Featuring a hilarious tongue in cheek personality, outlandish outfit, and a scooter-riding obsession, it's impossible not to be fascinated about Oliver Tree and his ongoing antics. He's a twenty-seven-year-old music-making meme, scooter pro, rapper, comedian, internet troll, vape god, and filmmaker hailing from Santa Cruz, California. Sparking the colorful eccentric personality of Napoleon Dynamite mixed with offbeat humor, Tree's character Turbo is one of few people that can pull off his signature look consisting of a bowl cut, 80's windbreaker, and JNCO jeans in style. Growing up in a musical household, Tree became the lead guitarist of his middle school band, Irony. With his musical interest broadening, Tree began a love for hip-hop and DJ'ing where he opened up for artists such as Skrillex, Frank Ocean, and Tyler, the Creator. That love then transitioned to pop and folk music. He collaborated with a Chicago producer to write his first viral hit "When I'm Down" in his apartment closet and the rest became history. With over 150 million streams in 2019 consisting of Tree's previous EP's and various genre-blending hits, Tree is excited to release his first full-length studio album "Ugly is Beautiful" on July 17th available on all platforms. I talked to Oliver about a crazy story that happened while recording his song "1993", his love of scooter riding, and much more:

James: How did you get started in music and go from a meme god to a viral superstar?

Oliver: I've been making music my whole life. I've had tons of different bands and I was a DJ. My projects had multiple different names and rebranding, but the birth of my current character started on Vine.

James: You traveled in the Pickle Family Circus. What was that experience like for you and in what ways did it change you?

Oliver: My time traveling at the Pickle Family Circus was eye-opening. I saw some performers there that shaped me. It trained me for life on the road as a touring musician.

James: When did you first start rocking a bowl cut and why did you decide to include that look in your character persona?

Oliver: It's the only haircut I've had in my entire life. To be honest, I was too scared to get any other hairstyle so it's stuck with me. I remember one time a barber tried to give me another haircut when I was six. I started crying and ran away mid haircut.

James: Your new album Ugly is Beautiful is dropping on July 17th. Can you tell us about the project and the creative process behind it?

Oliver: I've been working on it for almost 5 years now. I've made thousands of songs and this is the fourteen tracks I've finally narrowed it down to.

James: What's the meaning behind your look in the Bury Me Alive music video?

Oliver: The meaning behind the ballsack chin is simple. I guess you could say I've exposed myself as a dickhead

James: What does Ugly is Beautiful mean?

Oliver: No matter how strange you look, no matter how ugly you feel, you are fucking beautiful!

James: What's one rumor, true or false you'd want people to spread about you and why?

Oliver: One rumor that people always ask me about is if my bowl cut is real. This is something I openly talk about. The bowl cut is fake. I've shown it fall off during music videos and people still think it's real. I think it's hilarious!

James: What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you while working on a song?

Oliver: When I was recording my song "1993," my recording engineer Jacob Dennis started having a grand-mal seizure in the middle of my verse. He started shaking and I thought he was messing around so I finished recording. When I was done with the part I saw he wasn't up yet so I ran into the booth and called 911. It was super scary. It's crazy because that recording is the take I ended up using in the final version of the song.

James: What have been some of your favorite memories on tour?

Oliver: My last tour was a disaster. I ended up firing most of my touring team and a lot of people tried to sue me because I breached their work contracts so I'm dealing with headaches from continuing legal disputes. That's about all I can say right now. My side of the story will be told at a later time.

James: If you had to switch lives with another rapper who would it be and why?

Oliver: There's this new guy who I featured on my album named Little Ricky ZR3. He's the only one I'd want to switch lives with. I'm happy being Oliver Tree, I don't want to be anyone but myself. However, I wouldn't mind spending a day exploring that dude's brain.

James: How did your love of scooter riding start? What kind of scooter do you have?

Oliver: My love for scooters started when I got my first razor at Christmas in 2001. Currently, I have a custom fabricated scooter from my buddy Nico up north. It's hand-painted and extremely beautiful!

James: What are your favorite tricks that you can do?

Oliver: My favorite tricks are big air stuff, mostly flip tricks, and double backs. I even landed a couple of 1080s before the accident.

James: What was the experience like scooting professionally?

Oliver: I used to ride pro in high school but my senior year I had a bad accident where I was going down this 30-foot roll in, going about 25 miles an hour. Out of nowhere, this little pebble showed up. I hit this thing and went flying 15 feet. I got knocked out but I put my arms out to break the fall. I broke both wrists and the joint that connects my thumb to my hand.

After the crash, I realized scootering was too dangerous and I needed to find a career that I could have more longevity in. I wrote my song "Hurt" about that crash and it recently went gold. The accident changed my life.

James: What's the wildest thing you've ever done?

Oliver: I once went on a family vacation to Burning Man. I ate a bunch of acid and ended up running naked through the desert. I was so high I was just watching movies. I was watching my naked body on the front page of a newspaper that said "boy overdoses" and then I saw all my family members crying at my funeral with everyone saying "he was such a good kid but he did too many drugs." I've done a lot of acid but never experienced anything like that.

Anyways, I ended up running naked through the desert and

almost died for real that night. I was hitting my head on the desert floor, trying to rip my head open to take my brain out of my head. I was saying bye to my mom, dad, brother, and little sister. That experience changed my life. Luckily, I had music to fill the void that I was trying to fill with drugs...

James: How are you hoping to improve your craft over time?

Oliver: I'm going to keep trying new blends of genres, exploring new sounds, and working with new people. I'm trying to push art forwards through the way I mix genres, the way I promote it, the way I make music videos, and the way I document it.

James: What can we expect from you next?

Oliver: I'm writing some screenplays, and working on trying to make some feature films in the next few years. I'm going to be releasing a lot of documentaries next year and have filmed my first feature-length documentary but it might take a long time to edit.