Shirt and Trousers Paul & Joe / Vest Wax London / Shoes Duke + Dexter / Necklace and Ring Tom Wood

First of all, how was your trip to the UK? You’ve had a busy schedule!

Yeah, it was good. We were just trying to fit in as much as we could while we were there. We were doing pop-ups all over and we were doing interviews. We did this shoot which was a lot of fun. Yeah, so it was definitely busy, but it was fun. I feel like I kind of thrive when I’m busy because then I can’t overthink anything.

Yeah, I’m exactly the same. It’s better to be busy for me. What were the pop-ups like in London? How did the idea come about? How did it all go down, and what was it like meeting your fans?

It was actually something we started on the last tour because the tours sold out which was crazy and then I continued to get DMs from fans saying, “I can’t get tickets. Can you put more on sale?” kind of thing, and me and my manager were talking about it a while and we were just like, “How do we get to give the people that didn’t get a chance to get the ticket some sort of show?” We were like, “Let’s just do tiny pop-ups before the actual show in front of the venue and we’ll announce it the day before.” We tried it once in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, and it worked. I just feel like it’s really cool to get that close to the people who have been supporting me for however long. That’s how they kind of started. They’ve been progressing ever since.

Shirt Sunspel / Vest Wax London / Jeans Marni from Coggles / Shoes Timberland from Allsole / Bracelet Tom Wood

Yeah, it sounds like such a good idea. I mean you must get a lot of crazy fan interactions too though. What was the craziest thing a fan has ever done?

Hmm. There was a moment when a fan came for VIP and she was just like, “I don’t even know the music. I just want to take you out today.” I’m like, “Okay…” and then I didn’t know what to do, so then my tour manager just intervened which was kind of funny, and then she followed us after the show to a place, which was bizarre, but that was one weird thing that happened. But honestly, besides that, it hasn’t gotten that weird. I think sometimes it gets deep which throws me off for a second but yeah, that’s probably the weirdest thing that’s happened so far, but also I’ve just been on one tour so far. I mean, check back in next summer.

Full look Gant / Top Sheep Inc / Shoes Duke + Dexter / Necklace Tom Wood

Oh wow, that’s giving Baby Reindeer! Obviously, you’ve catapulted to stardom so super quickly. Do you still find it overwhelming or how do you handle it day to day now that you’ve grown so much over the past year?

Thank you for saying that. I’m just grateful that there are people here who are down to listen to what I’m doing, because of obviously how hard that is to find and rare. I think I’m just trying my best to just meet everyone that is a fan and just kind of create the coolest experience possibly can for them for being here and being supportive. And yeah, that’s kind of how I’m doing it, it hasn’t affected my life in a negative way yet. I don’t know if it will but it just hasn’t. Sometimes people stop me when I’m walking somewhere and ask for a photo, which is fun. I think that’s fun. It hasn’t been too insane.

Shirt & Vest Wax London / Jeans Gant / Shoes GH Bass / Necklaces Pond London and Bleue Burnham / Sunglasses Moscot

That’s good! Sounds like it is very balanced. So you have got a new single that has just come out, “Our Way.” Can you tell us a little more about it?

Yes, it’s the fourth single off of this upcoming album called Rockwood. I’d say it’s in the same world as “Good To Be” and “Belong Together” and I hope it all works out. It’s kind of this upbeat, kind of celebratory, warm-feeling type of song. It’s basically just about me being in my 20s and I guess I’ve noticed what every decision you make feels like when we’re this age. It feels so impactful and feels like it’s the final decision you’ll get to make. That causes people to feel really lost in a lot of ways. And then I think just in a larger sense most of us in this life are lost and we don’t ever fully know what we’re doing here. But we just find moments to celebrate with each other. It’s about those moments where you escape the kind of anxiety of feeling like you’re making the wrong decision or feeling lost and you just have fun with your friends and then it all works out in the end and you find your way and what you’re meant to do. And yeah, I made it in Seattle which was fun, and then I got to collaborate with this producer that I looked up to for a while in this old converted horse barn-like studio, which is really just this incredible space.

I love that, it definitely sounds very relatable. We are all just winging it, aren’t we?  Do you still feel pressure to make the new songs just as successful as your previous ones which went pretty much viral?

Yeah, I guess I think whenever I put out any song I’m hoping that it finds the audience like that, and it finds a lot of success because I believe in it and that’s why I put it out but I think I’m happy about these upcoming songs. They are part of the story of this album and “Belong Together” is doing what it’s doing and this is just another element of it and hopefully, it does just as well. I’d probably drive myself crazy if I just focused on trying to make songs that were as big as the previous song because then you just start getting unauthentic.

Top Marni from Coggles / Jeans Sandro / Necklace Pond London / Shoes Grenson / Ring Bleue Burnham

Yeah definitely. So you are releasing Rockwood very soon. What else can fans expect from it?

So one of the things I’m most excited about for Rockwood to come out is that it’s got that upbeat, kind of happy optimistic feel, which is very much who I am but I’m human so there are other elements to me that obviously get sad. Sometimes there are insecurities that I have a lot and that’s what a lot of these other songs that fill out the album are, there are softer, acoustic songs. There are a few more kinds in the realm of “Belong Together.” I’m just excited to show different parts of myself in this album because I’m not that one-dimensional thing that I feel like I might be coming across right now. I’m just excited for these other parts of me to be out into the world.

Shirt and Trousers Paul & Joe / Vest Wax London / Shoes Duke + Dexter / Necklace and Ring Tom Wood

So when you are working on a song, what does your process look like?

Usually, I feel like I write the songs first and then I’ll try to produce them, but I feel like for the most part when I write something it’s about 95 percent done the first time I sit down because I have this theory that I won’t be able to tap into the same headspace that I was in that moment. So I try to write everything in one sitting and then more or less I try to keep to those lyrics unless something’s really bad and needs to be changed. And then the production side I would say I’m definitely way more of a perfectionist. Although even that I’m kind of loosening up because I think there’s something about imperfections, and I’m such a perfectionist or I’ve notoriously been my whole life and I tried to make things as perfect as they can be but I think for something creative it’s actually better when there’s imperfections. It shows the humanity in it. So it’s about balancing the imperfections. You can’t just have something that’s shit, you need the balance. Maybe there’s a weird little voice that happens, but it’s unique to that moment and you can’t do it again. So it should probably be in there or you hear this string on a guitar that you weren’t supposed to but it feels cool.

Shirt Sunspel / Vest Wax London / Jeans Marni from Coggles / Bracelet Tom Wood

That sounds like the best balance possible to be honest. Let’s talk about your tour which has sold out in less than a day in North America and Europe. That’s insane, but also what were your favorite moments and equally your most challenging moments on that tour because it was also the first tour, wasn’t it?

My favorite moments. So we started doing the pop-ups in Europe. I would say those were some of my favorite moments, to be honest. I also got to bring a lot of my friends out with me, a lot of my band members are friends and honestly one of my best friends from home came out because he’s just good at fixing things and being the guy for everything. He was driving the van. So it was fun. Just like having our little crew and experiencing that for the first time was a lot of fun. I think enjoyed being able to create an atmosphere that I’ve always dreamed of creating at these live shows and watching that come from a vision when I was building out the setlist to actually a thing in real life and creating this feel-good energy. For example, people leaving the show feeling better than they came and creating a really nice memory for everyone in that room. And I would halfway through go into the crowd and we’d be singing. I’d go in unmiked with a few guys from my band and we would just be singing “Party in the USA” or I chose a cover that people would all know just because if there was any awkwardness or whatever, it immediately broke that. Everyone in the room was screaming the song with me and that’s kind of the vibe that I was trying to create. There’s not something that’s happened that was super challenging. It was just really fun. It was a really cool experience. It was my first time. So everything was just kind of awesome.

Shirt & Vest Wax London / Jeans Gant / Shoes GH Bass / Necklaces Pond London and Bleue Burnham / Sunglasses Moscot

What an epic song to cover at a gig as well! Sounds like exciting things are in the works for you with your album and more that can’t be unveiled yet as well. Thank you so much for your time!

Follow Mark