Everyone has a story — from the janitor sweeping the floors of an elementary school after hours, to the person handing over a bag of french fries at a drive-thru window. MiLES, an 18-year-old Stanford freshman that writes, produces, and sings all of his music, digs into the backstory of a rug store owner in his fun new film, Everywhere And Nowhere At All: The Life Of Rufus D. Rugs. The video is inspired by the Everywhere and Nowhere At All EP that dropped in June.Who’s this lucky rug store owner? Rufus. D. Rugs (played by MiLES) — a sourpuss of a salesman that specializes in rugs. A quick flashback reveals that he also specializes in soulful funk — evident in a glimpse of his band, Rufus and the Fuzz, performing at a festival of screaming fans. The film then takes a mockumentary-style approach as we learn a bit more about how Rugs became who he is today after his career didn’t continue elevating how he wanted.
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Throughout the five-minute short film, the audience hears MiLES’s snippets of songs (“Contact High,” “A Way To Not Remember,” “Advantage”) from the Everywhere And Nowhere At All EP that showcases what he brings to the table as an alternative R&B artist with a unique sound that brings classic R&B’s feel to the forefront. He vocalizes a sweet message of funk to an audience in a flashback and previews the EP’s nostalgia in other moments.
Without spoiling the ending, Rufus D. Rugs indicates that there’s more to the story — which plugs in the EP of the same name to pick up, thematically, where MiLES leaves off. Give it a listen to learn more about MiLES and what he brings to the table as a special new voice in contemporary music. Everywhere and Nowhere At All is the first of 3 EPs that MiLES will release in the next six months.
Speaking about the film, MiLES explains that Rufus D. Rugs is an extension of the EP’s ideas. “For this project, I really wanted to create a world that the people listening could see that felt a little left-of-center to their own,” he says.
“A big part of the idea process was just taking some of the EP’s themes - transition, progression, passion - and trying to come up with something ridiculous that represented them.”
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So, how does that manifest exactly? For MiLES, it started with concepting around a place that sells home furnitures. “Honestly, rug shops are some of the most beautiful places we all just have around us, and we don’t talk about it enough,” he says. “We should all spend a little more time in a rug shop or two. It’s craftsmanship, it’s history, it’s culture, and I wanted to make something to appreciate that.”
Watch MiLES’s new short film Everywhere And Nowhere At All: The Life Of Rufus D. Rugs up above.