Biography:

Oliver Tree Nickell (June 29, 1993 – June 14, 2026) was an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and filmmaker. Born in Santa Cruz, California, Tree signed to Atlantic Records in 2017 after his song “When I’m Down” went viral[6] and released his debut studio album Ugly Is Beautiful on July 17, 2020, which included the RIAA gold and platinum-certified singles “Alien Boy”, “Hurt”, “Miracle Man” and “Let Me Down”. He achieved international recognition with his songs “Life Goes On” in 2021 and “Miss You” in 2022.

Tree published his second studio album, Cowboy Tears on February 18, 2022, his third studio album, Alone in a Crowd, on September 29, 2023, and his fourth studio album, Love You Madly Hate You Badly, on April 24, 2026.[7][8] Tree died on June 14, 2026, in a helicopter crash in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[9][10]

Early life

Oliver Tree Nickell was born on June 29, 1993,[4] in Santa Cruz, California, to Jesse Louis Nickell III and Christine Marie (née Begin).[11][12][13] Tree studied business at San Francisco State University for two years.[14] When Tree was 13, his cousin died from spinal meningitis, causing him to become a drug addict and dealer, which led to him being kicked out of his home. He credits music for saving him from his addiction.[15]

Career

2010–2016: Early career and hiatus

Tree launched his solo recording career as “Tree” in 2010. By then, he had made presentations for performances such as Skrillex and Zeds Dead. He initially self-released his music, releasing an album called Splitting Branches in early 2013. He sang and played guitar in a ska band called Irony, which was his first experience performing.[16] He would produce dubstep for a brief period of time, as well as performing at music festivals such as Wobbleland 2011 in San Francisco. At that point he mainly released music under the pseudonym “Tree”.[12]

At age 20, Tree signed with London-based R&S Records and released his debut extended play (EP), Demons in August 2013. The EP gained some recognition after Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke approved of his cover of their song “Karma Police“.[17] Tree eventually found himself on hiatus as he went back to school, studying music technology at the California Institute of the Arts.[14][18]

2016–2018: Return to music and Alien Boy

In March 2016, Tree returned to music, being featured on the song “Forget It” by Getter, a part of his EP, Radical Dude![19] In November of that year, he made his television debut, performing on Last Call with Carson Daly.[20]

Shortly after the release of “When I’m Down” by Whethan featuring Tree in October 2016, Tree signed to Atlantic Records.[21] That same year, he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts.[22] He released “Welcome to LA” on May 26, 2017, as his debut single as Oliver Tree.[21] In February 2018, Tree released his major-label debut EP, Alien Boy, along with the double music video for “All That x Alien Boy”. Tree wrote and directed the debut, which took over nine months to create.[23][24] He spent five months practicing freestyle monster truck jumping at the Perris Auto Speedway and performed all his stunts in the music video.[25]

Tree played at major festivals such as Lollapalooza and Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, and performed as a special guest at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival where he was subsequently named on LA Weekly‘s “The Best (and Weirdest) Fashion at Coachella” list in 2017.[23][26]

He was the supporting act on Louis the Child‘s Last to Leave Tour (2017) and[27] Skizzy Mars‘ Are You OK? Tour (2018),[28] and was scheduled to join Lil Dicky and DJ Mustard on the Life Lessons Tour Fall 2018 before it was canceled.[23] Tree toured North America and Europe with Hobo Johnson in 2018. Tree often wrote, acted, and directed sketches in comedy videos, and worked with companies such as Jerry Media.[29]

2018–2020: Ugly Is Beautiful and singles

Throughout 2018 and 2019, Tree released singles that would make an appearance on his debut studio album, Ugly Is Beautiful. On December 7, 2018, Tree released his second music video, “Hurt”, for a single from the album. He travelled to Ukraine to film the video, which he wrote and co-directed with Brendan Vaughan, an up-and-coming music video director.[30] Tree then embarked on the Ugly Is Beautiful Tour, performing songs that would later make an appearance on the album, including “Joke’s On You!” and “Waste My Time”. April 11, 2019, Tree released a standalone single, “Fuck”, with the music video being released on the same day.[31]

His fourth music video and single, “Miracle Man”, was released on June 7, 2019, with the video reaching 1.3 million views on its first day of release, and Tree also announced his farewell tour, titled Goodbye Farewell Tour, which occurred from September to November 2019.[32] Tree released his second EP, Do You Feel Me? on August 2, 2019, which includes the song “Introspective”. The EP received generally positive reviews from critics.[33]

On December 6, 2019, Tree released “Cash Machine”, a single accompanied by a music video. Together with the single, Tree announced his debut album, Ugly Is Beautiful, and announced that the album would be released on March 27, 2020.[34] On March 25, 2020, Tree posted a message to his Twitter page, stating that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ugly Is Beautiful would not be released on time.[35] However, on May 19, the album’s official release date was revealed to be June 12.[36]

On May 16, 2020, Tree set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest kick scooter, which he later uploaded a video of himself riding on in July 2020.[37][38]

On June 8, 2020, Tree announced his decision to delay Ugly Is Beautiful yet again, this time to July 17. He stated that, because of the issues of racism and police violence against black people going on during that time after the murder of George Floyd, he “did not believe it was an appropriate time” to release the album when “much bigger things” deserved attention.[39] On July 17, 2020, Ugly Is Beautiful was released.

Credits:

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