Ausbalia's Tame Impala led by Kevin Parker.

have taken the classic psychedelic sounds of

cream and '77le ~ ~ h i t Album era Beatles,
rombining them with elements that <:an only exist in
the modem age. Their debut 2010's lnnerspeaker.
"as celebrated by critics. a s well a s maJ..ing many
end-of-year "Best Of' lists. 2012 sav.. the release
of the enlhu s ias ticaUy raeived Loneri sm. whi<:h
(l(k.-e again raeived gushing reviews . I sat down
with Kevin in 2010. and again in February 2013. to
talk about his five-year !Iansition from precocious
young songwriter to regular featured fe stival
perfumer. and ho" disregarding common recording
"'isdom can often haVe fantastic result s.
November 16,2010
What was your first l'eeording pi'Oject?
When I was 12 my brother was recording himself on a
boom box playing drums, because he wanted to hear
what he sounded !ike. When he was finished I walked
in and recorded myself playing drums for 30 seconds.
I realized if I played that back into a new tape deck,
whilst also playing a keyboard along with it. I could
multitrack myself, and then do it again with
something like bass guitar. Of course, each time we
did it it accumulated a ridiculous amount of mush; as
soon as you did like three iterations of it, the thing
that you did first was just static.
So you'r<e another graduate of the Boom
Box Reeol'ding School! What was next'?
loti dad's friend lent me Cala!wall< (recording software] when
I was about 14, and I used that for a couple ri year.;.
Cakewall< served me pretzy v.eJ. ~ that the soundcard
I had in my computer was not advanced enough so that
I could play back audio while I was recording audio in. I
had to set up a dick and record the whole song from
meroory. I had to meroorize ~ n g that fd done in the
previous take. which was really difficult The first time I
went to a stWio was in Pl!rth, Australia, and I didn't find
it very enjcryab!e. All of a sudden I was out of this world
where I was able to do ~ n g for myself. I was in this
time-ams!Jained environment where there were other
professionals walking around te!ling me how to do things.
That really put me off.
When was that?
I was about 18 and in a band. We had won some recording
time in a stellar stiJdio with a proper engineer, as a prize
for coming in second in a band competition. But as
soon as I started it was like, 'What is this?" All of a
sudden fm just the guy who plays guitar. I listened back
to the recordings and they sounded honibl.e. It didn't
sound anything like the way I was used to hearing it I
didn't have a good first few studio experiences - it felt
like as soon as another professional got involved they
assumed they knew how things should sound more than
me. I believed them for a while, like maybe they did
know better, but then I just retreated back to my
bedroom. I eventually decided that even if that was a
crappier way technically, it was still closer to the way I
liked things to sound.
HOW clicl the fint TaiM
to be?
It was just a selection of five songs fR:IIR
of 20 or 25 that I had done Oil'S a
recorded songs on my own. and
releasing them. I didn't think anybody
them. I just shared them with my friends.
got offered a recording deal from a labeL I
'Why not just put out these demos?" They were
with it, because the songs had character.
recording methods were so shoddy! When
chosen the five songs that sat together the best. we
sent them off to Mandy Parnell for mastering in
London. I got a call from her saying, "What? How am
I meant to master this? There's no headroom! rd
mixed one of the songs on the little Boss [BR-864]
8-track until it sounded good and, without knowing
it, I'd completely limited the whole thing by putting
the master fader of the final mix up until it was flat
lining! That Boss recorder has a feature where when
it's about to start digital clipping, it limits it. B:
gives it a great, crunchy sound that I loved.
when I sent it to mastering she puUed it up and
was just a flat line. She asked if I could mix it
and I was like, '1 can't! I mixed it four years
Each time you mix on this 8-track it's a
performance. I loved the way it sounded and
her to work with it, but she hated it.
I noticed that you were routing
guitar through that live.
'll!s. that's the one. the DJ tone I U'>C for a frw
I
diflt.rent songs. JU\t an Mremc OJ fuu \Ound
wanted to ask bo t h . .
"
0
u t e 7-lnch nngle
Sundown 5yndrome."
It was going to go on the album. but for reason
we left it off. I love the lounge-y songs. WP
tra ked 't h
c.
1
Wlt Li.lm Watson at loc Rag [TapeOp UlS,
8B], we !ned new things, like a double-tracked kalOo
for the solo. He's got 3 bunch of crary reverbs and
echo units. One has a microphone at one end and a
speaker at the other. He's got one of those origmal
plate reverbs the size of rl door, which we ran the
kazoo though. The label asked us to try recording rn
a studro to help us get the feel for it. [in anticipation
of] a future album. We were domg a double Aside.
I've always been a massive fan of l.tam Watson. He's
recorded Fabienne Delsol. and I loved his work with
The White Stripes. Liam is one of my idols.
So you had your first positive studio experience?
Yeah, you could say that. I trust Liam, so I was more
wiUing to just be "the guitarist and singer." The only
reason I even stood over his shoulder at all is because
I was curious to see what he was doing. Mic
placement, drum compression, and the rest was up to
him. I felt so out of my league; I was in absolutely no
position to question him - I just let him do the Liam
Watson thing. [Tame Impala drummer] Jay (Watson]
and I just played the songs - I was in good hands.
Then came the lnnerspeoker album,
which you recorded in a beach
shack? [in lnjidup, south of Perth]
We were expected to do a debut album. I wanted to do
it at home, but the label said I'd have to do it at a
different location. They didn't want it to sound like
the EP again! It had to be better. It took a while to
convince them that I was going to make it sound
somewhat professional. I asked my manager to get us
some kind of shack by the beach. I figured we might
as weU get some sort of romantic place. We booked it
for six weeks, with a week in between. Since we had
to step up the quality, we borrowed some preamps
and compressors from a friend who owns a studio. We
hauled aU of it down south in my car and a van, and
set up in the living room of this holiday home (Wave
House]. The little window-viewing area became the
control room, and the rest of the living room was the
tracking room. There actuaUy wasn't much need for a
control room, since I was playing and the guy
operating aU of the shit. There was a stone room
downstairs. I had aU these intentions of recording
some drums down there, but I never actuaUy got
around to moving them. The main room was quite
spacey and echoey. There were a lot of glass panels
on one side, and plenty of wood.
Dicl you have to do anything to treat the
IJMIGe in particular?
I thought. ''Ok.Jy, miqht " I'm thankflll
Tim was there with I been using t11o
microphones for the drums. and llhouqhl il
hi-fi. He wa, "Um, no. [Give more
th.1l, and run through If that guy
hadn't been therP. lhr album would havr, ,ounded a
whole lot iPr than it dors. I ran't vor.1ls
wilh othr.r pt'opiJI itnJund, l:wc.aus.'! the house '1/rJr., .o
opm, Dom IDormmr Snnper ba;, and 'JUit>lf) and
Tim wrrt always around, ,o I did those l hontf'.
What did you end up doing for the
drums?
We had [Shure] SM57\ on the toms, but I don't thrnk Wf'
them much in the [final mix]. The mam drum mic
that I used was an AKG 0190. l put that right on
side of the snare shell and compressed it in a way that
sounded good. If you put a mic there, record. and play
it back. rt sounds horrible. If you don't set the right
attack and release. it sounds horrible; but when you
reach the sweet spot. it sounds like the most perfect
trip hoppy, Portishead sound. It's really ni ce. Because
the compression ends up being heavy - high-ratio and
low threshold - it picks up the whole kit. Then, from
there, you just put a bit of kick in. I was kind of
spooked out about having a top mic on the snare that
I wouldn't use. It just made me feel a bit apprehensive,
doing the take; but since then I've teamed that having
a mic on top of the snare is quite a useful thing for
adding attack. An SM57 was on the kick, but as far
away as possible. I hate that top-end attack that you
have to try to get rid of. I prefer to not have it there
in the first place. The kick drum had two heads on it
and barely any [muffling]. It was a very lively room.
What did you record to?
I tracked to a Boss [multitrack] unit again - a BR-1600.
I had become so quick with those that I decided to get
the next model up. I knew there were better quality
options, but because that format was so familiar to me,
I went with something intuitive. It didn't sound as
good as the BR864 for some reason. Maybe they
downgraded the 0-to-A converter or something.
How do you typically mic guitars?
The typical SM57 in front of the amp, but nowadays I
barely use any amplifiers. I just DI guitar. unless I can
be bothered to set up an amp. I always have trouble
with amps. 01-ing a guitar adds this other layer of
top-end presence that I find I'm always trying to get
with an amp, but can't, even though I love the sound
of a tube amp. I go from my pedals into a Seymour
Duncan DI, which sounds amazing. and then into the
mixer. I love the sound of bass through an amp
though. When we were at Toe Rag the bass amp was
the best I've ever pl.lyed through in my entire life, by
far. It's the Selmer Treble 'N' Bass, like Spacemen 3
used, going through a Selmer Goliath lxlB [cabinet].
I've got a search going on eBay for a Goliath in the
year I've been looking, haven't seen one come up. I've
got a Treble 'N' Bass. There are quite a few of them
floating around, but the Goliath is rare.
Not At one stage we couldn't isolate the kick
drum enough, so I ended up putting a quilt over the
,AlGie kit, eccept for the kick drum. nm Holmes
[of Death In Vegas] was with us, me
illt
111018
pufessional methods, like runmng the m1c
...... Neve preamps and running the and
You disorienting claaic delay
10
und on the rec:ard. Do you u1ually
do thOH in the box, or do you u ..
tbrDugh an (Empirical Labs] Distressor.
outboard eftedl?
CJ!r.'.Jr wt.:-
'JOII Q 'hr< ICJh V pcrlaJs ft
Did you have trouble mastering ogoin?
1/f It r -.(' l;eUL...: ( .
[Tape Op #17] did
How did Dave get involved?
fhr ldbel was looking for rom.-:me to tr.< aiL-:n.
They didn't tJ"lie-Je I cfJuld d<. it. and after awh:e :
didn't ctthl:r! We had offers fro;'l othl>r people, bl+ :
dedin:d h-?l.aiJ'.e I th-; .vould llk:ke he
re<.ord .11 el:;e. I didn' to have
arguments about pitcr corrcct1or beat
l mew that Nas the fht thing peopte
would do as roon as they $td'ed D<r1e "as
the only person I wa1 wilbnq tr, .ay yrv, to. t
turnPd out he had . I'O 11 free
Did you feel like you learned o lot in the
mixing process?
Definitely. An astronomical amoLnl n Da..e
Do you see yourself seeking outside
production and mixing help with the
next album?
I think I want to do it like the first album. l1l record
everything, have aU the tracks I want. and then J'U
take it to Dave after that. Especially since now I h<r.-e
a better understanding of how he .vorks. and 11hat he
likes to have before he mixes. Now I understand Nhat
stage the tracks are meant to be at 11hen I tum them
over, and what sort of things I should tell him to
make him comfortable.
February 21, 2013
When did you start recording Loner ism?
It happened pretty much as soon as I finished mixing
the last album. Before Innerspeaker was even
released, reaUy. I didn't even know if the new songs
would be for a Tame Impala album. fd bought a
bunch of synthesizers and I was really into making
synthesized pop music. I thought it was going to be
a side project, or songs that I was going give to
someone else. After a while I realized I'd moved
beyond writing songs that sounded like the last
album. so I figured they might as well be for the next
Tame Impala record.
Are you still using the Boss recorder?
I bought a MacBook and started with GarageBand. We
were on tour. I love recording music wherever I am,
so I was just using what l had. A friend of mine, who
makes electronic music, said I had to try Ableton
Live. I fell in love with it - I could not believe the
world of possibilities of things you could do. It's
different from Pro Tools. whrch I thrnk works best for
bands in a studio environment. Ableton is made for
electronic producers. Using an electronic recording
platform to make psychedelic rock music just seemed
to work. Electronic producers want to have easy
access to things like filter sweeps and other ways of
fucking with the sound like a OJ would. I'm always
trying to find ways to make the psych rock sound less
rock. To get it into the computer. I used a giant
[Mackie] Onyx 1640i. I got it because I thought It
he
I
thing that would work for me. It has
was t on Y
faders and EOs. I'm at a surface level when it c_omes_ to
stuff in the studio, and I loved on a thmg Wlth
giant knobs. So I carted it around WJth me for a long
time.
1
went to Paris and recorded there and I took
that giant Onyx mixer with me. Since then, I got a
MOTU Ultralite, which is my new love. We've got three
of them on stage at the moment.
What do you use them for on stage?
We've got two MIDI keyboards playing multi-samples, so
that's the interface for both of the computers.
.And you're using Ableton Live, live?
Yeah, live live [laughs]. The third is for the drums,
because we mix them on stage to try to get the same
roomy, crushy sound. [Nowadays] there's an infinite
amount of people that want to stream your live show,
and they do their own recording of it. There's nothing
I hate more than playing a festival and having some
guy in a van next door taking aU the feeds from the
stage and mixing the drums different from how your
front-of-house guy is doing it. They take all your tracks
and spend about two minutes mixing them, ship that
out. and then it's aU over the Internet. The gig you
played was fucking rocking because it's loud; and then
there's this YouTube mix where the drums sound like
someone's tapping cardboard boxes. My way of battling
that is mixing the drums on stage before they even go
to the [front of house]. We've got mics on the kick,
snare, and overheads; but there's also a mix going to
the floor that's in stereo, and has a Distressor and a
stereo Ranger on it.
An you still using the Boss unit on stage,
by chance, for that guitar fuzz thing
that you're doing'?
feah. We have two of them on stage actuaUy, one for Dom
and one for Jay. I got obsessed with the way the guitar
sound was, and I ha1e less and less time for guitar
ar-,ps these day:;. I lo1e the sound of DI guitar, but I
a 'lot (AC30] on stage too.
You did a vocal take on an airplane at
some point. How did that happen?
How did Toclcl Rurulgren get involved in
remixing one of the 10ngs? . .
It was a record label thing. Wheneller there's a II!ITJ1X, it's nat
us doing it. Some of them rum out awesome,
sound like the per.;on only spent 45 minutes knocking it up.
Presumably you have to agree to it?
We do; but at this stage, I'm not too fussed. That's one
battle that isn't worth fighting. Everyone knows that
remixes exist, and now they happen even without the
record label knowing about it. lf someone has access
to the parts of a song, they can fuck with themselves
and put an unauthorized remix on YouTube. I enjoy
some of them. If they're really good, they might be
better than the original song.
imagine you're a fan of Rundgren
though, and that he doesn't do
remixes like this often.
Right. This was one of those times when I was like,
'What? Todd Rundgren is going to do a remix?" The
remix part seemed insignificant. Just the fact that he
was going to be interacting with our music in some way
was the big thing for me.
Lonerism is much more synth heavy. How
did that happen?
I had some access to digital synths, and things in Ableton,
but I never thought I'd use them. Then I was at my
friend's sbJdio in Sydney and he had a rack of synths with
a Sequential Circuits Pro One. One day I put my finger on
one of the keys and I went fucking insane. He had the
portamentojglide on; I played a lead line and I thought
it was the most amazing sound I had ever heard. It had
emotion, but it wasn't a guitar or anything organic; it
was totaUy synthetic. I realized that it's a total
misconception that synths belong in the '80s pop world.
They can be just as fuckmg growling, terrifying, and
ferocious as any stringed mstrument. So 1 was sold
basicaUy. I went on eBay and got the exact same synth:
i&>a for a rnPtody, and I that I wa> going
to forget it if l until I got off the plane. So 1
in headphone> and into my laptop. It wa'
'd:-n0] 1uca1 tAke. Don't thi> of me going
After that. l got a [Roland] Juno-106. I started writing
some songs on synths. At the time, I felt I had exhausted
the. possibilities of the guitar. Which
15
not true,
but I a break from playing guitar
You thlS one with Dave Fridmann
again. Were you more involved in th
process this time? e
itv trot to1let. lrJ(k\ng the dofJr, :.Hting up a mic, and
ft nq ;,.p tmlet pafJ(:r roU ba'' trav- in the u,mer -
,,,, v,rrebr)(}t Y'lf){Ying and !Tlf' heinq like,
.t > minute
e you're doing a song like "Be Above
It," do you construct it over time and
complete the idea in mixing?
th: ''PP',".lte, I that rr,r,,t of thr: maqic
.. :; 'n th( fen hc,ur, r,f '"' d ,rmq.
'lrne I get tr, the "11/r,g I'm "'
an;tMnq. fher:'s ntang1blr: thinrJ thot
in the f few hour' r1f .;nd I
ke I to hr,Ld rm to that If I
"'I '(J(j 'hen rraybr l'rr. qoinq tr, unh
1
rm
1
nrjly
way ll'e r('ay,n thi:" I Sli::ttd rerwJirq it That
r+lru: ta('J.:d a mantrd. J.une

OP.,&IT""!
Yeah. He >tiU kicks me out of the room for two or three h
while t . .
,' pu s It togt:ther. I give him a rouqh mix after
domg a" much I can to malo-.e it wund how I
no I!J: . . want, but
one " - a mix hh, Dave. I don't know
how he doe-" rt. !here ju1t thi depth
. . , ' ' prl!SI;nce, and
Impact that I cant get anywhere near; though l'vP been
[lrrJud of my drum lately. ru qive it to him .-
muqh rn!l and '.ily, i, what I'm l n the
ha "' ''rlf' fadrr with my d . 'VI g to do.. We11
. rum rnlz on It H ' I
undr,r.tand wh<.rt I mr lx ' d
. . .. _dn '(dU',( hr und,rr t,md
,,f muw. '>rmwt irr!l, t . ; llw,
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So I knOW that If l
whole other I
another sessiof1,
drums in "Endo!S
loud. But t:hafs the
They lfl'/ that a pcdntUii
Exactly. You never finish it,
went back; he spent an
bumped down the drums.
sitting there pulling my
frustrated. I asked him, "Mal"'- +o4f
a little bit? can you hear the
can hear the difference." He
changes we were making were
back of the sun. People were
is going to think that the synth
louder, or it's too quiet in the mix.
going to accept it for what it is.
www.tameimpala.cam
Special thanks to Doug Sutton, The
and Matty Chequer.
bonus article:



http:jjtapeop.comjinteiViews/95/tJ1rrle.inl
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