Tame Impala's songs that would surprise

It’s hard to remember it now, but back in 2010 Tame Impala were getting excited about the prospect of their first headline American tour. The Perth band had just released their debut album Innerspeaker. We all thought it was pretty good, and it would go on to win the J Award for Australian Album of the Year.

This month, September 2020, we’ve been celebrating great Australian debuts on Double J Radio, so I thought it’d be fun to jump in the time machine, and dig into the Take 5 archives to share my conversation with Tame Impala the year they released their first album. Kev Parker and Jay Watson joined me to share their “songs that would surprise”, and it’s such a joy to hear them at this moment, quite unaware of how big they would become. They’ve stayed true to that down to earth spirit, to this day. But I bet they never imagined they’d be headlining Coachella.

One of the other things I love about this Take 5 is that it sounds like a blueprint. A debut album can be such a forecast for an incredible career to follow; it’s a statement to the world on who you are, and where you’re headed. This collection of songs does the same; we didn’t know it yet, but Kev has a huge love of pop music… he would stray more and more towards that in the Tame albums that followed. And, perhaps most beautifully, he picks a song from a producer and musician who would go on to become on of his greatest collaborators and friends.

Justin Timberlake - "Rock Your Body"

The Presidents of The United States of America - "Peaches"S.O.A.P. - "This Is How We Party"Boris - "Heavy Friends"Mark Ronson and the Business Intl. - "Bang Bang Bang" (feat. Q-Tip and MNDR)