Leroy Australian Australians don't joke they're not like they're like they're serious yeah he'd be like I don't get it he's like is this American humor I'm like I'm [Music] Canadian it's a slightly smaller Round of Applause but it's none the more
impactful please welcome tap mccr almost better if you will more more point it's a little more thought poignant thank you Tate Thank You For The Music thanks for having me and thanks for rolling the studio to talk about looking forward to
getting a chance you know we we had a quick chat at you know toward the end of last year but the album wasn't done it wasn't finished and I could tell that you I could tell that you were searching for answers you didn't even know yet yeah I'm like I don't know yet it's
really really not done right right but you're back now and I'm about to hit you with some real hard questions I'm just kidding the album's no the album's great and um I know you must be very proud of it but I could tell that finishing it
was you were having to really get to that point where you could let it go when we spoke you didn't feel like you were there yet when we spoke no not at all at all I also like was right in the smack of like the last two weeks of it yeah where we were just like what even
is the order of it what's the so what is that like for people who are listening who've never been in that situation where something you've put so much time and energy into is hit a final stage and without that stage being complete there
is no execution of the project what is that feeling like for the artist for me at the time it was just very overwhelming because I'm also everything comes together at once like I'm very visual with everything so the videos and
the the artwork and everything needed to feel like a full project before I could even like explain it yeah I had like zero perspective on and you're also on SNL so it's also like hey that thing that you're supposed to do when everything's done it's like The
Benchmark moment to launch it we're going to do before the album's actually yeah that was it was so reversed no disrespect you with the best management company in the business no one's saying otherwise but you know it landed you know that's definitely it definitely
landed we say haven a hit record and then trying to finish an album with that momentum I think is also a unique great challenge mhm because you're sort of existing in this Micro World of everyone wants to talk to you about this one song
and poor you know poor oil on that fire yeah but you're like it's got to be a part of something of course um and that's like the that was the missing piece that I was trying to figure out the whole time is I had like this one anchor and I was like hey what's the
explanation for all of this and and I think it's it's so weird because there's such a fine line between your personal life and your art and when you don't have your personal life figured out and then you're trying to explain it through
it just like takes a second for it to like fully digest and for even me to be able to explain it um so I was doing all these performances and everything and I was just like I need to figure out the root of what I'm trying to say what I'm trying to say um and that just took a
second but before like oh clever clogs over here comes and it starts annoying in a heavy kiwi accent asking like what's it about I'm like I don't know explain yourself I don't know what I got from listening to the record was there was a lot of
self-examination going on as well going you know all the way back to the roots of this and kind of what where was my growth been from Calgary like that song was really interesting to me when I got to it because we're not used to people
who are you know have are achieving their dreams and are performing at the highest level and writing at your level and get to do things like SNL taking time to sort of sit there and analyze your behavior from when you're a kid I mean it's funny because you know I
could do a big performance or something and I feel like going back home sometimes can still feel like the biggest problem in the world like that's the most overwhelming time ever I feel like you put on sometimes like um like a
shield when you're doing hard things in life and then you have to go back and do the easy things and it's like the biggest task in the world we see it um and I think that's how I felt whenever I went home is because everything everything hits you all at once and for
that song in particular I was just like it is so wild how I have this whole career now back in LA and I live alone and I'm 20 and I feel like I have all my together and then I get back home and I'm like oh man I'm remind I'm like why am I the same person like
nothing is nothing has changed I'm still an annoying daughter I'm still annoying sister well I was going to say that's the that's the key word that you seem to be able to be focusing on here and it's sort of like again kind of
self-awareness slash processing your own behavior kind of way like was when you were a kid were there times when you felt like your energy was misunderstood that your dreams what you were trying to achieve was misunderstood I mean kids
even your friends can be cruel if they feel that you're doing something or thinking something that they don't understand or haven't caught up to yet does that make sense yeah um I mean that's what got me into writing in the first place was just my inability to
communicate I just had no idea how to like talk about any of my feelings and as being a Dancer too everything's so physical and you kind of just get told to shut up and do what you're told and um that was one way of expressing myself and then I in order to find any
perspective on anything I'd have to write poetry or or stories and um music was the only way to like actually communicate with my friends or my parents or my brother I would like write songs to tell them how I feel cuz I didn't know how to talk to them would
you ever be in the room when you played them or would you send them to send them oh would never watch a person l in your song that's torture yeah that's called touring I don't quite know why what we're going I'm like yeah that would suck you're I'm about to do that all
year how important was do you think and you touch on this a little bit when we were talking this idea of performance and that that armor that you I think you used a different word but like that that sort of costume that Superhero type
identity that you apply when you start dancing and Performing and stuff and helping you realize that actually you were enough for yourself and you didn't have to live through the images of others it's crazy because I think just my even who I am in the studio and who I
am on stage is just so different than who I am in real life it's I and yeah that's the thing is how I talk about things is through my art and even when I go on stage and dance I'm like who is that is just a totally different Persona
that sometimes I don't even recognize the second I walk off so without giving away to too much but just to give people an idea about the two different kind of parallels there like when you're not in performance mode or you're not singing
or recording or writing or whatever I mean you were saying before on the show that you live on your own I mean needless to say you you're good in your own company you like that Solace yeah I feel like I just have I've always been like a introvert my whole life so I
spend a lot of time on my own and I think that's how I like charge and that's how I uh creatively get inspired as being on my own you talk to yourself I talk to myself all the time writing he just sitting on a laptop like staring off in the distance no but I mean I'm
not even writing a song I'm just walking around talking yeah it's just a problem I mean I do I do I do all the time I'll be in the car I'll be listening to a piece of music and I'll be like damn damn that's really speaking to me I'm
like you know there's no one in the car right like I'm just talking so you had to go some real places when you're writing this album you had to you had to get some honest places and to do that you need to be in trusted environments M
um what was the sort of ratio of comfort to moments when you realize this isn't the place for me to write this song like what was the balance between yeah these are the people I want to write these songs with I'm not sure this is the right session or the right collaborator
well it took a long time for me to even get to a point where I found my crew um I think I wrote so many songs as like probably 60 or 70 songs and um it's just the the different people you work with just Inspire different things they make
you speak differently make you like look at things from a different perspective and sometimes a really bad perspective um what do you mean by that it just sometimes you write from a like there's like different things that will like in
Inspire feelings you'll walk into a studio and you'll act a certain way or you'll like be a bit of a chameleon to like whoever's in the room with you and then the songs just sound different and you're just like why I that yeah because
the songs don't care about the identity that you're putting on in order to get through that session the songs are like uhuh this is in you I know so it's like it's like finding the honesty and finding the people who you actually want to tell the truth to um it's like if you
know I think just being being around people who make you comfortable and that's when you actually start writing the the real that's when you get uncomfortable yeah yeah yeah who's who's the most who's the straightest shooter with you who's the one who'll sit there
and go not good enough but in their own way uh you know me and Amy Allen work really well together I think um she's a beast she is a beast she's like the the coolest writer ever and I just honestly feel like she's like my older sister now
and so she gives you older sister energy 100% like she gives me advice I feel like we've gotten to a point now where um it's not only advice in the songw writing but it's in the personal life yeah because she's at a front row SE your personal life through songwriting
yeah really honestly it's like a therapy session every time but yeah yeah who's the most fun who's the one that that that will will prioritize the laughter and the joy in the process honestly tedar is one of the funniest people to
work with he's so funny he's such a genius like the the coolest guy ever he has the has like the best instincts and it's just so inspiring to me in to room with him but man that guy can talk he can talk he's just like he's unashamedly
suc 4 which I love he has the craziest stories like and you can ask a million questions and you could sit there and talk for like 8 hours about his just stories he's been on my show before and just being like yeah yeah yeah yeah I was in the studio with a d that album's
coming along I think it's coming out like three months or whatever I'm like Ryan stop talking I know there are six people right now who are scrambling for the phone call about to call me and say edit that out and I'm like I can't it's live bro no filter he's got no filter
but also that's the best way FYI there is no Adele album coming I just want to say you tuned into that halfway through that was an anot from like seven years ago yeah disclaimer um but yeah honestly it's it's just funny CU he has no filter
so he'll shoot you straight like the way you sound the way you're recording the way what's one of the things he said to you about a vocu foras that was just like Ryan are you kidding me yeah be like just no come on you have one you
have one come on T no I it's nothing like too crazy you'll just be like you need to pronounce like I can't understand a word you're saying and I'm like I'm working on it I swear like I can't hear a word you're saying song your world's like he's like what even is
that lyric I'm like I don't know Ryan like a school teacher like I'm sorry Speak Up in class I can't understand what you're telling me say with your chest okay all right I want to get into this song her feelings I asked you the nearly impossible question when
you've just finished a body of work that speaks as one voice if there's one song that's your favorite and you gave me the right reaction which was a combination of frustration and annoyance and then you gave me the answer which is what I
think my favorite song right now is hurt my feelings it kind of shifts depends on my mood um but honestly I've just found the task of writing a happy song the most difficult thing in the world because usually my writing is a way to talk about
everything that isn't great in my life and everything that I don't want to talk about um and I was just like so happy to write to a playful song it just like felt like I was in a good mood walking in a good good mood walking out I didn't feel like I just like ripped my entire
heart out after leaving the studio and it was just fun and I was I was really happy with the production and the way it turned out I think we get obsessed with sad boy and sad girl and sad day energy and I think it's like man you
know it doesn't always have to be sad yeah it gets tiring you know when it comes to um to finding your voice outside of and we've talked a little bit about this before about how obviously through movement you found an audience and inspired people and were clearly
able to emote through movement through dance when it came to finding your voice as a singer was it intimidating for you was it nerve-wracking for you to think how am I going to actually say something that isn't through my body but through
my voice I never really thought too hard about it when I was younger and I was posting YouTube videos of Just original songs it was kind of just like me like I said communicating to my classmates of how I was feeling that week um but then as I got older I was kind of like well
if I'm going to do this and I'm going to make this like my life's Mission I have to have a message and an overall idea and I think that stressed me out for a while because when you're 16 17 18 you're like I don't even know what I think about my life right now I don't
even know what I think about how I am as a a person and then that then for me to like be some sort of role model and talk other people I'm like I don't I don't have any advice I don't know what to tell you and so I think music became a
bit of a um I was like I don't I don't know what my perspective is and you as one shouldn't when they're 17 years old absolutely no um and so that's been something that as I'm getting older I think it's just like I've just realized
it it's for me the music is all for me and it's for me to be able to get off whatever's on my chest and not to think about other people always yeah I'm not trying to put you your friendship blast but it's a friendship nonetheless I mean you must talk to Olivia about this
because I can't imagine there's an artist out there whose words in particular are more analyzed from day one then hers I mean you know each of you are are brilliant in your own unique way but I feel like Olivia gets a lot of attention about who this is about what
this is about what are you trying to say like totally you must off be able to offer her some genuine support being in the Arts and being a friend for that it is really interesting once people start to care about your personal life and
connect the two because you start to like like I said there is such a fine line and you don't want to be the person it's like I would never go up to people and exploit my relationship or want to or talk about a person or you know that's not my personality but I'm a very
honest songwriter so I'm like I'm going to say the facts in the songs um and then it's so contradicting because then you hear the songs and you're like oh I sound like I'm trying to exploit this but I'm not well that's where I think
there needs to be a disconnection between your truth and the truth that we as people as fans are trying to elicit from you yeah there's they're not the same truth no and that's that's the the disconnect that I think um people should do with music is like because music can
be such a big range of things I mean it can go from so true to the story to like also a big exaggeration it creativity comes from wherever I can pull from three people at once and write a song I can pull from one person and so I think
people have to take songs with grains of salt sometime because as much as it can be you can relate it back to yourself and your own life it's like doesn't mean that it's about this person of the artist it you kind of have to like disconnect the face from the music
sometimes man it's pretty morish you know it's a hard disc connection to make you're not wrong I think for me what's really what really helps me as I was kind of maturing into my into my taste was to realize that actually it was an
opportunity for me to apply the song to my life and not dig more into yours 100% you know yeah and that's the point of art is to give it to the audience and it's theirs and now don't associate it with me what do you guys listen to when you're
driving around cuz she's into some fun man she listens to like rage and the pumpkins and like she got the Breeders on tour we need to give her another round cuz choosing the Breeders for a tour is such a nod so she's got amazing taste and like some really alternative
what do you turn her on to like what are you like no not listen to this h no we kind of just listen to like a lot of um like Noah con and um Zach Bryan and we also listen to I we listen to a lot of country music together I think just the
lyrics are our favorite part how do you write songs do you I've never asked you this like do you play instruments or do you write on laptops or do anything to get like Melodies and things going yeah I play Keys um not very well but it gets
me enough um which you need you yeah but I usually either starts with like a poem I write a lot of poetry and um or I'll get on the mic and it's usually just like my whatever comes first my initial instincts and I'll usually sing out
exactly how I'm feeling it'll come on to the mic and it'll be there one of the one of the great things that think Lan has done in recent times was um just was create more of a connective tissue between the poetry and songwriting and poetry within itself by releasing these
books and it's it's pretty amazing and would you do that I mean I'm sure you write a lot that doesn't make it into your songs would you ever kind of construct and release anything like that 100% I would definitely want to do a book one day I think um even if it was
just something I could it could be fictional and non-fictional and poetry and short stories together I think that'd be a dream it'd be very cool all right let me ask you a question that I I think only you can really answer at this
point given where you are in your life which is you know from your perspective within your generation with people around your age coming out of out of the education system and and You Know You observe things pretty clearly or you
couldn't put them into songs you have to be an emotionally intelligent observational person to write songs I think yeah um what are the sort of primary concerns that you and your friends felt as your time in the education system came to an end what are
the things not even fears and worries but the things that matter the most to you as you were starting to take your first steps out into the world to be to be an artist I think obviously this career path is such a risk it's because it's you determine everything you want
to do and everything you want to say and I could choose I could choose one day to do nothing at all and that's my choice or I could choose to you know make up a million different things it's it's all in your hands which is a a really a
scary thing to live by a scary way to live just like having No Agenda really um and I think also it's it's really interesting because you have to be in the right mindset to be able to create so it's not like you can just go to work one day and just be like let's get to
work and let you know you have to be in the mental state in order to create the best art and um I always feel like it's when my personal life isn't adding up it can be sometimes so hard to get in the studio and make the stuff that's going
to make your work life flourish so it's such a it's such an interesting thing and I feel like as over the last couple years as I've like grown up and try to figure out myself I feel like sometimes I disconnect from my emotions to try and
work harder and then I can't work because I'm disconnected from my emotions then I'm like what am I doing that's called R is block yeah and it it's a it's a really scary thing because you can't control it and you can't control one creative creativity Sparks
um and so yeah I'd say like it is such a risk but then when it when it is working and when you do feel it and when God does come into the room and that idea comes to you it it's the best feeling in the entire world world there's nothing
that beats it so it's like well said I was talking to an artist yesterday about this I don't want to say who it was cuz the brick was not yet not out yet it's coming out we were getting the conversation in place but um she was saying that uh she stopped for
personal reasons for quite a long time and she watched and no one ever put it this way she watched as the email slowed down and the gig stopped getting booked yeah and the metric started to dip and the and the stream started to drop and
she watched as the whole machine just came to a very slow halt yeah that's so scary scary right yeah but she said as she came out of it she realized that she started to write again and create music again that that it really did belong to her 100% And that all that stuff is
there and it can Cloud your judgment but at the end of the day if she chose to go into a studio and record something that was personal it was enough yeah and that's all it is is I think you can't think about um what's going on in the outside that's what kills it all all I
mean if you think about the pressure of it and let it get to your head it it can totally wreck why you do it in the first place did your stomach tip upside down when someone says hey come and play on SNL at prime time Saturday night around
America what do you go got this um it was a bit of both I obviously I was like really shocked that they asked like I was like this is bucket list where I was um it's one of those moments where this isn't real the whole thing felt like a
very big fever dream to me um and then I finished it and I'm like I can't believe that just happened um what was a potty like it was so fun we BL really cuz you can't drink and I'm sure been behind closed doors I'm sure there's a different rule for artists but at the
same time my were there I brought them my dad was geeking out the whole time like he just like yeah they were so stoked and they were probably more nervous than me because I kind of like go into my zone and lock in and you know
whatever but um my parents were so scared it must be a trip for them to have seen their kid be able to find that fifth gear from such a young age to know that you can go on that stage and reach the bar that you set for yourself and Achieve things at an age
where most kids are just trying to figure out how to get their homework done and play video games and figure out like what the next step is yeah well I give I give them a lot of Kudos because um they're just honestly like the best parents in the world and have always
told me to follow my passion and it's it's always been very self-motivated but have always been the extra push to be like well then why you why are you doing this like you got to you got to go forward if you're going to do this let's
stay here for a second because I think that I think that relationship doesn't get an enormous amount of credit you know it doesn't have to be parental it could be sibling could be friendship could be just guidance but yeah that idea of a reassuring word or or a heart
a piece of critical observation when you need it yeah um you know is there an example or is there a story or is there even just a feeling or an impr that Springs to mind about a time when you were younger and and your parents really
helped you get to that place where you knew it's like all right things have changed now like I needed that yeah I mean I remember me and my brother have been so competitive my entire life he's a hockey player he's older um he's older oh so you a younger sister so you are
kicking down every you're such a oh my God can you believe this though man no but no he's in trouble cuz can you imagine having Tate as a younger sister who's who's competitive no we were we were crazy when we were younger I remember cuz yeah he he goes
to Dartmouth and he's super intense about his studies and his hockey and um I just remember I was such I was little he's an all American Canadian yeah I was I was yeah literally I was a little sister and I just we were so competitive like always one uping each other and I
admired him so much so whenever he would do something I'm like I'm going to do something now and if you're waking up at 6:00 a.m. I'm waking up at 5:00 a.m. and I'm going to do 500 crunches and you're going to do 600 cres and it was like
chaos in our household and mean your parents are just your parents are just sleeping in on a Sunday morning drinking their coffee reading the paper just going what is outside this no we were literally 8 years old and I'm like uh I'm getting
the water and he's like I'm getting an iced tea and I'm like you're getting an ice tea it was it was like 8 years old like crazy so that was that was a big thing that I think like obviously I just feel very lucky to have an older brother
that I like admired so much um because that instigate a lot of like the motivation um but then also my my dad was just very um athlete mentality so he was like drop the mic get the work done put your head down like go for it and I
that just like fired me up anytime that he would give me something from an that's why have a very athlete mind and then my mom was my dance teacher my whole life so she was the creative in the house who was constantly playing music constantly giving me ideas
constantly just like making my life feel like my imagination um and so I just have a really amazing family and who our our house was just like buzzing all the time look at you going to comedy clubs I've never been no I've never been it
was my first time and I really enjoyed it do you feel sometimes when you go to a comedy club and I don't want to put your friends on blast who you went to but but but by all means speak on their behalf where you feel compelled to laugh because you were at a comedy club and
you paid for the privilege of laughing like do you think you're laughing at jokes that if some you saw on TV and you were lying on the couch you'd be like not fny you know I actually thought that was going to be the case I'm like I'm
about to have the most miserable night like fake laughing cuz I just don't I really don't find a lot like that funny especially like obnoxious humor sometimes but do you find yourself fake laughing nonetheless well it was so funny because me and my friends just
have zero filter so if we didn't like someone it was like I'm like we look like over here because I'm like if we don't like something we just like but then obviously it was like the all the comedians were un we had a you got to
tell me whether or not I can I can say who you went with because it's pretty clear that all these people have pretty amazing resting straight faces yeah like okay so you went with Olivia uh her videos rely on the fact that she can shoot you down real quick yeah real
quick right yeah ly Australian Australians don't joke they're not like they're like they're serious yeah he'd be like I don't get it he's like is this American humor I'm like I'm Canadian can we you're like I have more in common with you man we're part of the same
Commonwealth baby uh I he's got a special place in my heart that guy yeah he's awesome I just love him and I and I love where he's at with his career right now because I feel like he almost more than anyone in his peer group has broken
the spell of this expectation around a big song and then it's like actually I I I've got some control over this now I don't need to live up to that expectation anymore like I can be a career artist on my own terms and do things like Cuchi was saying say at my
own pace do you feel that for him yeah well he's so in love with music I think that's the that's the thing is he his taste is so good and um he goes into the studio and it's just all for the music he just and I think that's the coolest
thing even talking to him he just I I really admire him and um think he's just such an unreal artist he's got such a great um such an amazing natural ability to reach a Melody flawlessly but with imperfect emotion do you know what I
mean yeah he could be perfect in every way and it's like ah this is just too dialed in but he's so in key and so amazing at performing but he he leaves the emotion very raw yeah it's crazy skill very special you know I know what this album meant to you I could see it
in your eyes when we tried to talk about it last time and you were very gracious with your answers but I could see that it was you were still very deep in the in the the story mhm before I let you go cuz I've tried to S give you the space
to to get the information that you want to share out but what is the story behind behind this album there's a lot I think I go through there I was just honestly trying to process being 20 and living on my own again I think um I think I definitely was for the first
time ever walking to the studio uh with the approach of how am I going to dance to this and how am I going to perform to this which is funny because it's like quite there there not an enormous amount of dynamic dancing Rhythm on this record
there's a lot of thought really thoughtful kind of reduced arrangement of course I think there's um I mean you need to dance to to Tempo but you know what I'm saying right no I think all the uptempo records I just remember approaching it in the studio from how
does this make me feel as a dancer which I've never ever thought about my dancing in the studio before it's always been um where my lyrics came from and just the ideas kind of just like flowed out of me but and my subconscious um but this was
definitely from the approach of like how am I going to perform these songs on tour and what's it going to look like and what does the video look like and um that was really exciting for me that feel like it uh totally reinspection I'm so pumped holy yeah
that's amazing it'll be so cool it's my bucket list what's the date uh August 22nd how has your imagination run wild at that thought I mean the idea of just what you're going to be able to do in that space I mean performing at Madison
Square Garden is something you dream about and watch all your biggest Idols do for your whole life um so just even be like in on that stage and in that room and be headlining is just like crazy to me I just I just want to dance told you was I me being a little bit
inside basball here did Tommy or Jeffrey who told you you were going to do that uh both of them actually they took you to one side and we like hey we got news yeah they called me and they were just like this is what we're going to do and I was I started crying I was freaking
out just yeah just yeah dream just like everything I work for is for that just to be on a stage like that oh that's a great way for this to come to a conclusion everything you work for gets you to the stage you dream of man keep dreaming good to see you