Iggy Pop, Josh Homme stream Gardenia

Iggy Pop has released a stream of a track he secretly wrote and recorded with Josh Homme for an upcoming album.

Gardenia is lifted from Pop’s upcoming album Post Pop Depression, released on March 18 via Loma Vista. The track, which can be streamed below, is offered as an instant download with pre-orders of the album.

Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Homme and Pop wrote and recorded the album in secret, roping in Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and QOTSA man Dean Fertita for sessions at Homme’s Joshua Tree and Pink Duck studios. The touring group will be completed by QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen and Chavez bassist Matt Sweeney.

The partnership started with a text from Pop to Homme which read, “Hey, it would be great if we got together and maybe write something sometime — Iggy.”

Homme tells the New York Times: “He is the last one of the one-of-a-kinds. This is a much deserved victory lap for a man who’s not sure if he won. But he did. He may have tunnelled underground for lots of that, but he still got to the destination.”

The pair shared ideas via post before agreeing to hit the studio to record Pop’s first release since 2013’s Ready To Die by The Stooges.

Homme adds that working on the record helped him deal with the Paris terror attacks that saw 89 people killed at the Bataclan venue where Eagles Of Death Metal were performing on November 13 last year.

He says: “I wasn’t there by a stroke of fate. I guess it was my fate to be home and to bring them home. Bad things are like a sunset, they dissipate over time. But this is a long sunset. My dearest friends – how will they un-see that?

“The fact that I had this to work on, it saved me.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.