ROLE MODEL talks about "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out," and more during a visit to KROQ.
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00:00Could I call you Roll? Is that what I go with?
00:02That feels weird. Tucker's good.
00:04Tucker, okay. Tucker, how are you?
00:06I'm good, how are you?
00:07It's really great to see you today. It's fun to have an interview with you.
00:09Yes, I'm happy to be here.
00:11Your history is, I assume it's well known with the starting your rap career,
00:18changing your college roommates, left some guitars behind yourself.
00:24Wow, yes.
00:24Have you taught yourself?
00:25Yes, it's all true.
00:26Okay.
00:26I usually keep the rap part a secret, but you said it, so I'm sorry.
00:30Do you really try to?
00:31No, no.
00:32Okay, so my question is, you started rapping, and at some point you made the decision,
00:40no, I'm going to do this kind of music.
00:43Most people, if they're going to rap, they give it their all, and they live and die,
00:48and if it works, it works, and if it doesn't, it doesn't.
00:51How did that change happen?
00:52Most people don't go, you know what, I'm going to do some really nice pop romantic music.
00:58Yeah, the thing is, I was in Pittsburgh for school, I was living in Pittsburgh when I found,
01:07discovered this DIY version of making music, where you could do it from inside your dorm
01:14with a microphone and a laptop.
01:16Is that Logic Pro, the production suite that you use?
01:20Exactly, and I guess the reason is because the music scene in Pittsburgh is pretty much rap.
01:28It's like, that is the music scene, and it's amazing, and there's amazing artists there,
01:32and a lot of hometown pride and everything, and I just wanted to, I felt like an outsider,
01:39because I was coming from Maine, and I just kind of wanted to be a part of that,
01:45and to my surprise, I was being kind of embraced in that music scene,
01:51but I think I just wanted to be a part of it, so that's why I started making music through rap.
01:57When did you meet Mac Miller, was it?
01:59So that was after, so then I kind of started playing around with melody and singing,
02:04and fell in love with that, and that felt like more me, it just felt more natural, I guess.
02:13And I put out my first EP under the name Role Model, and it was kind of in that world.
02:20It was kind of hip-hop influence, but it was melodic, and it was singing,
02:24and there were guitars and actually some music to it,
02:29and that caught the attention of Mac and his manager at the time,
02:36because they were just very, like, kept an ear to everything Pittsburgh,
02:39because that's where they're from, and so they caught wind of it and liked it.
02:44Did writing rap lyrics help you write lyrics for the music you're doing now?
02:51No, to be honest.
02:51Didn't at all?
02:52I don't think so.
02:53I loved writing, though, like, in general, like, throughout school,
02:56from, like, a young age, that was the only thing I felt good at
03:01or felt, like, any enjoyment from in school, and so I liked writing,
03:07and I don't know, I think it's, yeah, I don't think there was a lot of honesty
03:16when I was, like, writing rap music.
03:19What's the biggest lie you told in your rap song?
03:21I don't know specifically, because I think I blocked that out of my mind,
03:25but I just think that I was, I mean, I was just being very exaggerative,
03:30if that's a word, and, you know.
03:32Like all rap is.
03:34Right, right, but I didn't have anything to show for it, so.
03:37And what was the transition from, did you have people that liked you as a rapper
03:42that then you said, here's the music I'm doing now, and they went, what?
03:47Liked as a rapper, I don't know.
03:49No, that might be a strong word.
03:52I had support from, like, friends, I guess.
03:55I think they just thought it was cool that I was, like, making music.
03:58But, no, I think as soon as I switched up my sound and started experimenting with just, like,
04:06singing and melody, it immediately started working on the internet, on, like, SoundCloud and stuff,
04:14and started to gain, I guess, like, a fandom.
04:19Did you use TikTok as well?
04:22It wasn't around back then.
04:23Oh, right, right.
04:25But SoundCloud feels like it's, I guess, sort of like TikTok is now,
04:29where it's hard to get noticed, really, because there's so many people on it.
04:33Yeah, and that was the exact, that's exactly what it was.
04:36It was, like, that was the point of discovery for people,
04:39and for probably, like, A&Rs and labels, it was SoundCloud.
04:42And that's where you're finding these, like, DIY underground artists making songs in their bedroom.
04:47Now, it is TikTok, and, like, you can just take a video yourself and show a song that you wrote.
04:53But it was the same thing.
04:55I think it had the same effect back then.
04:58Tell me about Sally.
04:59Is that a person?
05:00It is a person.
05:01The name Sally is not the name of said person.
05:04Oh, but there is a person behind the song.
05:06Behind the song, of course.
05:07Gotcha.
05:07Yeah.
05:07The music video, you seem to be confusing a lot of people at a mall.
05:12Yes, yes.
05:13Embarrassing myself.
05:14He was singing, for those of you that haven't seen it, he was singing and dancing in a mall,
05:19jumping on couches, going up, down elevators,
05:22and there was one guy who was sitting on a couch,
05:25and you jumped up with your feet, and you started dancing,
05:29and he just got up and left immediately.
05:31Right.
05:32Yeah, and notice that that was one of the few faces that we had blurred,
05:36because after every take, we would have to go and chase them down.
05:40Oh, right.
05:40To get a release for them, and be like, hey, we're filming a video.
05:44Um, and, I was very surprised at how many yeses we got,
05:50and how many signatures, and how many people were just okay with being in some random music video of a kid.
05:56Because those people hadn't heard of you or your music yet.
05:59No, because I wasn't going out, but the people, the crew,
06:02we had like three people that would go and chase them down.
06:04Right.
06:04And I think their, their, um, their pitch was just like, hey, we were filming a music video.
06:10I think you were in it a little bit.
06:11Like, can we just get a release for them so that we can show your face?
06:14That's nice.
06:14And that guy's just ran away?
06:16I think he wasn't so...
06:17Is he still, are they still running after him?
06:19Yeah, they're still chasing him.
06:20They're still chasing him.
06:21Well, it's a great song.
06:23It is a great album.
06:24You have a lot of tracks on this album.
06:26Yeah.
06:26Now, did you think about making two different ones?
06:29No, I, um, honestly, like the deluxe wasn't, I was pretty content with the album and we
06:38didn't have a plan for a deluxe.
06:39Um, but I think once the album was out and it had decent like perception, like people liked
06:49it and it was doing well.
06:50Um, and I was like kind of taken aback by that.
06:54And so one, I wanted to continue it, but also I was looking ahead and being like, we have
06:59a year of touring pretty much nonstop.
07:03I know myself, I know I get bored.
07:06Right.
07:06And so it would be nice to start working on a deluxe to keep me excited about performing
07:13these songs for a year or more.
07:16And, um...
07:17And the new songs that you write as you're touring, do you work them in?
07:21Yeah, exactly.
07:22So there were like, whether it was on the road or, um, in like a little window of time in
07:29between the two, uh, months of touring, um, yeah, just trying to get as much done as possible
07:36and like extend the world of like the original album without saying the same thing twice.
07:42How is it opening for Gracie Abrams?
07:45It's amazing.
07:46She's, I don't think I'd want to, now having toured with her, I don't think I'd ever want
07:51to do it with anyone else.
07:52Really?
07:53But it was just special because I, she was one of the first people I met when I moved
07:59out here, which was like end, end of 2018, beginning of 2019.
08:04She was kind of in this circle of people that I had first signed to.
08:07And I had moved here right before she put out her first song and EP, um, minor and was
08:15already a massive fan.
08:17And it was cool to be able to have seen her from the very beginning.
08:22Like all the way through her career and then to be able to just be invited to go see
08:29her show every night and open for it.
08:31Um, and it seems like the fans are relatively the same.
08:34There is more of a crossover than I thought there would be.
08:37Um, and they're, her fandom is like the sweetest people ever and very inviting.
08:43I think sometimes it can be daunting to like have to win over a crowd.
08:49Yeah.
08:49Because no one's there to see you.
08:51Exactly.
08:52And then her, but that was just very different.
08:56It was like the most inviting people engaging.
08:59Um, and, and it kind of did what like an opening, opening a tour is supposed to do, I guess.
09:07And it, it helped create this like crossover.
09:10And then we were like, let's do it again next summer.
09:12Did you one time say, I have a rap song I'd like to sing for you?
09:16Nope.
09:17Nope.
09:18I don't think I've ever said that ever.
09:22Do you like, do you dislike your rap stuff?
09:25Yeah.
09:25I do.
09:25It's off the internet.
09:26It's, it's gone.
09:27I looked for it.
09:28I couldn't find it.
09:29Yeah.
09:29It was under a different name.
09:30Um, and it was, it was, yeah, it's, I scrapped that.
09:35Um, I looked under Dillis.
09:37I couldn't find that.
09:38Wow.
09:39You know.
09:39What was the one before that?
09:42Uh, there, that was it.
09:44No, it wasn't.
09:44There was a name before that.
09:46I forget my memory.
09:46You are a liar.
09:48My memory is not serving me.
09:50But, um, yeah, no, the, the current album is really great though.
09:55I think everyone should listen to that.
09:57The current album is really great and everyone should listen to that.
10:00Thank you very much, Tucker, for taking the time.
10:02We appreciate it.
10:03It's Role Model on K-Rock.