Iggy Pop talks working with “exceptional” producer Andrew Watt on new Morrissey song

Iggy Pop has recalled working with producer, musician and songwriter Andrew Watt on an unreleased Morrissey song.

• READ MORE: Iggy Pop – “I assumed things would quiet down once I turned 65. That hasn’t been the case”

In this week’s NME Big Read cover interview the punk icon explained how he came to work with the multiple award-winning producer (Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone).

Pop said that the link-up happened via Morrissey, who was working with both Pop and Watt on a yet-to-be-released project for the former The Smiths frontman.

“I was a guest detail on a Morrissey track he produced,” Pop told NME. “When Morrissey wrote to me about it, he said, ‘The producer on this is extraordinary,’ and he really was.”

Afterwards Watt asked Pop if he could “knock up some tracks” for him. Pop agreed – appreciative of the producer’s “fine ear” and his “ability to play and sing with exceptional timing, pitch and tonality”.

“There was a lot of mystique to the track. I loved the track it had a lot of life to it. There was something really unusual he’d done with the bassline,” Pop added of the Morrissey song.

“With the treatment of the bassline on this particular track, I was like, how did [Watt] do that? What he had done was played the lower two strings of a particular Fender guitar through a strange Japanese amplifier called a Roland instead of playing the bass guitar.

“He’d used that instead of a bass guitar on that particular track. And it was really inventive, and it picked up the track and then the drums were great.

“So I spoke to him about it, and he said, ‘Well, would you mind if I knocked up some tracks for you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure, try it.’”

Pop’s new album ‘Every Loser’ is released on January 6, 2023 via Watt’s Gold Tooth Records.

Elsewhere in the interview Pop vowed that he won’t ever stage dive again owing to him being “too rickety” at the age of 75, while he also paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins by praising the “incredible style” and “colour” that the late Foo Fighters drummer brought to his forthcoming album.

Additionally, the singer praised Italian rock provocateurs Måneskin whom he leant vocals to on a new version of their track ‘I Wanna Be Your Slave’.

“That’s a really strong band,” he said of the four-piece who’ve often cited him as their inspiration for starting a band.

“Damiano [David] is an amazing singer and the bass player, Victoria [de Angelis] really handles that position well and doesn’t overplay, but on stage and in their videos, she really stays with the message. Wooo, she’s a firecracker.”

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