Iggy Pop has opened up about the excitement he still feels when discovering new music.

Speaking to The Guardian, Iggy said that discovering new music “opens my mind and the element of surprise keeps me connected.”

Describing the process, he added: I feel like I’m mining for diamonds – and when you find the diamond, you know.”

He gave the example of how he felt when hearing ‘Chaise Longue’ by Wet Leg saying: “It’s cheeky, with a wicked groove, but it’s the vocals – they’re almost metronomic. You could ask 100 people to sing it and it wouldn’t sound the same.”

He also went on to praise musicians including Moses Boyd and Sons of Kemet.

He explained: “If I hear anyone say: ‘Things aren’t as good as they used to be,’ I tell them to listen to the Moses Boyd remix of Pace by Nubya Garcia. It’s fantastically advanced contemporary music that tugs at the heartstrings. From Sons of Kemet to the Comet Is Coming, there’s so much good stuff about now.”

In the same article, he also recounted how David Bowie introduced him to new music and the excitement he felt.

He recalled: “Ever since my adolescence, I’ve got angry when the radio played something trite and felt good when I liked something new. David Bowie introduced me to Kraftwerk. I met them and told them: “I go to sleep listening to your music!”

“They went very quiet and thought I was taking the piss, but it was the highest compliment I could pay anyone. Florian Schneider had such mental balls to lay down those melodies when so much music was ‘sell, sell, sell’. He trusted people to come round, which is my philosophy.”

Last week, Iggy and Matt Sweeney shared their cover of the Velvet Underground‘s ‘European Son’.
The reimagining forms part of the upcoming tribute album ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground & Nico’, which is set for release on September 24.

“The Velvet Underground were rock and roll’s finest band. Iggy Pop remains rock and roll’s greatest singer,” Sweeney said in a statement about working on the track.