Kevin Parker Producer Kirtis Maxwell Introduction Kevin Parker

Kevin Parker (Producer) Kirtis Maxwell

Introduction Kevin Parker is the lead singer, guitarist and producer for the alternative indie rock band, Tame Impala. As a producer, he has a very distinctive sound. He sends untouched, sometimes tampered with mixes of songs to David Fridmann, the engineer, where he will guide Parkers mix to sound more professional in a way. Parker doesn’t consider himself a professional. Fridmann’s production techniques are very similar to Parker’s so they make a great producer, engineer pair. Parker’s music is influenced heavily by psychedelic rock. He gets this distinctive sound through using a number of effects on a lot of his instruments that are used in a song. These effects can be phase, delay, reverb, fuzz and many more interesting psychedelic effects.

The (Kevin Parker Sound) Kevin Parker has said that he strives for a good sounding drum kit than anything else. He spends the most time getting the playing, recording and mixing right for the drums. The way he would usually record and construct a song would be to do drums last so he doesn’t have to stick to a rigid drum pattern to try and play perfectly in time. To get his fluid sounding drums, he gets the band members to play guitar first and a drumbeat will come.

More on Parker’s Drum Sound Kevin Parker uses a Glyn Johns style technique where he will have mic(s) for the overhead(s), snare and kick drum. Parker uses a Rode K 2 as a mono overhead for his drum kit and uses an SM 57 for the snare and kick drum. Parker does not want to reveal his mic position techniques. He likes to be in a room where the drum kit is very loud and loves to capture the sound as natural to how he heard it as possible. So he uses compression to get a fat drum sound. Parker says he uses a couple of vintage compressors one of which is the DBX 165, this is to make his drums sound more like John Bonham (Drummer of Led Zeppelin).

Guitar Sound Parker uses many effects for his guitar. In live performances he doesn't’t wear shoes so it is easier for him to press buttons on the effect pedals with his feet. He uses a lot of hardware effects for his guitar sound. Below are some examples of pedals that Parker uses. • Boss DD-20 Giga Digital Delay Pedal • MXR M-102 Dyna Compressor Pedal • Diamond Vibrato Pedal • Dunlop Fuzz Face • Boss AB-2 • Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal

Parker Vocals For vocals, Parker will use a Sennheiser 421. He doesn’t like the sound of his voice on its own so he usually double tracks his vocals. And if he still doesn’t like the way his voice sounds, he puts a lot of reverb onto his vocals.

Costs • Average studio time would usually range between 30 -60 pound an hour.