Ahead of the release of his new album The Confuser (July 24), cult psychedelic rocker Robyn Hitchcock has spoken at length about the incredible musicians that have inspired him over his six decades in rock music.
In an interview with Stewart Lee for The Guardian, he reflected on the experience of coming of age in 1967 when Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, psychedelic-era The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and acid-folk pioneers the Incredible String Band were all in their pomp.
"Although my prime influence was Bob Dylan, and Dylan showed me what I wanted to be, Syd Barrett showed me how I could be it," he said. "And I actually wound up sounding like John Lennon. To me, the Beatles are at the beginning and the end of everything. But my role has always just been to carry on a certain kind of music, which appeared in 66 and 67."
This remains the case on Hitchcock's new record The Confuser, which opens with 'I Am This Thing', a track that contains idiosyncratic lines like "I owe a lot to a dead man's cock / Tick-tock, I love to rock… I come at a price like egg fried rice / Every Sunday morning and it's ever so nice".
Across the project, there are strong traces of Barrett's lyricism, and of the humour that the Beatles continually revelled in. According to the 73-year-old, the focus remains on "creating a version of my existence [rather] than actually showing people the real Robyn." He suggests that across his 20+ studio albums with the Soft Boys, the Egyptians, the Venus 3 and as a solo artist, this has been a consistent thread.
At times, the tendency to hide behind his music led to moments of meanness, for example "writing a nasty song about his elderly neighbours.
"I was a self-centred, entitled little horror and arguably I still am," he says. "I've just learned to mask it more, and also I've learned to make a living out of it."
"I didn't invent this field of music, but I've perpetuated it," Hitchcock continued. "I wanted to maintain a tradition and do new work in that tradition. But the guys I worship were innovators. I'm the opposite. I'm sweeping up after them. It's like, 'Oh God, here comes Hitchcock with the broom.'"
Speaking on how he's often avoided major fame during his six decades in rock music, he added: "I always manage to dodge the extreme limelight. You know, in some ways I've avoided both success and failure. It's fantastic."
