October’s Artist of the Month is… Tame Impala

Tame Impala is essentially the musical brainchild of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, who started the project in Perth in 2007. What began as a home-recording experiment eventually became one of the biggest psychedelic-pop acts around. Parker writes, records, produces and performs most of the music himself in the studio — basically the musical equivalent of saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” A live band joins him onstage, but the songs often begin with Parker, a bunch of instruments, and what appears to be a very healthy relationship with headphones.

Tame Impala broke through with albums like Innerspeaker (2010), Lonerism (2012), and Currents (2015), blending psychedelic rock, dreamy melodies, synth-pop and electronic sounds into music that somehow makes you want to dance, stare at the ceiling, and contemplate the universe at the same time. Currents produced the now-iconic “The Less I Know the Better,” while The Slow Rush arrived in 2020.

Parker has continued bouncing between Tame Impala, collaborations and other musical adventures, working with artists including Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Justice and Diana Ross. The fifth Tame Impala album, Deadbeat, arrived in 2025, taking the project further toward house and rave-inspired territory. The “Dracula” remix featuring Jennie subsequently became Tame Impala’s first U.S. Top 10 hit.

In short: Tame Impala started with one guy making psychedelic music in his house and somehow turned into a worldwide musical kaleidoscope. Kevin Parker basically took guitars, synthesizers, fuzz pedals, dreamy vocals and a little existential confusion, put them in a blender, hit “frappé,” and somehow made it sound fantastic.

10 Random Tame Impala Fun Facts…

• Tame Impala isn’t technically a traditional band — Kevin Parker is the creative force behind the project and handles the writing, recording and production of the studio music.
• The whole Tame Impala adventure began in Perth, Australia, in 2007 — basically one guy, a home-recording setup and some very psychedelic ideas.
• Parker originally put Tame Impala tracks on MySpace. Yes, children, there was once a time when music promotion involved something called MySpace.
• “The Less I Know The Better” has two gigantic YouTube videos — the official audio and official music video have collectively racked up more than 400 million views.
• Parker’s musical influences aren’t exclusively psychedelic rock. He’s talked about loving sugary pop music too, including artists such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue. Basically, psychedelic guitars meet bubblegum pop.
• Tame Impala’s music has gone from psychedelic rock to increasingly electronic territory, with synth-pop, disco, house and rave influences showing up along the way.
• Parker is a bit of a sonic mad scientist. He has experimented with the order of guitar effects such as fuzz, phaser, delay and reverb to create unusual sounds.
• Tame Impala has collaborated with some seriously unexpected names, including Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Justice and Diana Ross.
• The project has come a long way from MySpace: Tame Impala’s current YouTube channel has roughly 3.7 million subscribers.
• Tame Impala’s “Dracula” remix featuring Jennie became its first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit — meaning Kevin Parker’s psychedelic home-recording experiment eventually found its way into the American pop Top 10.