Alabaster Croons Under the Pale Night Sun
Saturn’s energy is all about structure, discipline, and ambition, and these are undoubtedly all qualities that come up to mind when I think of Italian artist-on-the-rise Alessandro Tolve, who has been actively releasing music under the moniker "Alabaster" since 2019.
Hailing from a small town in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy, this non-binary singer, songwriter, and digital artist is poised to take over the alt-pop scene with an already well-stocked collection of songs that encapsulate chart pop conventions, obscure lyrical themes, and contemplative atmospheres that are reminiscent of a distant galaxy and an emotional catharsis at the same time.
Contrasting silky smooth vocals and ethereal soundscapes with razor-sharp strings and distorted basslines, Alabaster’s work blends numerous genre influences that range from electronic music, dream pop, and darkwave to trip-hop and R&B—to name a few—and it goes without saying that they are deserving of more ears.
For fans of: MARINA, Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd, and Hurts.
"Alabaster" is your stage name. Considered by the ancient Egyptians as the stone of the Sun gods, this gemstone is believed to have the ability to draw things to you and/or away from you. It may seem as though you’ve decided to name your musical project after this stone. Was it intentional or is it just a pure coincidence?
Well, you really did your research, didn’t you? Thank you! By the way, I didn’t know about that. My stage name is indeed linked to ancient Egypt, due to my passion for astronomy: Egyptians were expert astronomers, also pyramids were originally covered in alabaster which reflected moonshine in the night, I have a fair skin complexion, similar to alabaster, that’s why I chose to name myself after this soft rock (big fan of oxymorons here lol). So apparently, it’s more like my stage name has something to do with the Moon rather than the Sun [gods].
I know from your Spotify bio that you started writing songs at the age of 14. What is the first song you’ve ever written? Do you still have any memory of it? And how did you get into music?
LOL, I was so naive, the song was a pop-rock ballad and it “kinda” sounded like “Nobody’s Home” by Avril Lavigne (which, still today, is a bop – I love Avril to death) it had some Italian lyrics mixed with English probably, it was about not fitting in and feeling the need to scream it out loud, so I was just the next angsty teenager, I guess?
I was 4 years old, there was this important singing competition on tv called “Sanremo Festival” and the very moment I saw the performers singing I knew I wanted to be like them, so I jumped on a chair, grabbed my orange microphone toy and started singing “Come Saprei” by Giorgia, it’s the very first memory of myself singing that I have. Later on, I’ve always been involved in my hometown’s singing contests, I began taking modern singing classes, and I’ve learned to play piano, guitar, and violin and that’s how pretty much my whole life revolves around music, through the highs and the lows, and I had a lot of lows lol
Can you drive us through your songwriting process?
I usually come up with ideas and keywords (which most of the time end up being the song title) then I compose the melody, music, and lyrics at the same time. Sometimes it happens instantaneously, snap, 10 minutes, and I have the song, other times I go back and forth adding stuff to an idea until I’m satisfied with the result – I tend to keep the instant songs and scrap the long process ones.
If we deep dive into your lyrics, it’s impossible not to notice they can be read as poetry as well. What is your go-to literary device when it comes to songwriting?
Thank you! I love poetry, it’s where songs come from. I love to mention celestial bodies and use astronomical metaphors to talk about human dynamics. My whole project “Philophobia” revolves around such metaphors, black holes, planet poles, rings, gravity, and satellites, they all create the aesthetics of this project but they’re also the base of it. It felt somehow natural to use sideral distance objects as metaphors to explore the deepest side of human beings (oh humanoids).
You write your own lyrics and design almost all of your artwork by yourself. What role do figurative arts play in your music exactly?
I do! For my recent stuff, I’m using photos taken by an amazing photographer, Caterina Gualtieri, but for the whole “Philophobia” arc I’ve been creating my own artwork by myself on an iPad Pro. Drawing is my passion – but I would never want it to become a job, it would ruin the whole experience for me. My music is directly connected to visual art, I’m conceptual when it comes to envisioning my musical projects, sometimes I get inspired by paintings, photographs and animated movies, anime/manga – I don’t need to mention Sailor Moon, right? Lol
I read that you’ve worked with one producer in particular for all the material you’ve released so far—his name is Robin Marchetti, am I correct? What would the typical collaboration process between the two of you be like?
Yes, Robin, aka Rob the Child! My personal sweetheart, he’s an awesome sound engineer and he inevitably grew to be a close friend of mine, the bond between an artist and their producer has something intimate: you let your producer get into your deepest thoughts, also you need to release your emotions in order to achieve that perfect resonance between the song’s message and its delivery. I usually come up with drafts or pre-produced demos, we sit in Rob’s studio and discuss about the song and the sound that I want, then I give him directions while he remakes my pre-produced beat, he’s a genius! Next step: I record vocals, then he does his magic with mixing and mastering the final product. High five and a warm hug is our finish ritual. We also love watching a lot of trash meme videos during our pauses lol
Speaking of collaborating with other musicians, is there anyone else you'd go to any lengths to work with? What’s a dream project you’d love to make happen in the near future?
That’s a tough one, I live music as a collaborative experience, and there’s a loooong list of people I’m thrilled to work with, which includes you too, Yumi, dearie. If I had to dream big, yet not completely absurd, I’d say Hurts and Marina as an international artist, while it would be interesting to work with La Rappresentante di Lista, Blanco, and Francesca Michielin in Italy. Speaking of collabs I have a collab called Idiosincrasia with Ma. Mi, a sweetheart, and an awesome Italian rapper. It was fun, I was recording new songs in Italian, and he jumped into the studio and asked me to sing the chorus on his brand new track and I said “fuck yes!”. I have some exciting new collabs coming next year.
This might be an uncomfortable question, but... From personal experience, as an independent artist myself, I know that finding trusted collaborators and fellow artists you can actually rely on is like a pipe dream in this field. What was your least pleasant experience concerning this shark-infested pool that is the music industry? They say to hate the crime, but not the person.
It is an uncomfortable question indeed! I absolutely hate gatekeeping, most of our colleagues are, at some point and on a certain level, gatekeepers. I don’t feel like going further in detail, I just want to say that it sucks, it’s even worse when you thought they were your friends, I kinda started to believe fellow artists cannot be real supporters, fortunately, there are rare exceptions. I love to support deserving talents, I don’t get competitive at all even if people in our business say this behavior won’t get me anywhere, We shall see.
Your very first single “Singularity” is about inner conflicts and self-perception, and references how sometimes you can become your own worst enemy, destroying yourself from the inside. It’s been a few years since its official release now—how has the relationship with yourself changed artistically?
I would like to say that my relationship with myself has changed drastically, but deep down I still have the tendency to hate and blame myself, something has changed, though I am more aware of my self-destructive mechanisms, and I’m more prone to listen to and comprehend myself. The road to self-acceptance and self-love is still long but the process has begun, I mean both personally and artistically.
Your second single “Hexagon” is about dealing and healing with your own wounds and is one of my favorite tracks off your catalog, if not my absolute favorite. Interestingly enough, the lyrics mention plants like “yarrow” and “poison ivy”—may I ask you to explain the relationship between these and Saturn’s North Pole’s hexagonal storms in your song?
First of all, thank you! Hexagon is also about dealing with mental conditions, I have ADHD, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression. Saturn’s north pole with its hexagonal storms represents somehow what goes on in my mind, I try to stay focused and maintain order in my thoughts but as long as Saturn’s hexagon has a geometrical form, it still remains a storm. Within the second half of the song, I kinda go back to Earth and I do speak about healing on a higher level, yarrow is also called the healing herb of Achilles, I wanted to create this picture of yarrow blooming over bloody shores as a symptom of a spontaneous tendency to heal where we bleed the most.
I see that you’ve been featured on “New Artist Alert” by YouTuber Taylor Roberts on his OTDE MUSIC channel in 2020—he reacted to your ballad “Hurtlines” and called it "top quality stuff", among other things. How does it feel to be recognized for your talents?
Taylor is an artist himself and I love his perspective on art whether it’s music or visual art, also he’s a sweetheart (and a hottie, can we say it?). He really made my serotonin molecules work when I watched his reaction video to Hurtlines. We have this tendency to hide the need for validation as if we fear being perceived as attention-seekers or insecure, I say it’s just part of the game and I also make music to have my talent recognized.
As you have previously stated on your social media, “Singularity”, “Hexagon”, “Hurtlines, “Enceladus”, “Philophobia” and “Hypersensitive” are all singles off an EP titled “Philophobia”, but their official release date has yet to be announced. Will it ever be available to the public? And how many songs have you recorded for it?
Who knows? I might re-record the whole project one day. I have written 18 songs but I have recorded only 7, there’s an unreleased intro to the project which is called “Magnetic Field” that I’ve recorded but it’s still locked in my vault lol I could reveal some more unrecorded stuff titles as A.I., Polaroid 1995, Phoebe Ring… I would like to revamp the Philophobia project sooner or later, meanwhile, I made a playlist on Spotify with the 6 singles organized in the right progression.
I remember you posted about working on a song titled “Sharp” a while back, that is, by your own admission, “the darkest one I’ve ever written”. Was it meant to appear on your EP “Philophobia”? And what inspired it?
Oh, thanks for that question! “Sharp” is a song I made for another project called “Obscura”, my second one in English yet to be finalized and to be officially announced – I guess I just did it lol. The song was inspired by the HBO series “Sharp Objects” based on Gillian Flynn’s homonym novel. I’m not going to spoil anything for those who haven’t seen the miniseries yet but the protagonist is a woman whose life was defined by the trauma of a horrible loss which led to reiterated self-harm behavior, something I know personally, on my own skin, something I’m terribly ashamed of. We see them as sharp objects and instinctively perceive them as potentially harmful, life can be just as sharp.
You seem to have started a new era in Italian a few days after your last English song to date “Hypersensitive”. Was this a creative decision, or was it a business decision? And are there any plans to release more music in English?
It started as a business decision, not gonna lie, I was sick and tired of hearing people from the Italian industry complaining about my music being “interesting, but why in English? We’re in Italy, you won’t get any attention singing in English”. Now I like to write both in Italian and in English, so of course, I’m releasing more music in English in the future, but right now I’m more focused on my Italian projects (you can spot some catchphrases here and there in my Italian music as well).
Another tough question for you... What is the piece (or the pieces) of work you've released so far that you take the most pride in?
I’d say Hurtlines, Enceladus, and Anna Karenina, for different reasons. Hurtlines is super raw, very slow, and mellow, I had a very talented pianist and cellist recording the instrumental that I composed, it was the first time I had live instruments on one of my songs. Enceladus is special to me because I felt more experienced when I wrote and composed it, it was quick, and I was really hurt and heartbroken… Anna Karenina is revolutionary for my catalog, it’s upbeat, it’s in Italian (it even had some Russian in it originally, but, you know, I had to cut it off…), it’s catchy, apparently funny but we all know Anna Karenina’s story. I reinvented myself by staying true to myself, that’s a lot of work, so I’m proud of it!
This one is a little easier... Who were your favorite artists in the past? And who are your favorite artists right now?
Avril motherfucking Lavigne, Evanescence, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Paramore, Green Day, Linkin Park, Nightwish, and the whole “2000s alt-rock/pop-rock/punk package”, I also listened to a lot of Nirvana and post-grunge stuff, then I entered a completely rnb-motown/jazz/blues phase during my late teen years with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Minnie Ripperton, Leona Lewis, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Hudson, Rihanna, Jordin Sparks, Billie Holiday, George Benson, Stevie Wonder… then, in my twenties, I saw the rise of Lana Del Rey, Marina (and the Diamonds), Florence & The Machine, Hurts, BROODS, Troye Sivan, BANKS, Børns and many others, which are pretty much what I listen to the most today, together with some artist from my past as Avril Lavigne and some amazing new entries like Billie Eilish, Yungblud and some Italian old and newer artists.
Would you like to tell us how and how much your musical taste has changed until today?
I wouldn’t say that it has changed, I feel like it has grown, like literally: I don’t regret my past taste, I simply add new stuff to my preferences! I can now appreciate artists and genres that I used to dislike, one thing that hasn’t changed a bit and never will: reggaeton will never have me! LOL
Last one... Not exactly a question. Make me a playlist of 10 songs you're obsessed with right now!
Avril Lavigne and Yungblud – I’m A Mess
Yungblud – Sex, Not Violence
Madh – Avvoltoi
La Rappresentante di Lista – Diva
BROODS – Hospitalized
Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
Giuni Russo – Adrenalina
Rina Sawayama – Frankenstein
St. Vincent - Los Ageless
Børns – I Don’t Want U Back
And, obviously, my new single “Mercoledì”
It was a real honor, thank you for having me.
Check out Alabaster’s music at Apple Music and Spotify, Follow Alabaster on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook.
