Do we like them?

Do we like Julien Barbagallo?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and nothing bad on his conduct, but too little reported on him personally to score higher.

Julien Barbagallo is the French drummer in Tame Impala, and he also makes his own records under the name Barbagallo. Far Out Magazine, in a 2018 chat, described him as a native of France who says British music shaped his musical education and career. He played in small bands and venues before he landed the Tame Impala gig.

The interesting bit of his story is that he didn't wait for a quiet patch to make his own music. He wrote and recorded his first two solo records on the road with Tame Impala, and the third, Danse Dans Les Ailleurs, was recorded at an isolated farm in rural southern France that was once Nino Ferrer's studio. Kings of Convenience's Erlend and Eirik sent vocals for it remotely.

On scandals, the cupboard is bare. Searches for lawsuits, court cases and allegations came back with nothing about him, and I found no controversy in his name. That is a clean result, though a thin one, because the pages that would say more didn't open for me.

On the harm check, I found no comments from him on trans people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate, in either direction. I also found nothing to suggest he keeps company that pushes harm. Silence isn't a gold star, but it's not a red flag either, and the gap is real: I couldn't read his recent interviews in full.

The good stuff is modest and mostly about music. He told Far Out that playing in the UK is “giving a little bit back to the culture that gave me so much”, which is a nice sentiment. I found no reporting of charity or activism by him personally, so I won't pretend there is any.

So where does that leave us? He's a working musician with a long run in a hugely loved band, no stains that turned up, and not much on the record either way. We'd happily keep him on the playlist, with the honest note that this one is a light-touch check.