ROLE MODEL with Kevin Ryder

KROQ-FM / KROQ

ROLE MODEL talks about "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out," and more during a visit to KROQ.

Transcript

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.

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