Through high-powered communications, Sutherland managed to find his way into the throes of the notably privatized Presley pantheon, the results of which, in part, bled into the fabric of his newest record, The Drama. Throughout these exchanges, he made sure to highlight the tokens he has extracted from Presley and applied into his own artistry. “I think that was a really good thing for them to see,” he says. “That I’m not just this new artist who thinks Elvis is ‘cool.’ It’s not just, ‘Yeah, I like ‘Hound Dog’,’. It’s a bit deeper than that.”

Do you think the audience receiving these ‘throwback acts’ can appreciate the sound in the way it was appreciated in the 60’s and 70’s?
Everybody’s doing it in a new way. But, I really see the same kind of hysteria. People are still melting from it. From a hip shake to a love song… timeless things like that, it’s never going away. It’s different, but I think people are hungrier for it now than ever, because it has been long enough, but not too long.

How do you find branding yourself as a modern artist following a very direct pathway towards the sights and sounds of the past?  
The more I let myself be me… I just kind of say and where what I feel, sing how I feel, and just AM how I feel. Sometimes to my detriment, probably. Authenticity, to me, is really important for this record. Sometimes it’s not going to be as ‘commercially pop,’ but… I think the coolest thing about music now is there could be 60 different kinds of pop stars. There could be everything.

You committed to the theatrical elements, specifically with the intro, “Welcome To The Show!,” and mid-album interlude, “A Tragedy!,” on this record. What are the major differences between your first album, In His Mania, and The Drama?
The first album was me arriving at the brand and the sound. This album, I already knew what it was. I knew I was doing a spoken monologue, key changes, harmonic guitar solos, no synths, all real instruments. The difference is that I absolutely, ‘went there,’ unapologetically, so you’re probably either going to love it, or you’re not, which is fine.

Songs like “Hater” and “Alive” from this record, and “Bitch” from your first, showcase how you combine moving parts to create a full production. What is your relationship like with filler moments?
I write knowing that I’m going to perform these live. I imagine it even when I’m writing a pre-chorus. We produce out a song, and then I find the spots where I, myself, want to hear more ear candy. Whether it’s a cup thing, a yell, an extra snare beat on a part with no guitar. But… these things need to be necessary and meaningful. I have had to learn that silence, little, tiny moments, are the most important.

“Baby” and “Put Your Money On Me,” near the end of the album, are the most contemporary rock-leaning. How did those come about?
Those are my Las Vegas rock n’ roll gamble songs. I’m a big fan of that riff heavy, Rolling Stones blues stuff. They lean more towards an 80’s sound, and I think that’s what’s cool about the record. That track listing took a long time to put together, because my favorite thing about those iconic albums is that they tell the story lyrically, but they also tell the story through the music… how the keys of the songs connect. An E song, to an E song, to an F song.

No one knows that, really. You’d have to know music to know that. You just know it feels good. Those songs fit, energetically, towards the end, because we start really big, we hit “The Tragedy!,” and get sad, and then go big again. We end heartfelt with “Rocket,” with Rachel Platten, and “Place Like This.”

What does theatricality mean to you?
I like the idea of, again, going back to Elvis, putting on this outfit, going onstage, being Gotti and over-the-top. I’ve always been drawn to Bowie, Elton John, Freddy, and Prince. They all did this thing that was so… extra. I’ve never been drawn to the muted grunge rock player. I love grunge rock, but that was never the thing I wanted to be.

We were writing this album… I wrote one song, and then we wrote “Drama.” As soon as we wrote it, I said, “The album is going to be called, THE Drama, this is the song, ‘Drama,’ THIS is the sound.’ Usually, for albums, you write 50-60 songs, and you choose the best 12. We wrote 16 songs and chose 14 of them. So, we wrote FOR the record. For the story.

It's a loose concept album… a more digestible version of a modern rock opera for Gen-Z fans, and fans of all ages, of course, but for today’s ‘shiny toy’ fanbase. There aren’t any 10-minute guitar solos. Someday, I think I will be an artist big enough to make THAT.

You’re doing it in a more palatable way, and then there are bands like Marianas Trench who are DOING the 7–10-minute thing.
I like them a lot. I get TikTok comments saying, “This is giving Marianas Trench.” When you see a new artist… you’re seeing a new person in this brand, this sound, this image. Our human brain subconsciously goes to, ‘‘What will help me make sense of this artist?” You take a little bit of this and that and you put it together. People commenting that stuff means… they care enough to think about that.

What do you feel is the contemporary male aesthetic right now?
What I have noticed is that ‘simple’ is back. The idea of plain clothes. The aesthetic of someone sitting in a white coffee shop in a white chair with an espresso cup and a notebook and pen perfectly set… wearing earthy tones, probably. Mine would be in a dark corner of a leather bar in New Orleans, or Memphis, with a mezcal and a ripped-up notebook.