r/triplej • u/Negative_Oil4952 • Jul 21 '26
Tame Impala/Kevin Parker and the downfall of Modular People and destroyed careers of label artists such as Muscles
Has Kevin Parker ever taken any responsibility for the trail of destruction the dispute over his royalties from his initial record label Modular People caused - mainly for the acts on that label that were wiped out after the label collapsed following the legal action. Modular People had a range of lesser acts like Muscles who had moderate success in the Triple J hottest 100, whose careers were wiped out by the collapse of their record label. I understand it's a complicated situation, and I think Kevin was in the right to seek his royalties, but the other bands on the label were innocent bystanders/victims and Kevin / Tame Impala seem to have done nothing to try and promote them or ensure they were looked after in the wake of the lawsuit and legal action. From what I've read, the unpaid royalties seem to have arisen from a misunderstanding in accounting in Australia/Uk versus the USA. If you look at Kevin's collab history and writing credits he has basically abandoned the Australian scene for the past 10 years just working with big internationals like Dua Lipa, Justice, Gaga but made not attempt to pull up some other local Aussies into that world at all. Kevin why don't you remember your roots and work with some of your old Modular People alumni like Muscles to make up for the unintended consequences of the legal action. If you never became hyper successful, the collapse of Modular People may never have arisen and these people might have been able to maintain a career.
----
TLDR: I love Kevin Parker and Tame Impala, I just think that seeing how well things have worked out for him, helping out these artists that had their careers wiped out by unintended consequences of the Modular Collapse would be the right thing
15
Jul 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
-7
u/Negative_Oil4952 Jul 21 '26
yeah as i said i think he was in his right to seek the unpaid royalties but the unintended consequence was numerous acts had their careers ruined by the collapse of Modular People. Being the wealthy megastar that he is now, he could make any attempt to assist the artists whose careers were decimated by these actions. A simple action could be even mention them in this AMA you have linked
6
6
u/Mediocre-Price-3138 Jul 23 '26
This is such a cooked take, mainly because the lawsuits started in 2015 and most of the other acts were way beyond their peak by then. Muscles had pretty much quit. The label was basically being carried by Tame Impala and the deal with Universal. The whole indie / dance scene was dead by then.
Secondly Tame was probably the only band on the roster that didn't come from that scene anyway. Aside from probably Wolfmother.
Thirdly it was pretty well known by then that Pav had pretty much run it into the ground and basically had to hand it over to Universal to get rid of debt.
1
u/MacaroonBitter2105 Jul 23 '26
J's dropped off hard after MIA ft mango pickle down river... It's all buisso and corporate greed. I got on idea but us know what I mean.... Speaking of that song I wonder how lil raspy Keith's going?
1
u/isthisisi Jul 25 '26
This is the most correct/informed take. Many people (including myself) have rose tinted glasses for this time and look for reasons why the good times just couldn’t keep going. The scene was drying up and Tame were just getting too big.
2
u/Mediocre-Price-3138 Jul 26 '26
Yep. By the time this was happening all the (remaining) acts were just being marketed by Universal - Modular wasn't doing shit, least of all signing new bands.
6
u/sixsix_ Jul 24 '26
this isn't really accurate, sorry man. kevin didn't owe any of those artists anything. what WAS owed was money, to him. the whole foreign royalties "mixup" was probably more an attempt to gain time to get cash flow in to the pty ltd that owed said money... look, I don't know the exact details, but there is a reason what happened, happened.
kevin and his management team were 100% justified in what they did. you owe what you owe.
kevin has worked with heaps of aussie artists in the last decade. it's kind of odd to judge someone for choosing to pursue success by working with the best of the best, globally.
other bands on the label either had run their course or made the leap successfully to other imprints. some remained with the modular entity when UMG purchased it outright (presets, avalanches - even tame remained on modular technically for currents, I think... the logo is on the promo CD I have somewhere). cutters let their deal lapse. bag raiders' 2019 album came out on modular/umg, I remember having this dicussion with their manager... being quite surprised at that!
also... this muscles thing... muscles didn't work with anyone. he had nothing to do with anyone from modular's orbit on a day to day. no studio jams (that I heard about anyway!). just a bit of drama. he made his own bed.
kevin didn't really work with anyone from the sydney mod crowd anyway, from memory. he was from perth, he was friends with ryan from canyons (in fact, ryan was first to sign him to hole in the sky records, I remember a "fred cherry" remix floating around (ryan's pre canyons alter ego) when they played my old party many moons ago. the tame "band" became pond, yeah? that was his network. he was already in the mark ronson-verse before modular went through their change in management.
to be clear, current modular (which... isn't modular anymore? I think it's totally gone now, absorbed into UMG) is a super well run, artist friendly animal with a great a&r person running it (who also runs UMG too!).
however, old school modular was serious lightning in a bottle. constantly reinventing, pushing artists into new dimensions and pioneering constantly. I don't think you can re-create it... and the most relevant thing for this line of conversation: that moment in time was kind of done. you can't remake it, just like you can't re-open compass point studios, or get david byrne to get back with talking heads, or get mark ronson in a studio with amy winehouse.
enjoy what that moment in time left behind and get excited about what's new.
1
u/sixsix_ Jul 24 '26
I should say that the current inheritor of that aussie ingenuity and raw power in records (which started with ted albert and albert's and went through a few hands before ending up with pav and mod) is DEFINITELY definitely I OH YOU! jo and scott are the best a&r and label people around.
6
u/redchairyellowchair Jul 21 '26
Muscles album 'guns babes lemonade ' was so fucking awesome when I was 11 years old. By the time his next album came out I had no use for his music anymore. I think he hit once and didn't have anything to back it up
3
u/Negative_Oil4952 Jul 21 '26
He didn't get a chance bro, Modular People collapses and his career was decimated.
8
u/thrashmanzac Jul 21 '26
Why couldn’t he sign to another label or self release?
-4
3
2
u/aninstituteforants Jul 27 '26
Everyone had moved on from Muscles by the time Innerspeaker came out.
8
u/thrashmanzac Jul 21 '26
What an awful day to have eyes
0
u/Negative_Oil4952 Jul 21 '26
on the surface it may read that way, The Tame Impala heads are not going to agree initially but if you actually think about it its a reasonable stance. his actions caused the unintended downfall of these other acts careers, why not help out your old fellow modular acts
6
u/thrashmanzac Jul 21 '26
His actions? Or the actions of Modular Recordings? A lot of former Modular Recordings artists went on to release under different labels and had ongoing careers. Have you considered that sometimes an artist is more to blame for their fall-off than the label?
1
3
u/collectedanimalia Jul 21 '26
he has worked with some Australian artists back in the late 2010’s like Koi Child as well as producing every Pond album up until 9.
2
u/Horror-Act-4935 Jul 21 '26
Bro? HE STILL LIVES IN PERTH. He has NOT forgotten his roots.
1
u/MacaroonBitter2105 Jul 23 '26
Was he in Shepparton, Vic? Why do I think that? It's like yeaa him a Briggs kicked it together back in the day along with umm the ppl who sing one crowded hour? Anyways none of that could be right..
0
u/Negative_Oil4952 Jul 21 '26
He lives there but does he promote other local perth artists in his collabs? Dua Lipa seems to be getting plenty of airtime
6
u/BigMedium1750 Jul 21 '26
he's worked with a lot of perth artists around the launch of his Orchid synth
5
u/thrashmanzac Jul 21 '26
Pretty sure he was in the studio with members of POND, as well as King Giz, The Murlocs and Geese like a few months ago 😂
1
Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
2
u/thrashmanzac Jul 21 '26
You don’t think they’re gonna release music?
1
-1
2
u/MacaroonBitter2105 Jul 23 '26
J's on the dua lipa now? I left when lizzo and gang got more airtime then locals. Kind of fell off when Kingsmill left. Or was he the problem? Meh don't care. Nothing like a mid morning soft folk indie lesbian sister band to tell you how she seen her gf holding hands with another gf and then they'd fight followed by make up sex. Oh. Speaking of which... G flip is over rated. Tame impala best album was the first. And stay off my lawn ya bastards... Sorry big night...
1
u/Horror-Act-4935 Jul 21 '26
He produced half an album with her. It's not like he's produced her whole discography.
2
2
41
u/No-Celebration8690 Jul 21 '26
How is the downfall of a label, the artist's fault? Surely that's Modular's responsibility?