SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Oliver Tree died earlier this month. The singer was known for viral stunts and creating characters like Turbo, Shawney Bravo and Cornelius Cummings, along with his garish clothing and outlandish hairstyles. He wore bowl cuts, bobs, mullets, sometimes all three. One of his biggest, most energetic hits was "Miss You."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISS YOU")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) It could be anyone else out there. Don't fret. I don't ever wanna see you, and I never wanna miss you again. One thing - when you're angry, you're a jerk and then you treat me like I'm worth nothing. Don't fret.
SIMON: Oliver Tree was on what he called the world's first world tour with dates set for all seven continents when he died in a helicopter crash in Brazil. He was just 32 years old. We spoke with Oliver Tree in 2023 for his record "Alone In A Crowd" and asked about his music video for his song "Bounce." It featured sober, gray Soviet-style buildings with sharp edges and wild gangs of paparazzi.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOUNCE")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) I'ma bounce you up and down. You'll be...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
OLIVER TREE: For me, this album was made at a time where I experienced a pretty unique thing which was having viral success and experiencing fame, which I went from having in two months, zero followers on TikTok to 10 million. And in that process, I became incredibly lonely. I felt isolated, Rapunzelled. It wasn't actually a really healthy experience. Whether it's tons of praise or tons of negativity, there's nothing healthy about that for the psyche. But in the visual context, basically, that video expresses that people are - all want a piece of you. They're grabbing at you. They all just want something from you. And recognizing, you know, maybe it wasn't really what you thought it was going to be.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLIVER TREE SONG, "BOUNCE")
OLIVER TREE: Everything has a price, and for me, my dream is to inspire people. And everything has a cost, so you can't really expect anything different.
SIMON: And that's where the song "Strangers" comes in?
OLIVER TREE: Yeah. That song specifically explores that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STRANGERS")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) I turned into what I hated, but I can't escape my own fate. In the mirror, I'm betrayed when I am staring at my own face. It's hard to believe the more friends you have, the better. It's never what it seems. I feel more alone than ever. Oh, strangers...
Especially as a guy who goes on stage and plays shows, for sometimes, you know, 30, 40,000 people at a time. Still walking off that stage, feeling lonelier than you can imagine. But on the other side of it, it's such a beautiful thing when these people join together and maybe they're filming on their phones, but a lot of times they're removed out of that, and they get a second to really live and be present, to be able to have moments that everyone is unified and those moments in the show where I take out the music, and it's just the crowd singing, and they're the show. I'm no longer even doing anything, and that is such a beautiful moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ESSENCE (FEAT. SUPER COMPUTER)")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) Baby, you are my essence. Let me make a confession. You're all I talk about when you're not around. I need you in my presence. You always know...
SIMON: Is there a message that you would like people to take from your work now, something we need to hear?
OLIVER TREE: My goal is to just show people how to be themselves, how to embrace their imperfections and lean into it and be the best version of ourselves and be able to - like, through the process of this album, I've become, you know, fully sober. It's been three years of being sober and learning how to love yourself, you know? That's the thing is, like, we have so much anger in this world, and a lot of times people are just very unhappy with themselves, and then they take that out on others. So much of my goal is to be able to learn how to love myself and try to show people how to love themselves.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ELEVATOR TO THE SKY")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) Where do we go in the end? Gone with the wind and never seen again.
SIMON: Oliver Tree, from our interview in 2023. The musician died earlier this month. According to a post on his Instagram page, Oliver Tree's legacy will live on through his foundation endowment, named Dr. Oliver Tree's Extremely Epic Grant for Baby Geniuses. The post continues - this is something that Oliver had put together before his passing, written in his will. We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world. That was his final wish.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ELEVATOR TO THE SKY")
OLIVER TREE: (Singing) Where do we go in the end? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
