Joan As Police Woman Shares Save Me Featuring Iggy Pop From New Album Real Life Evolution

Joan As Police Woman has teamed up with Iggy Pop on a new version of “Save Me”, taken from her latest album Real Life Evolution, out now via UK label Reveal Records.

The album revisits Joan’s 2006 debut Real Life, reimagining all ten of its songs two decades on with a new cast of collaborators. It has been released exactly 20 years after the original, and a Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour of the UK and Europe follows in November 2026 and February 2027.

Joan Wasser, who has recorded as Joan As Police Woman since 2004, is a New York singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer whose music blends genres into a sound all her own. She has been called “the coolest woman in pop” by The Times.

Her connection with Iggy Pop runs deep. Joan has toured as a member of his band, playing keys and singing, and it was on the road in New Zealand that the pair recorded his vocal for “Save Me”.

“The inimitable Iggy Pop – whose band I’ve had the privilege of touring with, playing keys and singing – recorded a stunning version of ‘Save Me’ while we were on the road in New Zealand,” says Joan. “We had to work around the birds outside, who apparently had strong opinions about the session.”

The setting was hardly a conventional one. “I am lucky enough to have been able to record him in a professional studio in New Zealand (a hotel room next to the pool on a day off),” she jokes. “Thank goodness for portable recording rigs.”

The session is credited to Studio 222 in Taupō, with the rest of the track recorded live by Adam Sachs at The Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn. Joan sings and plays piano and melodica, joined by Will Graefe on guitar and Jeremy Gustin on drums, with additional production by Urian Hackney.

For Joan, Iggy Pop was the natural voice for the song. “To me, Iggy is one of the great romantics. A few years ago, when I joined his band on Wurlitzer organ and vocals, I began to weep while in rehearsal for The Passenger,” she says.

“His voice is simply one of the greatest of all time. It holds a commanding masculinity alongside a profound connection to the full range of human experience. This song carries that same quality I’ve always heard in him: a raw, aching desperation that few singers can touch. I am forever grateful to the ‘Godfather of Punk’.”

The release comes with a Real Life Anniversary Sessions video, filmed at The Owl Music Parlor by Ehud Lazin. It joins earlier intimate session versions of “Feed The Light”, “Eternal Flame”, “Flushed Chest”, “The Ride”, “Anyone”, “Real Life”, “I Defy” and, most recently, “Christobel”.

Iggy Pop is not the only guest vocalist on Real Life Evolution. Krystle Warren sings on “I Defy”, a song Joan originally wrote with Anohni. “Krystle Warren, a true original and one of my favorite singers alive. Her voice is so deeply soulful that ‘I Defy’ feels like it thoroughly enjoyed easily slipping into its brand new groove,” says Joan.

Describing the album as a whole, she adds: “Some transformations are subtle. Others are seismic. All of them were made with an entirely new cast of collaborators.”

Those collaborators include guitarist Will Graefe and drummer Jeremy Gustin, alongside drummer Parker Kindred, whose ideas sparked several tracks and who co-produced “I Defy”, “We Don’t Own It” and “Feed The Light”. Thomas Bartlett reworked the title track and added Rhodes bass throughout.

The record also reunited Joan with players from her early days. “This album gave me the chance to reunite, decades on, with upright bassist Tony Scherr, guitarist Oren Bloedow, and funk bassist Danny Blume – musicians whose artistry has only deepened with time,” she says.

Real Life Evolution was produced by Joan Wasser, mixed by Patrick Dillett at Reservoir Studios and mastered by Chris Gehringer at Sterling Sound.

Every track on the album is a Real Life Evolution version of a song from the 2006 original, running in this order:

1. Anyone
2. Flushed Chest
3. The Ride
4. I Defy feat. Krystle Warren
5. Feed The Light
6. Christobel
7. Save Me feat. Iggy Pop
8. We Don’t Own It
9. Eternal Flame
10. Real Life

The album is out now on all digital platforms and on CD, with a limited edition red marble vinyl available exclusively on Bandcamp.

Beyond her own ten albums of original material, two covers albums and an anthology, Joan As Police Woman has recorded and performed with hundreds of artists. They include Tony Allen, Lou Reed, Anohni & The Johnsons, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, David Byrne, Beck, Laurie Anderson, Damon Albarn and Gorillaz.

Joan will take the songs on the road for the Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour, opening with two nights at London’s Union Chapel on 5th and 6th November. The November 2026 dates are:

5 November – Union Chapel, London, UK
6 November – Union Chapel, London, UK
7 November – RNCM (Royal Northern College of Music), Manchester, UK
9 November – Oran Mor, Glasgow, UK
11 November – Cactus Club, Brugge, Belgium
12 November – Zonnehuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands (sold out)
13 November – Mojo Club, Hamburg, Germany
15 November – Train, Aarhus, Denmark
16 November – DR Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
18 November – House of Music Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
22 November – Haus des Rundfunks & Großer Sendesaal, Berlin, Germany

The tour resumes in February 2027 with shows in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, plus a second run of UK dates in Brighton, Cambridge, Norwich and Leeds:

12 February – Alhambra, Paris, France
14 February – Zonnehuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
16 February – Kulturzentrum Radio Bremen, Bremen, Germany
17 February – Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, Germany
19 February – Club Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany
21 February – Komedia, Brighton, UK
22 February – Cambridge Junction (J2), Cambridge, UK
23 February – Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, UK
24 February – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, UK
26 February – Estragon Club, Bologna, Italy
27 February – Santeria Toscana 31, Milan, Italy

Tickets for Joan As Police Woman’s Real Life 20th Anniversary Tour are available now from www.joanaspolicewoman.com/tour.