There isn’t only one moment that stands out as Role Model reflects on scaling the pop mountain over the past few years. Opening for Gracie Abrams on “The Secret of Us” tour was one of them; playing to massive crowds at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre were two others. Then there were the viral moments after performing his breakthrough hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” at various shows, inviting a different “Sally” to dance with him (Charli xcx, Natalie Portman and Niall Horan to name a few).
For the 28-year-old Maine native, born Tucker Pillsbury, it was also proving his chops as a live performer, having learned how to play guitar from YouTube video tutorials, and bringing songs from his two albums to life on his “No Place Like Tour.”
“I have a guitar in my hands for 80% of the show now. And for me, that was my goal, because it just makes it so much more fun,” says Pillsbury, chatting from Berlin at the tail end of the tour. “I think it helped people see me as a musician and get a slightly better look into how involved I am in the music and in the studio. It helps solidify myself as a proper musician.”
That hasn’t been much of an issue offstage, as his fan base swelled in the wake of his 2024 sophomore album, “Kansas Anymore,” and its deluxe version, which was released on Valentine’s Day this year. The project was an evolution of sorts for Pillsbury, once a budding rapper who went by Dillis. He subsequently ventured into light electro-pop as the rechristened Role Model with his 2022 full-length “Rx” — an album that valorized love and his relationship with Emma Chamberlain. But the dissolution of that romance led him to make “Kansas Anymore,” an album that paired often upbeat, Americana-tinged tunes with melancholy lyrics.
“I think it all started with me finding a sound for myself that worked and felt authentic finally, and I felt like I’d settled into the type of music that I wanted to make,” he says. Pillsbury also saw his stock rise on social media, where he leaned into viral memes and collaborated on videos with Renee Rapp and Laufey. The fervor around him caught the attention of Lena Dunham, who cast him in her Netflix rom-com “Good Sex” alongside Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo, and brought him to New York this summer to make his acting debut.
“She is truly one of a kind,” he says of Dunham, who gave him a list of rom-coms to watch as homework. (He only watched one, “When Harry Met Sally.”) “They all made me feel extremely like a part of that family, and it was fun. It just felt like a summer camp, and that helps with any nerves.”
He even found time to start working on his third album, which he’s been recording with songwriter-producers Mason Stoops and Taylor Mackall. He has a visual mood board on his phone and a playlist of music from the 1970s as inspiration.
“I had the world [that the album would exist in], and then as soon as we got in the studio, it was more progress in the first two weeks than I made in a year and a half on the last album,” Pillsbury says. “So I’m very happy. There’s a weight off the shoulders. There’s no pressure. And it’s already better than the last album. So I’m feeling good.”
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