Trailing the release of their third studio album, Currents, the dance-leaning LP quickly put Tame Impala at the top of the charts. The album notched in at Number four in the U.S., Number three on the UK Albums Chart and topped charts in the group's native land of Australia. Adding more to their budding popularity, album track "The Less I Know The Better" will be heard on television sets across the country as the latest Apple Watch commercial short soundtrack.
The psychedelic rockers released their third and most successful venture in July, just behind their 2010 debut of Innerspeaker and their sophomore follow-up album, 2012's Lonerism. The commercial short plays a quick clip of the Tame Impala track as a group of skateboarders and their silhouettes kick and push in front of an orange, ombre background. The words "pay as you go" dress the screen as one skateboarder is seen paying for music via Apple Watch on the go.
It's an interesting collaboration, however, knowing that front man Kevin Parker doesn't mind if fans download his music without paying. "There are some CDs I saved up for months to buy when I was doing a paper round, I'd literally spend two months saving up to buy a CD," Parker said on BBC 6 Music when discussing personal experiences purchasing music. "But then later in life my friend would burn me a CD that he'd downloaded illegally and it was just as much of a powerful experience, even though the sound quality was kind of crappy."
He continued to say, "For me that shows that it's not really how much you pay for it or even whether or not it's physical, it can still have an effect on you. I'm not sure what that says about artists making money in the future. Obviously artists need to make money but I also believe that if you do something good the wealth will find you some way.
Parker expresses an interesting take on the buzzing topic of artists pairing with streaming services, a view Taylor Swift is known to disagree with after she removed her music from Spotify. The singer further explains that music being free may alter personal experiences but it doesn't have to make it any less important or cheapen it.
"As far as I'm concerned the best thing you can do for an artist is LISTEN to the music...fall in love with it.......talk about it.........get it however you can get it....Let the corporations pay for it," Parker wrote in a Reddit AMA.
Tame Impala will perform a string of UK dates next year, with one gig at the Manchester Arena and two more stops at London's Alexandra Palace.
