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Kevin Parker details “creative strain” while writing Tame Impala albums

Kevin Parker, the mastermind behind Tame Impala, has revealed he goes through “creative strain” whilst composing the band’s albums.

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala performs on day 2 of MoPop Festival at West Riverfront Park on July 28, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images)

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Kevin Parker, the mastermind behind Tame Impala, has revealed he goes through “creative strain” whilst composing the band’s albums, labelling it the most difficult aspect of his career.

Parker details the difficulty he faced whilst recording the 2015 album Currents in a new interview with Mojo magazine. The Australian native was asked if he ever considers calling it a day, to which he answered: “Yeah, of course. The times when I wanted to get off the wave were really just when there was a creative strain.

“Finishing an album is by far the hardest thing I have to go through because everything else is just work, you know?

“It’s actually the creative side when I have the times where I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, I can’t do this’ or ‘I’m never going to get to a point where I’m happy with this album.’ Even though that creative side’s what I’m best at, that’s the only time where I’m like, ‘Aargh! Fuck this!’”

TP’s frontman also spoke about the initial idea he had for the most recent album, The Slow Rush, and how it didn’t pan out exactly as he initially intended. “I knew I wanted the music to be more free-flowing and more stream-of-consciousness, which is a quality I think I ended up getting,” he said. “But my desire is always to make minimal music, music that’s as bare-bones as possible.

“To me, the greatest piece of music in the world is just dead simple. So I like to be minimal, but I always end up just going so deep.”

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