The five-piece soon took Lonerism on the road, with tours of Europe and North America. The hype surrounded the band continued to grow exponentially. The hipster elite provided Tame Impala with a stamp of approval while the normally reserved old guard admitted that frontman Kevin Parker’s artistic vision stays true to the original vision of psychedelia.
The amount of hype delivered to Tame Impala can often swallow a band whole, but guitarist Dominic Simper believes the band, throughout their career, has managed to separate the hype from what’s really important.
“We’ve been successfully doing this for nearly five years now,” he says. “We learnt very early that a lot of there are other sides to this that can be bullshit. We’re pretty good at separating ourselves from that and realising what’s important is the music. We move in directions that are important to us and we never buy into the press, especially the UK press, if it’s over the top.”
Just having returned to his Perth home from the aforementioned tours, Simper sounds understandably tired. He admits to suffering from a serious case of jetlag.
“We haven’t had time to adjust just yet,” he admits, before detailing the band’s normal approach to being weary from travel. “We just submit to it. There’s no use fighting it, so we just sort of wait it out for the week or so. We don’t do any of the things you’re supposed to, like avoid alcohol. We’re not exactly the pinnacle of travel health.”
Throughout the thousands of kilometres the band have logged in the touring van over recent months, Simper notes there is one element of the band that has not changed – their friendship. If the hype hasn’t had an effect on their sanity, then surely the cramped quarters of the touring van and smallish backstages at clubs might.
Not so, insists Simper. Their friendship as a band has allowed them to keep their heads above water. In fact, it’s made them a stronger unit.
“Our relationships have become stronger. That’s certainly helped with the way we perform shows. We’re very lucky in the sense that the five of us, we’re five best friends. Touring has become our life and we almost feel more at home on the bus than we do our respective hometowns. It’s a very intimate relationship, probably more intimate than a lot of friendships. It’s quite nice, actually.”
Simper’s faith in their friendship stretches into their professional relationship as well. He concedes that Tame Impala is largely centered around Parker’s vision, but should the need arise, the rest of the band is there to offer their opinion for the betterment of the band. “He’ll come to us for opinions but it’s very much Kevin’s project.”
Does Simper still trust Parker to create music that he’d be happy to perform live? It’s a question that doesn’t take long to answer.
“Absolutely,” he says. “That’s the result of us having been friends for years. We also have faith in our professional friendship which is based in the music.”
Simper repeatedly returns to the notion that Tame Impala do not have grand plans to alter the course of rock with Lonerism. Replicating the stocked arrangements in a live setting presents enough of a challenge for the band. Yet without this challenge, continuing their artistic evolution might be out of the question. It’s for that reason that the band revels in the opportunity, difficult as it may be, to recreate Lonerism live.
“We find the challenge to be a good thing. We’d hate for it to be too easy. There’s something really enjoyable about trying to replicate it live and it being difficult some of the time. We’ve got to work very hard while practicing and what not. We find that we’re enjoying the act of really laying it down and getting it right.”
As the band returns home from tours abroad and prepares to unleash Lonerism on their countrymen for the first time, Simper maintains a confidence in how the band will be received. Less than an hour after our conversation, Lonerism was crowned with a j Award for Album of the Year. Though I wouldn’t get the chance to gauge Simper’s reaction to the award, his sentiment carried throughout our conversation may very well have been the same.
For Dominic Simper and Tame Impala, the hype surrounding the band won’t lead to changes in their approach. There’s a focus they’ve attained that isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. “I don’t know if it’s our place to even comment,” he says of the strong reaction to Lonerism. “We just play the music as well as we can and it’s up to the world to decide how they feel about it.”
BY JOSHUA KLOKE
