Though the setup sounds grim, the result does not. And that is how ROLE MODEL’s first industry-breaking EP, Arizona In The Summer was created: in a closet, alone, with a broken wrist. “I had this little closet in my apartment, and I'd record everything in there,” he says. “I was stuck in a room with no windows, a broken wrist, a bunch of painkillers and no one to talk to,” he says.īut, despite setbacks, he kept at the music, healing alongside it. This sudden physical ailment, which affected his ability to play and produce, put a strain on his mental health too, and he admits to going through a dark time during this period of life - both literally and figuratively. It was seven months of torture and not being able to do anything.” Then I broke my wrist again, which put me back in the cast, and there was an issue with the surgery. “I broke my wrist really bad,” he says, “I had surgery and was in a cast for a while. He grew up skiing, and on a trip to Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain, Pillsbury was in a dangerous accident. It’s now winter 2017, and Pillsbury is a college drop out, struggling with purpose, and now with a serious injury that threatens his music career. Replacing his love of film with music and songwriting, it wasn't long before his academic performance started suffering, eventually resulting in his decision to drop out altogether. “I started looking up tutorials, downloading programs,” he recalls. He tried his hand at production, and instantly fell in love with it. He tells me it began when his ‘rapper-friends’ (although he doesn’t elaborate on who these friends were, and doesn’t return to it,) left some recording equipment at his dorm at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where he was studying film. With little time left to us, we jump straight into the rising star’s story of success.
The video for his stripped down ballad “blind” had just come out, and the rising artist was too excited to miss the release, greeting his 240K Instagram followers on a live.
Damn, can’t believe he noticed us.Tucker, whose stage name was inspired by the 2008 movie Role Models, tunes into our interview with a one-hour delay though not without a reason. “ Thank you all for coming / I ’ d be nothing without you,” ROLE MODEL concludes oh, how perfect. It’s 2019, and the world is burning we don’t need our artists to be perfect. The cover of oh, how perfect is literally a bleeding heart. What I can imagine are his fans celebrating his bleeding heart. I can’t imagine a ROLE MODEL fan singing his praises because he has the tightest lines and the most impressive vocal runs. We make the same beds we all lie in the same ruin.
Instead, I’m hoping to explain why his music is so fetching: It feels homegrown. What’s stopping us for stepping into the arena and leaving our guts outs in the digital ether? None of this is to say ROLE MODEL’s music is easy to make or mimic. Why not? We’ve all got exes, skeletons, and bad memories galore. Not only does it make his music feel more honest and thoughtfully-made, but it also makes us feel like we could be ROLE MODEL. It works.Ībsconding perfection makes ROLE MODEL a premier artist. On oh, how perfect, ROLE MODEL has permitted himself to be Tucker as often and as obtusely as possible. We’re only as special and unique as we allow ourselves to be.
I want ROLE MODEL’s voice to crack and his pen to waver, and I want him to be a victim of sentiment. We already have that, mountains of that, to be clear. I don’t want ROLE MODEL to be a perfect, squeaky clean pop act with hours of media training and glistening guitar chords. Who cares that it has no proper ending when we can so neatly relate? The point of ROLE MODEL’s bio, his music, and his persona: Who cares, let’s try. “say it first” is a resolution-less tune striking at our past, and future, angst and worry. Much like the second verse of “hello!,” “say it first” is built upon a well-to-do image: “ Always been one for / Biting my tongue ‘til / Blood starts to fill my mouth.” Too, the song is built upon the anxiety of the first “I love you.” It’s never said. Consider the plodding guitar of “say it first.” At times, the strings sound like nylon, while ROLE MODEL’s voice skirts around the plucking.