In an interview with Nasty Nostalgia, Led Zeppelin icon Jimmy Page‘s girlfriend and also talented poet Scarlett Sabet talked about her recent project, ‘Catalyst,’ and shared the details of her experience of working with Page: ‘it’s intense and quite disruptive.’
Led Zeppelin‘s legendary guitarist Jimmy Page has been together with the poet and performer Scarlett Sabet for almost six years now. Despite the age gap between them, Jimmy and Scarlett seemed to be getting along very well. They have also been working together on different projects over the years of their relationship.
As you might remember, last year, Scarlett Sabet released her spoken word album named ‘Catalyst’ which was produced by Jimmy Page. According to Sabet’s statements about the poems in the album, her poetry was influenced by Beat poets, including William S. Burroughs and Patti Smith.
Recently, Scarlett Sabet joined an interview with Nasty Nostalgia to talk about her collaboration with Jimmy Page in ‘Catalyst’ and gave the details of her experience of working with the Led Zeppelin icon.
The interviewer wanted to know what made ‘Catalyst’ so unique and how Scarlet decided to release such an album. As a response to the question, Sabet revealed it was actually Jimmy Page’s idea to create this sort of work and she explained his point of view for the album:
“Well, it was Jimmy’s idea. When my first book came out in 2014, he said we should do a record together one day. So it was always at the back of our minds, but I never brought it up, I trust him and he knows best.
A big part of Jimmy’s genius is timing. He wanted to do something radical that would emphasize the power of the spoken word, in the spirit of William Burroughs. I trusted him implicitly during the process, he had a very clear vision of what he wanted to manifest, this very unusual, textured sonic landscape.”
Furthermore, Sabet explained how being in a relationship affected their work and mentioned the intense experience she had while working with Jimmy:
“Obviously being in a relationship together, being so in sync, aided the process, it was a joy to work together. It was like meeting again for the first time in the studio, but with our intense shared history. Also, we recorded it at home at Tower House so that added another layer of comfort.
When he played it to me I was quite overwhelmed, because it’s intense and quite disruptive, it’s not there to comfort but confront.”
Additionally, Scarlet Sabet revealed why her experience with Jimmy Page felt different than her previous works by stating:
“It felt like a natural progression. Also, Jimmy is the first person to read my new poems as I’m working on them, I trust his judgment, and if he likes a poem then I included it in a collection. So the poems on ‘Catalyst’ are important landmark poems, personally and professionally.”
Click here to read the entire interview with Scarlett Sabet.