Role Model Sets ‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ for August 7

Role Model’s next album arrives with a fictional name and a paper trail. ‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ will be released on August 7, ending weeks of low-key teasing. Earlier this year, a slim selection of fans received old-fashioned acquaintance cards in the post, each signed by a certain Chuck Timely. An Instagram account under that name surfaced soon after, offering little beyond a vague persona. The songwriter born Tucker Pillsbury has now claimed the project, making the connection explicit.

The first single, ‘High Hopes 3000’, is set for June 3. It marks a fresh step after a run of self-contained pop releases that built Role Model’s following without leaning on industry machinery. Details about the album’s sound or collaborators remain thin, but the rollout’s texture, mailing physical objects to strangers, then waiting, already splits from the noisy cadence of modern pop promotion. A pre-save for the single is live now.

Role Model is also confirmed for Reading and Leeds Festival this summer. The booking gives the album a timely live window and a stage that should reflect whatever scale ‘Chuck Timely & The Hourglass’ aims for. For an artist whose earlier work thrived on intimate bedroom pop logic, the move into larger festival slots and a more theatrical presentation feels like a deliberate turn. The fictional framing doesn’t just decorate the album; it looks like the organizing principle for a whole era.