Robyn Hitchcock: The ‘Future’ Is Now
Talking to the Brit rock legend about his new book and album
Robyn Hitchcock is a compelling individual on all of the fronts that he occupies, be it singer, songwriter, guitarist, performer, dresser or conversationalist.
In 2024, he added memoirist to his talents with the publication of 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. (Click here for my interview with him about the book.)
Just as he does as a musician, the Englishman turned resident of Nashville — where he lives with his spouse, fellow singer-songwriter Emma Swift — left fans wanting more. Thankfully, he has delivered Stranded in the Future, which Akashic Books published on July 7.
This volume covers the inevitable let down that followed Hitchcock’s personal annus mirabilis. As he phrased it in my recent phone interview with him, “It’s about how I was obsessed with an old girlfriend and I was obsessed with a musician.” Both of these individuals figure prominently throughout the whole of the book, and each contributed in their unique ways to his personal and artistic evolution from his late teens through his mid-twenties.
VIDEO: Robyn Hitchcock “Yesterday’s Rain”
It also immerses the reader in his first (abortive) attempt at a band, which he describes as “the unintentional pioneers of punk rock”, as well as the early days of The Soft Boys, who played several high profile gigs and recorded two LPs (including the initially overlooked but eventually highly influential Underwater Moonlight), but barely survived the ’70s.
As if Stranded in the Future were not enough, Hitchcock has also unveiled a collection of new songs, The Confuser. My personal favorites among the 10 tracks include “I Am This Thing”, “Yesterday’s Rain”, “Ghost in Sunlight” and “Monday for Me.”
In both the book and the album, Hitchcock amply lives up to his About the Author description as “a rock ‘n’ roll surrealist.”
What follows is a condensed and edited version of the phone interview that he kindly did with me.
How does it feel to have added twice-published memoirist to your résumé?
I like it. I’ve always liked words, and this is just a logical extension, really. I was writing poems and little stories before I could ever compose music. I was drawing from an early age, and my dad was also an author. What he wrote was basically fiction, and I write fictionalized memoirs. People seem to enjoy what I write. I seem to be reader friendly as an author, which I suppose is a plus. So I’m enjoying it.
What initially inspired you to write a memoir?
It was my wife Emma’s idea. People have been asking me to write a memoir for ages, and occasionally people have threatened to write a book about me as well. I’ve been going so long that my story wouldn’t condense very easily, because I’ve got quite a good memory going back a long way. So Emma said, just pick one time that’s important to you that you want to write about and try to cram everything in. And I thought of 1967, with of course 1966 having done a lot of the groundwork. A lot of the greatest music of 1967 was actually written in 1966.
That went well and I enjoyed writing. I also have a window in the middle of the night when I’m awake between 2:30 and 6. The insomnia window. It helps me get back to sleep. Anything else I could do would be noisy. I realized after the 1967 book that it was a continuing process. So it was fun, and I will, if I can, write another one. But it has to work, you know.
VIDEO: Robyn Hitchcock “I Am This Thing”
Which songs would serve as the soundtrack to your life during the period that you cover in Stranded in the Future?
I did think about it actually. I would probably start with music like the Incredible String Band and the Velvet Underground. Then something like Ziggy Stardust and early disco like George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby.” And then more disco, like “Fly Robin Fly” by Silver Convention and “Do the Hustle.” Not that I particularly liked those things, but they were the sound of ’75.
And I suppose Bowie doing “Young Americans.” “I’m Not in Love” by 10CC, which I think is a fabulous song. “Hotel California” maybe. I think it’s a brilliant song, but it’s just been so overexposed. It’s a bit like Elton John: people get so popular that they become too mainstream, so that people who study rock music with furrowed brows don’t take them seriously.
This is a really interesting question, actually. Probably “New Rose” by The Damned, the UK’s first punk single. Then “Pump It Up,” by Elvis Costello, and “Watching the Detectives.” The songs he was playing when we opened for him. Then I’d probably end with The Soft Boys doing “I Want to be and Anglepoise Lamp,” which I think we were recording right about the time that I write about. Those are some of the songs that I would put in there.
Was the person whom you refer to as Mr. A/B to you in the 1970s what Bob Dylan was to you in the 1960s?
Yes, I think he was. Or I think they were, given that in my story they are separate personalities, although they inhabit the same body. What I say about Mr. A and Mr. B is a distillation of his story. There are things I’ve invented. My story is more existential: one part of his personality realizes that it doesn’t exist. It’s a projection of the other. It’s more of a spiritual crisis, I suppose. And I have absolutely no idea what really happened.
The book’s really more about me than it is about him. It’s about how I was obsessed with an old girlfriend and I was obsessed with a musician. From that obsession I developed my own mythology, and from that mythology I began to write songs. I didn’t really have a world that I could draw on until those two kind of colonized me. They colonized me and I used them. It’s very parasitic.
I have no idea to this day if Mrs. C [the old girlfriend] knows that my songs are about her. What I wrote wasn’t really her kind of music. And I don’t think that Mr. A/B would have known who I was either. I like to think that they were both blissfully unaware of the effect they had on me.
The Soft Boys’ name was a combination of words from two William S. Burroughs novels. And you use the words “naked lunch” in a song on your new album. How deep was your relation to his work?
I wasn’t a William Burroughs freak. I enjoyed reading bits of his books. I think I read some of Naked Lunch and bits of The Wild Boys. I don’t think I ever read The Soft Machine. Burroughs was an influencer in the old sense of the word. He was one of those people whom you need to know a bit about but you didn’t need to be steeped in him. I don’t think that I ever read a whole William Burroughs book. I may have read Junkie. But I didn’t consciously mix The Wild Boys and The Soft Machine. Somebody pointed out to me that it was a Burroughs amalgam.
Getting back to the Incredible String Band, who also figured prominently in 1967, you write, “If you want people to like your new compositions, play as few of them as possible in concert.” Are you applying that creed to your current tour in support of The Confuser?
I do. I loved them so much that I liked when they played new ones. But they were very prolific and they played songs that appeared two albums later. I’ve got a new record out. I’ve played one or two songs in the show, which I think is plenty. The rest is peppered with songs that are up to 40 years old. That makes people feel safe. I err on the side of caution these days.
Given the temporal proximity of their release, did the book and the album influence or reinforce one another?
People keep asking me that. Are they in some way connected? All I can say is that one of them is from one end of my career and the other is from the other. One is me getting it all going and the other is me having done everything I’ve done and looking back. I’m still churning stuff out. I don’t just sort of sit there staring out over the golden pond of yesteryear. I’m actually much more interested in writing new songs that I am in even singing the old ones, but I know that I have to sing the old ones because that makes the audience happy.
VIDEO: Robyn Hitchcock “How To Feel Alright”
Your fondness for trains makes an appearance early in the book, and it is referenced in a few songs on The Confuser. Was it during the early years of the book’s timespan that they started roaring through the tracks of your brain?
They’ve always been roaring through the tracks of my brain, Blake. I don’t think they’ve ever stopped. You’re absolutely right. Obsolete electric traction is a common theme in both the new album and the book. The rails run through my life.
On page 170, you write, “Britain is a nation of thugs and grannies … My thug-to-granny ration is in constant flux.” What is it currently?
Very good point. I think the younger I was the thuggier I was. When you’re younger you’re less considerate. You need a bit of bravado as a young person to get through. You don’t have experience and you don’t necessarily know who you are. So you’re more likely to bullshit your way through. Also if you’re me and you’re ambitious, you’re just not considerate. I was totally out of order in imposing my rehearsal racket on those poor old middle-aged neighbors. The way they complained was rather patronizing, but it was my bad. They wouldn’t have made any trouble if I hadn’t made any trouble. Generally, I was sort of obnoxious, and I sort of ran my rails through other people’s feelings, and I probably still do. I know people who probably think that I’m dreadful person and the worst thing that ever happened to them. I probably contain both, but I’m definitely more granny than thug these days.
- Robyn Hitchcock: The ‘Future’ Is Now - July 31, 2026
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