ROLE MODEL is here for an #AudacyCheckIn to talk about his hit, "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out," his upcoming return to the road with Gracie Abrams, and much more!
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00:00With Gracie, like going on tour with her. I don't know. I just like her relationship with her
00:08fandom and at these shows and also just like outside of shows and how inclusive she makes it.
00:21We're at the Odyssey Soundspace at the Hard Rock Hotel New York. This is your check-in
00:25with Role Model. I was kind of leading up to this before we got on camera, but you and I both
00:33New Englanders. Yes. Born and raised in Maine, right? Yes. I had been wanting to ask someone
00:42from Maine this question for a long time. Maine is really like a vacation destination for, I would
00:49say, not just East Coast people, but for a lot of the country. Do you think it's deserving
00:55of that? That's a great question. I guess it depends how you look at it because I know
01:02a lot of friends and people where I'm from in Maine really don't like tourists. Okay.
01:11There's like, everyone has like bumper stickers and people are pretty aggressive about anti-tourism
01:19in our hometown. But I don't know. I don't blame them. It is like, I say it all the time,
01:27but it's like the most beautiful place on the earth. So you do think it's special though,
01:31huh? I do. I agree. Because I grew up in Connecticut, dude. And I'm like, the beaches
01:35in Connecticut are just as good as Maine. In my opinion, I'm like, why are people flocking
01:40to Maine when I do feel like there's parts of the Jersey shore or Connecticut that are
01:44equally? That's probably true. I have not been to, I don't know if I've been to any,
01:50I don't even know if I've been to Connecticut to be honest, but like, I don't know.
01:53You're not missing much. It's okay. I don't know, but that's a great point. Like why,
01:58why don't we push them down to the tourist, the tourism down to Connecticut? Send them elsewhere.
02:04But that's good. You do think it's special because sometimes I think it takes a long time
02:08for people to come full circle and then find their hometown later on in life, find the charm of their
02:16hometown, you know? For sure. I think everybody like kind of guards their, their hometown in a way.
02:21Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure LA natives, you know, feel the same way about me living there in the past
02:26five years, you know? I don't know. Right, right. So you were dabbling in hip hop when you were first
02:31getting your start. Were you aware of the new England, like hip hop scene with Sammy Adams,
02:39Apathy, um, Spose, Chris Webby, were you? That's funny. Spose was like our superstar. I think
02:48that was like our, the one person from Maine who was like on the radio who had like a hit,
02:55a big YouTube music video. Like he, I feel like I just remember me and my friends would
03:02run into him throughout our like high school and teen years and would just like die and
03:07like roll the windows down and like scream and be like, Spose, I love you. And he was
03:12like a massive celebrity to us, um, which is so funny. He, he, I guess that is like a main
03:18legend and, um, and Sammy Adams. I don't know where he's from. Boston. Boston. Yes. You're
03:26right. My sister was obsessed with him, had posters everywhere. He was a cutie. He was
03:30a heartthrob back in the day. Yes. Yes. He was. He was like a college Bieber. Totally.
03:36Yeah. That is very well put. All right, cool. So I love that Spose was a hometown hero because
03:40you think of like what rappers were coming out of Maine. You're like, man, that's the dude.
03:45And the fact that he was still living there, that's really cool. He was massive. He used
03:48to come into the, I worked at a barbershop, um, for two summers, like doing the phones
03:54and the front desk. Yeah. Yeah. And he came in, he was, he was friends with the owner and
03:58everything. And so he'd come in and I used to like ask for pictures with him and everything.
04:02And he was, he was, he was truly like a, a main legend. Yeah, bro. We have to dig up
04:07those photos, do a carousel on Insta. That is, that's a cool story, man. So you, you went
04:13through a few different name changes and now we're here at, um, role model. Are you content
04:19with this? Were there other runners up? Is a, another name change, you know, coming?
04:25No, I think I'm in too deep. I, it's a weird name to me. Like I love my legal name and in
04:33some ways I regret not just using my legal name. You got to do a movie and then I feel
04:37like that'll be the transition to your legal name, right? That's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah.
04:41And then I get to use that and still have, it's just, it's too late to throw out role
04:47model. Now I can't, you know, was there, was there a runner up to role model or?
04:51No, no, I guess maybe my legal name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't do it. I don't know.
04:57It's funny on Wikipedia, you were listed as bedroom pop. I don't even, do you know what
05:05that means? Can you explain it to me? Yeah. Okay. Um, I feel like that was the whole
05:10first half of my career was that word bedroom pop. Okay. But it was like, that was the scene
05:16that I feel like I like made my way into when I first started making music under the name
05:21role model. And it was like the Claros, Gus Dapperton, Cuco. Yeah. There was this like very
05:30cool community of artists that were all kind of in this bedroom pop thing. And it was just
05:36like DIY kind of low fi pop music. Oh, so it comes from making it in your bedroom. It's just
05:43DIY. Not like sexy ass music where like we're playing it in the bedroom to like, you know,
05:50hope some result comes out of the very misleading. Yeah. Very misleading. Also probably like the least
05:56sexual music ever. So it's yeah. Bedroom Bob is like, I don't know. Okay. Okay. Cool. Cool.
06:03So when you were, uh, making the transition from hip hop to bedroom pop, um, was there any
06:10learning curve or, I mean, the, the formula seems similar. Was there anything, was there any type of
06:17major difference for you? I didn't know what I was doing. Like I didn't have anyone around me
06:23or producers like guiding me in a studio setting ever in the beginning. And so like all this music,
06:30like whether it was like hip hop before I was role model or the like bedroom pop indie stuff
06:36was all me in a closet on my laptop, just like, just figuring it out and like doing it. What I
06:46thought was like the way to structure a song, whether it was or wasn't. And I've always said
06:50that was like my first, my first EP Arizona in the summer is still one of my favorite things
06:55because it was just, I think sometimes the best music or like art in general comes from people
07:01who don't know how to do it. Totally. Can't even read music or whatever. Right, right, right. I think
07:07that's the best. Sometimes like the less, you know, and like the less resources you have,
07:12I feel like the quality sometimes ironically that goes up. So, uh, lately, you know, you've aligned
07:20yourself with some cool people, you know, you'd, you've had, um, run-ins with Julia Michaels,
07:26Gracie Abrams, um, just a lot of cool singer songwriters. Uh, have you gotten any piece of
07:31advice from anyone that you've, um, formed a relationship with advice or something you've
07:39just learned like firsthand from being around someone with Gracie, like going on tour with
07:46her? I don't know. I just like her relationship with her fandom and at these shows and also just
07:56like outside of shows and how inclusive she makes it was something that I guess I kind of took notes
08:04on a little bit. Just getting to see her perform every night while I was on tour with her was like,
08:09yeah, I think you just, I took like mental notes of just how she makes everyone like feel seen at
08:18her shows, no matter how big the venue is, um, or how many people there are. She makes everyone feel
08:25seen and like heard at her shows. And I think that's a very cool thing to take note of for me.
08:32Cool. Uh, two things before we wrap, I actually just thought of this one. What's the best lobster
08:36role you've had? So I don't eat. Wait, do you do it cold or hot? I don't do it at all. I don't,
08:43I don't eat seafood. We should end it right here. I, we should, I don't eat seafood. I'm sorry.
08:49Ever? No, I've never. I gotta get your mom in here and ask her that question. So that,
08:53that brings me to my second question. Uh, up to this point in your career, what moment do you think
08:58your mom is most proud of? She just came on stage in Boston, um, for my biggest, it was the last show
09:08of tour, but it was also happened to be like my biggest headline. Um, and it was like technically
09:13a hometown show. Um, and she came on stage for that and was, we made her Sally at the end of the
09:19show. And she, I think that was like a very cool moment, not just for her to see of me. It was like
09:27a cool thing to have together now and she can, yeah, it's more of like a memory thing. I think
09:32that she's, she's proud of. Sure. I love it, bro. Congratulations on everything. Thank you so much.
09:37Of course. Thank you.