As an actor, author, and now singer/songwriter, Nico Tortorella‘s career has been one defined by a fearless embrace of new forms of expression. The singles leading up to the drop of his debut album Born. introduced his sound as a brand of emotionally gushing and chromatic electro-pop. What first began as a personal project to soundtrack the birth of his daughter has grown into a larger recognition of music as an exhilerating and vulnerable outlet.
If you’re familiar with Tortorella it’s most likely because you’ve seen him in shows like Younger and The Walking Dead: World Beyond or the Apple TV+ series City on Fire. On the latter, he played the frontman for its fictional band Ex Post Facto, a role that involved him recording and performing original songs. It was a eureka moment for the actor who discovered an untapped form of reflection and artistic freedom.
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“Working on City on Fire awakened a dormant passion within me,” Tortorella explained. “It provided the catalyst for me to not only express myself artistically but also to embrace my truest essence. The studio became a sanctuary, where I could merge the worlds of character development and personal introspection, ultimately leading me to uncover a new facet of my creative identity.”
But Tortorella didn’t immediately set his sights on releasing music to the masses. Instead, he opted for a much more personal and insular process, one that focused on the pregnancy of his wife Bethany C. Meyers. The songs he wrote were meant to be played only for the birth of their daughter Kilmer Dove, becoming an aural memento that they could then share with her as she got older.
But after she arrived the project continued to blossom and now exists as an awe-inspiring testament to his passage to parenthood. To underscore that change, he also conceived his first children’s book Olivette Is You, which accompanies the record as a loving encouragement of individuality. Like his collection of poetry, All of it is You, and memoir Space Between, it signifies the earnestness with which Tortorella creates
Across Born. is woven an intimately gleeful message of love and appreciation that revolves around Tortorella’s wife and daughter. The album’s very first song “Grapefruit” suffuses and radiates with dreamy, synth-shimmering affection that illuminates the entire collection. Interspersed throughout are entrancing mantras, “Encircle” and “Liminal,” that inform Tortorella’s preparation for being a father. Others like the softly beaming “Last Summer” and piano-twinkling “Kilmer Dove” reckon more directly with the euphoria and wonder of raising a child.
Words: Steven Ward
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Listen to Born. the new album from Nico Tortorella below!
