Oliver Tree, the musician who imbued pop with absurdist humor, died in a collision between two helicopters in Rio de Janeiro while on tour in South America, Associated Press reports. He was 32.
Tree began his career in the early 2010s but didn’t get a viral hit until 2017 with “When I’m Down,” catching eyes for his signature look: an unmissable bowl cut, ’90s parka, and enormous pants. That led to signing with Atlantic Records and doubling down on his vision with a major-label budget. He dropped his debut full-length, Ugly Is Beautiful, in 2019, where he upped the mayhem with garish videos that put a microscope on meme culture, going from boat explosions to obnoxiously large props to million-dollar VFX. He quickly followed it up with 2022’s Cowboy Tears and 2023’s Alone in a Crowd. His fourth studio album, Love You Madly Hate You Badly, arrived in late April.
Tree appeared on the cover of Alternative Press in 2020, clueing us in on his wildly eccentric concepts: “It’s not some kind of elaborate plan. It’s just me putting together my life in a specific way and being able to share it boxed together with a little bow that presents everything I have as a human into one piece. Which is what you’ll find in the music videos: All the extreme sports I’ve done, all the music, the singing production, the directing — these are all the things I have to offer. It’s a mixed bag of tricks. So to define Oliver Tree based on one thing alone would be inappropriate.”
