The boys in Tame Imapala are only twenty-three years old, and after releasing a home-recorded EP and supporting MGMT, the Perth band have been branded as ‘THE NEXT BIG THING’.
Tame Impala started as a solo recording project by lead singer, Kev. ‘When I was in ninth grade I would record cassettes with all the different parts to a song I had written and narrate it, like, ‘here’s the chorus guys!’ then sneak them to Dom at lunch time. We’re all members of different bands back in Perth; I play in a couple of others, but when we got signed Tame Impala become our main focus. Before I would just ask the guys to play along to a song I’d written and now it’s a big project. Tame Impala is my baby, I’m just letting these guys suckle on my teet’.
Kev and bassist Dom bumbled around university, but maintained music as a hobby. ‘I changed degrees about three times’, Kev explains. ‘I thought I wanted to study Astronomy, I just didn’t know what I was doing. I was in denial that I would have to have a real career and a real job, I’m pretty sure it will come back to haunt me one day. My father always warned me not to let music become a career because it will kill the joy; I already find listening to music a bit less mysterious. I can’t help but over-analyze what I’m listening to now’.
When asked about the boom in psychedelic music and the consequent fashion trends, the boys make it clear that they’d like to remain out of the loop. ‘I don’t even know what a hippie is’, Dom tells me. ‘I don’t know anything about scenes or what’s cool, but its awful if people use psychedelia as an outer layer. It has to have substance. I guess bands like us and MGMT have realized that it’s cooler to make music that makes girls wanna dance, than making guys want to knock each other out’.
They take their having toured with a huge band in their stride. ‘We love MGMT, we all went and bought the record and thrashed the shit out of it when it came out. But the tour was pretty laid-back, the guys are cool, we spent every leg of the tour puffing on apple bongs’.
The band’s first London show was a sell-out showcase studded with familiar faces such as Noel Fielding, Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke and Klaxon James Righton. ‘That shit was pretty surreal. At one point I was just pinching myself. Liam Watson, and a lady called Fabien del Soul, who I’ve completely idolized for the last few years just came trotting down the stairs towards the stage and I was like, OH MY GOD’, Kev recalls. ‘Yeah! And then Noel Fielding walked up like a minute later telling us ‘well done’ and stuff. That shit was amazing’ says Dom, clearly a big Mighty Boosh fan.
Kev: We never thought we’d end up playing headline shows. I couldn’t understand why people would bother coming out of their house to see us, so when we did our first headline tour round Australia and it sold out it was a big shock. It sounds like I’m trying to be humble, but it is genuinely really weird. You see people enjoying your music and you’re just like, ‘wow… you like this?’
The album is due to be released in early 2010 in conjunction with another headline tour.
Kev: Hopefully we’ll stay grounded. We’ve all seen people who have started out good and honest turn into assholes as a result of their success. I don’t want to become bigger than myself.
Dom: If one of us starts acting like a dick, one of the other two will cut them down. Or our manager will just tell us to get fucked.
Band motto: Chill the fuck out.
WORDS: BILLIE JD PORTER
PHOTOS: KYLE ROSS