Iggy Pop on Noveller – Fantastic Planet (2015)

I discovered Noveller alias Sarah Lipstate when I was looking up something else for my radio show. Because I was already at it, I ended up searching for other exciting newcomers and was specifically looking into the field of electronic music. At one point, a little square with her picture and name turned up, and I had a listen. It stuck with me, and after a while I checked out what this woman was doing in her live shows. It completely blew me away! She can make multi-layered ambient compositions come alive on stage, only with her guitar and with tons of effects on the ground in front of her, and everything sounds just perfect.

Everything that you hear on this album, she can put on stage all alone and with no fracture. It dawned on me that barely anybody had heard of her yet. I especially liked “Into the Dunes” from this album, so I started to play the song on my radio show.

Then in 2016, when we were about to start touring Post Pop Depression which I recorded with Josh Homme from the Queens of the Stone Age, we were deciding on who to pick as a support act for these shows. We agreed on that our opener had to be some act that was very far away from our own sound. It was there I remembered Sarah, and I managed to win her for the tour, so she ended up opening the evenings. It was a great experience, especially regarding the opera-houses we played on that tour. To see her there as she walked up the stage in an elegant, long evening dress every night, set up her amp and guitar, kneeled down to set up her effects, and eventually standing there and playing her songs- it had something very dignified about it. As support act she didn’t have much of an audience, but those who were there got to hear wonderful, densely woven music.

Then, a while before working on my last album Free, an English advertising agency contacted me. They wanted me to record Dylan Thomas‘ poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” for them and attend an event where they would auction it for a good cause. After I did the recording, I thought: Hm, that has actually turned out damn great! And then I remembered Sarah again and had the feeling that her sound scapes would sound great to spoken word vocals. So, I sent her my recording and suggested her to lay down the sound under my words, so that we could use it on an album one day. And we did it the same way with “Free” and “The Dawn“- both songs are on the album now.

Sarah has great variety on the guitar, she used to be part of a raunchy alternative band before. She has internalized Jimmy Page and the other guitar gods, so nothing can go wrong. What she does on Fantastic Planet should be an example for other guitar players: guitar music can sound spheric like this. Of course there are other good ones, Idles from England for example also have a great guitar player who has a rather simple style, somewhat punky and then again not. The three guitarists of the hardcore band Fucked Up are also excellent, their sound is outstanding, very progressive. Or Protomartyr– wow!

Guitar music should allow itself more excursions and experiments like it does here. Of course it is also okay if somebody creates a great groove with two chords and screams out a few filthy lyrics while a wild drummer is raging behind him. But a record like Fantastic Planet is something I put on when I wanna listen to music consciously. When I am busy with something else at the same time, I rather listen to hard stuff. I turn on Noveller when I wanna relax or am in bed. I’m sure it would also be a great driving soundtrack – I’ll try that out soon!

by Iggy Pop

(In collaboration with the German MINT Magazin, print edition published in MINT No. 30 – 08/19.
Photo: Mary Beth Koeth)