Tame Impala

About Tame Impala

Kevin Parker started Tame Impala in Perth around 2007, which is about as far from the music industry as you can get while still being on the planet. He'd been making bedroom recordings for years, playing every instrument himself and obsessing over vintage recording gear and psychedelic rock from the late 60s and early 70s. The name came from his old band, but Tame Impala became Parker's solo project dressed up as a band. There are touring members, but when it comes to recording, it's just Kevin in a studio somewhere, layering guitars and synths until 3am.

The first album, Innerspeaker, came out in 2010 and sounded exactly like what it was: a guy in Perth trying to recreate the swirling, fuzzy perfection of Cream and Blue Cheer with modern production. It worked. Songs like "Solitude Is Bliss" and "Lucidity" had this narcotic quality, all phased drums and guitars that seemed to melt into themselves. The album got attention from people who still cared about rock music, which in 2010 was becoming a smaller group.

Lonerism in 2012 was bigger in every way. More ambitious production, better songs, and Parker figuring out how to make psychedelic rock that didn't just sound like a history lesson. "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" became the thing everyone knew, even if they didn't know they knew Tame Impala. "Elephant" had this absurdly distorted riff. The whole album was about isolation and social anxiety, which probably resonated with people who spend a lot of time alone making music.

Then Parker did something unexpected. Currents in 2015 ditched most of the guitars and went full disco-funk-psych-pop. Synthesizers everywhere, drum machines, falsetto vocals. "Let It Happen" was seven minutes of surrender to the dancefloor. "The Less I Know The Better" had a bass line that infected every college party for years. Some fans mourned the guitars, but the album was huge. Rihanna covered "New Person, Same Old Mistakes." Parker became the guy pop stars wanted to work with.

The Slow Rush finally arrived in 2020 after a long wait and sounded like Parker working through his relationship with time and aging. More synths, more perfectionism, songs like "Borderline" and "Lost in Yesterday" that felt designed for festival sunsets. It was polished to an almost absurd degree, which is kind of Parker's thing now.

These days he's splitting time between his own meticulous recordings and production work for other artists. He's still in Australia, still taking forever to finish things, still making psychedelic music for people who may or may not have ever touched psychedelics. The live shows are massive now, full of lasers and projections, but at the center it's still just one guy's vision of what Pink Floyd might sound like if they grew up on Daft Punk.

Tame Impala live is elaborate and precise—tight arrangements, lots of keyboard textures, crowds mostly serene but locked in. The Currents material plays better than people expected. You'll hear folks singing along to the melodic hooks. It's controlled energy rather than chaotic.

Known for The Less I Know The Better, Currents, Elephant, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards, Cause I'm A Man

See Tame Impala Live