Bartolini: “The industry today demands too much from artists”

He says he wanted to call the album “Burnout”, as depression caused by the exhaustion of one's psychophysical energy is defined. In the end Bartolini chose “Tilt”: “This album sounds like PTSD. I've managed to compress the last year and a half of my life into twelve songs“, He says. Today the Calabrian singer-songwriter, born in 1995, who when he released his debut EP “BRT Vol. 1” in 2019 was invested by followers of the indie pop circuit with the title of “next big thing” of the scenea future promise ready to fill sports halls and hit the jackpot on streaming platforms, tells them with detachment and irony.

But the months he just left behind were “the darkest”: “.I had a breakdown, linked to the doubts I had about my artistic path. Many times I thought: I can't do it, I don't know if I'm in it. I experienced some very difficult moments, closed for days, sometimes even weeks, inside the house, alone”.

The pressures they played a fundamental role. Called to dedicate himself after the experiences of these years, from the opening of some concerts of the “Evergreen tour” of Calcutta to last year's tour with Lil Kvneki of Psicologi, passing through the 2020 debut album “Penisola” and participation in the soundtrack of the Netflix series “Summertime” with his “Mon amour” and “Controvento”, Giuseppe Bartolini – this is the singer-songwriter's real name – found himself in the middle of quicksand: “Discography today demands too much from artists. I'm lucky enough with Carosello (who publishes the album, ed.) to do what I want, to take my time. It is not obvious. But I'm talking about the system: everything goes too fast and these rhythms end up consuming the artists, saturating everything”, he reflects.

The recent announcement made by Sangiovanni, who plays in a different league than Bartolini, the mainstream pop born and raised on TV, has definitively cleared the topic of artists' mental health: “I can no longer pretend that everything is fine and that I'm happy with what I'm doing.

Sometimes you have to have the courage to stop and I'm here to share with you that I have decided to do so”, wrote the voice of “Farfalle” on social media, postponing the release of his album “Privacy” and the concert at the Assago Forum originally scheduled for October 5th. “That announcement made me strange. I understood that even if we play in two different leagues, we are all in the same boat. Among other things, I can't imagine the amount of stress you feel at those levels. .Pressures end up crushing you if you don't find a way to react”, says Bartolini. He did it through music: “Last year's tour helped me. Being around playing concerts, sharing that experience with friends, cured me. So I started writing again”.

In the twelve songs of “Tilt” Bartolini reveals a new side of himself, more adult and mature, but also carefree, playful, truthful and inextricably linked to the influences ofalternative rock who formed him musically during his adolescence: “I worked with different producers, Fabio Grande and Piero Paroletti, aka Goldenyears. I tried to make a mix of everything I am and what I listen to: from Mac Miller to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Dress to Dominic Fike. And for the first time there is also my hand in the production. Many songs remained faithful to the home version, such as 'Don't hate me'. We haven't distorted them too much. I put myself to the test from that point of view too.”