Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker let his love for Deftones and Queens of the Stone Age shine through in a recent interview.
During an appearance on Amoeba’s What’s in My Bag series, Parker walked through some of his favorite, most meaningful albums of all time. Watch it below.
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After talking briefly about how much he loves music from bands like Silverchair and Coldplay, Parker opened up about being a huge fan of Deftones’ White Pony album. “I was obsessed with this album,” said Parker. “I had been into a lot of nu metal stuff since I was a kid. Deftones was really the one that carried me through my teenage years.”
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“It’s another album where [if] I hear songs now, it almost hurts to hear them,” Parker continued. “It takes me right back there to being a fragile human.”
After expressing his appreciation for Deftones, Parker spoke at length about Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R album, calling it a “very important album for my musical upbringing” and saying the songs “made me feel like I was on drugs before I even took drugs.”
“This album taught me that rock music can be hard, but also totally sexy,” Parker added, before revealing how his guitar is “tuned down because of this album. I still haven’t tuned up to standard tuning.”
He continued, “Queens of the Stone Age definitely changed the way I play guitar — I went from just trying to be as angry and angsty as possible to just like being really controlled.”
Parker released his most recent Tame Impala album, Deadbeat, in October. Read our review of one of the Brooklyn shows on his recent US tour.
He’s currently on an Australian run ahead of dates in Europe and the UK next year. See the full schedule at the Tame Impala website, and get tickets here.