Mr Kevin Parker is in a cordoned-off changing room in a north London studio. The 34-year-old Australian multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer and songwriter turned model for the day waits for a well-deserved cold beer as he pulls on socks and a Gucci T-shirt.

It’s been a while since he’s done any press – his last album, Currents, was released five years ago – and, although he admits it takes a minute to get back into the swing of it, he’s ready. “Who doesn’t like talking about themselves?” he asks. Mr Parker, otherwise known as Tame Impala (he writes, records and produces all the music, but brings in a band when he performs live) is about to release his fourth studio album, The Slow Rush.

Tame Impala started with a handful of prog rock songs recorded at home and hosted on Myspace and now counts Rihanna, among millions of others, as a fan. (The Bajan singer covered “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” nearly note for note on her 2016 album Anti, which came as a surprise to Mr Parker. “I didn’t have approval,” he says. “It was weird and I didn’t believe it when I heard it. I thought it was so Rihanna for her to say, ‘Hey, can I have your song?’ and not feel the need to justify changing it.”) His last two albums both garnered Grammy nominations for Alternative Music Album and the band won best international group at the 2016 Brit Awards, beating out U2 and Major Lazer. In 2019, despite the lack of a new album, Tame Impala headlined both Coachella – a glittering performance that famously included more confetti than Beyoncé’s – and Glastonbury. Such is the magic of Mr Parker.

Mr Parker’s early life was filled with melody and harmony, thanks to The Beatles and The Beach Boys. At age 11, he was playing the drums and guitar. By age 12, he was experimenting with lo-fi tape recordings. He was playing on Perth’s pub scene at 18, turning to music to fill various voids in his life. He studied astronomy at university, slowly giving in to the idea that he might not be a famous musician. Legend has it that on the way to his final exam, he got a call from Modular Recordings offering him a deal. And with that, the die was cast.