A full history of the Tame Impala band.....

Tame Impala is a band performing music in the psychedelic genre, originally formed by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker from Perth, Australia in 2007. In the studio, Parker acts as producer, songwriter and vocalist, in addition to performing all musical parts. Teim Impala performs live with the line-up of Kevin Parker (guitarist, vocalist), Dominic Simper (synthesiser, guitar), Jay Waston (synthesiser, vocals, electric guitar), Cameron Avery (bass guitar, vocals) and Julian Barbagallo (drums, vocals). Teim Impala originally recorded her singles at Vjdular Recordings, she now works with Intercore Records (USA) and Fiction Records (UK).

Group formation

Kevin Parker grew up in a musical environment and began learning to play guitar and drums as a child. Later, his school friend Dominic Simper began to share his love for music, especially the psychedelic sound of the late 60s. They then organised a band and called themselves 'Dee Dee Dums', bringing in Luke Epstein as drummer. They played underground gigs in Perth until Epstein left them in 2007. Jay Watson took his place and the band changed their name to Tame Impala. The formed trio played gigs and Parker recorded music in the studio on his own. He also released a couple of songs on the MySpace platform and his tracks immediately gained a lot of popularity. Posse Teim Impala began releasing their first albums. In 2008, Teim Impala was signed to Modular Recordings.

Next up, Tame Impala released a mini album of the same name (September 2008) and reached number one on the Australian Independent Musicians Chart and number 10 on the ARIA Physical Singles Chart. Their tracks "Desire be, desire go", "Half full glass of wine" and "Sceleton tiger" are released to radio. In 2008 the band performs at festivals and tours several times, including a six-date national "Sceleton tiger" tour and a tour of the United Kingdom.

2009-2010 and "Sundown Syndrome"

The band's first single, Tame Impala, was recorded in 2009 in the United Kingdom at Toerag studios. The recording engineer was Liam Watson. The single was released on vinyl and digitally in July, along with a remix of the song "Remember me".

The band went on to headline the Rottofest festival, touring Australia in support of the single "Remember me". The song reached Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2009. "Sundown Syndrome" was used on the soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated film "The Kids Are All Right" (2010), and "Half full glass of wine" is featured in the credits of the TV series "Beautiful People".

In early 2010, Tame Impala took part in the "Big day out" festival alongside famous bands like Muse.

2010: Innerspeaker time

The album "Innerspeaker" debuted on 21 May 2010. In the UK, the album was supposed to be released on 28 June, but iTunes got confused and released the album earlier, on 12 May. In the USA the album was released on 8 June and was highly appreciated by both listeners and critics.

In an interview, Kevin revealed that he has secretly started recording the next album:

"Jay and I have dutifully taken to recording, so work on the second album is pretty much complete. I'm too excited to keep quiet and continue to keep it a secret."

Indeed, the second album came out a couple of months after the release of Innerspeaker.

Next, Teim Impala embarks on extensive and numerous touring dates in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. At the end of the year, the band receives four nominations at the ARIA Music Awards in the categories of Album of the Year, Best Rock Album for Innerspeaker, Best Group and Breakthrough of the Year. In November, Innerspeaker receives youth radio's highest honour, the J Award for Album of the Year.

2011-2014

The band's new album was called "Lonerism", released in 2012 and was arranged by David Friedman. Kevin Parker said that the album "epitomises his departure from his previous style, adding more sonic nuance, more emotion and more narrative to the lyrics". For the most part, Parker recorded all the tracks himself in his home studio in his hometown of Perth. A studio in France was also utilised.

While in France, Kevin took part in recording and producing an album by French artist Melody Prochette. As a result, one of the songs in the album "Lonerism" was given the French title "Endors toi", which means "Go to sleep". A photograph taken by Kevin in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, processed by photographer Lief Podaski, was chosen for the album cover. The image depicts the main theme of loneliness in "Lonerism": a wrought iron gate separates the viewer from the people walking in the park.

StillinRock described "Lonerism" as the best album of the year. The tracks "Apocalypse Dream" and "Feels like we only go backwards" were released as separate singles.

In November 2012, the band again wins the J Awards for Best Album ("Lonerism") and becomes the first band to win this category twice. In January of the following year, Rollin Stone magazine selects the same album as the winner in the category "Album of the Year 2012". British magazine NME selects the album as the winner in the same category and "Lonerism" becomes the first album by an artist from Australia to win the award. Throughout the year, "Lonerism" continued to win various awards and hit the charts in the UK, Australia, Germany and other countries.

The band then continued touring, supported by The Growl, and appeared on Jimmy Fallon's late night show. During that tour Watson switched from drums to synthesiser and was replaced by Julian Bardagalo. In May 2013, Albrook left the band and was replaced by Cameron Avery. At the farewell concert the band performed the song "Prototype" by Outcast.

2015-2017: Currents

It is believed that the band founder started recording the next album in early 2014 in the studio where he was recording Innerspeaker. At the same time he was involved in tours and side music projects. In an interview in May 2013 Kevin said:

"Right now I'm not feeling particularly excited about working on a new album. It would be a prejudice to think that releasing an album is the only way to express yourself musically. Especially in today's world. There are a lot of people doing very interesting things on the internet, and they're making and listening to music in many different ways. In 2013, you can make music anywhere you want... There's a huge amount of possibilities that are occupying my mind right now. I just need some time to think about everything. That way I can figure out what I need to do next."

In May 2014, Parker was interviewed for Triple J, in which he said:

"I'm getting more and more involved with this next album. It's happening on its own. I'm just starting to think about the processing of the tracks and all the things that are done during the recording of the album."

Explaining what his new album will be Kevin said:

"This time I want to execute everything in a more minimalistic way, using only what's necessary... instead of creating a pizza assortment where you just throw everything in there in a row."

Watson also added:

"The sound will probably be less 'rock' and more 'electro' this time around, and even more so than last time." Parker mentioned that the new style was inspired by Fleetwood Mac tracks. He said that the clean sound of the band's songs inspired him to create a similar sound in the album "Currents".

On 6 January 2015, it was announced that Teim Impala's new album would be released later that year. At the same time, it was announced that Teim Impala would be performing at Boston's Calling Music Festival in May.

On 11 March, a song titled "Let It Happen" was released for free download.

On 5 April, the band published the cover of the new album "Currents" on Facebook and announced its release. And just a couple of hours later, the band posted the first single - "'Cause I'm a man" - on the same social network. The second single from the album, "Let it happen", was released at the end of the month. A week later, on 29 April, Parker held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with his fans, where he announced the promotional single "Desciples" at the request of fans. In the same interview, Parker said:

"In all the time our band has been performing overseas, I haven't received a dollar for it. Someone higher up spends the money before it reaches me. I probably won't get that money at all."

The third single was the song "Eventually", released on 7 May. The new album was scheduled to be released on 17 July 2015.

Third Party Projects (2018)

In 2018, Teim Impala agreed to perform at a music show for the first time - Mad Cool musical concert, Spain. In July, Teim Impala joined the festival in London. In a July interview, Kevin admitted that work on the next album for the band has already begun and added that he intends to perform a few other songs live and expressed his interest in attending Glastonbury Festival in 2019. In addition to this, Parker commented that it would be a real disappointment to him if new Tame Impala recordings are not released before the summer of 2019.

In July, the group recorded the single "My life" with singer ZHU. At the end of the year, Kevin played bass guitar for rapper Travis Scott on the show Suturday Night Live, which also featured John Mayer.

On 10 October, Tame Impala was scheduled to headline the first night at the Desert Daze festival held every year in Moreno Beach, but poor weather conditions prevented their performance and the band had to cut their show short, performing only three songs.

https://youtu.be/H29LLaJeUZI

Then in October, R&B singer SZA released the single "Together" on her YouTube channel under the title "SZA Presents Tame Impala". On 31 October, rapper Theophilus London released a single in collaboration with Tame Impala under the pseudonym Theo Impala.

2019-present.

On 2 January 2019, Teim Impala was the headlining band at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In 2020, Teim Impala headlined the Primavera Sound festival. Prior to them, only one other Australian band had headlined this festival. At the same time, the band's founder announced that he planned to release a new album later that year, in the summer. The new album has been given the title The Slow Rush. It includes 12 songs and was recorded in Los Angeles and Perth.

On 21 March, the first single from the new album "Patience" was released. On 30 March, the band members were guests on the popular show Saturday Night live with host Sandra Oh, where they performed the song "Patience", as well as the new track "Borderline", which was officially released on 12 April. Further, two more singles from the new album, "It might be time" and "Posthumous forgiveness" were released on 28 October and 3 December. The album was officially released on 14 February 2020.

Josh Terry of Weiss Magazine called Tame Impala his "music of the decade," noting that "no other band so reflected the spirit of the 2010s, when different genres of music mutually 'pollinated' each other." Terry also added:

"In the age of online streaming and big concerts, it's as if Parker's music is tailor-made for both a crowd of thousands and a dark night alone with his 'heavy' playlist" and that "his music captures better than anyone else the sense of loneliness caused by technology."

On 14 March 2020, the track "The Less I Know the Better" hit number one on the Hottest 100 of the Decade list.

On 20 March 2020, Kevin contributed to The Weeknd's album After Hours, producing and providing backing vocals for the song "Repeat After Me (Interlude)". At the 2020 ARIA Music Awards in November, Tame Impala won five awards in the categories of Album of the Year, Best Group, Best Rock Album, Sound Engineer of the Year and Producer of the Year for "The Slow Rush" album.

Style

Parke explained why he decided to record all the music for Tame Impala himself in his home studio. The band's founder said he made the decision because he likes "the type of music that you get when you create an incredible symphony all by yourself. You can put your voice on half a second of a melody 700 times if you want. I just like that kind of music."

However, Kevin also needed to transform his music to perform at gigs. The founder of the band said that he enjoyed the process:

"We just take a song we recorded a long time ago and do whatever we want with it: we can speed it up, slow it down, make it 10 seconds long or 10 minutes long. It gives you a lot of freedom."

Parker's favourite effects to use in his music are phasing, echo, delay and "fuzz". Parker likes to experiment with different effects pedals, which allows him to create a new and interesting sound every time.

"If you try to put the pedals in a different order from the way they're supposed to be, you get a new sound. We didn't get any alien devices or anything like that. We use the same stuff that every other musician uses," Parker explained. - "Musicians have a 'distortion' pedal and an 'echo' pedal. "The 'echo' creates a sound effect like a cathedral or something like that. But if you swap the pedals, it's no longer a guitar playing in a church, but a church stuffed in a shoebox and blown up. You can create a lot of new things just by applying what you already have in a new way."

Parker describes his process of making music this way:

"Suddenly, in an instant, a song idea pops into my head, with all its details, like a map in my head. And I do my best to record that melody as fast as I can. At first I only record the main melody, verse or chorus. You get a song that's about 30 seconds long. I have a lot of those recordings, and then I just choose which one to turn into a full song."

Kevin revealed that the melody comes to him before the words.

"I usually come up with the words after the melody, which determines the tempo of the lyrics. But I also try to make the lyrics meaningful. Then I synchronise certain words with the most beautiful parts of the melody, but it can be very difficult and literally takes my brain out. I try to make the lyrics open and ambiguous enough so that everyone can get something out of them, not just me. More often than not, I create lyrics on behalf of a character rather than telling a story.

Also Kevin said:

"I usually have enough incentive to work on new songs on a daily basis, but they often fly out of my head. I think I get an emotional high from a sense of general despair or hopelessness, whether it's me or someone around me or someone in a film or whatever. It's very hard to sit down and force yourself to write a song, and that compulsion usually shows up in the song, so you have to wait for inspiration to visit."

Influence

A big influence on Tame Impala's performance style was the psychedelic rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Kevin once revealed that he has a "fetish for the lusciously sweet pop music" of singers and singers such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue. Parker also likes "fucking explosive space music" like The Flaming Lips, with whom he released the song "Children of the Moon".
A big inspiration for the founder of the band was the work of My Bloody Valentine, which combined loud guitar solos and light, "sublime" melodies. He said he was "always in love with their sound" and tried to replicate their "melancholy, dreamy feel." Parker explained the effect he liked in these songs:

"The instruments sound very brutal and the vocal parts are very soft, and to me that creates resonance. I like My Bloody Valentine for their brutal, yet beautiful melodies." Tame Impala drummer Jay Waston described Parker's approach to making music as playing "Shoegaze music (one of the Indie styles), but in a different way."

Another inspiration for Parker is electronic music. Kevin used rock music, but performed in an "electronic" manner, saying that "our melodies should be organic, yet repetitive and hypnotic, almost in an "electronic" way". The "heavy" note in the Innerspeaker album is the pitch-shifted guitar tone, sounds that many have confused with synthesiser. Kevin commented that:

"I had two passions while recording the album. Firstly I wanted to make the guitar sound like a synthesiser and the drums sound like percussion samples... I like to keep people guessing what the sound source is."

Since he was a child, Parker has loved various creative endeavours.

"I loved painting. The greatest satisfaction I felt was finishing a painting and looking at it, even if it wasn't very good. When I started making music, I had a similar feeling when I was creating new songs, even if it was just a set of noises and percussive touches. It's about the feeling of elation of knowing that you're creating something new out of nothing. Music has always impressed me as a listener, often when I listened to records in my dad's car or when he played guitar himself".

Another of Kevin's passions is lo-fi music, and he often used this style in Tame Impala's early work, such as their mini-album. With the release of Innerspeaker, the bandleader has gone for a more "cosmic" sound with Dave Friedman helping him in the processing. Parker explained:

"This kind of music sounds more complete, everything is interconnected in it, like in an organism. I get different emotions from it, it evokes different feelings when it's screaming in your ear. I like that."

In addition, Parker mentioned Supertramp as one of the main sources of inspiration for the band's overall musical direction. In addition, Kevin said that the music of the Bee Gees inspired him to change the sound of the Currents album.