The 38-year-old Londoner freely dishes on songwriting, label drama, and everyone's expectations! Now 70, you'll also get a taste of what this influential Soft Boy has been up to lately!
Jul 31, 2023Liked by Amy McGrath Hughes (she/her), Brad Kyle
I loved reading this interview (and the buff and wax job you added Mr. Kyle)! Perspex Island is probably the most-played RH album of his in my collection of most of them. He's got a lot and a lot of them are quite excellent. I've seen him live at least a half-dozen times (probably 10) and he's one of my favorite performers. It's like going to a music/stand-up comedy show every time.
1991 was, for me, one of those formative years in terms of seeking music to soundtrack my post-college out-on-my-own-in-a-new-city life. And Perspex Island was exactly what I needed to hear.
This also reminds me of when I went to see Jason Lytle, the singer/pianist for Grandaddy, play at a club in San Francisco about 8 years ago. The event, unbeknownst to me, was a fundraiser for a senior dog rescue that I volunteered for. Jason's senior pup has passed several months prior and he wrote a 16-minute suite honoring him, which he played live at the show -- and was a "free" gift for anyone who donated money to the organization.
As you know, I'm a sucker for the dog and cat lovers of the music world! I'm assuming that Robyn, minutes after the interview ended was godsmackedly in love with the new feline fambly member.
Such a great comment, Steve! Thanks! Again, Praise Galore (Borscht Belt stripper in the '30s?) needs to be (gently) hurled in Amy's direction, not just for her pro interview from 32 years ago, but for allowing me to put the interview up on the rack for the buff and wax job you mention....oh, you'll be happy to know that while I had 'er up on the rack, I gave the piece a lube job, as well!
We writers can be temperamental and protective, and Amy was terribly kind and trusting to leave it on the FR&B corporate porch (in a plain, brown wrapper, I hasten to add, although it took several hours to sift through the pile of plain, brown wrappings that tend to stack up on our porch....for some reason....I'm gonna have to have a talk with Willie, the gardener) for "right proper twiddling," as our Brit friends might say!
As I said somewhere else today (and am just bold and self-confident enough to repeat it in polite company), I really knew nothing about Robyn before, and certainly had left his music unheard. No reason, really. I certainly wasn't distracted by grunge in '91, or their attendant flannel plaid. I WAS distracted, fully, by Jellyfish and It Bites, however. I was a good decade "out of the biz" at that point, so music was found by listening trips to Tower Records on Sunset, as well as Moby Disc in Orange County!
I'm enjoying what I'm hearing now, and can even second your "stand-up comedy" assertion just by seeing Robyn on TV interviews of the day (as well as reading Amy's interview with him)! May I call him a late-century Ray Davies? I'll be trying to get his attention with the piece in the next day or two. He's got at least one dedicated FB group, and he's on the site, as well.
Thanks again, and for adding the article link! Oh, and what on earth is a "perspex"? I just looked it up....a type of acrylic?!?😬So, a "plastic island"?😱Holy Metaphor, Batman!
Hear hear, Britta! Don't tell anyone, but Robyn is one artist about whom I knew little, and had not heard much of his music! Now, thanks to Amy and her interview, and dropping the needle on a bunch of Robyn's songs, me likey!!😁👍
He’s definitely a favorite of mine!! I’ve seen him a few times solo and with Soft Boys! You’re so lucky to have the fresh ears for such a special treat!!
And, he seems to be such a happy-go-lucky, glib and happy chap, he's fun to listen to....not at all the closed-up, shut-down "stah"! So, he's easy to root for! Just found him on FB....may send him Amy's and my article!
Great interview. I love Robyn, but for me Perspex Island was his last consistently great record. (Then again, I also love Globe of Frogs, and was kind of surprised to read his thoughts here on that one!)
I loved reading this interview (and the buff and wax job you added Mr. Kyle)! Perspex Island is probably the most-played RH album of his in my collection of most of them. He's got a lot and a lot of them are quite excellent. I've seen him live at least a half-dozen times (probably 10) and he's one of my favorite performers. It's like going to a music/stand-up comedy show every time.
1991 was, for me, one of those formative years in terms of seeking music to soundtrack my post-college out-on-my-own-in-a-new-city life. And Perspex Island was exactly what I needed to hear.
Don't know why, but reading the interview made me think of the band Grandaddy (who I wrote about in my recent "Family" band piece: https://earworm.substack.com/p/recowmendations-july-2023-6-musical), and their album Just Like the Fambly Cat.
This also reminds me of when I went to see Jason Lytle, the singer/pianist for Grandaddy, play at a club in San Francisco about 8 years ago. The event, unbeknownst to me, was a fundraiser for a senior dog rescue that I volunteered for. Jason's senior pup has passed several months prior and he wrote a 16-minute suite honoring him, which he played live at the show -- and was a "free" gift for anyone who donated money to the organization.
As you know, I'm a sucker for the dog and cat lovers of the music world! I'm assuming that Robyn, minutes after the interview ended was godsmackedly in love with the new feline fambly member.
Such a great comment, Steve! Thanks! Again, Praise Galore (Borscht Belt stripper in the '30s?) needs to be (gently) hurled in Amy's direction, not just for her pro interview from 32 years ago, but for allowing me to put the interview up on the rack for the buff and wax job you mention....oh, you'll be happy to know that while I had 'er up on the rack, I gave the piece a lube job, as well!
We writers can be temperamental and protective, and Amy was terribly kind and trusting to leave it on the FR&B corporate porch (in a plain, brown wrapper, I hasten to add, although it took several hours to sift through the pile of plain, brown wrappings that tend to stack up on our porch....for some reason....I'm gonna have to have a talk with Willie, the gardener) for "right proper twiddling," as our Brit friends might say!
As I said somewhere else today (and am just bold and self-confident enough to repeat it in polite company), I really knew nothing about Robyn before, and certainly had left his music unheard. No reason, really. I certainly wasn't distracted by grunge in '91, or their attendant flannel plaid. I WAS distracted, fully, by Jellyfish and It Bites, however. I was a good decade "out of the biz" at that point, so music was found by listening trips to Tower Records on Sunset, as well as Moby Disc in Orange County!
I'm enjoying what I'm hearing now, and can even second your "stand-up comedy" assertion just by seeing Robyn on TV interviews of the day (as well as reading Amy's interview with him)! May I call him a late-century Ray Davies? I'll be trying to get his attention with the piece in the next day or two. He's got at least one dedicated FB group, and he's on the site, as well.
Thanks again, and for adding the article link! Oh, and what on earth is a "perspex"? I just looked it up....a type of acrylic?!?😬So, a "plastic island"?😱Holy Metaphor, Batman!
This is great! So glad there is Robyn Hitchcock!
Hear hear, Britta! Don't tell anyone, but Robyn is one artist about whom I knew little, and had not heard much of his music! Now, thanks to Amy and her interview, and dropping the needle on a bunch of Robyn's songs, me likey!!😁👍
He’s definitely a favorite of mine!! I’ve seen him a few times solo and with Soft Boys! You’re so lucky to have the fresh ears for such a special treat!!
And, he seems to be such a happy-go-lucky, glib and happy chap, he's fun to listen to....not at all the closed-up, shut-down "stah"! So, he's easy to root for! Just found him on FB....may send him Amy's and my article!
Great interview. I love Robyn, but for me Perspex Island was his last consistently great record. (Then again, I also love Globe of Frogs, and was kind of surprised to read his thoughts here on that one!)
Thanks, Dan! Mad props to the stellar Amy McGrath Hughes for entrusting her work with the FR&B typewriter jockeys!😎