Q’s With Paradigm’s Kevin French: Tame Impala’s Agent Speaks On Getting A Top Spot At Coachella

Photo Courtesy of Paradigm – Kevin French

Every year much is made of Coachella’s annual lineup release in the aftermath of everyone’s New Year’s festivities. This year the Aussie rockers of Tame Impala demonstrated that rock is still very much alive with its billing atop the megafest.

Despite achieving widespread recognition for its previous, mostly psych-rock work, the band expanded its audience with its 2015 album Currents, which saw major streaming success.

Tame Impala’s agent, Paradigm’s Kevin French, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the band’s booking and its plans for 2019.

Pollstar: Obviously there is tons of stuff you can’t share behind the curtain, but what can you say about the process that led to the Coachella?

Kevin French: Paul Tollett (Coachella co-founder and Goldenvoice president) has been a huge supporter of Tame Impala for a while now. Tame last played Coachella in 2015, direct to AC/DC on main stage – this was kicking off the tour cycle for Currents. Over the summer, I began discussing Coachella with Paul, and entertaining the idea to play 2019. He really believes in Tame, and we both agreed with new music on the horizon, they were ready to headline. At the time, it was too soon to commit, so our sights were set on 2020. But towards the end of 2018, pieces started coming together and the timing felt right.

Can we expect the new album before the Coachella set?

We haven’t announced an official release date for new music, but you can definitely expect it in the coming months!

The streaming numbers on Tame Impala’s Currents album were very strong. What can you say about the rise of streaming and its role in bringing the band to one of the industry’s biggest slots?

Streaming has definitely made music more accessible to millions of potential fans.

Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com – Tame Impala

Currents sounded pretty different from a lot of their previous stuff. How much of Tame Impala’s success is related to its ability to change its sound from project-to-project?

Currents was such a departure from Tame’s previous albums, and it really resonated with a much wider audience. Tame Impala was always described as “Psych Rock,” and while they were becoming a really big act with the success of Lonerism, Currents came out and blew everyone away with its synths and soul and just fucking amazing, catchy songs. Over the past couple of years, Kevin has been collaborating with and producing some of the biggest names in pop and hip hop, so that’s also had a huge impact on Tame Impala’s growth.

Anything else people should know about the band and its plans?

Coachella will be the launching pad for a busy 2019. Expect new music, and what I’m sure will be another exciting album campaign. I for one am definitely excited to see and hear what Tame comes up with next!