Today, SCAD alumna Tori Kurtz (B.F.A sound design, minor in film and television), who performed under the name Mīlan, debuted her new song and music video “Lifted.”
Kurtz collaborated with a team of SCAD alumni to produce the music video led by Susan O’Brien (B.F.A. film and television), who served as the project’s producer, director and vision creator. “Susie hooked me up with all of these awesome people from the jump,” Kurtz said. “I am so happy I’ve worked with all of these people.”
Kurtz wrote the song before entering her first relationship after coming out. “It was inspired by the feeling of this weight lifting off of me after coming out to my family and friends,” Kurtz said. “It’s the whole story of really liking this girl and feeling really light and lifted…those feelings were new to me so I was like, ‘What is all this and how do I put it into the song?’ I feel I communicate best through music so I have to process my feelings into a song.”
The vision for the music video was to mimic the feeling of that lightness with imagery of people in various states of suspension . “There are a lot of shots of the different characters sort of levitation in different ways, which was mostly the idea we wanted to focus on,” Kurtz said. The music video was shot entirely in New York, some in the city and some upstate.
Kurtz had moved to New York after graduating in the fall of 2015. “I lived in the Boonies, basically, and I wrote my first album up there. That’s all I did.” She then moved back to her home of Cleveland, Ohio and continued to focus on making and recording new music. She currently lives in Atlanta and continues to work on her music, signing with Team A Recordings/Water’s Edge Records, a record label that operates out of the Bahamas. “It’s just music all around,” Kurtz said. “My life revolves around music.”
She chose the name Mīlan, pronounced My-lan, as her artistic name after her mother’s maiden name. “My mother is my favorite person in the whole world and her family is super supportive of me,” Kurtz said. “There is just a lot of feeling and meaning behind that name for me in my own heart…I just wanted to show them that after everything they’ve provided for me over the years, I’ll be successful with their name as well.”
Reflecting on what it has taken to create her art, Kurtz said, “Just don’t give up on your dream…if you experience failure in some kind of way because you thought your dream was in front of you but you fail, just keep going because, chances are nine times out 10, it’s right around the corner…you’re the only person who really has to believe in you for your dream to happen.”
Check out her new song here.
Elena Burnett is the Editor-in-Chief of District. She’s a writing major who will graduate in 2019.
