Iggy Pop on Bowie, Kraftwerk And Finding New Music
Iggy Pop has spoken about how David Bowie introduced him to Kraftwerk and how he continues to find inspiration in new music in an interview with The Guardian.
The former Stooges frontman waxed lyrical about the rejuevenating effect of dicovering new music: “I keep reading that we decline in our 70s so I try to keep using my brain. Discovering new music opens my mind and the element of surprise keeps me connected. I feel like I’m mining for diamonds – and when you find the diamond, you know. When I heard Chaise Longue by Wet Leg I got really excited: it’s cheeky, with a wicked groove, but it’s the vocals – they’re almost metronomic. You could ask 100 people to sing it and it wouldn’t sound the same. Ever since my adolescence, I’ve got angry when the radio played something trite and felt good when I liked something new.”
Iggy also reflected about discovering Krafterk via a famous friend: “David Bowie introduced me to Kraftwerk. I met them and told them: ‘I go to sleep listening to your music!’ They went very quiet and thought I was taking the piss, but it was the highest compliment I could pay anyone. Florian Schneider had such mental balls to lay down those melodies when so much music was ‘sell, sell, sell.’ He trusted people to come round, which is my philosophy.”
He also spoke about his radio show on BB6 Music: “When it came to doing my own show, I wanted it to be contemporary. I didn’t want to be that guy. Now I play 1,200 tracks a year, from all continents… The most fun ones to listen to tend to be real young people. I like stuff that sounds like now and sometimes it sounds even better if you play it next to something that sounds like then, so I’ll play a jazz record next to Goat Girl, and they complement each other”.