like the atmosphere, I guess, that comes from there? Comic books?
I went...I went straight from reading those things to listening to Bob Dylan. You know, it was my...my, sort of, psychic bar mitzvah was moving from those, sort of, fascist, white muscle men to old Bob.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
I love what you've sent along with the CD -- your personal history and timeline. I...I suppose it's for those of us who, you know, want to ask questions. And we don't have to because you've provided all the answers for us. But I do have one, based on this.
Hmmm.
Back in 1967 Brian Eno organized a concrete music event in the basement of your school.
Yeah.
He's wearing blue sunglasses.
That's right.
Next year you learned how to tune your guitar and you bought a pair of blue sunglasses. Then, later on you meet Brian Eno at a party, who remembers the event at your school -- but he doesn't have the sunglasses.
No. And I don't know if he even remembered them, actually, but...
Do you still have yours?
No, no. I bought some new ones, and I've lost them already. No, but I remember Eno had, sort of, long hair and round blue sunglasses. And he looked like the apex of cool, you know? Eno had two tape recorders and somebody playing a de-tuned violin. And the violin is going, and someone lit a stick of incense. It was fantastic.
Wow.
We'd read about The Velvet Underground, but I hadn't actually heard them. So we were always imagining, "This is what the Velvets must have been like."
You have to admit, though...I mean, there must have been some kind of seminal influence on you when you started doing your stuff.
Well, it was what everybody was doing at that time.
Uh-huh.
You know, it was...it was...you must be from my, sort of, neck of time, I would assume.
Yeah.
We were all just to set to, sort of, fire off and then land with our noses in different fields. Kind of, embedded in the earth, like experimental aircraft that had enough fuel, but no navigator (or something). Most of the '60s characters wound up being what we call "cranks" over here. When y'all say "cranky" in the States you mean "irritable", don't you?
Uh-huh.
You know, "That's...that...that's one cranky dude, man." But over here, if you're a "crank", it just means you're a, sort of, eccentric, if you like.
Ah.
And I think, yeah, a lot of...a lot of those people ended up that way. And I think it was so...so many people mortgaged their futures with LSD.
Hmmm.
Probably the only one of my boyhood heroes who's still producing anything is Lou Reed. And I'm sure that's 'cause Lou never had much to do with acid.
Hmmm. No, there were a lot of people who opened up their minds -- and then completely forgot about them.
Yes.
Lost them.
Well, the open mind just filled up with dead leaves and all the detritus.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
Can you tell us about the story that you wrote in the place where I usually would read lyrics or a little bit about production. You...you've told this incredible story about life and death and birth and infinity in the...in the liner notes.
Well, basically, I see mankind as being on a precipice. I'm not the only one. But I think that unless we make an evolutionary leap, we are probably doomed. I don't think the human animal can carry on much longer without destroying itself -- and taking everything else with it.
In the story I wrote, I imagined that people's third eyes were gonna open. And when your third eye opens, you achieve empathy. Which is, I think, what we lack. I mean, I'm speaking for myself outwards, you know? So that if, you know, somebody cuts their thumb, everybody else can feel it. So if somebody's got empathy, everyone else is...you know, responds to that. It desn't mean everybody's crippled. You know, it's not like you bang your knee and a nation...a nation, as one, grab their knees and fall to the ground. But...but if you could generally feel more of how other people felt, I think the world would be run better. So I wrote a story about that in which somebody's third eye opens after they've drunk this potion called Moss Elixir.
Hmmm.
And I also put in references to various characters in the songs (on the record). So if you listen to the record and you read the story, it all ties in.
Robyn Hitchcock. His new CD is called Moss Elixir. It's on Warner Bros. Records. He joins us from our London bureau.
Thanks a lot, Robyn.
Liane, it's been incredible. We've stopped.
Now we can listen to some music.
Oh yes, that's agreeable.
[Excerpt from Moss Elixir.]
This is NPR's Weekend Edition; I'm Liane Hansen.
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