Tame Impala Makes Music for Loners

Tame Impala Makes Music for Loners. Great NYT piece that #1 fanboy @amerol01 sent my way.

Some cool quotes

On his creative process:

Part of the thing about me starting an album is that I have to feel kind of worthless again to want to make music. I started making music when I was a kid as a way of feeling better about myself, you know? The ironic thing is, if I’m feeling on top of the world or feeling confident or like everything’s good, I don’t have the urge to make music.

Glen Goetze, A&R manager who signed Tame Impala:

I know it turns his head inside out sometimes, not having a bandmate or a band, not working in any way where you can turn to other people. He’s got to go through all those phases to come out the other end with something as incredible as he does.

Caught in the Malibu wildfire:

I was, like, house burning down! What do I grab? My laptop and the Hofner. This was just split-second thinking. I looked at everything else and thought, ‘I don’t need that.’

The Hofner refers to his 1960s vintage bass guitar that he’s written every Tame Impala song on. He lost $30k in instruments and recording equipment in the fire.

On vulnerability:

You have to chop a bit of yourself off and give it to the world, and it’s out there. There’s always a sense of: ‘O.K., do I want to say this? Do I want to broadcast this?’ And there’s definitely hesitation. But at the end of the day the obvious answer is: ‘Of course. You have to.’ It wouldn’t be good if you weren’t exposing something you were hesitant to expose.

On his next album:

It’s taken shape in my head. When I start making songs for an album, I don’t know what each one’s role is. But by the time I’m finished, each one has a color, each one has an identity, each one has a purpose.