00:00 Maybe we should just end the interview now.
00:02 - You wanna wrap it?
00:02 - Yeah, well thank you everybody for watching.
00:04 - Thank you.
00:05 - Yeah, it was so nice.
00:06 All right.
00:06 (laughing)
00:09 - What's going on?
00:10 It's your boy, Oliver Tree,
00:12 and you are watching Billboard News.
00:13 (upbeat music)
00:28 - Hey everybody, I'm Rania Niftos with Billboard News,
00:31 and I am so excited.
00:32 We're here with the one and only Oliver Tree.
00:35 Hello.
00:36 ♪ As these seasons keep on changing ♪
00:38 ♪ Life goes on and on and on and on and on ♪
00:43 ♪ Who said cowboys don't cry ♪
00:53 - Creating this Oliver Tree persona
00:56 was kind of almost an accident, right?
00:58 'Cause I think I heard you say you were putting out music
01:01 and nobody was really listening,
01:03 and then you kind of grabbed a ski jacket from your mom
01:06 and the sunglasses, and you kind of turned it into comedy,
01:09 and suddenly people started caring about your music.
01:11 - I'd already spent the bulk of my existence on earth
01:14 making music, and no one was listening to it,
01:16 no one cared, and I was like,
01:17 "Wow, this actually worked.
01:19 "This is bigger than my music."
01:20 And all I did was just show up looking stupid.
01:22 And I think it's a mirror that I was setting up of society,
01:25 like how dumb things have gotten in a lot of ways.
01:27 But also, experimentation is kind of the birth of invention
01:31 and trying to make something
01:33 that hasn't been done a million times.
01:35 - Oliver Tree is my birth name.
01:37 Both my parents were trapeze artists.
01:40 - This album that you've just released,
01:41 it's a little more open, like a little more vulnerable,
01:43 I think, into looking into who you are and your interests.
01:47 Were you concerned about taking that extra step
01:50 in your artistry and your lyricism
01:52 and your playing around with different genres?
01:55 - The first album I had made was really a lot like this one
01:57 in the context that people aren't listening to albums.
02:00 And I kind of made the album with that mindset of,
02:03 "Hey, this is really a collection
02:04 "of all my favorite styles and selected works,"
02:07 if you will, "of the highlights
02:09 "of what I like, different styles."
02:10 But also, there can still be a component
02:13 that's a thread through of a concept album
02:15 through the visual component, through the character,
02:17 which still allows it to be cohesive.
02:19 And the thing that also ties it together nicely
02:21 is I produce on every single song.
02:23 I'm the one who mixes.
02:25 So from the beginning of the conception,
02:27 through the mixing process, I'm hands-on.
02:29 I can produce these things by myself.
02:31 It's not something I'm particularly interested in doing
02:33 because you spend so much time making these albums
02:35 that if you're just by yourself making music all the time,
02:38 it's very lonely.
02:39 And I used to do that for all my old music.
02:40 It was just me by myself,
02:42 and I found myself incredibly lonely.
02:44 And I think that that's ironic in the context
02:46 of this album is exploring the theme of loneliness,
02:49 and it's such a big part of it.
02:51 It's kind of a full circle moment
02:52 where as I've evolved as an artist,
02:54 I recognize that it doesn't have to be so lonely.
02:56 I would rather do it with my friends.
02:57 I'd rather go to Brazil and bring out my friends
03:00 and work there than necessarily be stuck in one place
03:04 by myself in this dark room.
03:06 - Yeah.
03:07 - And so it's a way that I've found
03:08 it's a lot more fun and sustainable in the long term.
03:12 - And you also are very creatively driven,
03:16 obviously with how you dress,
03:17 but also with your music videos, with your production.
03:21 ♪ I wanna be with you ♪
03:25 ♪ I'm riding with you ♪
03:27 - Where do you pull inspiration?
03:29 Do you pull from other artists?
03:31 Do you pull from TV shows?
03:32 Do you pull from movies?
03:33 - A lot of it is just from exploring,
03:34 meeting new people, experimenting with different ideas.
03:37 Music videos are a driving factor into why I do music.
03:41 I've actually been so proud on my work as a filmmaker
03:44 because I've made this Henry Ford Auto Line
03:47 production assembly where, for example,
03:49 the last two videos I shot,
03:51 we would film them, edit them,
03:54 and release them within a five to six day period.
03:57 And so it was just this process where it would come out
03:59 a few days after we filmed it.
04:01 - Oh, cool.
04:02 ♪ No friend ♪
04:04 ♪ I don't ever wanna see you ♪
04:06 ♪ And I never wanna miss you again ♪
04:08 - That's something I'm really proud of
04:09 because I'm able to get the quality that I want,
04:12 even if it's a smaller budget
04:13 and not something super mind-blowing crazy,
04:15 I'm able to make the art piece that I want
04:17 in such a quick time with the execution
04:19 and the quality being at a very high level.
04:22 Hi, my name's Oliver Tree.
04:24 Come watch the world's greatest concert,
04:26 movie, TV show, and play.
04:28 - And even with this world tour,
04:29 you're making it so much more of an experience
04:31 by, I think, expanding what artists usually do,
04:34 which is go to the same kind of round of countries
04:37 and cities, like you're expanding it to five continents.
04:39 Is there a place that you're most excited to?
04:43 - Yes, I am most excited to be performing in Antarctica.
04:47 And this is a big, something I've dreamed
04:50 for many, many years.
04:51 - Yeah.
04:52 - And it's finally happening at the end of this year.
04:54 I get to finally go to Antarctica.
04:55 It's the last continent. - Is there a venue there?
04:57 Is that a-- - No, there's no venue.
04:57 - Okay.
04:58 - And I can't say too much about it.
04:59 I haven't announced this yet, but I'm announcing it here.
05:02 I'm not gonna say too much, but I will say--
05:04 - Billboard's-- - I'm finally making
05:05 the dream come to life.
05:07 - Wow. - And it's a long time coming.
05:08 - That's incredible, and I'm so excited
05:11 'cause I really would love to see you on tour.
05:13 And I'm so happy that you're putting out
05:16 another album finally.
05:17 - And this very well could be my last album.
05:19 We don't know if this is gonna be one more maybe,
05:23 or maybe this is it.
05:24 But as far as I'm concerned,
05:25 I feel like this is the end of a trilogy.
05:27 - A completion, okay.
05:28 - There's a world where this is probably gonna be it.
05:30 - I think you're so creative,
05:31 and whatever you do is gonna work out so wonderful.
05:34 And I'm so happy for everything.
05:35 So congratulations.
05:36 Thank you. - Thank you.
05:37 (upbeat music)
05:40 (upbeat music)
05:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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