Iggy Pop has slammed record labels over the release of his latest solo record at a recent press conference in Paris.
Speaking to NME at the launch for his new album Apres, the man born James Newell Osterberg quipped “what has a record company ever done for me but humiliate and torment and drag me down?”
Shunning the record labels for an independent release online, directly to fans, the 65-year-old Pop explained his decision to record a collection of crooning French covers was inspired by the labels’ attempts to get him to play up to his Godfather of Punk status, “they would have preferred that I do a rock album with popular punks, sort of like ‘Hi Dad!’ – I was not going to do that!”
Defying the labels who would have preferred he do a safe, punk-rock tribute, The Stooges man exclaimed “I don’t want to get in a box. I’ll get in a box when I’m dead.”
Pop also told The Telegraph how he pre-empted the labels would consider his latest a commercial flop, his predictions validated when he was contractually obliged to offer it to his label Virgin EMI, “they didn’t want it. They didn’t think they would make any money, they didn’t think my fans would like it – very sensible attitudes for a sensible sort of person – but that’s a different sort of person than I am.”
Always the firebrand, Pop further admitted “I’ve always had a very rough time in the big time music business, I got kicked off every label.”
A noted francophile, Iggy Pop’s Apres is actually his second French inspired LP, after 2009’s Preliminaires, and contains ten cover versions – half sung in French – of classics by Frank Sinatra, Edith Piaf and Serge Gainsbourg.
The album is available for sale through the regular digital platforms, but also in CD format through the website VentePrivee (which is currently hosting a cheeky taste of the album).
A Gallic-flavoured assortment of tribute songs?
It doesn’t get more punk than that.
