Kevin Parker celebrates 10 years of Tame Impala’s “Lonerism” – Billboard

Ten years is a life that passes in the blink of an eye. Just ask Kevin Parker, the production maestro behind Tame Impala.

Ten years ago this week, the Australian creative genius released his second full album, Solitude (via Modular Records). And from that moment, everything changed.

Parker today takes a trip down memory lane, pulling memorabilia and photos from the vault.

“Solitude 10 years old today. Hard to sum up what the album means to me at this point,” he wrote on Instagram. “It was a pretty special time for me to make music (it wasn’t an album yet- the). It’s kind of the moment when I really discovered myself as an artist.

Prior to SolitudeParker had abandoned his debut in 2010 Contact persona batch of EPs and singles under the name Tame Impala, including the bluesy “Half Full Glass of Wine” from 2008. In parallel, he played drums with the prog-rock group Pond.

“Coming out from behind Contact person I had this new sense of purpose…calling…whatever you want to call it. I had finally given myself permission to let the music completely invade my being…to fully immerse myself in my own world of musical recording,” he continues. “So I had this new sense of creative freedom. I felt free to be ambitious, weird, pop, experimental, whatever, and I didn’t feel judged because I was ultimately doing it for myself and believing in me. For the most part anyway.”

Parker admits he struggled when the album was released worldwide.

His confidence “collapsed and I thought the album sucked and I couldn’t even imagine people would like it. Turned out I was wrong…the album dropped and exceeded all of my expectations and my life changed massively again, and I slowly realized the music was pretty good, again, which made me sad. gave a new goal, and the cycle begins again. ”

He doesn’t need to stress. The album reached No. 4 in its homeland, broke into the top 40 on both sides of the Atlantic, won two ARIA Awards including Album of the Year, was nominated for a Grammy and won the J Award for Australian Album of the Year.

Remaining in his reflective mood, Parker shared several images from the time, including the sheer cover art of Solitudethat the West Australian had slammed in Paris.

Solitudewe learn, was actually titled pop lonely until it is mastered and sent to production. “I was sitting in the courtyard outside my apartment in Paris after finishing the album a few days before, which is always a pretty spaced out feeling, kind of like… ‘what do I do now?? “says Parker. “I was happy that it was done but not completely satisfied because I did not think I had quite obtained the title. Suddenly, the word loneliness came to mind and it was obvious it was the one.

Calls were made, presses were (mostly) shut down.

“The CDs must have gone into production already because all the first pressings say Loner Pop when you put them in a CD player,” he notes.

Tame Impala has become one of the hottest properties in the music world. The act’s fourth and final album, The slow raceled the ARIA Chart and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and Official UK Albums Charts.