At a glance, Nolan Hilman seems to be an outlandish bad boy who is not bound by any rules. Well, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this eccentric, coffee-making model and upcoming musician.
Nolan Hilman, 20, is a barista at PODGY Kurau, which is a local café situated in Bangsar and an ex-student of Raffles College of Higher Education. He was born and raised in Bangsar for his entire life and is still living there with his mother and father alongside his older brother, Norman.
Nolan said he has always been a man of art — a “Renaissance man” — one that would take formalities turn them on their heads. He also said that he really likes to see the underground collective of people; mingling around and building social networks especially since he is young, so he tries to make as many connections as he can all while trying to make a steady living.
An opportunity came knocking on his door earlier in June in the form of Stüssy Kuala Lumpur; they came to be a huge stepping stone for his modelling career to take off. His first-ever modelling shoot came unanticipated as Stüssy KL had luckily found Nolan on Instagram and decided to message him as they agreed that he would be a good model. He accepted the opportunity in a heartbeat and gained valuable experience on his first modelling job ever. His first experience was a learning process as he didn’t know what he was doing. Fortunately, he met some peculiar and experienced people that guided him throughout the entire shoot. Nolan said they knew what they wanted and how they wanted the shoot to look like so coaching him through it was easy.
He said, “It was very nice to model with Stüssy KL overall. After the shoot, I became fond of the modelling industry and I got closer to people in that industry and through that, I’m striving to be a well-known face in the Malaysian modelling scene.”
Modelling was never on Nolan’s mind, whether it’d be as a hobby or an actual full-time career. He was really into coffee and being a barista as it taught him more ways on how to communicate and connect more with people and it helped enhance his social skills. Not too long ago, he dropped out of Raffles College of Higher Education because it was just not intellectually and artistically stimulating him in the way he would have liked, so he went back to concentrate on being a barista for the time being and still is one to this day. “I was learning how to make coffee and I was studying Diploma in Creative New Media Technology at Raffles. But after I dropped out, that’s when Stüssy KL appeared and the new-found passion for fashion and modelling came in,” he stated. He also added that his personal plans before modelling were art and literature because he wanted to be a poet and a painter. He’s always liked writing and painting, so he figured that making it into a living was where it was at for him, but it never really stuck.
He said, “Dreams die and people grow up, so those plans didn’t come true, but through being a barista I learned about people — how they are and how to talk to them — just building my web of connections and being a better person when it comes to communication. All this will definitely help me out in the future for the development of my character.”
Growing up wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for Nolan; life for him back then was more chaotic and adverse. When asked about his struggles, he calmly said, “I wouldn’t call what I went through as struggles, more so as a necessary balance. Some of my struggles were somewhat cliché; the cliché girl that ruined my emotional state for the longest of times and the misunderstanding between friends that nearly severed close-knit bonds.” Through all of that, it led him on a dark path of drug and alcohol abuse along with self-destructive tendencies and mental health issues; slowly falling into obscurity. “Experiencing that at such a young age teaches you two things; watch out for who you hang around with and who influences you and also that exposure and experience is key when it comes to character development,” he said regarding his experiences. He has had severe depression and other mental health issues but eventually, he got out of that position. Nolan took a line from Buster Moon from the animated movie “Sing”, and said that when he hit rock-bottom, he had to persevere because the only way one can go from there is up.
“I didn’t blame anyone except myself for it has taught me to be a better person, brother and son to my family. Everyone has to get a bit dirty, get red-handed or do some sort of evil in order to do good; because life is filled with ups and downs but through failure and error, success could be better achieved,” he said. For Nolan, he explained that his struggles were kind of like achievements of his because when he failed at something, he found something else he could be better at.
Furthering his education doing something that he enjoys is something that’s been on his mind ever since he dropped out of college; though it is not the most important thing to him. His short-term plans are straightforward; making money and being stable. He said, “I would like to think that education won’t take me where I want to in life because personally, I know what I am and what I’m capable of doing, so I would love to think that my will to hustle would get me somewhere. Wherever that is, I’ll go through it like a man and learn from it.”
Regarding his current projects, he explained, “Well I‘m waiting for a shoot for Phase 13 of Topboi with Ridduan Ismail, better known as Tukang Tangkap Foto Gembira Anda or ‘TTFGA’, who is a well-known local street fashion photographer and a heavy influence in the local fashion scene. Topboi is just one of his latest photography concept shoots that I can be a part of, so this opportunity excites me.” He has also recently been getting serious with his passion for music and is shooting for the stars by wanting to be a successful rapper and musician within the local scene.
“Music came to me like a woman in red, fierce yet passionate. Music lives around me and in me as my father was a failed rocker, but he lived it bluntly,” he said. Music was always a passion of Nolan’s and what he planned to do with it was something that he had been carefully constructing and thinking of since he was twelve years old. He had never really spoken about it to any of his closest of friends or even his family. He said, “In this day and age, music disappoints me because local musicians have all the talent but they don’t know what to do with it, so that inspires me to put us on the map and take Malaysia forward in this industry as well.”
His long-term plans however are being happy as well as emotional and financial stability. In the near future, he would love to make his parents and friends proud. He articulated his ambitions into two sentences, declaring,
“I would like to think I’d make it as a musician and a producer, hopefully landing my own record label and clothing line. But at the end of it, speaking in a realistic sense, I just want to be simple and to look back at my life with no regrets.”
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