How to tame your impala

Kevin Parker, Tame Impala’s front man, talks to Meg Crawford about the benefits of being yourself and not bottling stuff up

Kevin Parker is everywhere right now. Better known as the driving force behind Tame Impala, the Perth psychedelic rock outfit taking on the world, Parker is loved by industry, fans and music rags alike (Mark Ronson said he wouldn’t play in Australia unless Parker was available to perform on their collaborative tracks). If that’s not enough, Tame Impala are also on the verge of releasing their third album, Currents.

In a Dave Grohl-like move, Parker has once again written all the music and plays all of the instruments on the album, which kind of makes sense given that the band’s starting base was his bedroom. However, appreciating that you can’t do that live, Parker plays with Jay Watson (keys), Dominic Simper (guitar), Cam Avery (bass) and Julien Barbagallo (drums) on stage. And he denies any control control freak tendencies. “The live environment’s completely different from recording – they’re two completely different ways of producing music,” he says. “I consider myself to have a unique style in the way I play drums and guitar, but to expect those musical nuances to transfer to the other people who are playing, it’d be stifling.”

Before Lonerism, Tame Impala’s 2012 album, Parker expressed some anxiety about his capacity to headline a tour and interact with the crowd. Is he feeling a bit more relaxed about that now? “We started headlining before I knew how to talk to an audience,” he says. “I didn’t consider myself as having the type of personality to stand up in front of 6,000 people and get them revved up, and I’m still not that kind of person, but it was because I assumed that I had to be that I felt shy. As soon as I realised I just had to be myself and talk to the audience like I’d talk to anyone, that’s when I really found my persona on stage.”

Parker has said that new music and songs come to him every day. Does his brain get a bit knackered or is it something that has to come out? “If I don’t do it, then I feel like I’m bottling something up inside,” he says. “It’s not comfortable. I’ll think of a melody – I probably thought of one going from the car to the hotel room just then – but unless I get a chance to record it, whether it’s just turning on the voice recorder on the iPhone or opening up my lap top, unless I do something, it’ll evaporate.”

Currents is out Fri Jul 17.

“We started headlining before I knew how to talk to an audience”