Tame Impala

Psych guru Kevin Parker discusses album three, sonic evolution and making “the ultimate kind of music”

Kevin Parker in his home studio in Fremantle, Australia

evin Parker talks about ‘Currents’,

KTame Impala’s third album, like the autobiography he’s not had time to write. “‘Lonerism’ was about always shutting out the outside world,” he says, “but chapter one of the next story, you realise at some point that there’s so much force around you that to fight it takes more energy than to shut it out. There’s a big undercurrent theme of transition, a transition of the self as a person. It’s about giving in to forces that you can’t control, even though your whole life seems to be wrong. ‘Let It Happen’ is like chapter one; it’s the first step. It’s about someone finding themselves in this world of chaos – they realise it, but they’ve always been stopping the outside world from coming in, blocking their ears.”

When Parker found himself in his own world of chaos – the whirlwind success of Tame’s 2012 album ‘Lonerism’ and the three years he’s since spent riding that psychedelic glamunicornofarecordaroundtheglobe – he discovered a homely adventurer. The ‘Lonerism’ cash bought him a house in which he could build a recording studio as well as a lighting studio, “where I can work on the visuals to a song at the same time as working on the song, ► which was magical, it gave it this other dimension. That was a luxury that I never had before, to set up a studio knowing that I didn’t have to pack it up because of the rental agreement.”

Here, he set about smashing psych to smithereens. “I wanted to make the songs that I’d always wanted to, but that I’d shut out because I thought the influences weren’t fitting in the realm of psych rock. But the more I explore, the more I realise that those boundaries are meant to be broken. I’ve always loved groove-based music – ‘Lonerism’ was the gateway to that. I never really found out how to make crunchy dream pop and at the same time make really hard-hitting groove music with a strong beat – but I’m getting closer. Every album ImakeIfeelI get closer to theultimate kind of music that Iwould want to listen to.” Though, on paper, it sounds like the musical equivalent of Picasso improving Guernica by colouring it in, Parker’s groovier tangent has delivered a better album than ‘Lonerism’. From the Air-ish disco of ‘Let It Happen’ and ‘The Moment’ to the synthetic plastifunk of ‘The Less I Know The Better’, it’s consistently faultless. Ironic, then, that the personal transitions it describes end up a bit of a mess. Sublime, poppy ‘Eventually’ tackles the struggle of “knowing that you have to leave something and move on, knowing you’re about to damage someone and the only consolation is that a long time in the future it’s going to work itself out”. ‘Disciples’ is about the friends that don’t want to hang out with you any more. And ‘New Person, Same Old Mistakes’? “That’s the last chapter,” Parker explains. “It’s the final battle between optimism and pessimism. You feel like you’ve evolved, but you’ve gone full circle; nothing’s changed because you’re making the same mistakes.” ■ MARK BEAUMONT

“THE MORE I EXPLORE, THE MORE I REALISE THAT BOUNDARIES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN” KEVIN PARKER

► TITLE Currents ► RELEASE DATE July 17 ► LABEL Fiction ► PRODUCER Kevin Parker ► RECORDED Fremantle, Western Australia ► TRACKS 1. Let It Happen 2. Nangs 3. The Moment 4. Yes I’m Changing 5. Eventually 6. Gossip 7. The Less I Know The Better 8. Past Life 9. Disciples 10. ’Cause I’m A Man 11. Reality In Motion 12. Love/ Paranoia 13. New Person, Same Old Mistakes ► KEVIN PARKER SAYS “I felt like I wanted to make music that was interpreted as being more communal; a communal listening experience rather than a solitary listening experience.”