Adrian Milanio is Paving the Way for Tacoma Musicians
Tacoma’s Adrian Milanio on making a name for himself, finding mentors, & paying it all forward.
“I’m pretty sure I came out the womb listening to 90’s R&B,” says Adrian Milanio. It’s a love with its roots in his childhood exposure to the late-night radio show “Love Songs with Delilah”. Early on, he was steeped in the soulful vocals of Lionel Richie and Brian McKnight, and entranced by the epic nature of piano-infused, love-sick ballads. Now 24, Adrian is writing, producing, and performing his own R&B hits to which listeners are tuning in from around the world.
Adrian started writing songs in high school, most of them about heartbreak and relationships. “I was a bit of a lover boy,” he admits. But it proved to be an outlet in other ways too; “In my junior year of high school, I got really sick and was diagnosed with diabetes. When I felt speaking with friends or my family wasn’t the best option for me, music was always what I turned to.”
He started releasing his music online in 2016 when he was a freshman at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). For a while, it performed about as expected, garnering a total of 15 listeners on Spotify. “I’d be sitting in one of the classes I needed to take in order to graduate, so I’d like, have my phone underneath the table in class. And then I remember pulling up Spotify one day and seeing all of a sudden I had 1000 listeners.” From then on, he’d check back in every few days to find that the numbers had nearly doubled until eventually, it came to a point where he was reigning in around 100,000 streams a month.
Over the last few years, he’s juggled a day job at PLU with mixing and producing for other artists, performing and recording his own music, and figuring out how to market everything he does. In the midst of all that, he’s also made efforts to network with other artists, which have resulted in collaborations with YouTubers such as Marylou Villegas and Olivia Escuyos, as well as Bay Area rappers Iamsu! and Nef the Pharaoh.
He likens the whole experience to running a start-up. “I’m learning the intricacies of all these things that are so far beyond me as an artist… I‘ve learned that being talented in and of itself isn’t enough. It’s a matter of ‘how do I take something I’m good at and get other people to care about it. And being good at art is very different from being good at business.”
“I’ve learned that being talented in and of itself isn’t enough. It’s a matter of ‘how do I take something I’m good at and get other people to care about it.'”
Adrian Milanio
For the most part, Adrian has had to carve his own path to success. After all, there isn’t exactly a Tacoma pop giant he can follow in the footsteps of. But he’s quick to tell you about all the support he’s had along the way. “I’ve had tons of help. Anyone who’s gotten this far and says they haven’t is probably lying or doesn’t recognize it for what it is.”
Alongside several impactful courses at Pierce College and PLU, Adrian credits Spaceworks‘ Incubator program, his work with the Dream Music Project, and Campfire Coffee co-founder Quincy Henry as being essential to his growth. The latter in particular has been a mentor on all things music and business since Adrian was in high school. At the time, Quincy was a full-time gigging rap artist performing under the name Q Dot. Adrian has also developed close ties with the team at Tacoma’s streetwear brand ECT. He credits some of his business success to these relationships and his mentorship from the brand’s co-founder Umi Wagoner. Though these businesses themselves operate in different spheres, Campfire Coffee and ECT bring to the table an invested interest in the well-being of this city and its community. And that connection isn’t a coincidence.
When I ask Adrian for his thoughts on the music scene here, “Tacoma is um…trying?” is all he can muster. “What’s interesting is that there’s so much talent in Tacoma. I know it because I know this place like the back of my hand. But in order for it to thrive here, it has to be a part of the economy, whereas right now, music and art sort of feel like an afterthought.” While support and passion for the arts in Tacoma seem to grow all the time, the funding to match simply doesn’t. “I have yet to see the city put a lot of effort into it,” he says.
But Adrian has his heart set on changing that. “I want Tacoma to win in general,” he says. “I know there will come a point where I won’t want to be playing shows on the road anymore. When that time comes, I want to do something in the education, non-profit, or political sphere. Someplace where I can economically impact Tacoma’s art scene for the better.” That’s way down the line, of course. But he sees ways to work towards that future now; his mentors operate in a way that allows their success in business to double as a means of giving back, and he’s taking notes on that.
After winning a grant from the city, Adrian had an opportunity to explore how this can be done as a musician.”I could’ve put that toward a lot of things, but I wanted to provide something that boosts the music economy. I wanted to show people that music is alive here and that there’s a way for us to network to make this sort of thing happen more often.”
Adrian’s presence as an artist is distinct in a number of ways. K-pop mania aside, Asian artists don’t exactly have a head start in the mainstream music industry. Especially not in R&B, save for like, Bruno Mars. But Adrian is developing a fan base that’s growing all the time. While much of it is here on the West Coast, he’s noticed that a lot of his listeners are actually in Asia—primarily Japan and Indonesia. “I can’t exactly hop on a quick flight to go play shows over there, so a lot of it now is just learning how to communicate with my fanbase online, whether it’s through TikTok or messaging people back on Instagram. I have to build relationships and own my pocket for what it is.” The approach seems to be working in his favor.
One song in particular, “Where You Wanna Go” earned him a big chunk of that international audience. After signing it to frtyfve Records, the single went mini viral on TikTok, where its circulation also attracted the attention of R&B legend Ne-Yo. He has since become another close mentor for Adrian. “To have someone of that caliber and talent both recognize and give me mentorship—me, a twenty-something kid from Tacoma—it’s really humbling. 15-year-old Adrian never would’ve believed it.”
Vanity metrics alone are never truly fulfilling—especially for those attaining them. “I used to dream of hitting a million streams,” he tells me, “and then after it happened I was like, ‘ok, is that it?’ And then it was ten million, and, ‘ok, is that it?’ The moment of euphoria is there, of course, but it becomes increasingly short-lived. “Ne-Yo is very big on always being true to yourself, as an artist and a business person,” Adrian tells me. And that sentiment has become all the more important as Adrian looks to transition into music full-time and zero in on what matters to him.
Adrian is on a mission to build something impactful for his hometown. As he says, “all the potential, all the talent is already here.” What’s lacking is proof of concept—the evidence that artists can make a living off of music here. “Someone just has to show it’s possible first,” he says. “I think that could be me.”
For More
Learn more about Adrian Milanio on his website or follow him on Instagram and TikTok. You can find all of his music on Spotify, including his latest single “My Way.”