Internationalism

Released in October this year, Tame Impala's critically acclaimed second album Lonerism swirls, meanders, shimmers, sways and radiates joy. It takes you back and it takes you away and now it even contains hits, international hits. The unsmistakable loping bassline of the single Elephant emanating from a Beatles-style Hofner bass was recently viewed by millions of people when the band performed on UK TV's Later… With Jools Holland. On the other side of the Atlantic, they had already played popular American TV talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. The killer punch however was winning NME's respected album of the year poll a couple of weeks ago, ahead of artists such as Grimes, Alt-J, Jack White, Beach House and Cat Power. Interestingly, Pond, which features Tame Impala's Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson, came in at number ten, and the album by French artist Melody's Echo Chamber, which Tame's mainman Kevin Parker produced, was also highly placed at number 16. For Tame Impala, this is their moment… the moment most bands dream of.

Tame Impala's overseas sojourn had created the perfect storm. The music media created the buzz and the band backed it up with amazing performances on TV and on stage. The Boston gig was a stand out for Parker. “They were all memorable in some way but  I think Boston, which is kind of a university city, was pretty crazy,” he explains. “For some reason heaps of people got up on stage and started causing trouble. There was heaps of crowd surfing going on. Our guys had to try to keep it all in order without ruining the party.” The television performances were new territory for the guys too. “Jools Holland was only our second ever TV performance,” said Kevin. “It was crazy for us working on this extremely tight schedule. There are things happening every two seconds and people waving their arms around and holding signs. We were in this room with like seven other bands all set up at the same time.” With so many great artists appearing on the show including Sinead O'Connor, the Impala members kept to themselves, choosing not to socialise, apart from Parker who was obligated to have his photo taken shaking hands with the host.

Merely two days after arriving back in the country, from “Paris, I guess”, a jet-lagged Parker tells me through a stifled yawn, he's at an airport again. This time he's leaving his hometown of Perth to embark on their first headlining Australian tour for two years. Playing to international audiences and playing bigger shows in general, you'd assume that the band's gear would need a re-think. As Parker tells though, they have never stopped in their quest to find new and interesting music gear. “We are always on the hunt for cool and new things. Not that we necessarily have the money but we buy things and then work it out later,” he says. “We buy new gear all of the time. We are always looking for new ways to change the sound, screw with the sound.”

At this point in the interview, Parker's voice trails off as he recognises an old school friend at the airport. A short chat ensues between them before a very tired Parker realises what he was doing a couple of minutes prior and rejoins our conversation. I reminded him we were discussing gear and he informs me of his favourite new stage toy. “A thing called an Empress Compressor,” he says. “It changes the level of the sound when you plug in other instruments. I plug the keyboard into this thing and hook that up to the guitar and then the keyboard changes the volume of the guitar. The instruments are interacting with each other, which is kind of a new thing. We never used to be able to do that in a live environment but we can do it these days.”

As Tame Impala's international notoriety is a very recent phenomenon, nothing has really changed in a financial sense, not yet anyway. They still only tour with the guitars that they each own, plus one spare. “We just take three,” confirms Parker. “We have two guitarists and we have a spare guitar just in case something catastrophic happens but we actually use that at the end of the set. There is a part where we have three guitars going. We generally travel pretty light, we don't like to take more than we need to... more stuff to carry.” Parker's guitar is a Rickenbacker he bought in Japan about three years ago but he didn't start using it immediately after purchase. “I didn't know how to control it,” he says. “There was too much feedback and crazy stuff going on. I didn't have the nerve to use it until recently.” Kevin plugs his black and white Ricky into two amplifiers, a keyboard amp he uses to get a di sound and a Vox AC30. For vocal effects, Parker has changed up from the Roland VE20 he had been using. “I'm actually just using a Space Echo now. I was thinking about getting a Chorus or something but at the moment, just the Space Echo. It has a pretty nice sounding delay and has reverb as well.”

The public first got a glimpse of Lonerism in October, but for the band it's been a while since completion and on the road, the songs are beginning to take on a new life. “The way we recorded them is so different to the way we play them live,” says Parker. “In the studio it is just me doing all of the stuff then we play them live and there's a bunch of us and its a different environment altogether. Some of them are longer or shorter. We take the essence of the song and try to interpret it live.” Initially Parker thought that these songs had so much production in them that they would never be able to be reproduced live on stage. “I was thinking that there was absolutely no way we were going to be able to do it,” he exclaims. “At the time, when I was recording, I was kind of resigned to the idea that we wouldn't be touring it. I got tired of it anyway, because touring has that effect on you… you get sick of it. I was keen for it just to be a recording project and not tour it. There are so many layers on the songs... I didn't even think it was possible. I wasn't really looking outside the square at that time.”

Another consideration for a band whose star is on the rise, is keeping audiences worldwide interested in what they are doing up on stage. An internationally touring band has to put on a show. Parker, however, has always thought about how the band are perceived live. It's a thought which is never too far from his mind. “We have always tried to do things in the set which is not strictly about the songs. It just makes it more interesting and less like we are just playing song after song. It is more of a journey.” One of visual tricks Tame Impala use on stage is an Oscilloscope, which is “like a laser beam which draws the visual representation of the music the band is playing,” explains Parker. “It's pretty fun and I am getting better at using it as well.”

While Tama Impala is Parker's main project, he keeps his fingers in many musical pies to avoid boredom. One of the 2012 side projects he was involved in was producing the Melody's Echo Chamber album, a disc which has his fingerprints all over it. “I just got to be the hands of the album, basically,” he says. “I have never had that opportunity to be a producer. I had to think strictly artistically. The music was really cool. It was great to be able to realise someone else's ideas.” Parker is currently honing his studio skills further while helping his bandmates mix the next Pond album.

Any talk of Tame Impala album number three is premature. “I only really have a few ideas,” he says. “I don't really have a defined idea but we'll see. We have a whole lot of touring to do. When we get back I will have a good idea of what we want to do. All of the ideas I have at this stage don't even point to an album. I can't even imagine an album at this point, which is weird. I am usually excited to get onto the next one. I just have too many ideas that aren't album related. They are more… I don't know… something else, which I can't really explain. Somewhere between a recording and a performance. I don't know!” Art, I suggest? “Yeah maybe! It just might be art.”

Parker is keen to to find some time to rest. “I don't think we have done a headline Australian tour since 2010. It's just going to be good to play Australia again. I feel like we have almost bypassed the Australian people for a while.” As for rest? “Yeah I guess it will happen at some stage… if I am lucky enough!”

Tame Impala play the Pyramid Rock festival on Phillip Island from Saturday 29 December to Tuesday 1 January.