Tame Impala’s new album ‘Deadbeat’ sees Kevin Parker at his most laissez-faire

Tame Impala’s work is significant to many.

Whether it be that of the exploratory and ambitious “Mind Mischief,” released on “Lonerism” in 2012, or the ever-present “The Less I Know the Better,” off of “Currents,” leading man Kevin Parker’s sonic presence has set a tempo for other artists, as well as music as a whole.

Indeed, his brainchild of quasi-psych rock, synth and dream pop, among other genres, could be to blame for — or celebrate — a throng of similar artists.

But he doesn’t exactly hear it as such.

“I accept that I have quite a distinct way of writing vocal melodies and sort of constructing songs,” he says via Zoom. “Sometimes … it sounds like a song is clearly Tame Impala-influenced, but not to the extent that people tell me.”

“Do you have any kids?” he asks.

“People tell me that my daughter looks just like me, but I can’t see it,” he continues. “I’m like, ‘She just looks like a kid’ … It’s the same recognizing my music in others’. When it’s your own music, you’re blind to it.”

If anything, he wishes he could draw the similarities: “That would make me feel influential,” he jokes.

“Deadbeat” is Tame Impala’s latest release after a five-year hiatus.

(Julian Klincewicz)

Regardless, his discography is, at the very least, not something to scoff at. His last two projects, the aforementioned “Currents” and “The Slow Rush,” both cracked the Top 5 on American charts. The latter album’s lead single, “Borderline,” was certified platinum by RIAA.

Even at last year’s Grammys, he snagged a win in the dance/electronic recording category for his collaboration with Justice on “Neverender.”

With the mounting success, some may find it puzzling that for his latest project, “Deadbeat,” Parker decided to switch things up.

Its leading single, “End of Summer,” is classic Tame Impala in terms of its sprawling, seven minute and 12 seconds playtime, but it also sounds more laissez-faire than his previous work. This may come as a shock to fans, but for Parker it was freeing.

“Anytime it’s something I haven’t done before, it’s kind of weird and jarring, but also liberating,” he says.

Another analogy.

“It’s like deciding to not do your hair when you leave the house from now on. It’s fun … but it’s also scary … therein lies the excitement of doing something new.”

It’s the eternal dilemma between artist and fan — between an artist giving their fans what they want versus giving themselves what they need.

“It’s a tricky one,” he adds. “I think a lot about that.”

He compares it to his own experience as a Kings of Leon fan. The Tennessee-born rock quartet had a rather definable turning point in its career upon the release of their third album, “Because of the Times.”

Rather than sticking to the rural, Southern indie-rock sound that had occupied their first two projects, they pivoted toward more contemporary influences. The change was enough to get their name in conversations across the Atlantic in Britain, and it began their trajectory toward mainstream fame.

“I felt so betrayed. I was like, ‘I can’t believe they’ve done this, they’ve sold out,’” Parker remembers.

“It took me a long time to realize they were just doing what they wanted to do … and that was what was calling them. If they had done the same thing as what all their fans wanted them to do, it would have felt wrong for them — it wouldn’t have been artistically fulfilling.”

When it came time for Parker to work on “Deadbeat,” he similarly took his approach in a different direction. For starters, he set a “hard start time,” something that was never present when crafting his previous albums.

“It’s a hazy amount of time, because … I just start collecting ideas that I’ve had from whenever,” he says of those. “It’s always been ‘Oh s—, I’m making an album.’”

“Deadbeat” was subsequently a “fast” process for him, comparatively.

Perhaps more importantly, he also tried to set himself “free from sonic perfection.”

“I’ve always been sort of annoyingly meticulous with my music, where things have to be perfect,” he recalls.

The official album art for “Deadbeat.”

(Tame Impala / Julian Klincewicz)

This is perhaps most present on the album’s first track, “My Old Ways,” which opens with a somewhat-muffled recording of Parker on the keys — far from his typical style of introduction.

“From the moment I was writing that song, it was screaming at me that it was track one. It felt right to start with this janky phone recording of me playing piano,” he says. “That was my way of forcing myself to do that [free himself].”

The smaller things, like late nights in the studio, remained more or less the same. Thankfully, he’s got one of his own at his home in Los Feliz, making those a lot easier.

“Having the studio in the house means you can work every night until you fall asleep,” he says. “The studio is my happy place.”

This, of course, means he can also get easily sidetracked, but it’s “one of the beauties of making music on your own.” Parker typically tries to hone into his work as much as he can. Even being a dad of two, sometimes the music comes first.

“My work process is something that is sacred to me,” he shares. “Even though I have … children to take care of, I try to never let that affect my work process.”

“At the end of the day, for the music to be as good as I want it to be, it has to take priority sometimes.”

But he’s no “Deadbeat,” despite what the album title may suggest. He and Sophie Lawrence have a “really good system” when it comes to parenting.

“Once I’m deep into the album process … it’s ‘all day, every day,’” Parker says. “There’s times where I’m an attentive family man, and there’s times when I’m not … we have help with the kids.”

That way, music is “just as intense,” for him; it’s a way of work that “I like to embrace.”

As far as the title goes, Parker says “Deadbeat” has a “slightly different meaning” than its use in most instances.

“It means the feeling of being disconnected from the world … feeling like you’re not built to keep up with the world around you,” he explains. “I don’t want to give off the idea that me calling the album ‘Deadbeat’ is heavily connected to me becoming a parent. Because it’s really not.”

He also recognizes that, ultimately, people will take it how they want to. It’s an idea he became “at peace” with.

“You can put words and songs and narratives and names and things out into the world, and you can’t control how everyone’s going to interpret them,” he continues. “So, if some people interpret the album ‘Deadbeat’ as like, ‘deadbeat dad,’ that’s OK.”

“Everyone’s gonna have their own interpretation. I’m not gonna fight for the meaning of ‘deadbeat,’” he says with a laugh.