Los Angeles native singer and musical instrumentalist MILCK has always been an advocate for standing up to racism and trying to make a change in the world through her music. Since the viral video at the women’s march in 2017 of MILCK singing her song “Quiet” with 25 choir strangers, she is back with her newest single “Somebody’s Beloved” featuring Bipolar Sunshine out now on all digital music streaming platforms.
Last week we got to have a conversation with Connie (known as MILCK) about how “Somebody’s Beloved” came about, what it was like working with Bipolar Sunshine, the concept of a narrative music video, and more. Read our full conversation below and let us know your thoughts!
TAP: With quarantine pretty much taking over our lives this year, how do you feel you’ve evolved as an artist during this time?
MILCK: During quarantine, I had a lot of time that I spent with myself and as a recording artist, I am very lucky to have a lot of relationships with other amazing producers and writers. So for the past few years, I’ve gone into studios and we would write together and be very collaborative. When I started writing music in my teens, I was writing songs by myself. And so in the past few years, as I was going around working with all these different producers and writers, I would always think in the back of my head, can I write a song by myself anymore? And quarantine showed me. Yes. Quarantine has taught me to live more, appreciate nature and the outdoors and to just not push so hard. Because I was always on a go, go, go momentum prior to quarantine, I was traveling all the time, performing, writing, speaking. When everything stopped, I had to reassess why am I moving so much and what am I working towards and what can I accomplish while also being really present here? You know? It’s been good, it’s been hard, but also very meaningful.
TAP: Congrats on “Somebody’s Beloved!” What is it about and how did this song first come about?
MILCK: “Somebody’s Beloved” is a heartbreaking, yet hopeful anthem to honor the people we’ve lost to soon to systemic racism and the song came out of me when I was watching a video of Tamika Parmer talk about her daughter, Breanna Taylor, and I had been thinking about George Floyd a bunch and doing research and then learning about the centuries of history, really digging in deeper as to how some of the problems still haven’t changed. I started crying and the lyrics started pouring out from the verses. And I realized that the song felt bigger than me and my my soul perspective. So I actually brought on a Dale Merchant. His artist name is Bipolar Sunshine, and he was able to bring his perspective as a black man who grew up in Manchester, UK. To me, it’s a really beautiful collaboration between us, trying to learn and also feeling the pain and him kind of expressing what he’s known and also feeling the pain. And then from that, we’ve created something really beautiful.
TAP: When did you decide to bring Bipolar Sunshine aboard onto this project? Was it during or after the song was done?
MILCK: It was really towards the beginning. After I wrote the first two verses, I brought those verses to him and then we wrote the chorus together after the chorus together, I was really inspired to write the third verse. So he was like in the mix of it all. When we finished the song, we knew very clearly that we wanted to donate proceeds of our song to beneficiaries, that that our organization’s progressing and working towards racial justice. And a lot of like we chose local where margins of the margins organizations that might not usually get the attention.
Learn about the organizations proceeds of this song will be going to at SomebodysBeloved.com
TAP: There’s also a powerful music video for the SB. How did the concept come about telling the story that it did and then teaming up with One Family Memphis Foundation for it?
MILCK: I ended up reaching out to my friends at One Family Memphis Foundation, because I had met them a year ago and become friends with some of the leaders there, including Malik, Martin and Christine. I sent them the song and I asked if they connected with it. My original idea was bringing them on to see if we could collect a bunch of footage of the movement and of people we’ve lost in their families and putting together an emotional collage. However, we brought on another woman who lived in Memphis and was part of One Family, Alicia Jewel. We then all did a group zoom to all sync up. During that zoom, we started talking about what would be powerful for this video. I told them, I want to keep this focused on the intimacy of the beauty within a family and to celebrate. Alicia was very adamant and strong about not including any triggering images because she says, I’ve seen this my whole life and I don’t want to see it in this video. On the other hand, I wanted this to be this beautiful aspiration of family relationships. As we kept talking, I realized they don’t want to do a collage of actual footage. They want to create a narrative video. And I took a deep breath – because it’s quarantine, creating a narrative video is difficult to pull off. We then kept talking and later decided we would keep it very simple and focus in on one household. I think because sometimes we get desensitized by the numbers of how many people get killed or how many people die. And I mean, even within one number, the amount of nuances and intricacies of the survival that it takes to lose a loved one is tremendous. So we wanted to communicate that and hopefully maybe soften some of the vitriol that is in society. And that’s our hope, is maybe to just encourage people to slow down, soften and maybe find their own sustainable place in the racial justice movement.
Watch the music video for “Somebody’s Beloved” below.
TAP: Do you hope to take “Somebody’s Beloved” to the similar level of impact like how “Quiet” did during the women’s march?
MILCK: I think a lot of that is in the hands of the listeners if they connect with it or not. As an artist, it’s always such a great honor to have something be impactful and be shared wide and far. And I’ve told my team that we have a powerful story to tell, and it’s the story of the storytellers from Memphis. And I want to do everything I can with my community, my connections to amplify. So answer is yes. There’s always hopes for a great thing. But I have lived long enough to know that life kind of unravels in its own with its own plan. So whatever comes will be will be great because I think the victory has already happened with. With the collaborative experience of creating the song in the video.
TAP: The #ICantKeepQuiet movement you were the creator of seems to be a huge part of your life as well. Can you tell us a little about that?
MILCK: When “Quiet” went viral in 2017, I put a hashtag #ICantKeepQuiet and people started using that hashtag to share their own stories of surviving abuse or their own stories of speaking out for something that is really scary for them to speak out on – whether its their sexuality, their relationships, their beliefs, etc. People would create dance videos, choirs from all over the world ended up singing the song. I ended up uploading a free sheet music of my choir arrangement. So then a lot of groups ended up downloading it and translating into their own languages. And it just became this movement of people really embracing the idea of not keeping quiet. There’s a lyric in Quiet that says, “I can’t keep quiet a one woman riot, I can’t keep quiet.” People would get tattoos of one woman riot, and I can’t keep quiet on them, and I think it was just like part of the whole women’s movement. People learning to reclaim their voices and and to be proud of who they are. So this really is a really special movement.
TAP: Lastly, do you have a message for your fans?
MILCK: I think the message is in the song “Somebody Beloved.” It says things that I can’t quite articulate with words. I think the melody and the strings, piano, and lyrics, all come together as a cry for empathy and compassion and also as a sign of like honoring and respecting also like a remorse or all the hurt that has happened to people in this country based off of racism. Overall, it’s in the song. Hopefully people will listen to it!
Listen to “Somebody’s Beloved” on all music streaming platforms out now!
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