Kevin Parker of Tame Impala

Questlove sits down with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, the multi-instrumentalist from Perth—one of the most isolated cities on Earth—who spent years letting the world believe his one-man project was a band. Parker talks about turning down a big-name producer to make Innerspeaker alone in a beach shack he later bought, the more than 1,000 voice memos labeled “this will change my life,” and why he devotes 90% of his time to drum sounds. He also unpacks the idea behind Tame Impala's latest, Deadbeat, the feeling of always being on the outside—no matter how successful he becomes—and the strange ways stress and anxiety fuel his best work. Along the way: sneaking into a White Stripes show with his brother’s ID, a Batman Forever soundtrack confession, and his new life building synthesizers. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:59Speaker 00

  Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Ladies and gentlemen, what's up? This is Questlove. Welcome to the Questlove Show. Our guest today is, well, from halfway across the world. Right now, he's across the pond. He's a multi instrumentalist, singer songwriter, producer, coming live at you, bringing his creativity to you from the place that I dub one of the loneliest places on earth. He's made some of the, in my opinion, some of the coolest, most interesting, genre bending music of the last two, almost last two decades, decade and a half. Since I've had this platform, he has been someone, his brain, I've been dying to pick.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  His name is often mentioned and sort of like a small circle of genius DIY bedroom musician circle. You know, we talk of Sly and, you know, Prince and Todd Rundgren, Trent Reznor and Stevie Wonder and Beck and even up to Steve Lacy and Phineas, you know, Gene and Dean Ween. The list goes on and on. It's not bad company. I'd like to welcome to the Questlove Show, one and only, Kevin Parker.

• 2:35Speaker 03

  Thank you, man.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  How you doing, man? How are you?

• 2:38Speaker 03

  I'm good, man. Thank you. That was quite an introduction. It's always hard to like, it's always like do like an interview or something after you get like introduced like that. It's like, oh, fuck, now I gotta, now I gotta live up to the heart, you know?

• 2:49Speaker 00

  It's weird to hear your accomplishments and get your flowers at the same time in an intro, I know.

• 2:55Speaker 03

  That's interesting, though, what you're saying about the sort of the lineage of like, you know, one person things, you know? Bedroom producer, whatever you want to call them. Because it's funny, it is quite a, it's quite a history, isn't it?

• 3:08Speaker 00

  No, it is, you know? And to me, okay, so for the few of you that don't understand, and I've mentioned Perth a few times on the show, for those of you that skipped geography class, you know, Australia is sort of structured like, I guess you can say, the size of two North Americas, two United States, of which I would say the northeast side, you know, the Boston to DC side are where, you know, most civilization is, little, little parts of the Carolinas in Florida, but then Perth would be where San Francisco is, but in between that is

• 3:53Speaker 00

  like at least five to 6,000 miles of just straight desert. And I mean, like the hottest unbearable, like you had to fly there. And I know that trucks and people drive there and I don't know how it happens, but anytime I go to Perth, it's just a different feeling over there, you know? I've done the longest DJ set of my life in there.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Oh, you did? When was that?

• 4:18Speaker 00

  Like 2006, 2007, I think. I was just supposed to do like maybe three to four hours and by the time I was done, I was totally unaware. I was so in the zone and no one left that when I stopped, I got a page like lobby calls in an hour. And I'm like, huh? And I looked and it was like 10 a.m. So I like started at midnight and ended at 10 a.m. And I was telling everybody, like, why did you tell me like it was way past four in the morning? They were like, oh, we just enjoyed it. You kept on going, so.

• 4:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, Perth goes hard sometimes.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  You, you guys go super hard. So I guess, you know, for me, there's always this like a mirror versus quest love thing. When are you Kevin Parker?

• 5:03Speaker 03

  That's an interesting question. I feel like more and more I'm learning to be the same one, you know? Like for a long time, Tame Impala was kind of this like weird thing that I wrestled with or that I sort of like, you know, that was like the official name and I didn't really pay much attention to the fact that I am, that I am that or that that's what people know. Do you know what I mean?

• 5:30Speaker 00

  What was the thought behind the giving you yourself that moniker?

• 5:33Speaker 03

  Oh, well, I mean, like, well, it's funny talking about like bedroom producers being like a one man band or whatever you want to call it. Like, when I started making music and I was like, okay, I really want to, and I had like ambitions for it and I was like, started to see it as something that was like, you know, good enough or whatever you want to call it. I still really struggled with the idea that I was a one man band, like, because other than sort of like Stevie Wonder, and a couple of other sort of artists that I knew of, for me, there was no real scene for like what essentially sounds like a band, but it's just one guy. Like, I just didn't think people would click with it. You know, do you know what I mean?

• 6:14Speaker 03

  So I kind of like, I always just sort of instinctively pretended it was a band or like, and like even named like Tame Impala was like the name of the band.

• 6:22Speaker 00

  Right.

• 6:23Speaker 03

  You know? On like our MySpace page, there was like three of us, the record label even like believed it was a band. And we, and we were a band because we played shows, but the sort of the, the secret was that like it was just me making the music by myself. So that was this kind of like uncomfortable truth about it for a long time for me was like, oh, and that's kind of like why the, why the whole Tame Impala is just one guy meme to me is so kind of funny because it's like, you know, that's something that's like, oh, you're supposed to know it's just one guy that, you know, it's like, it's like hilarious or whatever. But I also kind of feel like I'm the reason that kind of started, like, you know, that's my fault. I'm the one to blame for that, you know, in a hilarious kind of a way.

• 7:06Speaker 00

  Got you. What is your first musical memory that you recall in your lifetime?

• 7:12Speaker 03

  Oh, I mean, like, my dad was very musical. You know, he would always be like playing guitar and stuff. He wasn't a musician, but he loved to sort of like pretend he was one. And so he would always have music going, like, one of my first like memories of, of like, really feeling music was just being in the back of his car. He'd have like the Shadows, the Beach Boys or something playing. It was kind of just like, you know, that was kind of, that's, that's one of my earliest memories of being like affected by music, not just being aware of music, being sort

• 7:53Speaker 03

  of like, you know, moved by it or yeah, that it was this sort of like really intense, important thing going on. But yeah, so I mean, like, yeah, I mean, that was, that was probably it.

• 8:06Speaker 00

  Okay. So, you know, as I mentioned earlier, you know, Perth is called the most isolated city on earth, but you know, I always viewed it as a creative superpower. Because to me, Perth is like, it would be like a laboratory where ideas can grow without being colonized by global trends and, you know, of course, now that the internet has sort of digitally colonized us all, like a song that we have, you guys can have instantly because we all live on the planet of the internet. But growing up sort of before that, did that isolation feel like a void that you were

• 8:51Speaker 00

  trying to fill with music? Or did it feel like a protective bubble that allows you to develop a sound that couldn't have happened anywhere else for you? Like, were you even aware of the position that you were in the world?

• 9:06Speaker 03

  No, I mean, like essentially, the effect of like Perth being so isolated, even the fact that it was so isolated was something that I only realized when we, when I like started traveling, you know, which was sort of like for me was later, you know, I was like.

• 9:23Speaker 00

  Oh, really?

• 9:24Speaker 03

  I didn't travel a lot. Yeah, well, I mean, like when you're from an isolated place, you don't feel isolated because you have nothing to compare it to, you know? You're not aware that like over in Europe, there are countries that are like an hour's drive away, you know? Or in America, there's just like tons of cities next to each other. I didn't think that it was out of the ordinary for like the closest city to be like a four hour flight away.

• 9:48Speaker 00

  How long was it before you set foot into like Sydney or, or Melbourne or Gold Coast or any of those?

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Oh, I mean, like I went there, but I didn't realize that, that it was far away comparatively. Do you know what I mean? It was like, it was far, but it was just, it wasn't on my sort of radar. So like when we started traveling, we went to America and England and the UK and like Europe and stuff. That was like, that was like the number one question that, that I got asked in interviews. Like, what's it like being from such an isolated city? And I was like, I don't know, I have no idea. I didn't even know that it was. Did not even, I reckon I learnt that it was the most isolated city in the world in an interview. It's like, we just found out it's the most isolated city in the world.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  We were all treating you like an alien.

• 10:33Speaker 03

  Basically, yeah. And I, I was always sort of just like palming off the question like, oh, it doesn't, it doesn't have an effect. Like, we have, we, we get rock music in, you know, we get like, we get all the music. Right. So it's like, you know, like, obviously the music that I was making was super kind of spaced out and it was quite isolated sounding music and it was different. Some people were like, oh, it must be a result of Perth. But like, I came from a music scene where there were, there was like every kind of, everyone was making everything. Uh, it was just coincidence that, at the time, that the one that was making it out of Perth was, kind of sounded like it was from a isolated desert town, you know what I mean? So it was only later that I realised that, you know, I, like,

• 11:18Speaker 03

  they were probably on to something, you know, the questions, the questions were kind of like on the money because I probably wouldn't have made the kind of music that I did or like in the way that I did had I been from a, any other city. Because it's like, the thing about growing, like being a musician in Perth, or being a young person in Perth, like back then was kind of like, you, we, you, you make your own fun, you know, so there weren't like a hundred clubs to go. So like house parties were a thing, you know, just like house gigs even.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  In school, was there a, a scene where you could have started a band with your friends like at twelve, thirteen or in like a high school band thing?

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, definitely. I was, that's kind of what I was just completely obsessed with, the idea of like starting a band, being in bands. Yeah, Dom, Dom, who's in time now, was in my band when we were like thirteen or whatever.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 12:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:14Speaker 00

  So name me five records that were in your household growing up.

• 12:20Speaker 03

  Oh, Beach Boys.

• 12:24Speaker 00

  Which one? Pet Sounds or?

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Uh, probably earlier than Pet Sounds, I have to say. It might have been, might even have been a best of, I think like, that was the era of like CDs when like best ofs were coming out and like our parents were like, oh, all our favourite songs were on one CD, you know, so like,

• 12:40Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 12:40Speaker 03

  I reckon there would have been a Beach Boys, but like, they weren't listening to the albums of the sixties in the albums.

• 12:46Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 12:47Speaker 03

  By that point, it was like Supertramp best of, Beach Boys best of, Beatles best of, you know, Fleetwood Mac.

• 12:53Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:54Speaker 03

  Probably a best of. So a lot of my early memories of those, those songs are like, the songs are in completely different orders, they're from different decades even.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  What was the first album that you purchased with your own money?

• 13:09Speaker 00

  Go ahead, let it out, let it out, man. Let it out. Every, everyone starts somewhere.

• 13:14Speaker 03

  What I would love to say, like, wha- wha- what I tell in a sort of like a promo interview is like Silverchair or like, you know, Smashing Pumpkins or something.

• 13:23Speaker 00

  What was it really?

• 13:23Speaker 03

  In reality, it was the Batman Forever soundtrack, which, by the way,

• 13:28Speaker 00

  Hey!

• 13:28Speaker 03

  is sick, is a, is a sick collection of music.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  There's nothing wrong with that, okay.

• 13:34Speaker 03

  Flaming Lips, Mazy Star, Method Man, I think, U2.

• 13:40Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 13:41Speaker 03

  Nick Cave, I think, no, I don't know, maybe, whatever. Anyway, it's actually, I was always embarrassed to tell people, but it's actually got some good music on it.

• 13:49Speaker 00

  No, it's not bad. Yeah, I used to, um, of course, you know, it's easy for me to just say like The Jackson Five.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 13:57Speaker 00

  But really the answer was Neil Sedaka, but there was nothing sexy about saying Neil Sedaka, so.

• 14:03Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 14:03Speaker 00

  I used to always say The Jackson Five.

• 14:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:06Speaker 00

  But I will ask, what album or song changed your life in terms of This Is My Calling, I Want To Do This For A Living?

• 14:17Speaker 03

  To name one song would be extremely difficult.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  Is there an album from front to back that really just floored you?

• 14:25Speaker 03

  Well, in terms of me deciding that like music was my identity now and like This Is Me would definitely have been like a Silverchair album. Uh, this is like Australian rock band.

• 14:36Speaker 00

  They were young when they started, right? Like they were.

• 14:39Speaker 03

  Totally. Which, yeah, they were like fifteen, which.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  So that had an impact on you guys, like?

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, definitely. I could just see, oh, you know, I remember being like, I was like twelve years old. And I was like, right, I've got three years, you know what I mean? I've got three years until I'm their age. You know?

• 14:54Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, it would be like Freak Show or something. I just, you know, probably listened to that album more than any other album I've listened to since, but, um.

• 15:03Speaker 00

  What is your morning routine? What's the first thing that you routinely do in the first like half hour of your day when you wake up?

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Well, uh, since five years ago, when I had, when we had our first kid, it's been a lot different, you know?

• 15:20Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Cause we've got, we've got two kids now, so it's very like family based, you know, it's like,

• 15:27Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 15:28Speaker 03

  Get the baby out of the cart, you know?

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Give him a bottle of milk. Yeah.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  So has, has fatherhood changed your creative kind of, uh, um, approach?

• 15:43Speaker 03

  I don't know. At the end of the day, music and like creativity for me is such an internal thing. It comes from a place that's like separate to what's going on in life, you know, it's always just this sort of like this entity in my mind that, uh, spits out stuff, you know, and I feel like that runs separate to like whatever's going on in life, but it's obvi- it's, it's changed, it changes your perspectives on life, undoubtedly. Like how you see yourself and like how important you are. I think like what's important about being an artist, like not important, but kind of necessary is that you have a little bit of a like, I'm the centre of the universe, you know, like?

• 16:24Speaker 03

  And when you have kids, you are immediately aware that you are not the centre of the universe, like they very much are and you, your life is like in service of them. So I think that shifts, you know, your creativity in a way. And then like aside from that, it's just like a time thing. It's just sort of like, rather than being able to work like until you just can't stay awake anymore, it's like three in the morning, it's sort of like your time is more structured, so you know, it's like a time thing.

• 16:53Speaker 00

  How do you divide the timing between being present, but also continuing to grow as an artist yourself?

• 17:03Speaker 03

  That's a good question.

• 17:04Speaker 00

  Are you now a morning creative person? Like I used to be a nighttime creative person and now

• 17:10Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:10Speaker 00

  pretty much all my ideas come at me like four or five in the morning?

• 17:14Speaker 03

  I think that my creative blob in my brain is quite stubborn and, and unchangeable in that way, like I'm still instinctively a night person, I've just got to find opportunities to make music at night, I've just got to sort of, you know, allow myself that time.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Um, and not just be overruled by like life, you know? But that's, that's the funny thing about making music and creativity or whatever you want to call it. Um, is that, is that like, one way of looking at it is that you need to be in like a sort of a, a mental space where you're up, where you're free, you know, and like distractions are removed and you're sort of like, no, I'm, I'm being me now, I'm being, I'm doing music or yeah, I'm allowing myself to create. And then the other, the other side of the coin is that like music can come to you in the most unexpected times and I find it frequently does.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  Um, it comes when you, in the, in the most inconvenient times, when your brain is just overloaded with shit. In life, stress, you're anxious, you know, and music is this thing that just sort of like this light turns on and goes, hello? It's a sort of like a little like, um, escape hatch opening, it goes like, you know? And so I find that getting the most out of music is like nurturing those two things. Cause like, if I was to just do what I wanted, I was just to disappear for, you know, months at a time or whatever. The music would stop because there'd be no counterpoint, there'd be no friction, you know?

• 18:51Speaker 00

  Right. So when you, when you are in an inconvenient place and an idea does hit you, are you the type of artist that has like voice memos of ideas that were like mind blowing at the time when you're documenting it and then when you return to it, it's like, what the hell was this?

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Oh man, story of my life, you, you, yeah, get out of my head.

• 19:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 19:14Speaker 03

  Get out of my head because that's what I'm trying to do with my ideas and that's the hard part, like sometimes I'm doing a voice memo and I'm literally just like, Kevin, record this. I know it sounds shit. Like, you know, like, I know this is gonna sound like, like, like garbled nonsense.

• 19:33Speaker 00

  Right.

• 19:33Speaker 03

  Um.

• 19:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, I do write notes to myself that you'll come back to this and you'll be like, you'll pass it up, but I swear to God if you just try to work through it, this is, this is the one. Okay, I'm not the one, okay, I'm, I'm glad to know that.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Oh man, that's like, I have to have, I reckon about like over a thousand voice notes on my phone at this point. And only a handful I've sort of like gone back and pursued. But the funny thing about this, there's like behind every single one of those voice notes was a moment where I went, holy fuck, I've got to record this.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  Right, okay.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  Like, I, I can't let this idea go. If I let this idea go, I'm missing out on, you know, like, it's like sliding doors in my life, like my life. You know, like all, all the songs of mine that were like, I sort of like my, let's say biggest songs. Or, you know, most sort of like career changing or whatever. Sometimes I think about like, well, what happened if I never had that idea? Like if someone just sort of stopped my attention like moments before I thought of that or whatever. You know, it's like, that might not, might not have happened. So behind every one of these voice memos is me going like, this song is gonna change my life.

• 20:42Speaker 00

  Most of the time, do you just come to the studio with absolutely no idea whatsoever and just you'll figure it out on the spot or do you have to have something that?

• 20:53Speaker 00

  You've been toying with.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a good question because being in the studio was like, is like those two things intersecting, right? It's like having the ideas because I like I I hate I I I I simply don't um start working on something for the sake of studying, working on like I don't really say like, like just sit down at a keyboard and go, okay, I'm gonna write a song like I just never do that. I know that some people do, and that's an amazing ability, in my opinion, to be able to sit down at a piano with absolutely nothing in your head and then just write something because you wanted to. Like, I just, my brain just doesn't work that way, you know?

• 21:33Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  But yeah, so usually like the meeting in the studio is like, I'll I'll go through if I haven't already got something in my head, by the time I got to the studio, then I'll go through voice memos.

• 21:44Speaker 00

  Okay, same. And you gotta be alone so no one hears you?

• 21:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's been a requirement for forever, basically. Again, something that that's something it's it's like a skill that I would love to um build. And in fact, like this last album, I wrote a couple of songs with my friend Sarah, and she's kind of like the closest thing that I've had to a songwriting partner.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by Miguel.

• 22:31Speaker 05

  My small experience with the discrepancy in the business of music made me angry in the best way, and I wanted to I wanted to finish. So I started really like leaning into my therapy, trying to get down to like, what matters now? Somewhere, Miguelito felt like he didn't have a place to say how he felt, and music was the place that I went to to say how I felt.

• 22:54Speaker 04

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart, there's an original, writing it someplace where nobody was listening, some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three in the morning, chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original, already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original,

• 23:50Speaker 00

  live in Levi's.

• 23:59Speaker 00

  Do you remember the first concert you've ever experienced?

• 24:03Speaker 03

  First concert? Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, that was would have to have been. I mean, we went to a lot of like underage, kind of like punk rock gigs when I was growing up, just sort of like small, mosh pity, underground things.

• 24:18Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  But the first like real concert that was sort of, yeah, like an artist coming to town kind of thing was The White Stripes.

• 24:28Speaker 00

  Two thousand and five? Or when was this?

• 24:30Speaker 03

  Would have been two thousand and three. So it was an overage gig. It was eighteens only, and I borrowed my brother's driver's license to get in because we sort of looked alike.

• 24:43Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was just after Elephant came out, their album Elephant.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  You know what? I think Perth is the one date we didn't do, but I believe for the rest of their tour of Australia.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  Really?

• 24:59Speaker 00

  I remembered opening for The White Stripes for at least, uh, The Roots and Jurassic Five opened up for The White Stripes. Um, yeah, like two thousand and three, two thousand and four, but we were just on the other side of Australia. We didn't, we didn't do Perth until the second time around.

• 25:19Speaker 03

  Classic story.

• 25:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, those those shows were good.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I mean, I was just obsessed with The White Stripes that like their albums, there was like a period of my life where everything that I was doing was being influenced by them. You can kind of hear it in like early music of mine.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  You can hear the like White Stripes influence, hundred percent. But that was just one of the ones where I I went alone because none of my friends were willing to like try and sneak in with fake IDs, you know? I was I was like, I'm going to the show. I'm just, I'm going. However, I have to do it, you know? So I had, you know, I was, I was, yeah.

• 25:56Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 25:56Speaker 03

  Um, so I just went alone. It was sick. It was the best night of my life, you know?

• 26:01Speaker 00

  What is the significance of the movie Empire Records in your life?

• 26:06Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, like, the movie's just such a such a potent vibe, right? I had to just say vibe, but it was just one of those movies where you watch it and you're just like, I I want to be there. I want to be one of them, you know?

• 26:22Speaker 00

  Okay. Have you ever worked in a record store or like anything that's close to that?

• 26:27Speaker 03

  Uh, no, no. Well, I mean, that was, yeah, I think that was kind of just like why it just seemed so.

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Romantic?

• 26:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. Something that you you could just like, yeah, exactly.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  Okay. So what is the bravest thing that you think you've ever done? I ask introspective questions, sorry.

• 26:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I like it. I like it. Well, I mean, you know what? Like, people would think that, nah, I was gonna say like my first answer is like, quit it, like dropping out of uni to like pursue a career in music. But but the thing is that we've been offered a record contract. So it's like you would have been stupid not to, you know? Do you know what? I think it was probably a mix of like bravery and like just sheer stubbornness and like, you know, delusion or whatever, but deciding to make the first album by myself, I look back and think that was pretty ballsy because everyone around me was like, you need to get a producer. And so it's like, oh,

• 27:28Speaker 03

  so you got a record deal? Okay, cool. So now all you need to do is um.

• 27:33Speaker 00

  Find you a producer.

• 27:34Speaker 03

  Yes, find you a producer. So I had a bunch of calls. It was like Dave Stadi, Dave Sitak, um, guy produced a lot of Queen's of Stone Age albums.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  That is name, Chris Goss. That's it. That's the one. So basically, it was like, he was like, you know, the expected thing was like, oh, you've done an EP by yourself. Cool. Now we need to level up, you know, because I'd never made an album before. I didn't know how to make an album. I just made recordings in my bedroom. And I basically just had the audacity to say, nah, fuck you guys. I'm I'm gonna just find me a shack on the beach and I'll do it myself, you know?

• 28:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 28:10Speaker 03

  I'll give you your album. Because we'd like sign a contract. It was like, yeah, you're on label now. You need to deliver a sort of a world class recording. And I was just like, you know, I I didn't need to, I needed to do this myself. I I got this, you know?

• 28:24Speaker 00

  Speaking of Inner Speaker, so if you could go back to the bedroom, the room where you recorded Inner Speaker, what is the one object in that room that holds the most ghosts for you?

• 28:43Speaker 00

  And what did you record it on?

• 28:45Speaker 03

  The object, I mean, there are so many objects from that room that I've still got. And every time I look at them, I'm like, oh, wow, you know?

• 28:53Speaker 00

  It's not changed since then?

• 28:54Speaker 03

  What, the room or the object?

• 28:57Speaker 00

  The the surroundings?

• 28:58Speaker 03

  The surroundings was actually this house that we rented.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Okay, okay.

• 29:03Speaker 03

  Because that's kind of what we spent the album budget on was just renting this like house by the water, like if like in the middle of nowhere, um, called Wave House, which I ended up buying.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  In the pandemic, because, you know, when we were there, it was just a magical place. And I was like, oh, man, if I ever if I ever make any money, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna buy this place, you know?

• 29:25Speaker 00

  Nice, okay.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  And so I ended up doing that years later. So, I mean, to be honest. I think the object that holds most ghosts is is the room itself. You know, it's like we renovated a bit since, but it's still, I still walk past it every day, you know, like sometimes kids playing in there or like have breakfast there or whatever. It's like a different, a different atmosphere now, obviously. But it's still like, I still look at it. I'm like, that's, that's where I was sitting for like seven weeks or something.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  When you were first recording, like what equipment were you, what were your weapons of choices? Like what equipment did you start with?

• 30:01Speaker 03

  I had a, I had this digital multi-track recorder. Um, this little eight-track that I got for Christmas when I was like sixteen or something.

• 30:09Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 30:10Speaker 03

  I just had that. I just, I didn't get anything. I didn't replace it for a long time, you know, like, so I made the first EP on that. Just this, this box, you know, and I just knew it at the back of my hand. It's still.

• 30:21Speaker 00

  Really?

• 30:22Speaker 03

  You can, yeah. It's a Boss uh BR eight six four. Just this like chunky little thing. My, all I had was that pair of headphones and my guitar plugged in like straight into the thing. And I would just overdub and overdub and overdub.

• 30:35Speaker 00

  I gotta ask, how do you get, and I know, you know, you're not going to give me a scientific MacGyver answer, but how do you achieve your drum sound? Cause I'll say that when um I first started getting hip to you. You know, I loathe too much sheen, too much polish on.

• 30:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:56Speaker 00

  So instantly the, just the texture of what you were going for. You know, came through to me at least. It, it felt vintage almost. Like, how did, how did you achieve, achieve your drum sounds?

• 31:11Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, I mean, like, that was always something. I mean, like, even then, drums and the drum sound and the drum feel was the thing I spent ninety percent of the time on. And, and still is today, still is today. It's a thing that I just go back and tinker and fuck with just the most, just like, you know, to them. Yeah. I mean, what's funny is back then when I had the eight-track. I, I would, like, I didn't really know what I was doing. There's EQ and compression and distortion and all that kind of stuff. And I would just sort of like plug in the mics, the drums and record them. And now I'll just sort of turn shit and, and adjust.

• 31:50Speaker 00

  Until you feel it.

• 31:51Speaker 03

  Until it sounded like Portishead, you know? Until it sounded like some sort of fucking breakbeat or some sort of.

• 31:57Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Yeah. I didn't know what I was doing. And then I sort of had to like, I slowly got an idea of what I was doing, but at the end of the day, it's just, I don't know what the, what the key ingredient is. But I mean, like, the feel of playing it, as you know.

• 32:14Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  That is the thing that cannot be um dialed in.

• 32:19Speaker 00

  Right.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  You know, it's, it's obviously you can move beats around and you can, you can perfect in that way, but, but the, the, the feel of playing it is the, is the most important thing. And then it's just sort of like.

• 32:31Speaker 03

  You know, I, yeah, I, I, I care a lot about the way that the, the drums and the frequencies interact with each other and they like crunch into, you know, compressors and distortion boxes and stuff.

• 32:45Speaker 00

  When you're recording, this is strictly by yourself, on your own, or is there an engineer there at least to?

• 32:52Speaker 03

  No, it's almost, I'm always on myself.

• 32:54Speaker 00

  Standing, okay, okay.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  What's funny is like the stu-, like as I've sort of gotten, as I've gotten sort of bigger and bigger studios, or like the space that I record is more kind of let's say, you know, it used to be so the eight-track was just sitting next to the drums. And so now I have to le-, I have to leave more space. You know, before the start, before the start of the song, so I hit record on the computer, run over to the drums and like, I'll leave like sixteen bars, you know? As like pre-roll.

• 33:22Speaker 00

  Just to, right. Okay. So for you, has there ever been a temptation to upgrade? All right, I don't want to jinx you, nor do I want to plant a seed of jinxing.

• 33:37Speaker 03

  There's, there's nothing, you can't, nothing you can say I haven't already thought about or, or.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  I feel like we're the same person.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 00

  Well, cause the thing is, you know, sometimes the, the Prince fan community gets upset at me. Because, you know, I have a bracket of my favorite Prince era and, you know, for me, I always felt that whenever, and this, but this is not only Prince, like this especially happened with the Wu-Tang Clan. Like when you upgrade, like sometimes the best isn't the best. And oftentimes, like when I record, I'll say that eighty percent of my output, I like crappy places and no, no offense to Electric Lady Studios, but, you know, because they're vintage.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  That's why I like Electric Lady, but for the most part, like when musicians upgrade and go to professional, air quote, studios, they kind of miss the sauce, like they, there's a part of the ingredients that's not there. So will you keep all of your,

• 34:45Speaker 00

  you know, your archive, the equipment that got you there? Do you still keep that near and dear? Do you buy multiples of those in case?

• 34:54Speaker 03

  Oh man, that is a question that, that like, it would take days to fully unpack. Because it's something I think about a lot and like, there's just so much, there's so much to unpack there, but um I think, first of all, I, I fully, man, like you're speaking my language with a space that needs to be a bit crappy. Or it just needs to feel kind of real or something. I don't know. I mean.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  I don't like luxury studios.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. I, I, a friend of mine sort of um helped me like, not renovate, but sort of like re-juvenile the visual aspect of my studio.

• 35:34Speaker 00

  Right.

• 35:35Speaker 03

  And um she would come to me with sort of like references and stuff. And I was like, no, you see, it's, it's like, it can't be too visually dialed in. You know, it needs a little bit of like garishness because psychologically, when you're being creative, the feeling of like preciousness or the feeling of like that I'm in this perfect zone. Like, you know, that studio, I don't want to like bad mouth a studio or anything because everyone's different. Like some people need that sort of the platinum, you know, feeling. They, they need that sort of platinum space, but the studio just opened up, I think it's in France. And it's like a renovated sort of like classic studio. It's quite curvy, a lot of glass, a lot of white. And like, I've seen pictures of that.

• 36:19Speaker 03

  I know that I like, I, I, I would not do well in that studio, you know? Because like, just, just that, that's the, the psychology of imperfection. And I, I think it's important when you are making music that you don't feel like what you are making needs to be perfect. You can just, you can just make whatever, like fuck it, just do it, just do it. Cause all the best shit happens when it's like, just do it.

• 36:46Speaker 00

  How do you deal with the need to grow as an artist? I mean, cause obviously.

• 36:51Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  Deadbeat is, in my opinion, probably, I mean, aside from certain remixes that you've done. Deadbeat to me is, is definitely a pivot, a step forward way past where you were when like Lonarism was out and all those things, like you experiencing with new patches and

• 37:12Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 37:13Speaker 00

  new rhythms and all those things. So how do you know as an artist, when it's time to grow and try new things, but not to the point where you sort of isolate your, your previous sound?

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I think um ambition plays a big part in that. And like, again, part of being in a space that feels smaller or like not fully perfected or whatever. It's that feeling that you're making music that is bigger than the space you're in. It, it's beyond, you know, it's like, all of those, when you see like footage of artists that you love or whatever, making like classic albums. You know, like, you know, when Oasis made their like breakout album, it was just some little studio, you know? It's like, you can sort of sense that the inspiration in the music was to sort of like be bigger than the space that it's in.

• 38:14Speaker 03

  You know? And so like, being ambitious is very important to me, like both being sort of musically ambitious and also just having ambitions for the music, which is why I loathe the idea of doing the same thing twice. Because there is no unknown future for it. There's no unknown possibilities. It's like, it's a road you've already been down, so you know what's gonna happen. The unknownness is what's exciting. So whether you are doing something to be bigger and better, or whether you're just doing it to be differently because you want to go down a different road. I just feel like that is the part that keeps the fire a, a light.

• 39:05Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 39:25Speaker 06

  To this day, Ordinary would not have done anything, and I would have not been able to put it out if Book Talk didn't back it up and if my wife and her friend didn't back it up.

• 39:33Speaker 00

  Amazing.

• 39:34Speaker 06

  Pretty crazy how like, just one thing.

• 39:36Speaker 00

  Right.

• 39:37Speaker 06

  I mean, I bet you, we could point to nine different things in our careers where it's just one thing, all of a sudden, if that one thing didn't happen, then I wouldn't be here.

• 39:44Speaker 00

  What you're talking about right now is what I've been talking about since the beginning of my career. There's these things outside of you that make everything happen. These other forces somehow came into contact with each other and helped propel you to this place.

• 40:01Speaker 06

  It's just insane.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart, there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening, some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three in the morning, chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off-tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing

• 40:47Speaker 00

  it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 41:06Speaker 00

  So when you are creating and isolated in a studio, who in your mind is the imaginary critic that sits on your shoulder?

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, when I get stuck, I like to imagine what sort of artists or producers would do in that scenario. Weirdly, like, like Outkast, like Andre 3000 is someone who I, who I think is just such a unique thinker in music. And so I'm like, what would, what would Andre 3000 do here? Or like Pharrell even. The last album I made, I was like really big on the sort of the Pharrell, Neptunes approach to making music. I was like, there's this sort of like bootleg YouTube series of them making, um, Justified? First Justin Timberlake album?

• 42:02Speaker 03

  It's like, just like fly on the wall footage. It's like six videos of all like hours long or whatever. And I loved it. It was just so incredible to watch these sort of like, basically just like beats, you know, it's like a sort of a loop of music turned into a song. And it was, what was really interesting was that like the way Pharrell puts music together, it's like really similar to the way I do it. He was like, you could see him playing drums, you can see him like just trying out different beats until it was like, oh, fuck, that's the one, you know?

• 42:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  So, yeah, I mean, like, at the end of the, like, in terms of being of like critics, like imaginary critics, I turn to my friends because they are still the ones who are like brutally honest, like my wife is brutally honest, Jay is brutally honest. And, you know, like, it's, it's hard getting brutal, honest criticism on music that you're making is hard and you resent it sometimes. You're like, fuck you, you know?

• 42:58Speaker 00

  So how, how comfortable are you with playing music? I know for me, you know, I'm going on my third decade and probably this time around is the most guarded I've ever been with sharing, you know? Previously, I'd just play shit on the tour bus, see if anyone taps their foot or that sort of thing. And now it's like, ugh, like, are you the person that has to say, it's the rough mix? I didn't finish the third verse yet. I might add a bridge and...

• 43:29Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. It's a, it's a classic, it's a classic pre, um...

• 43:32Speaker 00

  You're an erotic spiel.

• 43:34Speaker 03

  Right. It's a classic spiel. Like, this is just a rough mix. It's not mixed. A lot of the lyrics are just garbled, you know? Classic. I mean, yeah, I'd say that too. But I, I've never played a piece of music to someone and not given that spiel first, even if it is finished.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  How do you manage stress?

• 43:51Speaker 03

  Uh, probably not well, but stress, as I was saying before, like, one of the funny things about music is that I thought stress can create little eggs. Can, you know, you can lay a little egg of stress and it's like a beautiful piece of music. A lot of the best music that I've made has been from a stressful time when I'm just sort of like over, overloaded or whatever. So to me, things like stress and anxiety, I don't hate them because they create things that help me, you know?

• 44:33Speaker 03

  It's sort of like a, it's a strange symbiotic relationship.

• 44:37Speaker 00

  So I've heard a few artists tell me that like, they have to get back into a toxic relationship.

• 44:44Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 44:44Speaker 00

  In order for, wait a minute. So are you one of these artists that have to be in a melancholy space so that you can create music so that it's a cathartic experience for you and that? Do you think you could ever create music from just a happy, happy space?

• 45:01Speaker 03

  Uh, short answer, no. I don't think that, well, again, everyone is different. Everyone makes, some people make music that like, they only like, can only make it when they're happy or whatever, you know? Everyone's different. I, I, I just, I don't know. I don't, I don't really like the music that I make when I'm happy. It's like, you know, I just, I don't make happy songs. I don't feel the need to listen to happy songs. But I am not the sort of person that will sabotage my own life to sort of like harvest the torture, you know? I would just, I won't...

• 45:35Speaker 00

  Okay, you got that part. Okay.

• 45:37Speaker 03

  Yes, I would never do that. There is always, there's always stuff, you know? Like, I'm the kind of person that, um, my mind will always find things to be tortured by, which is kind of where the idea of deadbeat lives, right? It's like, the way that I justify calling an album deadbeat and so everyone looks at me and is like, dude, you're not a deadbeat at this point, you know? It's like, it's like...

• 46:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was about to say, can you explain the, the logic behind the, the deadbeat sound?

• 46:09Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, I mean, yeah, the deadbeat sort of, I don't know, like fucking philosophy or whatever you call it, it's kind of like me realizing that I will always feel this way, you know? No matter what circumstance I'm in. I call it deadbeat, but it's sort of like just the feeling of being, you know, just like, like behind the eight ball, you know, in life, struggling to connect, struggling to feel like you are, like you're it, you know? That's something that like, was like really tough for me, growing up and becoming like a young man or whatever, struggling to connect with people and stuff like that. And struggling to feel, I guess not struggling to feel, but always just feeling on the outer,

• 46:54Speaker 03

  you know, feeling like you are, you're not, you're not one of those people that's just fully switched on. That's kind of, for me, that's like, kind of, that, that, that, that, that is deadbeat. And I still feel like that now, you know? It's me realizing that I always will. And so it's like stories from when I was sort of like early twenties, stories from now. For me, that's kind of like the ethos or whatever of it. And then, and then there's the deadbeat sound, which is like, just like, that's the music part of it, which I'm, got like really focused and obsessed with as well.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, what bass are you using on Currents? Like...

• 47:30Speaker 03

  Bass?

• 47:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:32Speaker 03

  Bass is almost entirely a Hoffner bass that I have.

• 47:37Speaker 00

  I love that sound.

• 47:39Speaker 03

  It is, man, to this day, that is the, the only object that I'm sentimental about.

• 47:47Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, like, I know you're gonna go different places in your creativity, but dog, the jealousy I felt of, of... Like, I think when, um, I heard the less, I know better, man. I was just, ah, I was so fucked. I was angry. No, I just, okay, so I'm a big fan of Carol Kay, especially the work that she did on all those, you know, Pet Sounds, all those aforementioned records that you talked about. And for me, like, just the perfect EQing of a plucked bass is so hard to, to capture. And I was like, damn, he has it. So...

• 48:32Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, I mean...

• 48:35Speaker 03

  I guess it's kind of one of those funny things, right? It's like, again, I think the way that you play a bass is more important than any way that you can EQ it. Like, I get really sort of like particular about how I like palm mute the strings when I'm like picking it. You know, like, it's gotta be the right amount of pressure that my palm puts on the strings to get that like

• 48:56Speaker 00

  So you have one of those like foam things in between the frets? Oh, you're not that far?

• 49:02Speaker 03

  I didn't really know that existed until just recently. So it's always been like the palm mute. And then, so it's like, the way that it sounded, I was loving the way that it sounded. So that made me confident enough to play bass like a badass, you know? So it's one of those sort of like cyclical things.

• 49:18Speaker 00

  I love it, man.

• 49:19Speaker 03

  It's, and it's the same with everything, same with drums. Like, if you are playing the drums and you can sort of, you've got a mix in your head, or the drums sound good, you know? You'll play better because you're like, oh, fuck yeah, I got this. Um, same with everything, really.

• 49:31Speaker 00

  How do you feel about, you know, when you first came out? You, you were instantly tagged with like, well, you're psych rock or whatever. Of course, people don't know what to, I'm still trying to figure out what neo soul is. But for you, what do you consider the most overrated virtue in quote unquote psych rock? Or do you even own that title or?

• 49:55Speaker 03

  Uh, I mean, from like lonerism onwards, I didn't think people were gonna call it psych rock. But, you know, it's like the first album, I was like, yes, the sort of psych rock, I guess. But compared to the psych rock that we were listening to, like back in the share house, that was like the real shit, you know? Just some sort of like weird German fucking late sixties, like, you know, jams that went on for twenty minutes or whatever. It's like real, real stoned shit. Um, to me, that was like psych rock. So inner speaker was sort of like, to me, was, it wasn't even really psych rock. It was like with psych rock instruments, but, you know, it was like, it was more sensitive or more sort of like.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  It was emotional. Yeah, yeah.

• 50:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, because psych rock has always been, has always had a sort of a lack of emotion, I guess, in a way.

• 50:44Speaker 00

  Like the earlier work of Can or?

• 50:46Speaker 03

  Can, yeah, yeah, take your pick, really. It's always been sort of like, it's more about the cerebral, you know, like the sort of the, just like losing your mind, you know? That's always been the sort of the intention of psych rock, I guess. It's just like float away, be, be in outer space, which is why, what I love about psych rock. Like, when I made Lonerism, I was like, oh, no one's gonna call this psych rock. It's got synths in it, you know, I'm like, singing about, um, deeply personal shit. Um, so for me, it's always been this thing, it's like, it's like, I just, I just accept it, you know? I don't, it's gonna take too much energy to sort of argue with people about what, what to call Tame Impala. I mean, I still don't know what to call Tame Impala. If I'm like in the back of a taxi, it's like, oh yeah, what's the music you make?

• 51:29Speaker 03

  I'm like, you know, what do I tell my Uber driver? Um, what sort of music Tame Impala is if he doesn't know what Tame Impala is? So.

• 51:39Speaker 00

  In terms of your collaborator, and speaking of like Jay and Cam and everyone, like, what do you look for in terms of collaboration? Because I, I could imagine that it's one thing to create the record for the studio, for the album, but it's a whole nother thing in terms of delivering that sound live to where you feel it's, it's perfect.

• 52:04Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 52:05Speaker 00

  How hard is it leading? Or does everyone just have sort of the agency to create on their own? Like, what do you look for when you, when you collaborate with other musicians?

• 52:18Speaker 03

  Well, for putting stuff together for the tour, we are amazingly on the same page these days. It took us many years to get there and like in the early days, there was a lot of tension and a lot of friction, um, a lot of confusion about like what we're doing here, you know? It's like, are we a band, Kevin? Or is this the Kevin show and we're just your session musicians, you know? There was a lot of, like, we couldn't work out what it was and what it was supposed to be. So I think for a long time it was difficult and caused a lot of arguments and just like, you know, bad vibes.

• 52:56Speaker 00

  Are you stickler for like sonic perfection in terms of the sound that's on the album? You would like to have that feel the same way in concert or?

• 53:06Speaker 03

  These days, n- n- not really. I like, we like, some things, yes, some things, no. But at the end of the, at the end of the day, like, I've just gotten really good at just, we just perfect the vibe, you know? It sounds really cheesy, but the most important thing is that we are feeling good playing the music. If that is not happening, then we're dead in the water. It's not good, like, I, I, like, I used to be such a stickler for sounds, drum fills. When Jay was on drums, we were like, oh, Jay, I noticed you didn't do the drum fill in the, um, that's on the album, coming into the second verse. And he'd be like, he'd be like, oh, yeah, I just did my own drum fill, is that okay?

• 53:47Speaker 03

  It's like, well, the kids are gonna wanna, the fans are gonna wanna, uh, hear that drum fill, so maybe you'll do that one? He's like, well, fuck you, I'll just do, I'll do every drum fill on the fucking app, you know? Uh, there's a lot of that, and now it's just like, we've kind of like really dialed in the instruments that we've got, like the synths we've got. I can, like a Swiss Army knife, I can make them fucking sound like anything. So now it's like we appreciate the live versions as like, they're just sort of like another existence. They're, it's own thing, like, I'm big on sort of like recognizability. It's like when we, when that song starts, people have got to know it's that song straight away. Like when, when fucking less than the better comes in, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. It's gotta be like instant, right?

• 54:31Speaker 03

  Like, that's gotta be the like everyone fucking hands in the air moment. But for the rest of the song, it's like, it can be its own thing.

• 54:39Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 54:39Speaker 03

  Whatever, whatever works best. I mean, like, playing music in the arena, like, like, is like completely different, completely different musical experience to like headphones on in your bedroom, you know? So it's like, and there, the way that, that it should reflect that, yeah.

• 54:56Speaker 00

  So you're telling me that you've gotten growth and you've learned to let some things go?

• 55:02Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly, yeah. We're, rehearsals are, rehearsals are really fun now.

• 55:08Speaker 00

  Pleasant, yes, okay.

• 55:09Speaker 03

  Really very pleasant, very, like, we're all just so totally.

• 55:13Speaker 00

  I now get it.

• 55:15Speaker 03

  Right, yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 55:16Speaker 00

  How do you know when a project is over and it's time to let it go? And not keep building it, not keep circling or rabbit holing?

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Uh, I mean, I think that's up there with the most difficult things about, the most difficult parts about making music or making something.

• 55:39Speaker 00

  Do you believe in deadlines? Like, I'm gonna turn this record in April first twenty, or is it just when it's done?

• 55:47Speaker 03

  I believe that deadlines are one of the only ways to get things finished. What did, uh, what did Brian Eno say? He was like, two things ruin albums, um, unlimited budget and unlimited time.

• 56:00Speaker 00

  Oh, God, yeah.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  Have you ever heard that one? I thought that was incredible.

• 56:04Speaker 00

  Well, not that, I'm, I'm, look, I'm, I'm on year eleven, so.

• 56:10Speaker 03

  Okay, oh shit, did I touch a nerve there?

• 56:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, you did, I was like, ah, fuck, okay.

• 56:17Speaker 03

  I mean, uh, yeah, one of those things, I mean, some of my favorite music was made. Some of my favorite albums have been like two weeks, you know? Because I just like, either because they could only afford that much, that much time in the studio, or it was just from a time where they were like, we just gotta do it, you know? Like, was, was Thriller made in two weeks?

• 56:38Speaker 00

  Technically four months, which is kind of like two weeks for the album that it wound up being. And even then.

• 56:44Speaker 03

  I just meant like recording sessions, like, not like writing and everything.

• 56:47Speaker 00

  Two months, uh, well, two months of tracking and then two months of mixing. No, they, there, there's a story of, I believe Bruce Swedeen said that there are forty-one final mixes of Billie Jean.

• 57:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:05Speaker 00

  Louder shuffle, louder clap, louder kick, lowers, you know? And then at the end of the day, Quincy's just like, dude, mix two was the mix, like, we, we don't have to do all this. So my final question to you is, are there any kind of bucket list creative venues that you want to explore? As far as genres are concerned, or even mediums are concerned, film, scoring, screenwriting, something other than music, like another creative venue, like?

• 57:36Speaker 03

  Oh, well, I mean, I've got, I've got my, um, my little, uh, synth company that, um, that me and some friends started a couple of years ago. Um, we make like, uh, this like, uh, thing called an orchid. And it's like a songwriting tool, it's a chord generator, sort of little box.

• 57:58Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, you should check it out.

• 58:01Speaker 00

  I definitely want to check it out, okay.

• 58:03Speaker 03

  We've, we've, we've been selling them for like a year now, just over a year.

• 58:07Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 58:07Speaker 03

  Always building on it and making cool new features and stuff. So that is like, that's amazing thing to like sink my teeth into because it's just so different to making albums. But at the same time, so many like weird parallels, you know? It's so similar, like releasing like a, an electronic hardware box is like weirdly similar to releasing an album. You know, just in this, in terms of like the mental processes and like the emotional roller coaster of it. So, yeah, that, yeah, other than that, I don't know, I don't really have any, um, ambitions to score an album or a, a, a movie, although that wasn't really one of your questions, was it?

• 58:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't know, I don't know, I'm like, I'm always thinking about, you know, what, what would, what would come next? If music was no longer the thing, I do think about that sometimes.

• 59:00Speaker 00

  Got you. Well, Kev, dude, I'm a long time fan. It's been a long time coming and I really, really appreciate like your work. I'm, I'm such a big fan and, uh, thank you for doing us the solid by, uh, having this conversation with us. Kevin Parker on the Questlove Show. Thank you very much and I appreciate it. See you on the next go round.

• 59:21Speaker 03

  Appreciate it, thanks for having me, man. Got you.

• 59:23Speaker 00

  All right.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  The Questlove Show is hosted by me, Amir Questlove Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G., Brian Calhoun, and me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown. Edited by Alex Conboy. iHeart video support by Mark Canton. Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Palowey. Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Braun. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, rate, review, and share The Questlove Show wherever you stream your podcasts.

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  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first. Not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there. Living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

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