Ep 86: Tame Impala

It's only Deva compared to me and my Bosey friends.

Welcome to episode eighty six of Midnight Chats with Me Stuart Stubbs, and this episode marks the first in series nine of the podcast. So we're going to be back now for the next ten weeks. We have a new episode at midnight every Thursday, and we've got some great guests coming up here, either be myself speaking to them or Greg cochran speaking to them. And we've organized ourselves this time around, and we've got a lot of great

Well, I've finished it and now I'm doing press for it. Sure, Now I wait anxiously for it to come out. It just doesn't do the test pressing on vinyl. Okay, Night before Last?

Does it sound Okay?

It sounds fun. Yeah, it was nerve wragging because you don't always know how things are going to go getting printed to vinyl. Sure, but it actually, I hate to say, I think it sounds better. Well, it might just be that I'm hearing it in a more romantic and softened way, not just that like the brutally honest digital version that I've been working on. Sure, So like going to viol it's obviously going to like soft it. Yeah, yeah, any kind of like hard extremely hard travel edges are going

So you've done that and now you're doing things like this and interviews and stuff. Have you done your press shots for the campaign?

Done some of them? Okay? I did some of them. That when I went to shoot the album cover and.

A great album cover p thank you the sand. Yeah, And that is that shot? That's a that's not I thought that. I just presumed that would be just a digitally render.

It's a it's a it's an editor. It's a digitally touched up photo, real place. Okay, but in that real place that like every like everything that's in the photo is real, so.

It is full of that's real. That that was sad that.

It's an abandoned mining diamond mine town in Namibia.

Wow, whose idea was that image?

Mine?

Nice?

Yeah?

And where did that?

So?

Where did that come from? Because I know it fits, it fits in with the themes of the record, which I'm going to ask you about. But where did that image come from? Because it's I just presumed it would be either completely digitally made like not real, yeah, or maybe like a model, like a little model that you've made to make you're now thinking ship I could have done that would have been easier.

Well, that that was actually put to me. It was suggested to me not to go to Namibia and to just sort of like make one in the Californian desert, right, But I was I guess I was stubborn.

Yeah, I had to.

Be there in the way I can off be. But I was like, no, let's just go there. Let's go there. And in fact, as soon as I uttered it to Neil Krug, he was like, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's let's do it. Let's go there. Sure you know.

So, Yeah, I'll put a link below this podcast to the to the artwork itself. People will have seen it by the time this comes out, but to anyone listening that hasn't, it's it's it's to describe it. It's like a room with sand filling filling it up through a doorway, right from what I remember window for a window. So to to look at that and sit and hear that you did it, it is impressed. I'm impressed. So you did some folks, So you did some folk You did some press shots around that time.

Yeah, it's just there's just beautiful landscape around there. Yeah, otherworldly, okay, And so we just spent a couple of das in press shots as well.

Well, you know how are you generally with that kind of with the photo side of things.

I'm getting better, Yeah, if for no other reason that I'm feeling more okay with being a diva now, yeah, I'm just I'm just totally at peace with making all kinds of demands.

What kind of demands do you tend to make on a given she I.

Like to have a full length mirror facing me at your times?

Do you for real that one?

Yeah? Cool?

Well, let's say, like, what if I was shooting you from here, there needs to be a mirror here to my side. Uh well, yeah, in your like, but by the camera so you can see how it's looking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's basically just like adjust my hair.

There was an interview on here last night with Elton John, this kind of life spanning interview Wow, And I watched it. He came across brilliantly. Actually, I've always had a strange relationship with Elton John in the sense that I love the music, but I've always thought he's just too much of a diva, right because he's kind of the king of that, you know, the I mean back in the day, some of his demands were just absolutely wild. You know, I don't you know you hear those I don't think

Or I won't go on. Our funny one was not that it was ours, but Australian band demanded a bottle of MOEI right, and the quote was no m which

The show that they care as much as they should care, exactly, right. They just want people to show that they care, exactly But your diva demands on your shoots. They said that the mirror sat That just sounds quite practical.

Oh yeah, no, it's it's it's only diva compared to me and my bose friends. It's only diva compared to them. It's actually it's actually falls way short of like the universal definition of diva just for me, you know. Yeah, you know, especially with a you know, chilled out dude reputation. Yeah, you know, I probably might not be expecting that one shot.

Yeah, but do your bozo friends think you're cool? Do they wind you off about this kind of stuff? Absolutely, they say you're such a deva. Absolutely you've changed.

Yeah, absolutely, And I and I accept that with pride. I'm I'm I'm like in my group of friends, I'm the diva. Yeah, pop princess. Good. That's good.

I think that's a good place.

To be within your Yeah group, comfortable, why not.

So this so yeah, so this, I mean, this period leading up to with the album so kind of so far in advance. Is this the worst time when putting out a record or is this that because the record's done? How long? How long ago was it made?

I finished it. I finished it on November the twenty seconds.

Okay, so not too long ago. That's not so bad. It's not even been sitting on it for half a year and.

We're still no. No, I wish it. I wish it had been half a year. Yeah.

Is it feel it feels like you've kind of just hit the ground running and you're straight into it.

Yeah, in a way. I mean, it's kind of it's always funny that I would start doing press straight after I finished the album, which is kind of the worst time for me to be speaking positively about this body of music that I've just completed. And like I used to not hold back, and I think when Lonarism came out, I was just a rag. I was saying, like, you know, because I didn't really fully understand the whole purpose of press, right,

Okay.

I remember reading a headline of the article that I did or whatever, and it was like, Kevin Parker thinks his album is unlistenable.

So so now as you say, now, you know that's that's not really the thing to say. But if you were that, if you were that old old yeah, not non diva Kevin Parker back then, how how would you what would you honestly say? How do you feel about this record?

Now? I think it's good.

That's good.

I think it's good. I think it sounds good. At the moment, I think I'm worried I've mixed the vocals too loud. But I'm only saying that because I've always regretted putting the vocals too quiet. Like I asked myself when I was finishing on this album, like what have

Yeah, you just need to get used to it, I guess because it feels so alien to you because those other records have been mixed. I mean, I've heard the I had the record on yesterday and it didn't strike me that they were like I wasn't thinking that was like, I wasn't like whoa. They said they didn't even feel that much higher than good old records. So I think, if you're fine, you're fine helping me.

There's flowering my heart right right now.

Jason Pierce have spiritualized. He when he's finished his record, before he signs off on it, I heard this story. I don't know if this is true, but I heard that he takes his he burns it to a CD. He rents the shittiest car he can rent, like the basic car YEP, and he drives around with it on the car stereo, and that's what he judges as his Does this sound as it should sound because most people will be listening to it in this sort of context.

Or the car stereo trick is a fight? Is a well known one, right, one that you've done? Treat with equal reverence? Yeah, okay importance? Absolutely have you.

Done that with this record?

On the way to the master the way to mastering, I was in Glenn's car and he was like, do you want to check the mixers on the stereo? I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, definitely, let's do that. We put it on. I turned it off after abound two seconds. I didn't let it play for two seconds. I was like, I don't know sounds ship really, which was just a

Yeah, I almost didn't believe it yesterday when I realized the current is five years old or will, like like, yeah, it will be by the time this record comes.

Out, yeah it will, or just shy of five years just like four and a half. I was very want to be clear, it's not five years. It's important that it's not as many as fine buying something for nine nine, you know.

I mean, it doesn't feel like that. That's what surprised me was I was like, that album didn't come out that and go surely. Was it just with this record that it just felt like you needed that much time to make it? Or was it stubborn in some way?

A lot of stubborn. Okay, it feels like it felt like I needed that amount of time to want to do another one, right, just because of the emotional burden, you know, of diving into it and being in it for that long. It's just you know, it's a marathon of work and commitment and you know, sacrifice. I guess because once I minut I don't really have a life until it's finished, you know, Like I can't. I can't be working on a Tament Parlor album and having a life.

Right, Okay, Well that kind of makes sense listening to the record, because there are some proper dance beats on there, right, which I love th they sound great and it feels like you're most kind of dance orientated thing. Probably, I mean, you would you have any interest in making like a just a straight up dance record, because it's not quite it's not like that's not what this is, but it's

If I could, Yeah, I don't know that I could do.

You know, hey, I think you could.

I mean i'd like to. I'm terrified of trying and failing, Okay, as is everyone. Yeah, but I guess that's the reason why I should just do it, right. I also, you know, it's just also because I love the kind of music and the kind of sounds that I love, you know,

The records called The Slow Rush, and the themes on it kind of a link to the The artwork makes sense with the themes of it, like passing of time is a big kind of reference point to it, right, Sure, is that what keeps you awake at night? The kind of running out of this sense of running out of time that is a very human thing. I think that a lot of people.

Yeah, it's not the running out of time, it's just the feeling that time is racing, you know, like there are certain points you laugh when you feel like that, when you feel like you know, I mean, there's you know, all kinds of cliches for time is slipping through your fingers or you know, it's i mean, something that I've always felt deeply about but never really known how to

A friend who works with me on the magazine. He said, I said, wished, I asked Kevin, He said, ask him if he thinks he could ever make albums at the rate that King Gizzard make records? Dum, could you just bash them out if you wanted to?

I remember there are seven people in King Gizzard.

Yeah, and they also seven or there's yeah seven. I think they might be might be more well either way, but there's a lot of them, You're right. And also they are working at like they are a complete a normally right absolutely like no no one else is doing. They are like the only band doing absolutely sing six

Yeah? Yeah? But like I I mean I envy those guys so much being able to pump it out the way they do, because that's the other thing, like just because you spend a lot of time on something doesn't mean it's better than something that was spent two seconds on. Sure, you know. My My example of that is like Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Yeah, like that was a song they just made in like five minutes to fill the extra space on that album, like they've finished all the songs.

Have any of your tracks come together like that like Lightning?

Yes, I mean so many of them. It's just that I take so much time after that to decide that they're good enough, you know, Like, yeah, sot heaps of my songs were mostly done in about twenty four hours, right, you know, not necessarily all the lyrics, but heaps of songs. Yeah. To answer your question, yes, I do think I could. I mean I could, I could pump out an album in a month. Yeah. I can't guarantee you to be good, but I could do it. But you could do it. Yeah.

The I mean, one of the things that you've been doing since Currents came out is like working with other people and writing with other people and collaborating on other people's projects and stuff. How's that been? Because that's like, I mean some of the people include like Kenye West and Rihanna and Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson just some stuff

Well, it's obviously like a polar opposite for me in terms of but that's kind of why I'm so intrigued by it. So that's why I'm so allured by it.

Do you generally enjoy it?

Oh? Yeah, I mean, well I always enjoy it because it's so it's such an alien thing to me. But I want to get good at it, you know. I want to be able to learn how to be creative in the way that I like to be creative with working with people, you know. But yeah, I mean I've learned so much from from doing it, and because everyone I've worked with, I've had so much respectful. I have so much respectful but yeah, yeah, sometimes I'm kind of like, oh, what am I doing? This is like I usually feel

Have there been at any moments working on anything where you've just felt insanely overwhelmed just by the situation that you're in.

Yeah, yeah, totally just where you've.

Just been like, how's this happened? This is a mistake. I shouldn't be here.

Yeah. Yeah, Like I think like the first session I did with Travis Scott was pretty intense. I mean it was like super chill but really intense at the same time, just because of I guess the environment he likes to the vibe likes to create when making music. You know, it's like deafly loud, right, blunts being smoke constantly. These people in the room, everyone just sort of like vibe

It's mad because every time like an extra person must come into the room in that situation, it's like one more people then you're used.

To working with, like it's just you.

So like as soon as it's a room, as soon as there's one other person there, it's like double the amount of people and it just escalates and escalates, escalator.

Yeah, what's funny. When I first first it does doing like like sessions hip hop sessions. That was kind of one of my the first ones I did. Music was like insanely loud that they listened back to it like he was playing me some stuff. Is When I came in, he turned it up to like full volume, and I was like, why is he playing it to me so loud, you know, you can barely hear what's going on, Like it's so it was like searingly loud, Like it's like it was like it was so loud that the high

Did you have at any point did you there was any point where you thought to say to him, can you just turn it down?

It? Yeah? I wanted to while I was enjoying it so much. That's true.

And also I suppose when it's that music, you're like a you're you're in on the thing, like because if he came to you, yeah, and you were showing him some stuff and he was like can you turn it up? Like you'd be like, no, I do it, you.

Know what, I'm kind of ruined for it now. Like now, I work on my music twice as loud. Yeah, okay, this album was mixed twice at least twice as loud as an album of my really like I went and bought. I went and ordered like some of the biggest monitors I can find. I could order, you know, just because just because like I was like, oh, I get it, I get it. I want this okay. You know, may be deaf by the time I'm forty, but but it'll be worth it. Yeah you know. Yeah. Now, I literally

Is that how does can you do that?

As well?

Is it across the board hip hop people love it? Just bare loud?

Ah yeah, yes, I mean Travis probably one of the loudest. But I think generally in hip hop, like you just listen to it loud, that's what you do.

Cool Generally, when you're in Australia, you're still based in Fremantle. Yeah, what's the spider situation?

Like that? Excuse me?

The spider situation? Spider situation in Fremantle in particular, is it?

Is it? We live in a harmonious I have to ask apicalship.

But no, I have to ask because when I go to I've only ever been to Australia once. I'm really a rachnophobic. Oh I see, So I'm like, is that so? I'm like, when I meet someone from a different part I've not been to, I want to know if it's kind of where it is on my radar.

Now I think about it. You know, we probably do get the odd spied up, but no more than you would get anywhere. I guess from a non arachnophobe talking to an arachnophobe, it's kind of rich for me to say, like, what's your big idea? What's your big problem? Probably because I understand it's like a thing. So in that regard, yeah, I mean, man, as long as you don't stay in like a house where they don't really care about anything. Like if you as long as you want to go

Anyway. Good night,