The “Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour” runs across Europe and the UK into 2027
“Real Life Evolution” sends Joan Wasser back into her own debut album, twenty years on, with a different cast in the room
Retrofuturista is premiering the video for “Save Me,” for her album “Real Life Evolution,” out on Reveal Records.
Artist: alternative rock art pop art rock experimental rock iggy pop indie pop indie rock Joan As Police Woman Joan Wasser music premiere Real Life Real Life Evolution Reveal Records Save Me singer-songwriter soul
Release Date: 2026-06-12
Genres: Art Rock
Label: Reveal Records
There’s more than one “Save Me” here. The album cut has Iggy Pop on it, apparently recorded in a New Zealand hotel room next to a pool, on a day off from his own tour, with nothing more than a portable rig. Then there’s a second, leaner version: no Iggy, just a trio, filmed live for the “Real Life Anniversary Sessions” at The Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn, shot by Ehud Lazin and recorded by Adam Sachs, with Jeremy Gustin on drums and Will Graefe on guitar and vocals.
I started playing in his band two and a half years ago. I play Wurlitzer organ and sing backups. Iggy is an incredibly generous human and one of my favorite voices ever. We were on tour in New Zealand in January, and I thought, I wonder if he would sing Save Me. I asked him and he was up for it. I recorded him in my hotel room.”
–Joan Wasser on the collaboration with Iggy Pop, Transmission 363
That series has been rolling out one song at a time: “Feed The Light,” “Eternal Flame,” “Flushed Chest,” “The Ride,” “Anyone,” the title track “Real Life,” “I Defy,” and, most recently, “Christobel.”
“Save Me” is one of ten songs Joan Wasser has pulled back apart and put back together for “Real Life Evolution,” her full rework of her 2006 debut “Real Life,” now handed to a lineup that has almost nothing in common with the one that made the original.
Talking to Retrofuturista ahead of the release, Joan Wasser walked through how the Iggy Pop cut actually happened: “I started playing in his band two and a half years ago. I play Wurlitzer organ and sing backups. He is an incredibly generous human and one of my favorite voices ever. We were on tour in New Zealand in January, and I thought, I wonder if he would sing Save Me. I asked him and he was up for it. I recorded him in my hotel room.” In the same conversation, she noted that for “Save Me,” “Feed the Light,” “We Don’t Own It,” and “I Defy,” she built entirely new arrangements from scratch instead of taking them from the road.
Other contributors include Krystle Warren, who takes on “I Defy,” and Parker Kindred on drums. Thomas Bartlett worked on the title track and added Rhodes bass throughout the LP. Returning from the original 2006 sessions are upright bassist Tony Scherr, guitarist Oren Bloedow, and bassist Danny Blume.
On working with Pop, Wasser describes him as “one of the great romantics,” pointing to a vocal delivery rooted in “a raw, aching desperation that few singers can touch.”
Photos courtesy of © Joan as a Policewoman
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