Robyn Hitchcock wants to go backwards: Part 3 · Oct 28, 01:49 PM by Don
As Robyn Hitchcock’s gig at Shank Hall on November 2 approaches, I’m sharing music and a lengthy profile/interview I did with Robyn in 1996 for Josh Modell’s Milk magazine.
Read Part 1.
Read Part 2.
This third section is titled, “So You Think You’re in Love.” In it, Robyn talks about the word, “shank,” and also the experiences that informed his album, Eye.
Robyn has written a few songs where the emotional path of a song is not obfuscated by tendrils or snakes. “She Doesn’t Exist,” from his penultimate album with the Egyptians, Perspex Island, is one. It is a slow, simmering meditation on the end of a relationship. The “she” is not dead, simply absent from the singer’s world. Simple details make the song work: “I smell her perfume when my eyes are closed.” The lyrics are clearly stated with few quirks, just pronouns and verbs. The song is a successful experiment in minimalism, not to mention an affecting breakup song free of cliches.
Don: A friend of mine went with me to a concert of your’s in the spring of 1993. She had never heard your music before and when you played “She Doesn’t Exist Anymore,” she started to cry by the end of the first chorus. Any interesting reactions to your songs that you’d like to share?
Robyn: Oh, really? No, but that’s really good if people are reacting in the right way. She didn’t burst out laughing or something. Where was this?
Don: Shank Hall in Milwaukee.
Robyn: I never liked that word, “shank.” It’s a very ugly word. People don’t really react much. I think it all happens internally. It’s rather like watering a little plant that is under some kind of container and you never really see how it blossoms, sort of an opaque greenhouse. They don’t react physically. The feeling she had is the feeling you are meant to have. I suppose because my songs have a lot of pictures and words in them, people tend to think of them as not primarily emotional things. And that’s a pity, because the whole point of the song is the emotions behind it. I’ve never been seen as either a physical musician or an emotional one and those are the two most important things. Visual detail or intelligence are the important things in songwriting.
Don: I think Eye is my favorite album of yours. What experience inspired the lyrics for those songs?
Robyn: What does it sound like to you?
Don: I heard it at a time when I was a bit depressed. I thought it was very sad music, even the instrumentals like “College of Ice” or “Chinese Water Python.” The whole feel of the album was so down.
Robyn: I was splitting up with two people at once on that record. Things were a bit grim. I’m glad I managed to make that record. There’s too many songs on it. And there’s a few goofy songs that should have gone somewhere else, like “Agony of Pleasure.” But then again, you’ve got to have some light relief. In essence, though, the songs were all done very fast. I was writing about the way that I was feeling and it was coming out straight away. It wasn’t taking me fifteen years to digest my experiences and then spew them forth, which had been the case in the past. I wouldn’t want to have to go through that again. It was a very painful time. I got a lot of grey hair from that period. My hair was never the same.
Read Part 1.
Read Part 2.
mp3 – Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – She Doesn’t Exist :: from Perspex Island (1991)
mp3 – Robyn Hitchcock – She Doesn’t Exist :: live at the Bottom Line in San Francisco on October 31, 2003 (late show)
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Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable from Timedoor can be streamed for several weeks courtesy of Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of page one.
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