By Bill Forman

Arguably Britain’s most influential singer/songwriter/surrealist since Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett flew the coop, Robyn Hitchcock first made his mark with his neo-psychedelic band The Soft Boys.

Buoyed by singles like “I Wanna Destroy You” and their watershed 1980 album “Underwater Moonlight,” the group had a lasting impact on artists that include The Flaming Lips, Ariel Pink, The Replacements and R.E.M.

As it turned out, The Soft Boys would part ways after only two albums.

Guitarist Kimberley Rew went off to explore the sunnier side of pop as guitarist for Katrina & the Waves, while Hitchcock continued to explore the deeper recesses of his creative subconscious, first with his band Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians and later as a solo artist. Along the way, he created a repertoire of jangly pop gems that range from the charmingly odd “Victorian Squid” to the hauntingly poignant “My Wife and My Dead Wife.”

In 2017, Hitchcock finally got around to releasing his first self-titled album. He’d recently relocated to Nashville, of all places, with his wife, the Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift. Produced by The Raconteurs’ Brendan Benson, “Robyn Hitchcock” included guest appearances by Swift, Grant-Lee Phillips and Gillian Welch, and was described by American Songwriter as the work of “one of music’s most pungent, eccentric and lovable journeymen doing what he does best.”

We caught up with Hitchcock ahead of his tour hitting Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown on May 25 and Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on May 26 to talk about the source of his metaphors, being possessed by the past, and much more.

Q: A lot of your songs have used very surreal imagery to convey very relatable emotions. Are there lyrics you’ve written where you’re not sure where the metaphors are coming from?

Robyn Hitchcock: Well, I never know where the references come from. My songs are really just dictation from my unconscious, that’s the best way of putting it. And then I look at it and say, well, do I actually want to say this consciously, or should I rephrase it? So I’m never aware of metaphors or, you know, things being in code for something else. They might be. Like dreams might be a code, something that’s going on in the depths of your head. Or your dreams might be prophetic. Or they might be about your fears or your hopes, and they dress themselves up in unusual ways. But I never know whether you can really interpret them.

Q: Nashville seems like a town where there’s a professional songwriter on pretty much every corner. And you kind of picture them all going off to their offices, picking up guitars, and saying, “Okay, now I’m gonna write some songs.” I’m guessing you don’t do that.

Hitchcock: No, songs occur when you don’t look for them. I think that’s why so many people get writer’s block, because they think, ‘Oh man, I gotta write some songs.’ I mean, it’s different if you’re writing songs Nashville-style for other people, which happens less now. What they do here a lot is to have songwriters kind of getting into a cage with another songwriter and seeing if they can come up with something.

But I don’t do that really. I only ever write songs for myself. And I’ve got so many records out now, I don’t even need any more records at the moment. But I do write sometimes with Andy Partridge from XTC. He and I put out an EP (in 2019) called “Planet England,” which you’ll be able to buy at my show actually. It’s on Andy’s own little boutique label. Andy and I both have our own record labels now. We’re sort of coming out the other side of the record business and starting our own cottage industries.

Q: I know that Andy Partridge never liked being onstage much. I remember one XTC show in L.A., where he wouldn’t go on stage and the promoter had to send people home. But it seems like you would like to be on stage constantly.

Hitchcock: Well, I don’t really have much choice, you know? That’s how I make a living, and I enjoy it. I’ve spent my life working on writing these songs and, to me, it’s like a traveling museum, you know? It’s like, okay, this is what I did. This is 40 years of my life, I’ll unpack it for 90 minutes. And so I feel quite privileged to be able to go around to places and do that.

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Q: So when you play songs that you did with The Soft Boys and The Egyptians, do you ever feel like you’re kind of covering yourself?

Hitchcock: Yes, I do. I think that’s the case with any song that I’ve been singing for more than 20 years — certainly the stuff that goes back to the Egyptians days and the Soft Boys, or the dead wife song and “Madonna and the Wasps.” So yeah, they are like covers. And I think, conversely, when I sing other people’s songs — like a Beatles song, or Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” or, you know, Bob Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna” — I’ve known them so long that they feel like they’re my songs, you know? Obviously, I don’t get the publishing for them, but I feel like they’re part of me, because they also formed the way I write songs. Those songs are like my parents or my elder brother, you know? [Laughs.] I may not possess them, but they’re certainly family. I don’t know if family is something you possess or something that possesses you.

Robyn Hitchcock

When: 8 p.m. May 25

Where: Pappy & Harriet’s, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown

Tickets: $32-$35 at pappyandharriets.com

Also: 8 p.m. May 26 at Largo at the Coronet, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. $35 at largo-la.com.