{"id":53202,"date":"2026-03-04T16:01:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=53202"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:01:58","slug":"interview-peter-mcpoland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2026\/03\/04\/interview-peter-mcpoland\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Peter McPoland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Cameron Driskill<\/span><\/p>\n

Interview by Kathy Doan<\/p>\n

Peter McPoland is an American singer and songwriter originally from Burlington, Vermont and raised in The Woodlands, Texas. He had a kick start on TikTok in 2021 when he posted an acoustic version of his hit song \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d that gained millions of views. Just at the age of 25, McPoland has opened up for artists such as twenty one pilots and Imagine Dragons. In September 2025, he released his sophomore album titled \u201cBig Lucky,\u201d which he is currently on a world tour promoting with a stop in Boston at Royale on February 27. McPoland has a unique discography of indie folk music mixed with alternative rock. He is currently signed under Columbia Records.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathy Doan (KD):<\/b> It is so good to finally get to speak to you. How was playing at the Brooklyn Steel last night?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter McPoland (PM): <\/b>Nice to meet you! Brooklyn Steel was good. How are you?<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> I\u2019m good; I\u2019m excited to see you play tonight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> I\u2019m glad you can make it!<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> I heard your tooth got chipped last tour in Boise. This time around, you broke your finger there. How did that happen?<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> Kathy, honestly, I don\u2019t know\u2026I think that I just get so much adrenaline or something. The finger incident, honestly, I feel like that really woke me up. That sucked and it hurts so bad that it kind of flipped it for me, [but] I always chip a little bit of my tooth. Eventually, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll just have none, but when I broke my finger, that was the time I decided that I don’t want to break anything anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> At least not while on tour! I recently saw TikTok’s of you performing \u201cSwing Low, Sweet Chariot\u201d on tour. It\u2019s one of my favorite hymns to sing at church, and I know that \u201cRoll Away My Stone\u201d from your recent album is also biblically based. I was wondering – what is your religious background?<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> Yeah, yeah\u2026My dad was a big Catholic. We went to Catholic Mass, like, every single Sunday, since I was a baby. I think there was something kind of cool about it to me in a way. Bob Dylan and I think Bruce Springsteen in their earlier writing always kind of had these Catholic references. There was always, there\u2019s such a grandness\u2026like an allegory. I feel there\u2019s a big (precedence) in traditional folk where it all kind of leads back to the church in a way. I think that when I was younger, listening to traditional folk and then going to church every Sunday, it felt kind of romantic to me. It was the biggest constant in my life for so long, so it\u2019s hard not to reference it, I guess, you know? It just was everywhere. Those songs, I mean, [at] Catholic Mass, they never sing the good songs [like] \u201dSwing Low, Sweet Chariot.\u201d I always wish that we would sing that\u2026there\u2019s something really beautiful about that hymn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> It\u2019s really nice. Speaking of folk, how did you make the transition from folk at the beginning of your career, with your first few singles, to rock with your debut album \u201cPiggy,\u201d and then with \u201cBig Lucky\u201d where it\u2019s a mix of both?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PM: <\/b>It stemmed from half-wanting to be able to move with the shows. I felt like I didn\u2019t have anything that was heavy\u2026I kind of missed playing a heavy song once in a while. When I did \u201cPiggy,\u201d I was like I don\u2019t want to play heavy for the whole set. So I think it\u2019s bouncing around trying to find a balance. \u201cPiggy\u201d is nice to play every once in a while on the set. I feel good about that album, but I also think I was a lot angrier back then. I was going through a lot. I was 23, I\u2019m not that much older now, but it\u2019s just a different time. I think I was angry and now I\u2019m not, so it swings back to folk when I\u2019m not as confused, you know?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> How did you get the opportunity to open up for Imagine Dragons, knowing that your discography is all alternative and folk [where] Imagine Dragons is really pop-forward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> Honestly, can I be honest? I don\u2019t know how. But it was awesome. Well, we started that tour with a different setlist. We were opening with \u201cDigital Silence,\u201d and we did that for, like, three shows. The audience didn\u2019t like it. It was kind of cool because you realize for some crowds, if you open with \u201cDigital Silence,\u201d you\u2019re opening with the heaviest, biggest song. Some people liked it. But this crowd, they weren\u2019t into that. So we changed [the opening track] to be more singing focused. That was a cool learning experience for me. I think that really informed me. So man, it was cool, playing in big rooms. We played Red Rocks Amphitheater with them and that was insane. So, I\u2019m really grateful for that. Red Rocks is so cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

KD: <\/b>That\u2019s amazing. Red Rocks is one of my dream venues to see one day. I know that you\u2019re originally from Vermont and you later moved to Texas. How does it feel like to be back in the New England area? And do you have any special memories of living here?<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> This whole section, it\u2019s nice. But I feel like I haven\u2019t lived here. I feel like I\u2019m at peace with the fact that I don\u2019t really live here anymore, so it doesn\u2019t feel as nostalgic as it used to. When I\u2019m in New Jersey or New York, there\u2019s a little bit of nostalgia. Yeah, with Boston, I feel close to it, but I also feel like it\u2019s far from me now. There was a time in my life when my sister lived in Somerville, Massachusetts for a while. That was a while ago, but whenever I\u2019m here, I remember that time in my life. So yeah, it\u2019s always cool to come back. I haven\u2019t been to Boston in a while, so it\u2019s cool to be back and think about where I was last time I was here.<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> You\u2019re in the bus right now it looks like, but have you been inside the venue yet? The Royale, it\u2019s beautiful. I really love it.<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> We\u2019re at it. Honestly, I woke up about 20 minutes ago. I couldn\u2019t fall asleep last night. We\u2019re parked in an alley, so the light doesn\u2019t really come in. But, I was just in a tomb for the last seven hours. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve played here [but] it looks like it\u2019s gonna be crazy. So yeah, I\u2019m excited.<\/span><\/p>\n

KD:<\/b> Awesome, I\u2019m looking forward to it. I just have one last question for you. A lot of members at WTBU are hoping to work in the music industry one day. Do you have any advice for us?<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s advice, but I do think the music industry to me is like trying to get into a locked door [when] you don\u2019t know how to open it. Like, no one will tell you how to open the door, and you know what\u2019s behind it, but no, there\u2019s no blueprint at all. There\u2019s a knowledge that comes [from] just sticking with it. I just feel [that] individuality and a belief in your own abilities is the one thing that cuts through in the music industry. There\u2019s a lot of confusion and there\u2019s a lot of paths that you can go down\u2026I\u2019ve tried to fit into a lot of corners of the music industry. What I\u2019ve found is, when I\u2019m just absolutely being my honest self and I\u2019m not thinking about it at all, the doors tend to open a little bit more freely. If it\u2019s even advice\u2026I remember before I was in it, how confusing it was, and I tried to change\u2026to fit the mold, and I found that the most rewarding thing was to believe in your own vision and believe in what you want to do in the music industry. If you have that individuality, I think that it really pays off well.<\/span><\/p>\n

KD: <\/b>Yeah, one hundred percent. That definitely makes sense. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to talk to me and I am really excited for the show tonight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PM:<\/b> Thank you so much. I appreciate it, I appreciate it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This interview was edited for clarity.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Cameron Driskill Interview by Kathy Doan Peter McPoland is an American singer and songwriter originally from Burlington, Vermont and raised in The Woodlands, Texas. He had a kick start on TikTok in 2021 when he posted an acoustic version of his hit song \u201cRomeo & Juliet\u201d that gained millions of views. Just at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25741,"featured_media":53203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,1523],"tags":[2667,138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53204,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53202\/revisions\/53204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}