The “holy tenderness” of tooth: “an intimate album, but not gloomy”

Losing sleep, without ever giving up a little lightness. This is how Dente, in the clouds, continues to chase that figure that has left him some scar in the heart and many sleepless nights, but also indelible memories. A feeling that, although not being able to call love anymore, still remains impossible to erase.
With his new album of unpublished “Saint Tenderness”, the Fidenza singer -songwriter sings of bonds that are transformed, but who never really abandon us. Ten new airy songs, enriched with arches, winds, keyboards and guitars, the result of an authentic and liberating expressive urgency.
The title was born from a verse of the song “We no longer think about it” and contains the essence of the album: a celebration of delicacy, sensitivity, of that tender side that, if accepted, can prove to be a powerful weapon. The album cover also follows this fil rouge. Created through an experiment with artificial intelligence, it gives shape to a phrase that Dente had in mind for some time, “I see your profile in each cloud”, and translates into an evocative image, a woman suspended in the clouds, indefinite, ephemeral and always in change.
“Saint Tenderness” is a record that, as the Dente himself says, was “sweaty”, not as tiring, but because it was lived to the end. It tells of fragility, often perceived as a weakness – especially in men – but that here becomes a strength, a way to communicate and elaborate memories. And these memories, once out, become lighter and softer.

Holy patience, Holy Peace, Holy Misery … we are used to feeling about exclamations. With “holy tenderness”, what did you want to evoke?

It is a bit of a torment, but in some way it is also what keeps me alive and that allows me to write songs. It is something that defines me, an intense feeling, almost an imprecation for my lack of patience.

You have described “holy tenderness” as an ode to the beauty of fragility. What was the spark that inspired this new job?

In reality it was a painful spark: a story that stopped. He prevented me from sleeping at night and made me feel bad. But it is precisely in these moods that my songs are usually born. It is a sort of luck in bad luck. In this phase I wrote most of the songs, under the influence of this small despair.

Unlike your previous albums, this has been written in a few days. How has this expressive urgency influenced your creative process?

It was very natural because I always wrote in this way, especially at the beginning, when I was worse and it happened more often. This time, however, I warned it with greater strength because almost everything happened in fifteen days. It was an effort necessary to face the moment I was experiencing. It was intense, but also liberating.

“Santa tenderness” is your most airy album, with a cover that transmits lightness and suspension in the clouds. Still, the disc is also very concrete and intimate. Is that so?

That’s right, it is an intimate, but not dark album.

It goes deep, touches delicate emotional ropes. The cover, on the other hand, tells something else: a very blue sky and this a little funny woman, out of the cloud and almost suspended, as if it did not belong to her completely. He is an evanescent figure, who can vanish at any moment, but at the same time he has his presence, with well -defined legs and hands. I liked the idea of ​​this inconsistency but which still has an emotional weight. In my mind, this woman represents emotions that escape, an absence that remains.

Arches, winds, guitars and keyboards give life to a full and enveloping sound. What led you to this choice?

The choices were made together with the manufacturer, Federico Nardelli, who played almost everything and gave a fresh imprint to the disc. Some songs, such as “fairy tale”, were born with him: I had the refrain, we developed it together and a lightness came out that perhaps was missing in my previous works. We inspired us precise sounds, like the early eighties of Lucio Dalla, a musical world that I listen to much but that I had never explored directly.

Did the acoustic guitar become a label for you? In the individuals who anticipated the album no longer appears, leaving room for much more …

True, the acoustic guitar has always been part of my identity, I have played many concerts with her.

But since 2020 I started writing more on the piano and this has changed many things. The tool you use to write influences the way you make up. Today I see myself less like the classic singer -songwriter with acoustic guitar and more like a musician who experiences with different instruments and sounds. In “Half Songs” I wanted to score an end, close a circle after ten years of career, and then try new roads. I started to explore more synthetic, less acoustic sounds, trying to expand my musical language.

The love that changes but never vanishes is a central theme of the album. Have you felt exposed to tell you so openly?

No, because when I write I don’t think of an audience, I speak to a single person, the one I want to say those things. At the same time, however, I know that it is right to feel a little embarrassed when you get bare so.

In “M’annegasti” he admit that he has no way out of a feeling, while a sense of disillusionment crosses the album, from “Hey” to “We don’t think about it anymore”. Are there two aspects inevitably linked to memories?

Yes, absolutely. It is to look at the same thing from different points of view, grasping different reflections and shades.

Titles such as “Lungomare” and “Corso Buenos Aires” appear in the tracklist. What role do the places play in the narrative of your songs?

If a place is central in a story, I mention it without problems. “Corso Buenos Aires” is linked to an experience lived there, so he made sense to call it that. “Lungomare”, on the other hand, was born as a poem: I imagined two elderly people who walked on the promenade and then I turned it into song. Not everything is autobiographical, but it becomes it when it comes from my thoughts, from my vision of the future.

The album ends with “The city sends us to bed”. How was the collaboration with Emma Nolde born?

It was born spontaneously, as I like it. One evening in Milan they were closing the place where we were and I said: “This city sends us to bed!”, Emma, ​​who was with me, immediately lit up: “Let’s write a song!”. So she was born. It is beautiful when collaborations are born like this, without calculations or strategies.

The disc reflects on feelings that turn but remain indelible. Have you found more comfort or restlessness in this awareness?

Both. It is the history of my life: comfort and restlessness together. I find comfort in writing songs, but at the same time the restlessness lies in not still being able to make peace with certain themes.

Your new tour is also departing together with the album. How will you carry these songs on stage?

We will try to remain as faithful as possible to “holy tenderness”. We will be five on stage, with a saxophonist and we will play many songs from the new album, in addition to the classics. In addition, we will also rearrange some historical songs to bring them closer to this type of sound.