As one of the biggest British guitar bands of their generation, there shouldn’t be much that any member of Arctic Monkeys is fazed by. They have headlined Glastonbury multiple times, they play arenas around the globe, they tried to scare off their fans with two strangely wonderful records of psychedelic, lounge-y space-pop but only got bigger, what is there to be afraid of? Being in a band with Iggy Pop, that's what.
That was the task bestowed on drummer Matt Helders when he was enlisted by Josh Homme to be in the group backing Iggy on 2016’s Post Pop Depression. Homme, like you and I, hadn’t assumed it would be a problem for the drummer and when Helders texted him the night before sessions began to reveal that he was, for want of a better phrase, shitting himself, the QOTSA man didn’t take it seriously. “He thought I was joking or whatever cos he assumed I was prepared for it,” Helders told this writer back in 2018. “But I was like, ‘Nah man, I ain’t been in another band, I ain’t done this for anybody else before, I know what my band likes or I know what to not do or what to do, or there’s just a relationship there where we can try something else and it’s fine, but I don’t know this is gonna go, I don’t know how you’re gonna be if I fuck something up…’”.
As it turned out, Helders had nothing to worry about. He did a stellar job on the record. It was an experience, he said, that put him in good stead for the experimentation to come on Arctic Monkeys’ 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. “There were definitely things I learned from that process and a lot of that was about songwriting stuff,” said Helders. “I’d watch the process a bit more because that was an opportunity to see it with Iggy Pop and Josh writing together. There was probably confidence that came from doing it. I maybe went into the studio with a bit more confidence to suggest my ideas.”
He certainly settled right in, and not just on the new songs either. The record was supported by a tour with the Post Pop Depression band – Homme, Helders and QOTSA’s Dean Fertita - joined by Troy Van Leeuwan on guitar and Matt Sweeney on bass rampaging through some Iggy Pop classics. Does Matt Helders look nervous here as he booms into show opener Lust For Life? Of course he doesn’t…
