Interview: Role Model Takes Us Home With Cozy and Effervescent ‘Kansas Anymore’

Role Model discusses his sophomore album ‘Kansas Anymore’ and the cohesive world he built for it through thirteen nostalgic, heartbreaking, exciting tracks that are all wrapped up in the warmth of going home.

Stream: ‘Kansas Anymore’ – Role Model

**The best albums make you feel something specific.**

You listen from start to finish and at the end you know you will revisit it to elicit the feeling. They are as timeless as they are rare. They’re the ones you always have in your back pocket for when the moment is right. When these albums come around – it’s evident and deserves to be celebrated. Role Model has done it with Kansas Anymore, wrapping up the warmth of going home with the nostalgic, exciting, heartbreaking and uplifting thirteen tracks that make up his sophomore album.

“I’m very much an album person and that was my one goal,” Role Model – aka singer/songwriter Tucker Harrington Pillsbury – says of his new record. “I wanted my own album that feels like a cohesive thing that won’t get old too quickly.”

With Kansas Anymore, Role Model pulls from his pop and hip-hop past, while also effortlessly weaving in folk, Americana and a bit of ‘70s dreamy pop. His influences ranged from John Prine to simply listening to songs that made him feel like he was home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

“My whole taste in music shifted and I was just really only listening to things that reminded me of home, or felt like home,” the artist explains.

Role Model put together a body of work where each song is somehow something different while all still very clearly living in the world he built for them, Kansas Anymore. Thus, achieving his goal of a cohesive album that certainly will not get old.

**Role Model has elevated himself as a songwriter and an artist in general with Kansas Anymore.**

He is doing what all the best artists do with this album – remembering why he does what he does and focusing solely on the love of the music.

“I wanted warmth and texture and organic sounds. Inevitably, after getting into that mindset, the songs started coming out so much easier. What was taking months all of a sudden started taking days. It was so much easier and natural, so I ran with that.”

Atwood Magazine sat down with Role Model on the week of his release to talk about how naturally Kansas Anymore came out after scrapping previous projects, why “Frances” is his favorite song, the importance of a strong interlude, and more. Read our interview below and dive into the world of Kansas Anymore, out now on Interscope Records!

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:: stream/purchase Kansas Anymore here ::

:: connect with Role Model here ::

Stream: “Deeply Still in Love” – Role Model

A CONVERSATION WITH ROLE MODEL

Atwood Magazine: Hi, I’m Kelly, nice to meet you!

Role Model: Hi! Wow, this looks beautiful wherever you are.

I'm actually in a fitting scenario for having listened to this album for the past couple of days. I'm visiting my parents, I'm home.

Role Model: This is amazing. I love it.

How are you feeling? It’s a big week!

Role Model: I’m doing good. I’m a bit overwhelmed with the week, but I’m excited to sit in the release once it’s out and get to celebrate at some point.

The anticipation is nerve-racking, I would imagine. But you should be so excited because the album is so good. It’s very much a full concept album that exudes a specific feeling - it makes it timeless. I love when I listen to an album top to bottom and immediately know it’s going to be on rotation for a while.

Role Model: Thank you. And me too. I am a huge album person. That is the best feeling and it happens very rarely for me. That was my one goal. I’ve been listening to all of my favorite albums nonstop for years. I’m not a playlist person. I’m very much an album person and that was my one goal. I wanted my own album to feel like that – a cohesive thing that, you know, won’t get old too quick.

You’ve definitely achieved that goal. It does feel so cohesive, but it also pulls from different genres, which keeps it interesting. I hear ‘70s Fleetwood Mac stuff, soul, R&B, pop, folk, but it all very much fits into the Kansas Anymore world.

Role Model: For sure. No matter what, some of those influences will come in on melodies, but like you said, I wanted everything to be in one world together, sonically and production wise. It’s great you interpret it that way.

Definitely. I want to get into the songs specifically, but before doing that I know you've talked about scrapping previous groups of songs before getting to this album. I'm curious, sonically, where that shift happened?

Role Model: It was all over the place in the beginning. It was maximum throwing paint at the wall and seeing what sticks. Nothing was taking for me. At a certain point in the very beginning, I was like let’s do a full blown ‘80s album and just go full synth pop. I quickly realized that was not natural for me. That was basically one album’s worth of the music we scrapped. Then I was like, let’s just try something else – we kept trying some other stuff. At one point we went very rock and roll. It started feeling like I was putting on some sort of character and that’s when I started to get really homesick.

My whole taste in music shifted and I was just really only listening to things that reminded me of home, or felt like home, or felt like this backdrop that you currently have on the Zoom! [laughs] I wanted warmth and texture and organic sounds. Inevitably, after getting into that mindset, the songs started coming out so much easier. What was taking months all of a sudden started taking days. It was so much easier and natural, so I ran with that.

After listening to this album, to me, it very much felt like you were not considering outside factors and you were making the music for you.

Role Model: Totally. Yeah. It’s kind of like a full circle moment of my first EP that I put out, Arizona In The Summer. I did that in a closet by myself without anyone to send it to or have opinions on. I just put it out. This album was the closest I’ve come to getting back to that, where I could start songs in my living room on guitar and then just kind of stop trying to please the label or please people or please the internet. This is how I want it to sound and this is what I want to say and that was it.

I love that. “Writing’s on the Wall” is a perfect track one. It really sets the tone for the album. The lyrics are self-reflective, which feels like a lot of what this album is, but the energy is so high and hopeful. Was this always track one?

Role Model: It was not always track one. “Oh, Gemini” was always going to be my track one, but then I didn’t want to set the album off on a somber tone. I don’t think that accurately sets up the rest of the album. I really didn’t want this to be a downer of an album. I just wanted to kick it off with energy immediately and kind of throw people into the world in the best way. We just started rehearsing this week, and that song is how we’re gonna open the show. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had performing a song and so I’m very excited.

This album was the closest I’ve come to getting back to that, where I could start songs in my living room on guitar and then just kind of stop trying to please the label or please people or please the internet.

Yes, I would imagine that one is gonna go off pretty well at a live show! Let’s talk about “Frances.” I feel like this one's really special. I love songs that take the most universal concepts and simplify it down in the most beautiful way. This song really does that. Tell me about it.

Role Model: It made me cry yesterday for the first time. Not even because of the lyrics, it’s probably my favorite song, to be honest. Sonically, it’s everything I love. It’s all my favorite shit in one song. It pulls at my fucking heart every time. Not because of the lyrics, just the song. There’s lots of themes of nostalgia in this album in general, but that song specifically is like maximum nostalgia, reflection, and being thankful that a relationship happened. It’s looking back on it in a positive light. It’s kind of forcing yourself to be happy with it and everything. And yeah, that song is definitely my favorite.

That’s so cool to hear. It’s just the saddest most beautiful song and everyone loves a sad beautiful song. Shifting gears to “Superglue,” this is one of my favorites. I feel like you do the thing that's very unique to you. You’re almost rapping and then come in with this gorgeous pop melody in the chorus. It all feels very natural, which wouldn’t be an easy thing for most - tell me about this one.

Role Model: That was definitely a challenge for me. It was also me just being very self critical of myself. Again, my whole goal was to make everything cohesive. That was one of the first songs we did. Actually, the first version of it was when we were doing that ’80s album. With the rapping, I was just very unsure of it because I felt like I was trying to move forward, but with that, maybe I wasn’t. It just took a lot of fine tuning with the production to fit the album, but we got there. But yeah, I’m happy. I like the juxtaposition of that super colorful, poppy chorus with the sort of understated rap verses.

Absolutely. It’s a big song, but it really works - I love it. “The Dinner” is my favorite song at the moment. The bridge is incredible, the isolated home vocals at the end give chills.

Role Model: This was another one I was on the fence about. The whole first verse – I was like, am I really going to put Ozempik in a song? But I had the verses forever. I kept trying all these different things in different sessions. Nothing was really hitting, but I knew I wanted to do something with them because they felt strong, whether they were corny or not bad. And then finally, I brought it to Noah Conrad (the producer for the album), towards the end of the album process, and we got it right. We brought it into a much more folky world, which felt right. I still think I sound like shit in the isolated vocals at the end.

What! No, they gave me chills.

Role Model: Thank you, I got talked into keeping that there. I will say, I like it because it shows that we are not using Auto-Tune on this album.

That one is great. I love the “Slut Era” interlude as well. It has so much soul to it - it feels like you’re in the room. It fits so well with the album.

Role Model: Yeah, I’ve never had an interlude and I didn’t know if it was even gonna be on the album, but I was leaving Noah’s one day and then this kid Jason sent me the guitar loop of that song. It wasn’t on a grid or anything, it was just like a loose thing that he did. I haven’t recorded myself on like logic since very early on, like 2018, but I got home that day and did it in my living room. I loved how it sounded and so we created the album version to be exactly like that. It was the only cool way to do this song and keep it very raw and in the moment, 2 AM, sort of a feeling.

Also where it’s placed in the album, after “Deeply Still In Love,” I wanted it to kind of feel like that late night sort of coping song. And then it goes to “So Far Gone,” which felt very much like a Sunday morning coming to my senses sort of a thing. I wanted it to be placed strategically. So with “Deeply Still in Love” going directly into it in sort of this dreamy, trippy way where it kind of turns into nightfall felt very right.

I love hearing the reasoning behind it all - it makes it so much better. So, we have to talk about “So Far Gone” and working with Lizzy McAlpine. Your voices work so well together.

Role Model: I’ve been a fan of her forever. I love her and I’m obsessed with her new album. That was one of the things I was listening to towards the end of the album process. It’s one of those albums that feels like home and has that warmth we’re talking about. We share Mason Stoops – who played and produced on both of our albums. I was trying to find any way I could ask her to come into the studio and make a song. To my surprise, she did! We made it from scratch. I wrote a verse and she wrote the chorus. I loved it. We didn’t finish it that day. She came back two months later and she wrote the next verse in like two seconds.

Lizzy in the studio is insane. She’s a Berklee kid, so she very much knows what she’s doing. It made me feel like I should just sit in a corner. It was cool to see how much she cared about a song that wasn’t technically hers. She really cares and is hands-on and was giving Noah notes while he was playing drums. She was very in there with all the production stuff and sonically, which was cool. It’s cool that she’s even excited about it.

She’s definitely another example of an artist where you can tell it’s all about the music for her.

Role Model: Definitely.

The last song I’ll ask you about is “Something, Somehow, Someday.” Lyrically, this is my favorite song.

Role Model: Me too.

Amazing! Yeah, There are so many intricacies I’m wondering if you had to tinker with it for a while or if it flowed out very naturally?

Role Model: It came out naturally. That was another thing that I wrote on guitar in my living room a long time ago. I had the verses – I held onto them for a while and tried some things, but it wasn’t working. Finally, I brought it to Noah. We did a full take and got that warmth that I wanted. It felt like the original voice memo that I have on my phone.

I had always seen it as an ode to John Prine’s song “In Spite of Ourselves,” which is one of my favorites. That mixed with The Moldy Peaches. I wanted to get a female vocal on it to pay even more homage to John Prine. So I had a good friend of mine, Genevieve Stokes, who is from my hometown come sing on it. She brought it exactly where I wanted to be. A cute little duet that kind of leaves an open-ended hope to seal the album off at the end and kind of…Wherever, wherever we go, I’m sure it will be something, sometimes, someday. It’s leaving it open-ended.

Role Model 'Kansas City' © Olandito Gil — Role Model ‘Kansas City’ © Olandito Gil

It’s a perfect way to end it. Before we go, I have to ask, how are you feeling about opening for Gracie Abrams?

Role Model: I cannot wait. She had reached out and it was almost too perfect. I’m such a fan of hers – I have been forever. I can’t wait – it’s going to be a very fun month or so of shows.

Your album and hers go well together - it’s going to be a fun night. That’s all I have! Thank you for taking the time - I genuinely love this album and I hope you enjoy the release and everything that comes with it.

Role Model: Thank you so much!

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