OLIVER TREE

Today is his birthday.

Oliver Tree would have been 33. 

It’s so poetic that such an artist would be taken away from this earth so early. It isn’t fair, but by now most of us know, life isn’t fair. Why do some evil people live a full existence, while beautiful noble people visit us for a brief amount of time. 

It’s so hard to write this piece, because I genuinely am a fan. I was looking forward to watching him live on August 4th, at Terminal 5. 

I had at all planned out in my head, I’d be bopping to his music while he’d be singing live in the same room with him, jumping around, singing along. I was so happy with the expectation of arriving at a moment that will never be. If I sound dramatic, it’s because I am being dramatic. 

Naturally I’ve been confronted by death, I’ve lost loved ones, that saddened me deeply, some have crushed me, but this hits different.

The untimeliness of it all. It seemed surreal when I got the news. My reaction was insane, you would think by the way I reacted that I knew him personally.

The disbelief, the anger, the horror of it all. 

If I’m feeling this, I can’t even imagine what his family is feeling. Most likely immense emptiness, but also, they must feel so tremendously proud. Proud of a young man that lived life on his own terms, that cared for people deeply, but didn’t care what people thought of him. To have made art for a world that so desperately needs it. What an honor for them to have created, cultivated such an incredible human being for this world to enjoy. 

I mean, Oliver started piano lessons at three, money well invested. He turned out to be an absolute prodigy. His music, astronomically skilled. 

Most music snobs have the notion that sophisticated music should be complex and intricate, but on the contrary, those highfalutin songs that they call music are so tragically forgettable. On the other hand, we luckily have Oliver’s music that creates instant earworms. So if you’ve never heard of an Oliver Tree song, proceed with caution, you will be singing it in the shower for the rest of your life. 

It is undeniable that not only did he take performative risks, but he also took them musically. The childlike singing, intermingled with the rapping, the overlaying of voices, the chorus in the background, the dips in the flow and the melancholy sounds that surprisingly made you feel elated and want to dance to it. Quite a feat. 

There is no one else that sounds like him, what an achievement. 

People have become so blasé when referring to music, always stipulating that there are just so many notes one can use and that naturally music has had no choice but to become redundant and predictable, a remix of a remix, basically. 

Welp, Oliver surely threw a gigantic, World Guinness sized wrench at that theory, didn’t he. 

Not only did he manage to create catchy tunes, but simultaneously make them radically original. One of a kind works of art, truly masterpieces. 

By now, for some, emotions have settled. 

What was shock, sadness and sorrow is shifting to acceptance and for most a celebration of life type of feeling. 

Most of us want to rejoice at how truly fortunate we are to have experienced his music, his comedy, his words, his range of emotions, including the courage to be vulnerable, all the while under the spotlight.

This world looks at you under the lens of a microscope only to dissect you and make you feel like you’ve done something wrong. 

Oliver welcomed that energy, antagonized it, even. 

He’s given us hope that there is still great art to explode, Art isn't stuck in the yesteryears. He’s made it abundantly clear that there is still new, when it comes to art. He is our modern day Freddie Mercury, Andy Kaufman all wrapped into one extraordinary human. 

How lucky are we to have our own Picasso. 

I just hate the fact that we will never know just how far he would go. It’s baffling, at the amount of art that he’s left behind for us to discover. We aren’t worthy of his art, yet Oliver still wanted to share it with us. Most likely we will never fully grasp what a massive and highly evolved person he was. He understood the assignment,  that life shouldn’t be taken seriously, because it can all go away in a blink of an eye. To stress is futile, instead go out there and create, enjoy the ride.

Rest easy Oliver.

Thank you for your art and involvement in the art that will be created in the future.

Thank you for sharing your heart with us.

Thank you for sharing your music with the world. 

Thank you for sharing your laughs, you tried so hard to make us smile. 

And especially, thank you for sharing YOU with us.

Forever grateful,

K.

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