Kevin Parker has said he deliberately wanted to leave himself feeling exposed on Tame Impala’s latest album.
The Australian artist’s new record Deadbeat begins with a raw voice note of Parker singing into his phone, a choice he made to give the album a more honest and human feel than anything he has released before.
Speaking to RUSSH magazine, he explained: “I record a lot of voice notes.
“I was listening back to them while driving one day and realised how intimate they sound.
“They’re not high quality recordings, just a rough iPhone mic.
“It suddenly felt like exactly what I’d been searching for, which was making something more human and more exposed.
“I realised in that moment that I hadn’t really exposed myself in my music before.
“I’d always built tracks that were so dense and layered that I ended up hiding behind them.
“It’s easy to forget how important it is to simply use your voice and write lyrics. You can get trapped by your own insecurities.”
The album artwork features Parker’s daughter Peach, and he stressed that the decision was not meant to signal anything deeper beyond wanting the project to feel personal.
He said: “Honestly, putting her on the cover was probably the most misleading thing I could have done.
“People see the title Deadbeat and a photo of me with my child and assume it means ‘deadbeat dad’.
“But that was never the intention. It was just personal. Just human.
“Sometimes art is simply about placing things together and letting people take from it what they will.
“I can’t really explain why that image and that title work side by side, they just do.
“For me, it was about saying, here I am. This is me.”
The 39 year old added that the album is ultimately centred on the idea of connection.
He said: “I think Deadbeat is about connection, or maybe the difficulty of connecting.
“With yourself, with other people, with reality.
“I wanted it to feel human and vulnerable. I realised I hadn’t truly allowed myself to do that before.”
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