By Mitchell “Stitch” Stafford

There is something special about watching a band begin to find its footing in a city that isn’t its own.

For Omaha emo pop-punk band Public Figure, Rapid City is starting to feel a little less like another stop on the road and a little more like a place where people know who they are. The band has now made multiple trips to the Black Hills, including a recent performance at Four Winds Music Festival, and each time they return, more people seem to be waiting for them.

During a recent interview on HOT 93.1, Public Figure members Roger and Dolan talked about the band’s growing connection with Rapid City, the grind of building a career independently and a new chapter of music beginning with their upcoming single, “Sober Hungover.”

For anyone who grew up during the explosion of pop punk in the late ’90s and early 2000s, there is something immediately familiar about Public Figure. But the band isn’t simply trying to recreate an era. They’re taking the music they grew up loving and finding their own place within it. Roger points to artists like Avril Lavigne, Green Day and Sum 41 as early influences, while the band’s upcoming material digs deeper into the emo side of the genre with inspiration from Yellowcard and early Fall Out Boy.

Those influences became particularly important while creating the band’s upcoming five-song EP, “Create//Consume,” expected in 2027.

The difference this time was intentionality.

With the entire band involved in the studio and writing process, Public Figure went into the project with a shared vision. Despite each member bringing different individual musical tastes to the table, the pop-punk and emo bands they collectively grew up listening to became common ground.

“That ’90s, early 2000s nostalgia, it hits home for us,” Dolan said. “And I think in this new EP, it shows.”

Building Something Without Waiting for Permission

Public Figure’s story is also one of doing things the hard way.

The band is independent.

There isn’t a major label creating opportunities behind the scenes or a massive promotional machine sending them around the country. Instead, Public Figure has built its audience through relationships, local support and a willingness to get in the van and go. The band has traveled through more than 18 states and shared stages with established acts, including Boys Like Girls and Fuel. But those opportunities come with sacrifice.

Public Figure described an independent touring community where bands understand exactly what others are going through because they’re living it themselves. Sometimes that means traveling hundreds of miles to play for only a handful of people. But those handful of people matter.

“You could be playing in the middle of the Midwest somewhere to two people,” Roger said. “And it might be just the right two people.”

Rapid City is becoming an example of what can happen when those relationships are given time to grow. During Public Figure’s Four Winds performance, Roger asked the crowd how many people had seen the band before. A significant portion of the audience raised their hands.

Others were experiencing the band live for the first time but already knew the songs. For an independent band trying to establish itself outside its hometown, those moments are milestones.

“It makes it all worth it,” Roger said. “It’s a long time until you start seeing the fruits of your labor.”

‘Sober Hungover’ Introduces the Next Chapter

Now Public Figure is preparing to give those growing audiences something new.

The first glimpse is “Sober Hungover,” scheduled for release Sept. 4 and recently given an early radio debut to Rapid City listeners on HOT 93.1. The track serves as the first introduction to “Create//Consume,” a five-song concept EP built around seemingly opposing ideas that are actually more connected than they initially appear.

“Sober Hungover” is the first example.

For Roger, the title is also deeply personal.

After getting sober, a journey approaching four years this October, he began recognizing another kind of hangover: the physical and emotional exhaustion that can follow severe anxiety or a panic attack.

“I’m way too sober to feel this hungover,” he explained.

That idea became the foundation of the song.

It is vulnerable without feeling inaccessible. The experience belongs to Roger, but the emotion behind it is broad enough for someone else to hear the song and recognize a piece of themselves.

That duality will continue throughout “Create//Consume,” with each song exploring ideas that appear contradictory on the surface but become increasingly intertwined when examined more closely.

If “Sober Hungover” is the opening statement, Public Figure appears ready to push further into both the emotional and musical identity it has been building.

A Band Forged Through Something Bigger Than Music

Public Figure’s current lineup also shares a bond that goes far beyond rehearsals, shows and road trips. Roger joined the band in February 2024 after finding an advertisement Dolan had posted looking for a singer. Their first show together was scheduled just a few months later.

Then, one week before that show, everything changed.

On April 26, 2024, an EF4 tornado directly struck Roger’s Omaha-area home, which also served as the band’s practice space. Roger and his brother were inside. He recalled windows exploding, the house lifting apart and being thrown through the air before eventually landing and becoming buried beneath debris.

He survived, along with his brother and his 2 dogs.

When his new bandmates came to see him in the hospital, however, one of Roger’s first concerns wasn’t whether the show would be canceled. It was whether their equipment had survived.

“If our equipment’s all good, we’re going to still play this show,” his bandmates recalled him saying.

And they did.

Roger played that first show while dealing with injuries from the tornado. For a group that had only recently come together, the experience accelerated a bond that normally takes years to build. Since then, they have toured, written, recorded and continued expanding Public Figure beyond Omaha.

Rapid City has become part of that story.

Three appearances have turned strangers into familiar faces. Familiar faces are becoming fans. Fans are learning the songs and bringing friends the next time Public Figure comes through town. That is how independent music grows; one show, one relationship and sometimes even one listener at a time.

Public Figure thanked Rapid City for embracing them during each trip to the Black Hills.

“We love Rapid, man,” Dolan said.

And with “Sober Hungover” arriving Sept. 4 and “Create//Consume” on the horizon, the next time Public Figure rolls west from Omaha, there may be even more people in Rapid City ready to sing along.