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These Roots Run Deep: Dominic Fike
Sitting in his home in Laurel Canyon days after releasing his sophomore album, Fike seems at ease. What continues to set him apart is how genuine he remains, playfully downplaying his charm with self-deprecating humor — the kind that would make you forget he went from dropping music on SoundCloud to being one of the most prominent artists today, with over 4 billion streams on Spotify alone, and having starred in Euphoria, the second-most watched show on HBO since 2004 behind only Game of Thrones.
Sunburn is arguably Fike’s most honest work to date; a heartfelt ode to his hometown of Naples, Florida, and a window into the people, places, and belief systems that gave him perspective along the way. Fike’s story is a reminder that, as drastically and quickly as your life can change, what matters most is remembering where you come from.
[Originally published in office magazine Issue 20, Fall-Winter 2023. Order your copy here.]
DOMINIC wears PANTS, SHORTS, MESH TOP, LONG SLEEVE TOP, HOODIE by GIVENCHY, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (left)
DOMINIC wears SKIRT by DUALITY JUNKIE, THERMAL by GUESS, SWEATER by LOEWE, JEANS, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (right)
Was there a moment in your adolescence in which you thought “Okay, I want to do that"?
You know when you’re a certain age and you snap into consciousness and that becomes your first memory, like everything before that you might as well have been a fetus?
Yes.
My earliest one of those was kind of sexual. It was funny. I opened up one of my mom’s CD books — she loves R&B, especially women leading that shit, but I remember opening it to that album where Lil Kim is like sitting down and it was just a view of her back and her legs and giving it to my mom. She put that into her CD player without thinking about it because obviously she loved it. I recall it playing through the speakers and hitting me and realizing what was going on, and using my facial expressions to convey the emotion. That was like a big flipping of the consciousness switch for me.
Then, I don’t remember whose house I was living in at the time, but at some point as a kid I’d sit in front of the TV and eat cereal with these other kids and watch MTV videos back when they would always have music videos and performances going on. I thought that was so cool. I remember Eminem came on stage to perform “My Band” with D12 at one point and he looked so goofy rapping. I just thought about how fun that looked and that maybe one day I could do that. It’s funny how that was the moment, because it’s just a fucking parody song. It wasn’t like I saw the Beatles live or some shit.
At what point did you start playing guitar?
I went through a darker phase as a kid, when my mom was hanging out with the richer people in Naples and drinking a lot more. Those people get fucked up, man. They drink hella wine and I’m pretty sure they all swing. I’d imagine that they all get drunk and fuck each other. You know, that kind of shit rich people do when they’re bored and all they have is wine and Jimmy Buffett?
They used to play a lot of Uncle Kracker, songs like “Dancing in the Moonlight,” which by the way is a great fucking song even though I've heard it a million times outside of every bar in Key West. I would hang around them because obviously I’m with my mom, waiting for her to go home so I could go to sleep. And I always had my guitar with me; they would ask me to play a Led Zeppelin song or something by the Eagles, so I took it upon myself to learn them so that when an old ass drunk man would ask me to play, I could get him to shut up. That’s when I really got into those classic rock bands. People in Naples really respected those guys. I didn’t really care for them growing up — musicians like Don Henley and Paul McCartney — because none of them ever looked like me, but their melodies were instilled in me so I continue to listen to them throughout my life.
DOMINIC wears JUMPSUIT, GLOVES, COAT by SAINT LAURENT, GLASSES by JACQUES MARIE MAGE, HAT is VINTAGE, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN
How did you bridge these early influences to the rap sensibility that flows through all of your projects?
In high school people were shocked that I didn’t listen to rap music. Other kids would tell me that I’d have a hard time relating to anyone there if I didn’t. Then I got my first iPod and Limewire came around so I really explored and figured out what I liked. I listened to a lot of Lil Wayne and Emimem, and other rappers that were really good with lyrical strategy; Eminem was good at making sure that vowels weren’t too close to each other.
As well as a lot of my mom’s favorites like Usher, Omarion, Mario, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey. Of course Biggie … and Puff.
MTV being one of the only channels for music consumption back then meant everyone was looking at it. How do you deal with being in the public eye with social media today?
I think that I’ve done a great job of laying it all out there and that honesty is going to set the tone for the rest of my career. I won’t have to worry about creating some kind of story or maintaining an image. With honesty, all that other shit goes out the window, giving me time to focus on what matters and is bringing people together, which is the music I’m making.
Where were you when working through this project?
A number of places physically, and honestly I started the record pretty fucked up mentally. I was addicted to a lot of different substances at the beginning and had to take some time to get myself together, but after about a year, I was able to finish the songs, taking them where I initially imagined, and finding myself here now.
Now that it's out in the world, does it feel like you’ve expelled the experiences and emotions that went into the record?
Realistically it is an old album, considering I made the songs a long time ago and they’re just coming out now, but I feel that it’s a little too early for me to actually treat it like an old album. I would say that the release has taken a lot of pressure off. I was stressed out the days leading up to it, because it had been such a long period of time since I had dropped any music. I was worried that it would flop, but putting it out there took all of that stress away and so far the reactions have been positive so that’s nice.
To me, there’s a clear upward trajectory from your demos to your first album to this tracklist. You continue to draw from very personal experiences, yet transmute that into lyrics and sonics that are universally relatable.
I agree. I think it's a step up no matter how you look at it.
Even if people don’t relate to the subjects exactly, the sonic narrative draws people in. You don’t even need to understand the words. It’s almost seductive in that way, like something by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Ramones.
DOMINIC wears SWEATSHIRT by MADE BY MENA
That’s something about music that has always excited me. The subjects that I decide to tackle may not always be super relatable, but you can always expect a message to be carried through the sonics.
I think that I’ve been good at writing lyrics and leaning into the sonics with them, making sure that there’s some kind of collaboration between both. “I’m Sick” is a good example, because it’s like a revenge song with a very playful backtrack. It’s a weird juxtaposition that I think drills the message in that nothing is ever that serious, which is another theme that I have been trying to hold on to through this chapter of my life. It was even the last lyric in my last album: “Don’t take that shit too seriously.”
Has there been a growing pressure to take yourself seriously?
There wasn’t one at first, that kind of developed later on. When I started reading articles and tweets about myself on the internet, that’s when the pressure really settled in, but I’ve since been able to ground myself and always try to remind myself that, again, nothing is ever that serious.
What was it like seeing yourself on a TV show for the first time?
Nerve-wracking! It was literally my first time acting and I didn’t know if I was going to be shit on from all angles or not, but people were pretty receptive up until that guitar episode. I always say that you do what you can and just put your best foot forward when possible. I actually rented out a theater and invited a bunch of my friends and people from the show to watch the premiere and realized that I do not like seeing myself act no matter what, even if people tell me it’s good. I was in this movie that just dropped, Earth Mama, and I haven’t even seen it yet.
I have to go do ADR right after this, which is basically when you overdub the audio of a movie and I can’t stand watching or hearing myself when I do. Once I walked out of this ADR session I did and David Schwimmer came in at the same time as I left and was like, “The acting is phenomenal man” and I’m there thinking the complete opposite.
[Laughs] What goes through your head when rewatching?
I’m just like, “Look at this stupid face, this stupid guy right here, like what are you even doing?”
Do you approach acting the same as you do music?
Ideally, it would come from the same place, but sometimes it comes from a more jaded area in the brain. I'm just like, “Ok, gotta look cool … make sure your eyes are okay, make sure you're breathing properly.” “Do people blink like this … when they're saying these words?” It can be super vain and self-analytical, but when it’s done right, I feel like it’s pure just as with music.
You mentioned earlier how the experience of making music can feel ephemeral to you despite hours passing. There’s also this childlike whimsy — maybe the word is openness — throughout the album that makes me wonder if there’s an age you defer back to when you write.
That’s a good question. I’d say that a lot of it addresses current themes that are taking place in my life right now, and then I sort of use bits and pieces of the past to string it all together. Except for a song like “Ant Pile”, which is definitely written about high school. That one was almost like a writing assignment in which I wanted to tell a story. I think that was the only song that I consciously made a decision to reach back and pull from the past.
The title track, “Sunburn”, seems to thread it all together into one coherent narrative. Do you mean it literally when you say, “When I die baby, lay me in the sun”?
“Sunburn” is really an ode to Florida, like when it’s all said and done, that’s where I grew up, where my moral compass was developed, and where I want to be when it’s over. I mean, not super literally, like when I die, bury me in Florida no matter what, even if I’m living in Little Canyon. But that’s where my heart is, those are the people that raised me and I’m sticking to that.
Does your mom like it?
She loves it. I called her like ten minutes before the record dropped, and was like, “Man, I think people are gonna fucking hate this shit mom.” I made it so long ago, I started having doubts that it was a good time to drop it, like I missed the mark or something, but she was very encouraging and told me that it would be fine.
She’s honestly been so supportive throughout my entire career, although the amount of time we have to spend apart is a bit saddening. That being said, it’s still such a step up from the life that we lived and I imagine that she’s very proud. I know that if I had a kid I would want them to do what they have to do, as much as I may want to hang on, be around and love them.
DOMINIC wears FULL LOOK by GIVENCHY (left)
DOMINIC wears JUMPSUIT, GLOVES by SAINT LAURENT, HAT is VINTAGE, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN (right)
Could you have imagined any of this? Releasing your second album, preparing to go on tour...
I mean, like, I wasn't super young thinking to myself, “Okay this is what’s gonna happen and this is how I’m gonna do it”, but the closer I got to it, the more I could see it as a possibility. However, I never imagined something of this scale. I always thought that I’d be like an artist’s favorite artist, or something like that. More like Daniel Johnston than someone with any actual commercial success.
I wasn’t hyperfocused on artistic integrity, but that eventually became the backbone of what I was doing. I just wanted to make music that sounds like this because I hadn’t heard anything like it. I knew that I had to make it myself. The closer I got, it became more unexpected and so much bigger than I first imagined. You have to dream bigger, I guess, which is an odd thing for me because I just wanted some bread and some listeners and I would have been good, but I feel like there's so much more to do now.
I guess that’s just the way life goes. What’s your next move now?
Just as I’ve released this album, and am preparing to go on tour, I’m sitting here worried that this is the end of my career, you know? I still have no idea how it goes every time, which can be rewarding, but is also sometimes very stressful. To answer the question, I have no fucking idea what’s next. I mean, I don’t even know what's gonna happen the day after next, like… a lot can happen in an hour.
DOMINIC wears SWEATSHIRT by MADE BY MENA, SHORTS by 3MAN, SHOES are TALENT’S OWN
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On Obsessing With Nation of Language
The album itself embarks on a similar thematic journey, delving into the peculiar ways we change when we become passionately fixated on something — whether it's another person, the latest news, or those perennial, unanswered questions about life that we all contemplate.
Last month, office stopped by their Brooklyn-based studio to talk about yearning, hobbies, Shakers, and the divine.
What have you been up to?
Aidan Noell— We played some festivals and shows on the West Coast and Europe, which feels like a lifetime ago.
Ian Devaney— We were in Germany, then Poland, flew from there to San Francisco and did some West Coast festivals. There's this Baltimore show, then we have iNDIEPLAZA at Rockefeller Center put on by Rough Trade, the record shop. It’s an outdoor show, there’s a ton of bands, it’s going to be fun.
When you're not on the road, is there something you all love to do together? Aside from making music...
ID— I feel like as soon as we get off the road, we're all just pedal to the metal, always working or mixing something new. But when we're on the road...
AN— We really like eating, going to restaurants together, shopping together
Alex MacKay— We have a lot of common interests. We share music, podcasts, books, all that stuff.
Being on the road is sort of a liminal space in and of itself — you spend a lot of time in-between destinations. Does that allow you any creative freedom?
AN— We try to make the most out of the time that we have on the road, seeing things in-between cities or exploring the town we’re in. I always bring two books and say that I’m finally going to read, and then I get in the van and immediately I’m just sleeping, listening to music, and zoning out for hours at a time.
AM— Yeah, I like to tell myself that I can focus in the van to a similar degree, but it's definitely not true. I've been trying to crack that code a little bit, because we've been on the road around four months a year, and that's like — a third of my waking hours. So if I have other interests or relationships, I need to find a way to actively nurture those while I'm on tour.
ID— I kind of look forward to letting my brain brain off on the road. Because this time when we’re working on new songs — it feels like the busiest and hardest work — making sure the songs are fully thought out the first time you hit the stage with them.
AM— There’s the writing stage, when you’re in the world of ideas, which is fun. Although, if you have choice anxiety, like I do, there’s something very challenging about that sometimes. But then you’re in the recording phase, the world of technology. And finally, you're on the road, back in the physical world and its straightforwardness.
ID— At that point, you get to achieve the flow state in the live performance. That’s the ideal each night, to lose yourself in it.
AM— That's what I think is somewhat liberating when you’ve been stuck in the other two phases for a long time. Now, all we have to do is the thing. We know what the songs are. The real magic of performing — if there is such a thing — takes place when you've internalized everything, and then you start to focus what's happening energetically in the room.
AN— The goal really is to lock in with eachother — become the machine together, let yourself give up all of the thoughts going through your head.
Totally. That makes me think of bands like the Ramones — even if you don't listen to or understand the lyrics, you're still experiencing a profound rush of energy when you see them live together.
ID— They’re also a great example of a band that practiced so much. They would play their whole set backstage before they went on stage, so that when they went on, it was like they'd already done it.
I really love the imagery that’s been a part of the Strange Disciple lead up; it's so absurd, very in tune with our day-to-day. How did you figure out how you wanted to visually translate the sonic message of the record?
ID— Up until this record, all of the design work has just been me, even though I have no training in it. Thankfully, I knew that I wanted the vibe of the band to be rooted in a kind of minimalism — which was convenient because I couldn't do anything more than that. For this record, I wrote the song “Sole Obsession” and there was this line about a strange disciple in it, which felt like a title that could unite the project. Because so much of it is about obsession. It felt like a strange disciple represented what we become when we’re infatuated with someone and tie ourselves in knots.
A friend of ours connected us with the artist Christian Little, who collaborated with us on the painting on the album cover. It came together in a very cool and natural way.
AN— It’s also funny because the disciple's pose on the cover — it's basically an exact outline of Ian's hands. Ian had this very specific vision of the person in the house, so we took a picture of his hands and sent it to Christian. It's his hands, and several people have gotten them tattooed on their bodies.
The record makes me think about a book I've read a few times, Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson. She talks about desire and infatuation as a circumstance of proximity. Obsession as the distance between yourself and the thing you desire, and how shortening that distance until it’s gone depletes the initial infatuation — she paints obsession as a feeling that always exists outside of and adjacent to you.
AM— Yeah, she talks about the ice that melts in your hand.
Exactly. So, how did obsession become the thematic element of the project? Was it something realized subconsciously?
ID— When I sit down to write, I want to take myself to places where I have been feeling the most, in my own life and what I’ve witnessed in my friends’ lives. And I guess I must have really been on a mental kick about the times in life when you want something so bad — whether or not it's good for you to want it. Basically being between agony and ecstasy...
It's like you exist between death and salvation when you’re obsessed with something. It’ll either kill you or fulfill you.
ID— Yeah, exactly.
AM— That’s what I should've gotten you for your birthday, Eros the Bittersweet.
Aidan Noell— I did just get an Anne book because I'm obsessed with volcanoes.
Autobiography of Red?
AN— Yes, and I’m also reading a Susan Sontag book called The Volcano Lover, which is a historical fiction book, which is not something I’ve ever read by her — any fiction at all. It’s this beautiful love story that gets twisted in all directions around Mount Etna in the 1700s. It feels so much about yearning, love and these intense, fiery emotions, which aligns perfectly with the phase that we’re currently in.
ID— The thing that I like about yearning, and in particular, unrequited yearning — is that there’s almost a joy in the pain. It's the most alive you can feel because you’re feeling so much and that in itself is such a beautiful thing — to know that you are so alive, even if you’re also having an intense emotional experience. It makes you realize how profoundly you exist.
When I sit down to write, I want to take myself to places where I have been feeling the most, in my own life and what I’ve witnessed in my friends’ lives.
It’s interesting to realize that duality of existence, how you can be obsessed with the shadow of yourself — what you want to become part of you. Then, when it does, if you do get what you desire, the intensity dies out and you're out searching again.
AN— It’s a different state of being.
ID— I’ve been reading the book, I Love Dick, by Chris Cross. In it, this woman and her husband meet this man, become obsessed and start furiously writing him letters that they never send. So he becomes part of this bizarre love triangle that he has no idea about. But to them it’s this raging, passionate thing. They have these stacks of letters piling up and they’re contemplating ever even sending them to him.
AM— It’s that triangle of desire: you, the beloved, and the idea of yourself with them. When you meet them, you recognize that there’s a part of you missing, but in trying to fill that space with the beloved, it’s like they dissolve right in front of you.
AN— Because the reality will never be the same as the expectation. It might be better, but it's still never going to be what you perceive it would be, which awakens a void within you where you're like, "I thought I knew what I was, but now I don't." It's insatiable.
As if the hunger remains because you need your expectation of your existence validation? I didn’t think about it like that before.
AN— Yeah, I think it’s really interesting when people don’t let themselves experience those feelings, like people who marry their high school sweetheart. They just decide to be in a monogamous relationship and never allow themselves to experience those feelings as an adult.
AM— Or people channel it into something else. We were just at the Shaker Village yesterday, which is an intentional society that is completely celibate and doesn't allow marriage, don't allow sex or having children. The only way they continue their community is by fostering orphans, giving them the choice to remain in this very specific Protestant Christian sect.
ID— No kidding, like, “Hey, do you want to stay here or do you want to get laid?”
AM— Not an easy sell for a 15-year-old who has only known a life of labor. But yeah, I was just thinking about that a lot yesterday because they must have had to channel their desire towards their relationship with God and spirituality. There's probably some people who can do that and others who really struggle with that. I would say that I’m part of the latter, but it's a really amazing thing to think about.
AN— Yeah, there’s also those therapists or friends or family members that are like, "Try to watch a show, or why don’t you try knitting?" And that’s just not going to change my thought process. I can't funnel my energy that way.
There’s this need for us to categorize things and to interpret. There’s also this idea of human choices, creation and destruction — or destrudo and libido, the urge to create, the energy that arises from the Eros (or “life”) drive. Or to Freud’s point that all humans are driven toward death and destruction; self-sabotage is that, but so is something like marrying young and accepting that this is the life you’ve chosen to die with.
AM— There’s the religious urge to save yourself from certain things because they’re labeled as demonic or devil-work, which is understandable. Those things can destroy you. The highs can be high, the lows can be lows, but people also don’t talk about how cool the Devil is [laughs].
ID— He’s a good hang!
[Laughs] I mean yeah, it also feels like a commentary on the never-ending cycles we find ourselves in, an exaggeration of the masked life we've adopted as humans.
ID— Christian Little had used and iteration of the mask in one of his older paintings.
[Alex brings down the record for reference]
ID— Previous to that, I had all of these images of monks and other things, but once I saw the way he used these masks in his paintings, something seemed to click for me. A monk felt a little too serious, it just didn’t achieve this sort of absurd levity — the absurd places you find yourself emotionally when you feel so dedicated to something…
AM— A little bit like a clown.
ID— It’s what you were saying before that as soon as you sort of have this feeling once, it’s something you’re always seeking. I feel like, in the sequence of the album, the first song “Weak in Your Light” is pretty much the purest sort of love song that the band has ever written. Then the album ends with the song “I Will Never Learn.” In my mind, the record is a sort of roller coaster of highs and lows. There’s a sense of self-doubt and then an acceptance that you’re never going to stop doing this, so it loops back into the purest giving of yourself to something else, upon which everything begins again.
AN— In terms of the videos thematically, exposing the absurd nature of these obsessions in our video for “Too Much, Enough”, is much more heavy-handed in its absurdity than the “Soul Obsession” music video. It’s a song about the 24-hour news cycle and people who become obsessed with the rush of watching the news and want that feeling all the time. They seek out bad news to be pissed off about.
There’s the familiarity of an obsession. Sometimes you’re not chasing the beloved, but the feeling that you’re used to — of desiring something.
ID— Yeah, if you ask most people, they’re not going to say that they want to be pissed off about what some Congressmen did yesterday.
Sometimes it feels like I need something to do because I know I’m dying one day, so how do I pass the time while I’m here? Do I fill it with nothingness or some drama fed to me through this screen?
AN— [Laughs] Yeah, I know people who have MSNBC on all day long.
ID— Fox is what directly inspired the song, but then I did start to see a similar obsession on the left with Democrats. You kind of associate this mindset with Fox, but this is not a both-sides-ism, because Fox news is definitely, definitely worse —
AN— But the point is that we can all fall prey to being obsessed with bad news. During the election cycle, it was all anyone could talk about and that’s coming again, but I think we’re going to be better this time and learn from our social criticism.
AM— I think a lot of people are running from personal despair and it’s easier to move from that towards outrage. Outrage can feel more righteous, which I think is a much safer space away from yourself.
AN— In the Susan Sontag book, there’s a lot of this talk about the mob coming after French revolutionaries that were in Italy, and all the lower class people of the town who were coming to kill or steal shit from the bourgeoisie who were either for or against the Republic — they didn't actually want any social change, or the positive that could come of the Republic. They just got into the mob mentality and became addicted to coming together and screaming and putting someone on stake.
AM— People like to feel a part of something.
That's true, so they don’t have to feel so alone maybe.
Watch their newest music video below.
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Tate McRae on the Making of “greedy”
Watch the "greedy" acoustic performance and read the interview below.
FASHION CREDITS
TATE wears top DION LEE, jeans GUCCI, necklace TATE'S OWN, bracelet and rings ARSN, shoes R13
Michael— A lot of stars don’t really do acoustic covers of their own songs, yet you have quite a few. What drew you to doing acoustic covers of your own music?
Tate— When I first started writing songs, I used to post videos on Youtube with just me and my piano. And that's still my favorite thing to do — just strip back with only my voice and an instrument. I feel like that’s when I’m the most artistic and the most raw — when I’m playing an acoustic set. Sometimes when I'm on stage, my dancer instincts kick in and I just like to overperform. At the same time though, it’s really good for me to just sit down and get really into the music. That’s when I’m the most true singer version of myself.
When I first was introduced to your music — on a Spotify playlist — I didn't know your backstory at all. I heard one song and thought, “Wow, this girl is an amazing vocalist.” but I wasn’t aware of the fact that you emerged as a dancer. At what point did you realize that you could also sing?
Honestly, I've never thought of myself as a vocalist. I think I was really like an emotional kid. I had a lot of feelings but as a dancer you're told to shut up. And that's how you live your life: You shut your mouth and you dance. And I think there’s something about that that’s very wrong. Obviously, there’s so much that I want for dancers. But the biggest thing for me — aside from dancing — was writing. I’d dance for however many hours a day, and then I’d go home to my keyboard and write poetry and short stories and songs. That was my only way to express myself, communicating to people. So during middle school, I’d go through troubles with friends and relationships, and I’d always just go to my piano and process it through my own vocals. That was the only way I could get a perspective on things — if I wrote about them. I’d call myself more of a songwriter than a vocalist, because I feel like the songwriting is more the passion and the catharsis.
Did dance ever start to feel like work?
When I was around 16, I felt like I missed out on a massive part of my childhood. I didn't go to school very much. I was at an all girls ballet school and I was like, “Oh my God, I never got to experience anything that a normal child experiences.” And so I went through a phase where I absolutely hated dance, and all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends and write music. I really drifted away from it until recently, when I re-found my love for dance as a singer, because I realized it doesn’t have to be stressful, it doesn’t have to be forced. This is my true passion — I’ve loved dancing ever since I was a baby, and it came back this year just about when I turned 20. I feel like my passion has resurfaced, but it took a second, for sure.
Let’s talk about “greedy,” which is charting more than anything else you've released. How do you feel about that? I heard it was considered a risky decision to release a song like this?
I don't know why, but my natural instinct is just not to write a song like "greedy". It was really something that I pushed myself to do because I wanted to be able to dance. I was scared, I kept asking myself if I really could put it out, thinking that “This could potentially be the worst release in my career,” but I couldn’t refuse the sound at the beginning of the song, it's so new to me, and that ecstasy was too good to stray away from.
Once I first heard it I was like, wow you've really grown up — not that your other songs were younger — but , somehow this feels like it could be like number one, it has got that spell on it, you know what I mean?
Yeah, this one definitely feels like a progression and surely feels as if I have matured. At the same time, it feels like me exactly at this point in time in my life, which is a lovely reflection. That fear ahead of making it available to the public — also comes with great excitement, that particular point where you’re like “ok, crossing my fingers, hope this doesn't ruin everything.” I'm really happy with how people are reacting to it, they are loving it!
Besides for us just now, have you performed it live for an audience yet?
Yeah, last week in Philly actually. I performed it with the audience about an hour before it officially came out and — even the parts that I’ve only teased so far — they know every single word, the whole lyric. It's a very surreal sensation.
How do you feel about platforms such as Tik Tok, in relation to promoting your music?
There's a part of me that hates having to do social media. I hate posting, I hate commenting. I hate doing shit that stresses me out. Yet when it comes to teasing, it's the same shit I’ve been doing since I was 13, I just put my favorite sections of the song lyrics on a screen. So that part doesn't really feel like a pain in the ass. Neither does connecting with my fans. It doesn't feel like a chore but overall — going on social media, logging on Twitter, posting on Instagram — makes me wanna die sometimes, because I feel like it's such a draining thing. Unfortunately, today there seems to be no way to escape it, it follows the so-called business model.
I hear you’ve also been writing in Sweden — what’s that like, why is Sweden such a hub of pop?
Writing in Sweden was an incredible learning experience, but aside from that it was also so much fun. The writers and producers I worked with approach pop music as math — quite literally figuring out which equations make for the catchiest melodies. It really broadened my understanding of all the ways I can tap into my artistry and live out my pop girl-era, especially working with Max Martin Camp, he’s like the king of pop.
However, I don't know if I will end up releasing any music from Sweden, because my melodies aren’t my number one priority. My lyrics will always come first, they are my primary element, hence it was amazing to be around people who have various approaches to writing.
You grew up in Canada, is that what inspired the hockey rink in the "greedy" video?
I grew up in Calgary and my brother is a hockey player, so hockey has always been a part of my life. When I was contemplating how I envisioned the Greedy music video, I had just watched “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets”. I was so inspired, envisioning myself dancing in a locker room and driving a Zamboni. With the help of my creative director, Bradley J Calder, it all came together. I am thrilled with how it turned out – I feel my vision was painted perfectly by Aerin Moreno, the director.
The colors are insane. I love it.
Oh my God, yes! Music videos are her language. She helped me execute exactly what I desired -every set up that I would describe to her, I'd be like “The hockey room needs to be green, needs to be this and that,” and she gets it right every time. Her execution is flawless. And it felt right to right to all of us, for every person on our team it just made complete sense.
That's so precious, it’s a rare feeling.
Well, I feel like there have been a lot of earlier things I’ve put out where I just got put in clothes, various colors and elements that just doesn't really translate to me on a personal level, that’s why I felt like I struggled a lot after releasing my first album. I got told to do so many different things and present myself in such a specific way, it made me question the necessity of it all, and myself in the long run.
Around that time, people would always come up to me and say things like “ah, you're so much cooler in person!” And I’m like “I don’t know if that’s a great thing?”. It got me thinking about what I really want to say at the end of the day, and why I am pursuing this. I took a step back, cleared my head, and that space ended up being so crucial for going forward with my vision for this next album.
I really think that's such a common phenomenon - everyone's first set of visuals is usually far from what they really want to be. If you want to describe your next era, like in a certain color, what color would it be?
Definitely green and blue, that’s the vibe. I have always been such a tomboy, always teasing my feminine side but never really exposed it fully. Today I feel like I’m at a point where I’m finally able to mend the two together. I like wearing basketball shorts and crop tops on stage. And if you don't like that, you don't like hockey. I like hockey jerseys. And I like wearing a hockey glove on stage.
That's amazing, speaking about on stage — how is the tour going?
Tour is going on right now! We're almost halfway through, heading for Nashville tomorrow. It’s been awesome. I think the energy of the band has changed in the last year. I feel like they're so pumped and “die hard.” So I feel very lucky.
I just did two nights in New York and it was unbelievable. It was like my biggest venue and I was very grateful to be in front of so many people. It was sold out, full of people who know my lyrics, it’s truly so flattering.
A couple of nights ago you had a fan crying in the audience, how do you navigate those moments, are they socially awkward?
It's a super weird dynamic because if I'm internally feeling awful and feeling socially awkward, then my interactions with my fans are so awkward! But usually, I would say that I'm pretty good at it, like 98% of the time. I believe in the fact that if you want to make something awkward, you can make it awkward but you can just as easily make it less uncomfortable. I mean, I'm singing sad love songs, of course people are going to cry sometimes, it’s a weird profession. It feels a bit like a fever dream.
When you're at this level of success, do you ever have an existential crisis?
I had a massive month-long midlife crisis last year. I was like, who am I? I'm living in LA alone. I've been touring for a year now. What's going on? I can't just keep releasing music that I'm not super proud of. And I think that crisis was really important for me, because I was literally forced to go sit in the grass outside, and be like, “OK, Tate, who are you? What do I want in life? And where do I want to go?” That really brought me clarity. Basically, you have to figure it out for yourself when you're and I think hitting a low, that’s when you know progression is potentially coming your way.
Yeah. So I know that you're in the "bad idea right" video for Olivia Rodrigo, directed by Petra Collins. How was that?
It was so much fun. All those girls are the best girl ever: Iris, Maddie and Olivia, and then Petra is just like a fucking vibe. I finally found a girl group in LA that I think hype each other up and support each other and it's really hard to find some honest people these days. My circle is so tiny, and it’s by choice, because I only want friends around who are able to provide the best vibes for each other; do favors left and right. The video was so inspiring. I love Olivia, she's so talented.
I almost feel like we have entered a new era in pop, where people are generally more genuine towards each other amongst younger generations, do you know what I mean?
Yeah, honestly I think that the fans think there's way more drama going on.
Most of the time we're just best friends and no one gives a shit. There's a lot of bad ass females in this industry right now that are fucking killing it. And I think that we're all like you're in your lane, I'm in my lane. Let's crush it together and I think that's super cool and very unheard of.
Ok, last question. Do you have a favorite song off of GUTS?
Of course, my favorite is “making the bed”. Like the rest of the world, I fell in love with Olivia’s lyrics. The way she takes ownership of herself and her actions in the most poetic and relatable way possible. “making the bed” is so intelligent and elegant. It’s also just gut-wrenchingly beautiful.
