Release of the Week: Stufa

How did your musical career start and how was "In Alto Male" born?

I was born in Catania on January 7, 1985, from a Sicilian father and a Tunisian mother. My mother noticed my passion for music when I was 7 years old, and she immediately started to make me take piano lessons, but I abandoned them very soon, too young to understand. Then, hanging out with a lot of musician friends, I often found myself at rehearsals, and they noticed my naturalness in writing down verses. From there it all started, thanks also to their encouragement.

I wrote this EP on the couch at home where I spent more than six months due to various knee operations that forced me to bed. We can define the EP as an outburst against human greed, in which I express my anger against the uncontrollable hunger that some human beings reveal. In my ideal world, there would be no money, and the only goddess to worship should be Mother Earth.

What does it mean to you to be a young independent artist today?

Being an independent artist today means making a lot of sacrifices. I work two jobs and I've always financed myself. But I'm not complaining about that, because writing gives me a lot of serenity and I definitely don't do it for financial gain but for myself. Obviously this slows me down a bit, but I have to pay the rent first.

How has been your relationship with streaming platforms, Spotify and others?

Thanks to the help of some friends and iMusician, I was able to schedule and distribute the release of this EP on all platforms. Spotify is the one I interact with the most, I have discovered many international and Italian artists that I did not know... finding good music is always a great discovery.

What are your plans for 2021?

I'm writing my first album, with all autobiographical lyrics about love, suffering, and addictions. And here I am still hoping for life to change, in my head, so I write....