Tame Impala are playing at Homebake, Sydney on Saturday, December 8.
In the two years following the release of Tame Impala's debut studio album InnerSpeaker, hype regarding this Australian band has been building here and abroad. This is in part thanks to the album's irreverent, contemporary spin on assumedly dead and forgotten sounds, as well as its unique, infinitely surprising way around a melody.
But while? these WA lads were coming to the realisation their music was affecting people in ways they couldn't imagine, none of them were prepared for the hoo-ha surrounding second record Lonerism.
Not only has it garnered exceptional reviews from a fickle British press but it's the first? Australian release ever ?named NME's album of the year in its 38-year history. If things weren't crazy enough, Tame Impala has sold out shows throughout Europe and the US?; and a recently announced set of local shows looks set to go the same way. Cool and collected, drummer Jay Watson isn't buying into the hysteria.
"We're privileged to be in the situation that we are at the moment but it seems to be more a media thing really," he says. "We've certainly noticed at our shows it's been a little crazy and after the show we've been getting mobbed by fans, but it is more a product of the physical environment such as publications and the internet." Lonerism is a psychedelic experience full of multi-tracked voices, luscious harmonies and waves of sound pulling you into a drifting state of consciousness. It's joyful, it's lonely and it's frequently speckled with technicolour pop songs which are colourfully disarming and lyrics frequently hinting at despair. Sonically, the album's a quantum leap forward for Tame Impala, the seeds of which were sown shortly after the mixing of Innerspeaker had been completed. It was recorded and produced almost entirely by multi-instrumentalist/singer Kevin Parker in studios, planes, hotels and homes around the world, and mixed by trailblazing American producer Dave Fridmann. Watson says the band wanted to create their own sound "from acid rock to super sugary pop music and all-out production at once."
"I think we've all played in a lot of guitar bands and with this album we are starting to play with synths to try to make it sound fresh," he? says. "If you see us on the road we are really embracing technology and electronic music as we're all often just sitting around on our computers with our headphones on. I know it might sound a bit wanky, but there's a real dedication to this album, there's realism to it and it's completely DIY."
Now that the album is finally done, members of Tame Impala are able to concentrate on their live show. During the year, ?Watson has also managed to release new album Beards, Wives, Denim with the collaborative musical project Pond, which has received critical acclaim across the globe and also finished high in NME's best albums of 2012. Recorded at a friend's farmhouse back in 2010, it includes drumming from ?Parker, who also helped mix it.
"This is just a casual, easy-going band that is just there to have fun," Watson says. "There's not a great drive for Pond to do well. Whether that happens or not is really not important as we're not trying to show the world how famous we are – it's just more pleasurable and no pressure."
If there's any stress performing in one of Australia's hottest bands, Watson isn't showing it. In his own grounded manner, he's very realistic about Tame Impala's newfound popularity.
"Not out of being cool or anything but I don't understand it," he says. "It's weird, a weird notion and if we think too much about it we'll get shit."
- Tame Impala are playing at Homebake, Sydney on Saturday, December 8.
- Sean Palmer is a Canberra writer and a severe tunes enthusiast.
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