Itef Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history? How did the name itef come about?
A: Well truth be told, none of my parents are musicians. However, they were avid music listeners and thus introduced me to lots of different music genres. For example, when I was six years old I remember my father would play ‘80s music like Kim Carnes and Men at Work. My mother, on the other hand, would practice aerobics with ‘90s house music like Real McCoy, Alice Deejay, Aqua... My great grandmother, Asunta Betti, was a singer and actress in her hometown in Italy. Unfortunately her career came to a halt as soon as she married. She died very young at the age of 35. My love affair with pop music started in high school. I remember looking up to pop stars, however back then I did not know I wanted to follow their steps. This passion eventually progressed into action as I started singing and writing songs about my romantic experiences. It was only later on, during my senior year, when I actually felt the uncontrollable urge to create music. I contacted this French producer via Youtube who was living in Japan at the time. I wrote my lyrics, went to a studio I had managed to find online and recorded my first official song with a beat that he made. For my artistic name I wanted something that sounded a bit robotic and current with our modern era. Naturally, as an 18-year old my first thought was to add the letter "i" to a shortened version of my name (Stefano), creating itef. I noticed a lot of products were doing this already such as iPhone and iTech, but I wanted to flip the table by keeping my real name and digitalizing it with the "i" to reflect almost a cyborg-like quality. My first official single debut was called “controversy," which I released in December of 2013. I have been making music ever since then. I met my main producer, Guby, when I was in college. He was the one that helped me record my debut album from 2014-2016. Finally conspiracy theory was released November 10, 2016 and that’s how everything began….
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: My creative process differs for each song. I am taken on a bit of a mental journey involving lots of different colors and textures that I contextualize into a song and write about. I may get an idea at a random place like work or even in a club with friends. As soon as the idea enters my brain I immediately write it down and toy with it until it becomes clearer. I take the same approach with melodies. A random one will pop into my head and as soon as that occurs I will record it before the melody disappears. Therefore, as soon as an intriguing idea enters my psyche I will stop everything I am doing to ensure that it is recorded somewhere as these thoughts are ephemeral and have a very short life span. For example, the song "damnatio memoriae" off my latest album was written under similar organic circumstances. I was visiting the Colosseum in Rome when the tour guide mentioned that evil emperors back in ancient Rome would have what is called a "damnatio memoriae" cast against them. This involved being excluded from all official accounts and essentially erased from history. At the time when the tour guide explained this to me, I was going through some intense things in my life. I was involved in a very emotionally draining situation with someone I had stopped dating. I kept dreaming about what I went through with this person and it was pure torture to receive these nocturnal hauntings. Anyways, during my visit to the Colosseum I actually received a text message from the person in question. That is when the idea came to me to use the ancient roman concept of "damnatio memoriae" for an actual song to cast this person away for good. Essentially, I write music to get over things that have happened in my life. If I happen to write about the same thing over and over it is simply because I have not received closure yet, so I will continue writing songs until I eventually get over on it. Singing, recording and releasing music to the world is my coping mechanism, regardless of whether a song blows up or not. I have never done it for the fame, but as a therapeutic emotional release that hopefully resonates with some of the experiences my own listeners have had.
Q: I was wondering how you would explain the themes and concepts on conspicuous consumption?
A: So Conspicious Consumption is actually very different from my previous two projects, both sonically and thematically. …LOVE?, as the name suggests, dealt with the tender feelings that come from love. Every song was about a different type of love and the production reflects this. Meanwhile, Conspicuous Consumption is much darker, colder and nocturnal kind of beast altogether that strays from my previous projects in the sense that it has a very noticeable socio-political context. The heavier beats and over-the-top vocal effects match the misanthropic sentiments present in my lyrics, as I am angry by how society has limited my ability to love freely. Therefore, I would describe Conspicuous Consumption as an angrier more political project that is set against societal traditions and expectations. It is a manifesto that aims to highlight how these societal shackles control every aspect of our life and ultimately negatively impact our relationship with our own psyche, money, love and relationships. I made this project because I wanted people to understand that we are just puppets living on auto-pilot due to the social constructs society has created and instilled in our collective consciousness. I am someone that does not shy away from from exposing this societal dichotomy through my music because it has impacted my own personal life and caused me a great deal of anguish. A clear example that displays how society has negatively shaped my own personal life and thus impacted my art would be the song "Eternal Oblivion.” In this track I discuss how conservative societal attitudes destroyed one of my past relationships. This theme of losing someone you love through no fault of your own but due to societal beliefs is particularly evident throughout my love trilogy comprised of "you know what we did last summer,” "sagittarius" and "damnatio memoriae.” As you may get the impression, I employ an inter-connected narrative that advances throughout the album. Whilst some of the songs deal more with sentimental matters of the heart, I still poke fun at my own socially constructed persona on tracks like “Gossip,” breaking the fourth wall and creating a more meta experience for the listeners to dissect.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history? How did the name itef come about?
A: Well truth be told, none of my parents are musicians. However, they were avid music listeners and thus introduced me to lots of different music genres. For example, when I was six years old I remember my father would play ‘80s music like Kim Carnes and Men at Work. My mother, on the other hand, would practice aerobics with ‘90s house music like Real McCoy, Alice Deejay, Aqua... My great grandmother, Asunta Betti, was a singer and actress in her hometown in Italy. Unfortunately her career came to a halt as soon as she married. She died very young at the age of 35. My love affair with pop music started in high school. I remember looking up to pop stars, however back then I did not know I wanted to follow their steps. This passion eventually progressed into action as I started singing and writing songs about my romantic experiences. It was only later on, during my senior year, when I actually felt the uncontrollable urge to create music. I contacted this French producer via Youtube who was living in Japan at the time. I wrote my lyrics, went to a studio I had managed to find online and recorded my first official song with a beat that he made. For my artistic name I wanted something that sounded a bit robotic and current with our modern era. Naturally, as an 18-year old my first thought was to add the letter "i" to a shortened version of my name (Stefano), creating itef. I noticed a lot of products were doing this already such as iPhone and iTech, but I wanted to flip the table by keeping my real name and digitalizing it with the "i" to reflect almost a cyborg-like quality. My first official single debut was called “controversy," which I released in December of 2013. I have been making music ever since then. I met my main producer, Guby, when I was in college. He was the one that helped me record my debut album from 2014-2016. Finally conspiracy theory was released November 10, 2016 and that’s how everything began….
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: My creative process differs for each song. I am taken on a bit of a mental journey involving lots of different colors and textures that I contextualize into a song and write about. I may get an idea at a random place like work or even in a club with friends. As soon as the idea enters my brain I immediately write it down and toy with it until it becomes clearer. I take the same approach with melodies. A random one will pop into my head and as soon as that occurs I will record it before the melody disappears. Therefore, as soon as an intriguing idea enters my psyche I will stop everything I am doing to ensure that it is recorded somewhere as these thoughts are ephemeral and have a very short life span. For example, the song "damnatio memoriae" off my latest album was written under similar organic circumstances. I was visiting the Colosseum in Rome when the tour guide mentioned that evil emperors back in ancient Rome would have what is called a "damnatio memoriae" cast against them. This involved being excluded from all official accounts and essentially erased from history. At the time when the tour guide explained this to me, I was going through some intense things in my life. I was involved in a very emotionally draining situation with someone I had stopped dating. I kept dreaming about what I went through with this person and it was pure torture to receive these nocturnal hauntings. Anyways, during my visit to the Colosseum I actually received a text message from the person in question. That is when the idea came to me to use the ancient roman concept of "damnatio memoriae" for an actual song to cast this person away for good. Essentially, I write music to get over things that have happened in my life. If I happen to write about the same thing over and over it is simply because I have not received closure yet, so I will continue writing songs until I eventually get over on it. Singing, recording and releasing music to the world is my coping mechanism, regardless of whether a song blows up or not. I have never done it for the fame, but as a therapeutic emotional release that hopefully resonates with some of the experiences my own listeners have had.
Q: I was wondering how you would explain the themes and concepts on conspicuous consumption?
A: So Conspicious Consumption is actually very different from my previous two projects, both sonically and thematically. …LOVE?, as the name suggests, dealt with the tender feelings that come from love. Every song was about a different type of love and the production reflects this. Meanwhile, Conspicuous Consumption is much darker, colder and nocturnal kind of beast altogether that strays from my previous projects in the sense that it has a very noticeable socio-political context. The heavier beats and over-the-top vocal effects match the misanthropic sentiments present in my lyrics, as I am angry by how society has limited my ability to love freely. Therefore, I would describe Conspicuous Consumption as an angrier more political project that is set against societal traditions and expectations. It is a manifesto that aims to highlight how these societal shackles control every aspect of our life and ultimately negatively impact our relationship with our own psyche, money, love and relationships. I made this project because I wanted people to understand that we are just puppets living on auto-pilot due to the social constructs society has created and instilled in our collective consciousness. I am someone that does not shy away from from exposing this societal dichotomy through my music because it has impacted my own personal life and caused me a great deal of anguish. A clear example that displays how society has negatively shaped my own personal life and thus impacted my art would be the song "Eternal Oblivion.” In this track I discuss how conservative societal attitudes destroyed one of my past relationships. This theme of losing someone you love through no fault of your own but due to societal beliefs is particularly evident throughout my love trilogy comprised of "you know what we did last summer,” "sagittarius" and "damnatio memoriae.” As you may get the impression, I employ an inter-connected narrative that advances throughout the album. Whilst some of the songs deal more with sentimental matters of the heart, I still poke fun at my own socially constructed persona on tracks like “Gossip,” breaking the fourth wall and creating a more meta experience for the listeners to dissect.
Q: What is your recording process like and how was it working at EARS Studio?
A: I'm not going to lie, recording conspicuous consumption at EARS studio was a challenge. We had started recording the album in June of 2019 with a goal of finishing by May 2020 in order to release the project in the summer. This plan completely went out the window thanks to the pandemic, which caused me to have to wait until August 2020 to get back in the studio. I will admit, this limbo period did allow me the luxury to take my time polishing the songs of the album. I ended up releasing it on December 10th of 2020, however what was meant to be a triumphant return to form ended up being another obstacle. Another lockdown was announced following my release, which lasted until February of 2021. Therefore, my album rollout was in complete shambles as I had no effective way to promote it during the second national lockdown. I only really started being able to promote it towards the end of 2021. As a result of this force majeure and it's anti-climatic effect on my album, I decided to curate a new version which I released in 2022 in order to give conspicuous consumption the attention it deserves. Despite the obstacles mentioned, I managed to create a very fulfilling creative work-space environment with my main producers Guberto Grajales and Rolando Torrealba. I feel like thanks to our resilience we were able to beat the odds against us, to the point were we are even planning to release another new edition of the album in late 2022.
Q: You mention conspicuous consumption is an eclectic work of indie pop with an emphasis on the bittersweet and melancholic. What attracts you to the bittersweet and melancholic?
A: Unfortunately, like all human beings, I have had the misfortune of experiencing events that have broken my spirit and caused me a great deal of mental anguish. But you know what? It is okay to go through these things. Writing about these uncomfortable past experiences through the lenses of nostalgia has allowed me to understand on a deeper level my psyche and feelings. More importantly, it has helped me come to terms with the fact that my past is scattered with loose threads that still haunt me. But I would wager that nobody's past is perfect either! I will be the first to admit I am still recovering from these past unresolved issues. People may think I am clinging onto the past for music content, but in reality I am just a sentimental person that wears my heart on my sleeve. Sometimes I feel like my emotional disposition is a curse because I feel everything so intensely. This is why I write everything down, as it helps me understand and process my emotions. This is why I would consider myself as more of a writer than a singer. I only really sing to express what my creative consciousness has pushed me to write and document. I always find that in art there is a fine line between finding melancholia beautiful and just outright glamorizing depressive feelings. As much as I find these feelings comforting, I always try to strike a balance because I have come across instances of artists glorifying depression for the sake of it in order to fit a certain trendy aesthetic. Just because I find beauty in painful events like heartbreak does not necessarily mean I suffer from depression. Ultimately, if I write a song about you, it is because you have played a significant part in the story of my life. I would describe the process of writing songs as extremely psychologically intense. It is almost like a form of meditation where I open up my consciousness and pick it apart in an attempt to examine and relive stored memories. For example, I had one relationship where we would paint just one nail on our hands the color black and wear pearl necklaces. I then incorporate these relics from the past into songs. I have done this for my upcoming fourth album in songs like "orange heart,” "prince of wales" and "spark of joy" with the help of my dear friend Aaron Dinars. Don't get me wrong, I am not ruling out a change in the way I view my life, especially my past. Maybe I will end up making an upbeat happy dance album some day, as I am always open to new ideas and trying new things.
Q: Have you started playing shows or virtual shows?
A: I am happy to say that I have finally been able to resume live shows. I have not done any virtual shows, however, as to me it is just not the same. No offense to those that enjoy them. I am just someone that needs to feel the adrenaline of the crowd. It feeds me and keeps me going. When I perform in a live setting I undergo a spiritual transformation where I ultimately become someone else. I am planning a big show for my upcoming release. My aim is to surpass all previous shows I have done, but then again I have always been someone that wants the next show to be better than the last one. It is something that is in my nature. My last show was back in December of 2021 and before that I hadn't performed live for over two years since 2019. As an artist, there is nothing more heartbreaking than the utter helplessness of being unable to perform due to circumstances outside of your control. I have always said that musicians are like Tinker Bell, if we do not perform and create then we fade away and perish.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: Okay so I’m giving you exclusive information because it means the WORLD to me for you guys to give me a platform to explain my art - I will be releasing conspicuous consumption (the eternal edition) - 18 tracks including the original conspicuous album with three new songs, two remixes and one acoustic version plus a movie I’m doing with my amazing art director Alice Full Of Love set for late 2022,
A: I'm not going to lie, recording conspicuous consumption at EARS studio was a challenge. We had started recording the album in June of 2019 with a goal of finishing by May 2020 in order to release the project in the summer. This plan completely went out the window thanks to the pandemic, which caused me to have to wait until August 2020 to get back in the studio. I will admit, this limbo period did allow me the luxury to take my time polishing the songs of the album. I ended up releasing it on December 10th of 2020, however what was meant to be a triumphant return to form ended up being another obstacle. Another lockdown was announced following my release, which lasted until February of 2021. Therefore, my album rollout was in complete shambles as I had no effective way to promote it during the second national lockdown. I only really started being able to promote it towards the end of 2021. As a result of this force majeure and it's anti-climatic effect on my album, I decided to curate a new version which I released in 2022 in order to give conspicuous consumption the attention it deserves. Despite the obstacles mentioned, I managed to create a very fulfilling creative work-space environment with my main producers Guberto Grajales and Rolando Torrealba. I feel like thanks to our resilience we were able to beat the odds against us, to the point were we are even planning to release another new edition of the album in late 2022.
Q: You mention conspicuous consumption is an eclectic work of indie pop with an emphasis on the bittersweet and melancholic. What attracts you to the bittersweet and melancholic?
A: Unfortunately, like all human beings, I have had the misfortune of experiencing events that have broken my spirit and caused me a great deal of mental anguish. But you know what? It is okay to go through these things. Writing about these uncomfortable past experiences through the lenses of nostalgia has allowed me to understand on a deeper level my psyche and feelings. More importantly, it has helped me come to terms with the fact that my past is scattered with loose threads that still haunt me. But I would wager that nobody's past is perfect either! I will be the first to admit I am still recovering from these past unresolved issues. People may think I am clinging onto the past for music content, but in reality I am just a sentimental person that wears my heart on my sleeve. Sometimes I feel like my emotional disposition is a curse because I feel everything so intensely. This is why I write everything down, as it helps me understand and process my emotions. This is why I would consider myself as more of a writer than a singer. I only really sing to express what my creative consciousness has pushed me to write and document. I always find that in art there is a fine line between finding melancholia beautiful and just outright glamorizing depressive feelings. As much as I find these feelings comforting, I always try to strike a balance because I have come across instances of artists glorifying depression for the sake of it in order to fit a certain trendy aesthetic. Just because I find beauty in painful events like heartbreak does not necessarily mean I suffer from depression. Ultimately, if I write a song about you, it is because you have played a significant part in the story of my life. I would describe the process of writing songs as extremely psychologically intense. It is almost like a form of meditation where I open up my consciousness and pick it apart in an attempt to examine and relive stored memories. For example, I had one relationship where we would paint just one nail on our hands the color black and wear pearl necklaces. I then incorporate these relics from the past into songs. I have done this for my upcoming fourth album in songs like "orange heart,” "prince of wales" and "spark of joy" with the help of my dear friend Aaron Dinars. Don't get me wrong, I am not ruling out a change in the way I view my life, especially my past. Maybe I will end up making an upbeat happy dance album some day, as I am always open to new ideas and trying new things.
Q: Have you started playing shows or virtual shows?
A: I am happy to say that I have finally been able to resume live shows. I have not done any virtual shows, however, as to me it is just not the same. No offense to those that enjoy them. I am just someone that needs to feel the adrenaline of the crowd. It feeds me and keeps me going. When I perform in a live setting I undergo a spiritual transformation where I ultimately become someone else. I am planning a big show for my upcoming release. My aim is to surpass all previous shows I have done, but then again I have always been someone that wants the next show to be better than the last one. It is something that is in my nature. My last show was back in December of 2021 and before that I hadn't performed live for over two years since 2019. As an artist, there is nothing more heartbreaking than the utter helplessness of being unable to perform due to circumstances outside of your control. I have always said that musicians are like Tinker Bell, if we do not perform and create then we fade away and perish.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: Okay so I’m giving you exclusive information because it means the WORLD to me for you guys to give me a platform to explain my art - I will be releasing conspicuous consumption (the eternal edition) - 18 tracks including the original conspicuous album with three new songs, two remixes and one acoustic version plus a movie I’m doing with my amazing art director Alice Full Of Love set for late 2022,