Oliver Tree's Birthday Celebration - Los Angeles
The world lost Oliver Tree over two weeks ago now, just a couple weeks shy of his 33rd birthday as he was kicking of his World’s First World Tour in South America. I first found Oliver while scrolling through TikTok while on lockdown during the pandemic. I was immediately struck by the humor of his character Turbo and the heartfelt feeling of his music. His music videos played off of the absurdity of a prima donna celebrity while being visually mesmerizing. They reminded me of the quality of music videos I watched growing up. They told a story. It was all the more impressive that not only was he creating the music and this character and building this world, but he was also directing all these videos.
Watching Oliver's scooter storyline through the pandemic always brought unexpected laughs. He was a person fully committed to the bit. I never got to attend one of his concerts, but the clips I saw were an amazing conglomeration of a musical concert and a big performance art piece.
It broke me when I read the news alert about his accident a few Sunday's ago. Like so many other comments I've read online over the past few weeks, the grief has been really surprising and unexpected. I've never cried over a celebrity passing before, but I spent the next day sobbing in my office listening to his music and watching his videos and podcast. He had just begun his world tour and it really felt like he was coming into his own. He was starting to shed his personalities and let his real self be seen and it was a really lovely thing. It's heartbreaking knowing that we'll never get to see the rest of his evolution and the work he was going to make in video and music and art.
In a world that's becoming more and more vane and obsessed with how it looks and looksmaxxing, Oliver pulled things the other way. He encouraged people to love themselves, to not get cosmetic procedures to change themselves. He said he was uglymaxxing. His debut album with Atlantic Records was title "Ugly is Beautiful" and he always took the time to remind his fans that ugly is beautiful and that they were perfect just the way they were.
Oliver was very aware of his impermanence and how short life can be. He'd been speaking about it a lot lately and death was a theme he heavily explored through his music. He lost his cousin Wayne at a very young age and that made a lasting impression that shaped how he approached life. At 32, he had a will and plans for if he passed. One such plan was DR. TREE'S EXTREMELY EPIC ART GRANTS FOR BABY GENIUSES. It's a grant funded by donations and residuals from his work to keep giving to future generations of artists and to help them. You can listen to him talk about it HERE and make a donation or listen to the full podcast HERE.
His friends and team came together for Oliver's birthday yesterday and invited any and all to come get bowl cuts, his crazy sunglasses, and to sing along to his music. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate a guy who's work really resonated with me and whose loss has really shaken me awake to be grateful for every day I get and to try and make the most of it. Oliver lived his life to the fullest and shared love and energy with everyone he touched. He was an absolute inspiration on how to live. Here's far too many photos and a couple video clips and text intermixed from Oliver's birthday gathering at the Venice Beach Skateboard Park yesterday.
It was fun to watch scooters consume the skateboard park for a day. I couldn't help but laugh watching the line of people moving as they awaited their opportunity to take a photo with Oliver's record-setting scooter. I think he would have had a solid laugh seeing it become a sort of monument to him.
It was hard seeing Oliver's scooter get boxed back up. It was pretty glorious to see it on the Venice boardwalk, where it looked right at home. I got a couple more laughs even through the sadness of seeing it packed up. They pulled out one of the stilt legs from inside the box and brought back all the memories of seeing him ride it and the ridiculousness of that. It also got me when I noticed that they used some Burton snowboard binding to latch the stilts to his feet.
Heartbreaking to say goodbye, but I look forward to seeing what further unpublished gems come from his archive over time. I know he's not done.
Thank you, Oliver, for reminding me - who gives a fuck what other people think. I'll round this out with one of my favorite quotes of his that have been echoed since he left us:
No matter how strange you look, no matter how ugly you feel, you are beautiful. Life is sweet like a pineapple pizza.
