If you attend a Tame Impala live show these days, you’ll see frontman Kevin Parker completely in his element, relaxed and serene, whipping the crowd into a frenzy, bantering with them calmly and effortlessly.
However, it wasn’t always like that. A natural introvert, Parker’s crowd interaction chops didn’t come easy and he reckons the band began headlining rooms well before he learnt the finer points of speaking to an audience.
“The live environment’s completely different from recording – they’re two completely different ways of producing music,” he recently told Time Out Sydney when discussing the transition from album to stage.
“I consider myself to have a unique style in the way I play drums and the guitar, but to expect those musical nuances to transfer to the other people who are playing… it’d be stifling to the others.”
Before the release of 2012’s Lonerism, which promoted Parker from a national favourite to a bonafide international star, Parker expressed concern about his ability to play the compelling frontman and interact with the crowd.
“We definitely started headlining before I knew how to talk to an audience,” he said. “I didn’t consider myself as having the type of personality who could stand up in front of 6,000 people and get them revved up, and I’m still not that kind of person.”
However, Parker’s anxiety has since subsided and he’s actually got some very sage advice for any musicians out there who may be having a difficult time playing rockstar. The secret? Don’t.
“It was because I assumed that I had to be [that kind of person] that I felt shy,” said Parker. “As soon as I realised I just had to be myself and talk to the audience like I’d talk to anyone, I really found my persona on stage.”
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Of course, Parker didn’t get into the music game to be a rock star, there was simply nothing else he wanted to do. As he revealed in a recent interview with The Australian, little else held his interest besides music.
“In high school, I was an absolute derelict,” Parker said. “I just never came home, shoplifted, smoked weed. I was totally into the thrill of breaking the law.” Around the same time, Parker was teaching himself drums and guitar.
After enrolling and dropping out of engineering and astronomy degrees, Parker decided there was only one thing he was interested in. “Music became a bigger and bigger thing in my life, the only thing I thought about, the only thing I wanted to do,” he said.
