How To Get The Tame Impala Drum Sound of Deadbeat
Tame Impala’s Deadbeat is the moment Kevin Parker finally stopped flirting with electronic music and fully committed to it.
If you have followed his evolution from the blown-out, late-60s drum sounds of Innerspeaker and Lonerism, the shift felt inevitable. Currents introduced synths and drum machines as a serious presence. The Slow Rush leaned further into sequenced grooves with fewer live kit heroics. Tracks like One More Year, Breathe Deeper, Shimmer, and Glimmer carried unmistakable dance DNA. Deadbeat goes a step further. On this album, drum machines and four-on-the-floor rhythms are not accents or textures. They are the foundation.
As an indie rocker who loves synths and drum machines more than guitars and kit mics, this is easily my favorite Tame Impala era. Deadbeat was my number one album on Spotify Wrapped in 2025, and I am still pulling ideas from it. This article is a deep dive into why Deadbeat marks a turning point in Tame Impala’s drum sound, the gear and mindset behind those grooves, and how that same approach led me to build my own drum library, Deadbeat Drums, for Tuesday Samples.
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From Psychedelic Kits to Indie Techno
For years, Tame Impala’s drums were defined by a heavily compressed, living-room-recorded energy. Innerspeaker and Lonerism were built on smashed, roomy acoustic kits with pumping snares, washed cymbals, and tape-like transients. By the time Currents and The Slow Rush arrived, it was clear Kevin Parker was restless. Drum machines began to sneak in, fills became rarer, and sequenced patterns took over the groove.
Glimmer felt like a minor interlude to some listeners, but Kevin has mentioned it as one of his favorites from The Slow Rush. It was a loop-driven, beat-first idea, and in hindsight it pointed directly toward Deadbeat. Around the same time, Kevin shared a story that feels like the emotional seed of this era. He once heard a Tame Impala song played in a club and noticed that no one danced. People recognized the track and liked it, but it did not move the room. That moment stuck with him. He wanted music that did not just create feelings, but physical movement.
Deadbeat is that idea fully realized. It feels like techno translated for indie listeners who may not love club music, but do love synths, drum machines, and analog grit.
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Techno Retreats, the Ocean, and Wave House
Before making Deadbeat, Kevin described going on a self-imposed techno retreat. He spent a period making nothing but techno, initially planning to release it anonymously for himself. Eventually he realized he missed harmony and chords, and that tension between pure techno and classic Tame Impala songwriting became the foundation of Deadbeat.
During COVID, the Tame Impala Sound System era quietly previewed this shift. Livestreamed sets featured no drummer, with drum machines and samplers driving the entire performance. Older songs were reinterpreted like club tracks rather than psychedelic rock songs. At the time, it felt experimental. In retrospect, it was a rehearsal for Deadbeat.
Environment also played a huge role. Kevin has spoken often about his obsession with the ocean. He chooses houses based on proximity to the water, even if it means compromising on comfort. The constant white noise of waves helps him lose himself in sound. That fixation lives in Wave House, his coastal studio south of Perth. The remote, rickety house sits on land that once functioned as a natural amphitheater for raves in the 1990s. It was central to Innerspeaker and now forms a spiritual backbone of Deadbeat.
Put together, Deadbeat feels like a coastal techno record. It is repetitive and hypnotic like waves, but still unmistakably emotional and melodic.
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The Drum Gear Behind Deadbeat
Across interviews, live footage, and pre-release clips, a clear picture of the Deadbeat drum setup has emerged. The core of the album revolves around a small group of drum machines, with the Vermona DRM1 MKIV appearing as the unsung hero throughout the record. Classic Roland machines like the TR-808 and TR-707 influence are present, especially in live contexts, alongside performance-focused boxes like the TR-8S. Behringer’s RD-8 also appears as an 808-style companion.
Kevin has been seen running these machines through unconventional processing. In early Instagram clips, drum machines are fed through a Telefunken Echomixer for spring reverb and preamp grit, then into a Fender guitar amp to add saturation, noise, and real room character. That signal path is a major reason the drums on Deadbeat feel physical and present rather than pristine and digital.
Synths play an equally important role. Instruments like the Roland SH-1, Prophet-5, and Prophet-6 are not simply layered on top of the drums. They move with the patterns, reinforcing the hypnotic repetition that defines the album. Tracks like Not My World and Ethereal Connection lean heavily on the Vermona DRM1, while songs such as Back to My Old Ways, Dracula, and Loser blend drum machines with stripped-back acoustic kits. Piece of Heaven carries a strong TR-707 character that ties directly into the Sound System era.
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Why the Vermona DRM1 Matters
When people hear that a record is built around a main drum machine, they often expect something loud and dominant. The Vermona DRM1 MKIV is the opposite. It is gentle, quirky, and surprisingly restrained. After buying one specifically to develop my Deadbeat Drums sample pack, it became clear why Kevin gravitated toward it.
The DRM1 does not bully the mix. Its analog tones are expressive but not glossy. On its own, it can sound almost too dry, but once it is pushed through spring reverbs and amplifiers, it comes alive. The claps are especially distinctive. Instead of a sharp transient spike, they spread outward into a soft, halo-like shape. That smeared character is all over Deadbeat, particularly in the claps and closed hi-hats, which feel wide and human rather than precise and digital.
To chase that sound, I ran my own DRM1 recordings through a Vermona Retroverb Lancet with spring reverb engaged, band-pass filtering in the upper mids, and just enough drive to introduce instability. That process directly informed the textures inside Deadbeat Drums, which you can find here: https://tuesdaysamples.com/products/deadbeat-drums-tame-impala-inspired-drum-samples
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“I Can’t Make Clean Music”
In a 2025 interview about modern production and AI, Kevin summed up his philosophy clearly. As music becomes more perfect and polished, he actively pushes in the opposite direction. He prefers sounds that are dirty, rough, and imperfect. He has said that he cannot make clean music even if he tries. Whenever something starts to feel too pristine, he instinctively finds a way to disrupt it.
That mindset explains why he runs drum machines through guitar amps, embraces spring reverb noise, and leaves in hum and distortion. It is not a gimmick. It is his way of keeping the music human. Deadbeat is that philosophy amplified. The machines are not meant to sound flawless. They are meant to sound like objects being pushed by someone in a room.
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How the Drums Tell the Story
Not My World acts as a blueprint for the album. Kevin has described it as more of a stretch of music than a traditional song. Vocals are sung into a microphone plugged directly into a guitar amp, and the whole track feels like stumbling into a local hall where someone is jamming live with synths and a drum machine. It is one of the purest Vermona DRM1 moments on the record.
Seeing this energy translated live made everything click. During a show in Los Angeles, Kevin sat on the floor with a Prophet-6, a TR-1000, and a DRM1 and performed Not My World and Ethereal Connection like a home studio jam scaled up to a PA system. That feeling of intimacy and imperfection is exactly what I aimed to capture when building Deadbeat Drums.
Tracks like Back to My Old Ways, Loser, and Dracula sit at the hybrid heart of the album. The acoustic drums are drier and deader than earlier records, cymbals are minimal, and DRM1 claps are layered across the kit to add that smeared transient character. Dracula stands out for its dynamic restraint, especially the delayed entrance of the open hi-hat, which becomes one of the most satisfying moments on the album.
Piece of Heaven arrived late in the process and came together quickly, according to Kevin. It carries a strong TR-707 influence with boxy kicks and tight hats that feel plastic in the best possible way. Afterthought has one of the wildest origin stories on the record, having been written during the mastering process and turned in the same night. The drums sit effortlessly, proving that sometimes the least overthought ideas carry the most weight.
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Deadbeat, Loser, and Owning the Label
An album called Deadbeat with a track titled Loser might seem self-deprecating on the surface. Kevin has framed it more as ownership. By turning those words into the titles of big, confident songs, he flips their power. That emotional undercurrent runs through the drums. The grooves are repetitive and relentless, like intrusive thoughts you choose to dance with instead of fight.
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Getting the Deadbeat Drum Sound Yourself
All of this led me to build Deadbeat Drums for Tuesday Samples. I wanted a pack that reflected the real techniques behind this era, not just a vague imitation. The library includes Vermona DRM1 recordings, smeared claps and hats, 808, 707, and 1000-inspired one-shots, and sounds processed through spring reverbs, amps, and filters. Both clean and dirty versions are included so you can push them further or pull them back depending on your track.
If you are an indie producer inspired by Tame Impala, a synth-focused musician looking for techno-influenced drums that still feel human, or simply tired of sterile drum libraries, Deadbeat Drums was made for you. You can check it out here: https://tuesdaysamples.com/products/deadbeat-drums-tame-impala-inspired-drum-samples
Throw on Deadbeat, focus on the claps and hi-hats, and listen to how gentle, dirty, and alive those machines sound. That is the energy this pack is built to capture.