After losing his home to the California fires last week, musician Tommy Newport is back where he started his career: Wichita.
Last week, Newport woke to an alert warning of high winds and a potential loss of power around Los Angeles. While he noted the conditions, he continued to go about his day.
That evening, a loss of power prompted Newport to leave his home in Altadena, a city just north of Los Angeles.
When he got outside, Newport noticed the entire street was dark and his phone had lost service.
“That's when I … kind of jumped into reality a little bit, just kind of feeling how heavy the winds were and the fact that I had no power,” said Newport, whose given name is Oliver Milmine.
“The only thing I thought to do was just to get in my car, and I didn't even grab anything at this point because it wasn't even that fire was on my mind at this point; I just wanted to go see how far the outage was.”
Newport spent much of that first night figuring out what to do and where to go. Eventually, he ended up staying with the family of a friend.
The next day, Newport was set on returning briefly to his home before figuring out his next step.
“It was insane to see … the amount of smoke that was in the air,” Newport said. “... But I still had this feeling … ‘I think my house is fine; I just need to get in there for five minutes and just grab a couple, a few things.’ ”
But after attempting to find a route to his and a friend’s home twice, Newport and his friend realized they wouldn’t be able to travel to Altadena.
The next day, though, when enough smoke and fire had abated, Newport returned to find his home, music studio and belongings destroyed.
“There was nothing. … Even the things that were made out of metal were just completely destroyed,” he said. “So, there was nothing left but rubble, like ash.”
Kara Smith, whom Newport briefly stayed with for a few nights, illustrated some of the complex feelings around the fires.
“It was great having another person in the house and to be able to talk it through with,” Smith said. “For me, my first instinct is just, ‘What does he need? What can I provide? What can I get ready for him? He just lost everything, and I have a house.’ And there's guilt with that, too.”
Getting into music
Born near Manchester, England, Newport moved to the United States with his family early in life. Eventually, his father’s aerospace career brought him to Wichita more than a decade ago.
Newport started his foray into music during his teenage years. After graduating from Andover High School, he moved to Wichita.
“I came into (the) College Hill area, sort of more in the thick of being in Wichita, which was super eye-opening for me,” Newport said. “And I fell in love with College Hill and sort of the architecture and the history of this area of Wichita.”
In 2022, Newport decided to make the full-time move to the Los Angeles area after going back and forth between California and Kansas for his growing musical career.
“Los Angeles is just a mecca for being productive in the music industry, (but) for a long time, I didn't want to uproot,” Newport said.
The musician found Altadena, though, a city he describes as similar to Wichita.
“It's kind of quiet. It's a smaller community. It's a lot of mom-and-pop shops, and, you know, there's not a whole lot going on,” he said.
Since moving to Altadena, Newport has dropped two albums and garnered national attention for his indie music. In January 2024, he made a guest appearance on 21 Savage’s “red sky.”
Returning home
After seeing the remains of his destroyed home, Newport drove to Phoenix, catching a flight the next morning to Wichita.
“I just wanted to get … home here in Wichita,” he said.
Since returning, Newport has been processing the fires that upended his life. A friend recommended he start a GoFundMe to begin to rebuild. So far, the fundraiser has raised more than $23,000 out of its $50,000 goal.
“It's been a little hard for me, accepting all the warmth and people being so, so kind,” Newport said. “... It's been surreal — the amount of people that, you know, care.”
While he's grateful to be back in his hometown, Newport said it feels odd.
“I like being here because … I have a place, I have my family and my girlfriend and my friends and … get back to a place where everything's not so chaotic.
“But it is weird to think, just a few days ago, walking through all that and experiencing that. It's just like hard to wrap your head around. It happened so fast.”
Newport emphasized the loss people are facing in California, but through it all, he said the community support has been “incredible” to see.
“As an outsider looking in (to) Los Angeles, it's sort of seen as a place for the rich or celebrity figures or things like that,” Newport said. “... But what I've seen over the last two years, and especially the last week … especially in Altadena, this sort of huge community of hard-working Americans and people affected by this and how much they band together, even in a place like Los Angeles.”
