Tame Impala's work is important to many.
Whether it's the exploratory and ambitious “Mind Mischief,” released on “Lonerism” in 2012, or the ever-present “The Less I Know the Better,” from “Currents,” leading man Kevin Parker's sonic presence has set a pace for other artists, as well as music in general.
In fact, their creation of quasi-psych rock, synth and dream pop, among other genres, could be blamed (or celebrated) by a multitude of similar artists.
But he doesn't exactly listen to it as such.
“I accept that I have a quite different way of writing vocal melodies and constructing songs,” he says over Zoom. “Sometimes… it sounds like a song is clearly influenced by Tame Impala, but not to the extent that people tell me.”
“Do you have any children?” ask.
“People tell me that my daughter looks like me, but I can't see it,” he continues. “I thought, 'She looks like a girl'… It's the same thing recognizing my music in others.' When it's your own music, you're blind to it.”
If anything, he wishes he could find similarities: “That would make me feel influential,” he jokes.
“Deadbeat” is Tame Impala's latest release after a five-year hiatus.
(Julian Klincewicz)
Regardless, his discography is at least nothing to scoff at. His last two projects, the aforementioned “Currents” and “The Slow Rush”, reached the Top 5 on the US charts. The lead single from the latter album, “Borderline”, was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Even at last year's Grammys, she scored a win in the dance/electronic recording category for her collaboration with Justice on “Neverender.”
With growing success, some may find it puzzling that for his latest project, “Deadbeat,” Parker decided to change things up.
Its lead single, “End of Summer,” is classic Tame Impala in terms of its lengthy seven-minute, 12-second playing time, but it also sounds more laissez-faire than their previous work. This may surprise fans, but for Parker it was liberating.
“Any time it's something I haven't done before, it's a little strange and jarring, but also liberating,” he says.
Another analogy.
“It's like deciding not to comb your hair when you leave the house from now on. It's fun… but it's also scary… that's the thrill of doing something new.”
It's the eternal dilemma between artist and fan: between an artist who gives his fans what they want and gives themselves what they need.
“It's complicated,” he adds. “I think about that a lot.”
He compares it to his own experience as a Kings of Leon fan. The Tennessee-born rock quartet had a pretty definable turning point in their career with the release of their third album, “Because of the Times.”
Instead of sticking to the rural, southern indie-rock sound that had occupied their first two projects, they pivoted toward more contemporary influences. The change was enough for his name to appear in conversations on the other side of the Atlantic, in Britain, and began his journey to widespread fame.
“I felt so betrayed. I thought, 'I can't believe they did this, they sold out,'” Parker recalls.
“It took me a long time to realize that they were just doing what they wanted to do… and that was what called them. If they had done the same thing that all their fans wanted them to do, it would have seemed wrong; it wouldn't have been artistically satisfying.”
When it came time for Parker to work on “Deadbeat,” he also took his approach in a different direction. For starters, he established a “hard start time,” something that was never present when crafting his previous albums.
“It's a confusing amount of time, because… I just start collecting ideas that I've had forever,” he says of them. “It's always been 'Oh shit, I'm making an album.'”
“Deadbeat” was subsequently a comparatively “quick” process for him.
Perhaps most importantly, he also attempted to “free himself from sonic perfection.”
“I've always been annoyingly finicky about my music, where things have to be perfect,” he recalls.
The official album art for “Deadbeat.”
(Tame Impala / Julián Klincewicz)
This is perhaps most present on the album's first song, “My Old Ways,” which begins with a somewhat muffled recording of Parker on the keys, far from his typical intro style.
“From the moment I wrote that song, it screamed at me that it was track one. It felt good to start with this phone recording of me playing the piano,” he says. “That was my way of forcing myself to do that. [free himself].”
The smaller things, like the nights in the studio, stayed more or less the same. Luckily, he has one of his own in his Los Feliz home, which makes it much easier.
“Having the studio at home means you can work every night until you fall asleep,” he says. “The studio is my happy place.”
This, of course, means it can also easily go off track, but it's “one of the beauties of making music on your own.” Parker usually tries to perfect his work as much as he can. Even as a father of two, sometimes music comes first.
“My work process is something sacred to me,” he shares. “Even though I have… children to take care of, I try to never let that affect my work process.”
“At the end of the day, for music to be as good as I want it to be, sometimes it has to take priority.”
But he is not a “Deadbeat,” despite what the album title may suggest. He and Sophie Lawrence have a “really good system” when it comes to parenting.
“Once I'm immersed in the album process… it's 'all day, every day,'” Parker says. “There are times when I'm an attentive family man, and there are times when I'm not… we have help with the kids.”
In that way, music is “just as intense” for him; It is a way of working that “I like to adopt.”
When it comes to the title, Parker says that “Deadbeat” has a “slightly different meaning” than what is used in most cases.
“It means the feeling of being disconnected from the world…feeling like you're not built to keep up with the world around you,” he explains. “I don't want to give the idea that calling the album 'Deadbeat' has much to do with me becoming a father. Because it really isn't.”
He also recognizes that ultimately people will take it however they want. It is an idea with which he came to be “at peace.”
“You can put words and songs and narratives and names and things into the world, and you can't control how everyone will interpret them,” he continues. “So if some people interpret the 'Deadbeat' album as 'idle dad,' that's fine.”
“Everyone will have their own interpretation. I'm not going to fight over the meaning of 'tramp,'” he says, laughing.
