The cover of Tinder Youth’s debut single is one hand locked around another’s wrist. It comes from a tattoo Italian artist NeroAtto inked on Gianmaria back in 2019, itself a rework of an idea pulled from “Lamette” โ an 80s Donatella Rettore synth pop track with lyrics about slicing wrists.
The whole album that song came from played with Harakiri imagery. “I had it in the back of my mind and wanted to use it, then finally it all came together with Tinder Youth,” Gianmaria says. “I think it fits the music perfectly. Working with a close friend on the graphic side of this project also allows me to be influenced by him and make everything feel even more coherent and cohesive.”
Tinder Youth is his new solo project โ more electronic than what he’s known for, still rooted in punk. “Let’s Not Keep In Touch” premieres today, and the artwork will also serve as the cover of the full EP once the rest of the songs land. Gianmaria himself describes the project as one “that could have come to light much earlier but didn’t, and it was probably for the best so.”
After fronting Carnero, he did a short stretch with Milan’s Svetlanas and has been playing bass in Hierophant. The synth and drum machine detours started in 2018, while Carnero was still active.
Between 2018 and 2021 he piled up demos across different strains of electronic music, mostly 80s-leaning โ new wave and post-punk were his thing at the time. 2019 got consumed by touring. Then COVID hit and he had nothing but time to learn and experiment. “I missed having a band but being a total control freak the idea of programming and being in charge of 100% of the sounds was very appealing.”
What actually pushed him to finish everything was late 2024. A fractured rib had him stuck at home, and at the same time he was working through the breakup of a long relationship. “My body, my heart and my mind were healing,” he says. The isolation mirrored COVID, except this time there was a specific weight to process. “Now I could fully tap into my need for closure and I could do it on my own terms with my own music.”
He remembers the first time he played back the demo of “Let’s Not Keep In Touch” in his studio and tearing up. “It moved things inside of me that had been stuck for too long and helped me realising that letting thoughts out of your head through your mouth and hands turns them into something you can deal with, elaborate and come to terms with.” He’s upfront about the limits. “Spoiler: closure is not within reach and screaming over synths and drum machines can’t fully elaborate my pain or the pain I caused to others. But it helped a lot and was very cathartic to let it all out.”
The song sits apart from the rest of what’s coming. “All the other songs are more punky and to the point, this was the only one that really touched me. After years of writing all kinds of ugly and brutal music it felt weird to be able to create something that was more on the emotional side of expression.”
On the writing, Gianmaria doesn’t build narratives. “I focus more on repetition and rendition than story telling in most of my lyrics, in this song as well.” He points to the final section as the peak โ the part where the notion of running from something, from someone, never looking back, even at the cost of renouncing closure, pushes all the way through.
“Let’s Not Keep In Touch” is out today.
The rest of the EP follows.
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