“I’m doing it for something bigger than me”: Telepathic Instruments’ Orchid is Kevin Parker’s dream synth — he hopes it’ll be yours, tooIn the past couple of years, many music makers have been subject to an endless number of online advertisements for ‘MIDI chord packs’. These ‘get-pro-results-quick’ tools promise to bypass the so-called toil of creating and composing chord progressions, replacing it with a catalogue of premade progressions with a convenient drag-and-drop solution.
“Each to their own,” smiles Kevin Parker. “I would never slag off anyone’s preferred method. I wouldn’t use a chord pack because I don’t think I would love songwriting as much if I didn’t have the journey. For me— the journey of it— that is the part that I love doing. That’s why I do it.”
The Telepathic Instruments Orchid is on the MusicTech Cover. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
The Orchid chord-generating synthesizer, the debut release of Parker’s newly co-founded Telepathic Instruments, has been out barely a year, and it’s already a runaway success.
According to Telepathic, two launches of the Orchid sold out in minutes; the first batch of 1,000 in January, followed by a further 3,000 in May. Units have been spotted in the loving custody of musicians, from Fred Again.. to Gracie Abrams to Murda Beats, and social media feeds are awash with short-form videos of creators exploring its idea-sparking capabilities. This Friday, the Orchid will finally have its global launch — and largest release.
A single-octave keyboard on one side and a selection of chord buttons on the other, the Orchid is a unit of choice functionality designed to be a songwriting tool, a portable creative canvas. Hit a note on the right, and assign it a chord type and extension on the left. Choose a playing style—the chord could be strummed, held, arpeggiated or delivered as a pattern sequence—and one of its litany of onboard synth sounds, and you’re away. It’s battery-powered, stylish, has onboard speakers, and even comes in its own carry case.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
In practice, the synth is tremendous fun to play. Within seconds of switching it on, I’m tinkering with novel chord sequences and voicings (EbsusM7? No problem. Fdim9? Easy), layering ideas via the onboard looper as I go.
Its name is inextricable from that of Parker and his titanic project Tame Impala, but this compact ideas machine is no mere cash-in for one of indie’s most successful musicians. In fact, it was never intended to be a business at all.
“I used to have this Casio keyboard that belonged to my dad,” explains Parker. “There was a little section right in the corner of it with these tiny little buttons, and you could punch in sequences of chords to program a little backing track, then play your Stevie Wonder lead line over the top of chords.” He laughs: “I didn’t know how to actually sequence with it, I just used my index fingers to make these chord combinations.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Parker kept this relic from the age of 11 and used it all the way up to the release of Tame Impala’s seminal 2012 album, Lonerism. The sounds of this Casio keyboard are all over the album, and are paired with his Ace Tone Phasor; a prime example of this pairing is in the intro of Why Won’t They Talk To Me?.
“When I first signed a record deal, [our label] sent us touring, fucking non-stop. I used to love sitting on the aeroplane with a pair of headphones and this Casio keyboard, just writing songs with chords that were different to the chords I’d usually write on guitar,” Parker continues. “By that time, I’d gotten so good at guitar that the muscle memory part was automatic. And that’s what I’ve always loved about the idea of a chord generator: that you can land on chords that your fingers otherwise wouldn’t want to do. In the back of my mind, I always thought, ‘Man, I would love something that only did this.’ If I ever made something, it would be this sort of crazy songwriting tool.”
The semi-serious idea lay dormant for years, until the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on touring schedules the world over. “I just said, ‘fuck it,’” Parker remembers. “I decided to try and find someone to make this thing that I’d been fantasising about for all that time. The only person I knew of who might be able to do this kind of thing was this guy I used to watch on YouTube, giving techno music production tutorials. He was the only person I could think of who might know how to code and create software and then turn it into hardware. So I DM’d him on Instagram…”
“It’s been really nice to be able to put my 12 years of synth nerd-ery into something like this” – Kevin Parker
New Zealand/Aotearoa-born Tom Cosm is a musician, Ableton Certified Trainer, self-professed ‘audio mad scientist’ and Technical Director at Telepathic Instruments. “I noticed that Tame Impala had started following me on Instagram,” he remembers. “Which, you know… was sort of a big deal! I reached out and said, ‘What’s up?’ [Parker] messaged back saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea for a thing. Can you build it?’”
Cosm was under the impression he would be creating a one-off unit “for [Parker’s] personal use”. And at the time, he was right.
“I didn’t really have a commercial drive for it initially,” explains Parker. “It was one of my best friends, Chris [Adams]— we stay up late all the time and think up stupid ideas and whatever— who was like, ‘Man, we should make this a business!’ This would have been at, like, one o’clock in the morning.
“I wouldn’t know the first thing about starting and running a company. But my wife [entrepreneur Sophie Lawrence Parker] knew someone who was into marketing and business-building. And that was Charl.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Charl Laubscher, who is now Managing Director at Telepathic Instruments, initially thought Parker “wanted to do celebrity soap or something”, he laughs. “But then he said, ‘I want to make a diatonic chord-generating synthesiser.’ And I was like, ‘Oh. Awesome.’ So my team and I jumped on board.”
Parker had reached a critical stage in the realisation of his chord-generating fantasy. “Then came the time to turn this from a weird aluminium briefcase into a… beautiful thing,” he remembers. “Charl knew someone who was up for the task: Ignacio.” That’s Ignacio Germade, whom Laubscher had become close to through work he’d done at Polaroid, and whom he hails as “one of the greatest living product designers”.
Orchid’s team was now in place: Parker, Cosm, Laubscher, Germade, Chris Adams and Sophie Lawrence Parker as Marketing Director. “I’ve definitely never felt part of anything so serendipitous, with its own kind of momentum,” reflects Laubscher. “People just sort of seem to… get it, which is really wonderful. When you see somebody play the instrument for the first time, you can see it on their faces.”
“I’ve definitely never felt part of anything so serendipitous, with its own kind of momentum” – Charl Laubscher
Cosm agrees: “I had a friend nearly tear up the other night because she’s never played a musical instrument in her life, who just hit a few things and found something that worked. To see that is very impactful for me.”
Kevin Parker’s boyish enthusiasm about the Orchid’s journey is palpable. “It’s been really nice to be able to put my like, 12 years of synth nerd-ery into something like this,” he says. “Making albums, I’m just so focused on the music. I’m not one of those people who goes deep on a synth. This whole thing has been a way to flex the muscles I’ve developed over the years, but in a way where music isn’t the primary thing that comes out the other end.”
At least, not music by Tame Impala, I offer.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“Exactly! And being a producer, I like the idea of helping other people make music. That’s one of my other joys. So the idea that I can help make something that brings music into the world through other people is a joy. It feels like I’m doing it for something bigger than just me.”
Of course, for Tame Impala fans everywhere, doubtless questions will burn about the relationship between Parker’s music and his instrument — especially with the next Tame Impala album, Deadbeat, due out later this month. Does Kevin Parker himself use the Orchid in private?
“When I talk about Orchid and I talk about Tame Impala, I don’t want to cross-pollinate too much,” Parker replies. “I feel like that would cheapen both things. If I talk about Orchid and Tame Impala’s music together, it’ll make it seem like I’m just plugging my instrument to you by talking about my music, and vice versa. I don’t want people to think of the Orchid as ‘the Tame Impala synth.’”
Parker pauses to choose his words. “What I will tell you, is that if I didn’t use it — this thing, that I’ve been fantasising about for so long — it would be a failure.”
Telepathic Instruments’ worldwide release of the Orchid takes place October 10.
Words: Vincent Joseph
Photography: Simon Vinall
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