Iggy Pop Parses Friendship on Cinematic Underworld Collaboration
Iggy Pop and the long-running electronic music duo Underworld recorded a four-song EP, Teatime Dub Encounters, which will come out July 27th. A just-released track from the project, “I’ll See Big,” finds Pop narrating a lighthearted story about finding friends (including what sounds like a general overview of his time in the Stooges and his solo career) over a shimmery, cinematic backdrop. The story was inspired by a conversation Pop had with filmmaker Danny Boyle about the subtext of both Trainspotting films.
The singer met with the group at London’s Savoy Hotel when Underworld were producing the soundtrack for T2 Trainspotting, where the group’s Rick Smith suggested collaborating on music for the film. The thread that had connected the artists previously was that Pop’s “Lust for Life” and Underworld’s “Born Slippy (Nuxx)” had both been in the original Trainspotting.
“Iggy was staying at the Savoy and graciously said, ‘Yeah, you know we can meet and talk about something,’ because we both felt a strong connection to Trainspotting and to Danny,” Smith said in a statement, referring to Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. “I turned up thinking, ‘I’ve got one chance here to convince this gentleman that we should work together. So I turned up with basically half my studio, hired a hotel room, set up and sat waiting.”
“When you are confronted with somebody who has a whole bloody studio there in the hotel room, a Skyped director who has won the Oscar recently and a fucking microphone in front of you and 30 finished pieces of very polished music, you don’t want to be the wimp that goes, ‘Uh-uhhh’, so my mind was racing,” Pop said.
Underworld previously premiered the Teatime Dub Encounters song “Bells & Circles” at the festival BBC Biggest Weekend Belfast. That song, which lasts seven-and-a-half minutes, is more upbeat than “I’ll See Big” and finds Pop telling a story about taking drugs and attempting to pick up a stewardess.
Teatime Dub Encounters Track List
1. “Bells & Circles”
2. “Trapped”
3. “I’ll See Big”
4. “Get Your Shirt”