Tame Impala has been the preeminent psychedelic rock band of the past decade or so, and Kevin Parker’s group has built up a big enough reputation for themselves that the band will be headlining Coachella this year. In a recent interview with Australian publication The Sunday Times, though, Parker admitted that he forgot to tell the rest of Tame Impala about the booking until the day it was publicly announced.
When the Coachella lineup was announced, Parker realized that he forgot to tell members of his touring band — Cam Avery, Dominic Simper, and Julien Barbagallo — that they were headlining the festival. Parker said he fired off a quick message to them, and added, “They would’ve woken up, seen the poster and thought it was a joke. […] If they read this interview, they’ll know I forgot. We’re not much of a celebratory gang.”
Elsewhere in the piece, the publication revealed that Tame Impala’s follow-up to 2015’s Currents will be released in 2019. Parker said that the Coachella performance isn’t putting him under any sort of increased pressure to have the record completed by then, though:
“I like to think that the album is its own thing. I wouldn’t want in 20 years to be listening to an album I made now and think that I finished it for any deadline or any particular reason. It was finished because it was finished. […] Anticipation is good… I want to be the kind of artist that feels empowered by people waiting to hear what I’ve got. This is the Gaga in me speaking.”
Read the interview here.
