Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker has hinted at a follow-up to Currents for the first time, in conversation with Beats 1’s Matt Wilkinson. Parker says he’s “ready to play some other songs live” and will be “very disappointed” if a new record isn’t out next summer. “I like that the first time people hear it is the kind of recorded glory,” he adds, “like the premeditated thing that I’ve spent two years on, rather than being half drunk bashing it out on stage, hitting clanger notes.” Listen to clips from the show below.
Elsewhere in the chat, Parker discusses his collaboration with SZA and Mark Ronson, saying he “can’t really do anything more than hope” that it’s eventually released. While SZA alluded to a full-length collab, Parker suggests that one song, titled “Back Together,” is most likely to see the light of day. He adds that he recently spent some time in the studio with Travis Scott—without clarifying whether anything stuck—and says he’d work with Alex Turner if the Arctic Monkeys singer reached out.
Parker also addresses the confusion around his contribution to Kanye’s ye. Parker originally told an interviewer his work was sampled on “Ghost Town,” then backtracked, and later confirmed he’s actually credited on “Violent Crimes.” “It’s this whirlwind of things happening and then no-one really knows,” he told Wilkinson of the process. “Kanye’s in his space, throwing down ideas, taking ideas out, putting this with this, seeing if that works. He might not even know who worked on the song [or which part] is going to end up on the song until the last minute.”
Read “Cosmic Neurotic: The Heady Perfectionism of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker.”
