Who is Chuck Timely? ROLE MODEL, aka Tucker Pillsbury, is still getting to know his alter ego and the narrator of his third album, Chuck Timely & The Hourglass, but he knows two things to be true: First, Timely is a big Bruce Hornsby, Fleetwood Mac and yacht-rock fan, as evidenced by the throwback quality of the piano-forward melodies he favours (most apparent on “High Hopes 3000”, the album’s sunny first single). And secondly, Timely is single and looking for love. Pillsbury may be stepping into Timely’s shoes for a few songs, but Pillsbury is adamant that Chuck Timely & The Hourglass is a work of nonfiction. It draws from his own experiences, specifically the lessons he learned during a transformative period in which he did a lot of soul-searching between relationships. “I had a lot of questions in that time, and I put them all onto the album: Does love come around, or do I need to come around to it?” he tells Apple Music. “I don’t think you should ever put yourself through something on purpose to make art, but I do think love songs born from that drunkenly dating scene are interesting because you’re not comfortable yet.” These questions play out in the songs themselves. Opening track “Chuck’s Mantra” sets the scene: “I am deserving of something real/Something true, someday soon.” “On ‘Good Thing’, it’s this moment along this journey where I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I found love,’” he says. “And then ‘Joy’, you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe I didn’t.’ I like the ups and downs of that and how you can make love songs from what could be a one-night thing.” Timely is, then, less an alter ego and more a vehicle for ROLE MODEL to tell the truth about himself and his feelings with a new confidence. “I think this is my best work,” he says. “When there’s layers to peel back, I think that is a lot easier when you know who you are as an artist, and when you feel like you’ve found yourself.”