As Tame Impala continue their ploy for world domination and anticipation for their third album, Currents, continues to grow, much of the news surrounding the Perth group has instead dealt with an increasingly convoluted web of lawsuits and missing royalties involving their former label.

The fact that there was something not quite right within the Tame Impala camp, at least when it came to the band’s financials, was first hinted at by frontman Kevin Parker during a Reddit AMA session back in April, in which he told fans he’d received no money from the band’s international record sales.

“Up until recently, from all of Tame Impala’s record sales outside of Australia, I had received zero dollars,” Parker told fans. “Someone high up spent the money before it got to me. I may never get that money.” Then came news of a bombshell lawsuit involving the band’s former label, Modular Recordings.

As Tone Deaf later reported, German publishing giant BMG has been pursuing a lawsuit against Modular Recordings and its co-owners Universal Music Australia and label chief Steve “Pav” Pavlovic. BMG alleged that the three had failed to honour an agreement regarding Tame Impala’s royalties.

Things became more complicated after reports of a lawsuit between Universal and Pavlovic arose. As Billboard now reports, Universal’s suit against the Australian music mogul was in relation to a deed of release which was expected to separate the parties.

Universal came out on top in their action against Pavlovic, further integrating Modular, who developed some of the biggest Australian bands of the 2000s, including Cut Copy, Wolfmother, and The Presets, into the Universal Group and distancing the label further from Pavlovic.

Meanwhile, Pavlovic has remained almost silent about the various allegations levelled against him, releasing a statement via his lawyers and nothing else. He’s now finally broken his silence, speaking to Billboard and explaining where Tame Impala’s missing royalties, which court documents indicate total $1 million, have gone.

“[…] When new bands are signed to labels the label invests in developing that artist’s career and often pays them substantial advances which are then recouped from royalties in commercial success,” Pavlovic told Billboard when asked to respond to Kevin Parker’s comments on Reddit.

“Modular supported Tame Impala over the first four years of their career. At no point did our belief or support in Kevin waiver, and through that belief he was able to get into a position where he started to recoup that investment and build a substantial career.”

“I’m sincerely sorry that Kevin became caught in the middle of the Modular and Universal dispute — it’s an outcome I regret terribly. As a separate matter, it is simply not correct to say that Kevin has never received a cent from sales internationally…”

“This is a serious and implausible allegation which needless to say, I reject entirely.”

“[…] Advances are just that — an advance payment against future royalties and Kevin has been the recipient of considerable international advances from BMG, Universal and Modular. Now that his international mechanical accounting has been resolved I remain committed to doing whatever I can to move my side of things forward as speedily as possible.”

“I’ve obviously got a lot of regard and respect for Kevin and think he’s one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I also appreciate that these matters are complicated and often not well-captured in the press and passing online commentary.”

As for the BMG suit, Pavlovic claims this arose from a misunderstanding over the differences between how mechanical royalties are paid in the US and the UK and Australia. “We’ve been in discussions with BMG for some time to resolve what mechanicals royalties Modular owes to BMG in regards to Tame Impala,” he said.

“We didn’t realize that the different statutory process in the U.S. required Modular to deduct and pay the artists’ mechanical royalties directly. We were in amicable discussions with BMG about how we make good. Together we established that we needed an audit to work out exactly what we needed to pay.”

“I’ve always offered BMG complete access to our distributors’ records for them to audit and identify exactly what is owed by Modular U.S. But then it became complicated by the fact that Universal / Interscope took over the release of the Tame Impala album Lonerism from June 20, 2013 and the rest of the Tame Impala catalog from August 2014.”

“So establishing who owed what became complicated. This is unfortunately one of the matters that I’ve been in dispute with Universal about and sadly Tame Impala were caught in the middle. I can only assume BMG became frustrated about the impasse between Modular and Universal effecting their situation and sought to take their own action to bring it to a head.”

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“I’m pleased to say though that in the last week we’ve been able to establish the payment actually due. Incidentally, my share is a fraction of what has been reported in the press. I believe with the sums now allocated to Modular and Universal the accounting can be settled quickly and therefore BMG are prepared to withdraw the case.”

Pavlovic also addressed Universal’s claims they gave him money as an advance for an unspecified payment, which he wrongly kept for himself, saying, “This is a serious and implausible allegation which needless to say, I reject entirely.”

“I’m disappointed with the Supreme Court hearing which ruled that the separation deed is in effect because it has robbed me of the opportunity to defend myself against this preposterous allegation at a hearing,” he added.

Pavlovic said he is now looking towards the future and considering his next move, lamenting the conclusion of the Universal suit. “I have no choice but to walk away from a company that I founded 18 years ago,” he said.

“I stand by [the label’s achievements] and having the belief and vision to further these artists’ careers abroad when the Universal family passed on releasing them internationally.”

I took the risk and invested my own money to see them reach a broader audience. But at the end of the day that company was me. I created it. You can take me out of Modular but you can’t take the things that made Modular successful out of me,” he concluded.

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