Role Model: there's no place like home

Role Model’s second album ‘Kansas Anymore’ finds a path through homesickness, heartbreak, and finding yourself. Check out our latest Dork Mixtape cover feature.

Words: Neive McCarthy.
Photos: William DeSena.

There's no place like home. Close your eyes, click your heels three times and repeat that sentence. You might just be transported into the world of Role Model's second album, 'Kansas Anymore'. Otherwise known as Tucker Pillsbury, Role Model found the idea that absence makes the heart grow fonder began to ring truer and truer. Living in LA, processing a relationship breakdown, and discovering a new maturity and outlook, the 27-year-old found his heart clamouring to return to his home of Maine.

"It's a lot of things," Tucker explains. "I was spoiled to have been born and raised there. It's truly a beautiful place with some of the most beautiful people. I don't know how to describe it. You have mountains, you have the ocean, it's beautiful. You have everything. Yes, it's a little bit colder, but I grew up always being outside. There was no desire to be inside, watching TV or playing video games. I never did that because I got the privilege of growing up in such a beautiful place, and I think I missed that." 

LA's thick heat and busy lifestyle couldn't have been more different from what Tucker had left behind. Though each has its virtues, when feeling homesick, those disparities became more and more stark.