How was guesting with Mark Ronson at Splendour in the Grass, Kevin?

It was the third and probably my favourite of the Ronson shows I’ve done. We did Glastonbury and our first show in Perth. At Glastonbury, I was super nervous because I’ve never been a hired gun before, you know, like, made a cameo festival appearance. This show is all of that and [Saturday] was the first time I got into it. I managed to enjoy myself without worrying about singing a wrong note, without totally fucking it up and embarrassing myself – and Mark.

Yet Mark says it’s an honour to play with you.

It’s one of the most positive touring entities I’ve ever been involved in, if not the most. Because the songs are all the best songs from everything he’s worked on. Even when the band just plays Valerie, there’s no one singing, there’s just the band playing and Amy Winehouse’s backing vocals and everyone is just standing at the side of the stage with hairs on the back of their arms. That’s one of my favourite moments and no one is even doing anything.

How did you go about writing a “heartbreak album” [Currents] when it was you who did the breaking up?

It’s only a couple of songs on the album, really. But I just found it was a different angle and something that was relevant to me. It just has totally different emotions. There’s guilt and I guess it’s a lot more about self-questioning. You question why you did it and what you’re doing now. It’s only when you’re in that position, when you’re the one moving on – and I’m not talking just in relationships here, even in life. When you’re the one not just observing someone else changing, but it’s you, it’s arguably more powerful.

To what do you ascribe the poppier aspects of Currents?

For me, it’s always been a spectrum of how much of my pop love I allow to go into my music. Early on, when I was making the first album [Innerspeaker], I had my guard up. It has to be “this” amount of alternative. I thought: it isn’t allowed to have these qualities that people will attribute to mainstream culture.

I was shutting that out because I wanted the music to have a particular identity. But over the years, I’ve realised that it’s not about the genre or the demographic. It’s not the scene that makes music naff. If it’s naff, it’s naff. I saw things for their real value.

Tame Impala’s Sunday set at Splendour in the Grass on 26 July 2015. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian

You’ve recently moved back from Paris to Perth. What does being in Australia again do for your music?

I’ve always been of the idea that is doesn’t really matter where you are geographically – with Lonerism, we made half the album in Australia, half the album in Paris. In the end, for me music is such an internal thing, that to let the outside world influence would be against my modus operandi.

But you’ve talked of creating this perfect new studio space ...

I did but it’s not glamorous! Now I want a glamorous studio. I feel like [Currents] was the last album I’ll make in a really modest room in my house. Even though it was two rooms, really. It didn’t have any crazy lava lamps, you know.

You want lava lamps now? Is this the Ronson effect?

Yeah, right! I just feel that I’m ready to move on to having a grander studio with more space so that I can walk around between instruments rather than dodge cables in my back room. I’m 29, so perhaps it’s my quarter-life crisis.

What are Kevin Parker’s thirties going to look like?

Oh, cars, mansions, you know. Jacuzzis.

How are you really spending your time back in Perth?

Since I’ve finished the album, I’ve been all over the place so the moments I do get to myself are rare. I’m producing an album by this other band, this hip-hop jazz group called Koi Child. They got played on BBC Radio1 the other day ­­– I was very proud. They actually called me Uncle Kevin. I was devastated. Like, really? Am I that old to you?

So that’s happening. But I’ve literally not had much time just to do nothing. Which is kind of good. I find that if I have nothing to do I tend to go back into the studio and start plugging things in anyway. It’s kind of an automatic process for me that starts happening, like an old lady doing the washing.

A lot of acts name-drop Tame Impala – is there an Australian psych scene?

I don’t think there is. We’ve got our friends in Perth, like all the guys from Pond. We’ve all lived together at some point, a circle of friends of maybe 10 or 15 people. And you know what, Jay [Watson, of Tame Impala, Pond and Gum] lived with the guys from King Gizzard when he was in Melbourne and they’ve got their own thing as well. I think our kind of clans merged for a little there. I’ve met them briefly and they seem like nice guys.

Splendour in the Grass has a strong anti-drugs policy. As someone who has always been open about your own consumption, what’s your stance on drugs at festivals?

People are always going to take them. I mean I thought the rest of the world was pretty lax – like Glastonbury, for example. Then my friend totally got caught with a bag of whatever. I don’t really have much of an opinion. People are going to have powerful drug experiences at festivals – there is nothing you can do about it.

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