Massimo Silverio - Between Alps and woods, between roots and modernity

Friulian musician Massimo Silverio has been active since 2020, but his name really began to turn heads with his first LP “Hrudja” (2023), a surprising work sung in dialect and marked by innovative, modern electronic songwriting. His new LP “Surtùm” has just been released. We spoke with him directly about it.

Your last album “Hrudja” from 2023 was very well received by audiences and critics alike, and I honestly believe it will become a touchstone for a new generation of musicians in our country. Now you've released “Surtùm”, a new LP in Carnic dialect. Is there something different in your intentions compared to “Hrudja”?

“Hrudja” was an arrival point after years of struggle and searching for a space where my music could find at least some kind of audience. In a way, I like to fondly call it a “collection” of songs from my life. Looking at it more seriously, though, I realize it was simply the culmination of a great burning feeling, of a sound that was maturing and growing denser through an intense series of live adventures (in every sense) that culminated in meeting the right people under the right circumstances. It's also a record born out of the hope of shaking off the weariness, the exhaustion of years spent far from everything, while still striving with utter dedication to play as much as possible and reach a sympathetic audience. “Surtùm”, on the other hand, arrived during one of the most emotionally intense periods of my life, right in the middle of huge changes in my personal story. Its defining trait is precisely that it “arrived”, beyond the usual urgency and need that pretty much every musician seems to feel. That said, I believe that, at their root, my intentions as a writer have never really changed — but through this experience they've become sharper, more specifically focused on a pursuit I've carried forward since I started writing: seeking, and hoping to move toward, a truth in sound, in words, and above all in singing.

It's likely that many music fans still don't know who you are.

Can you explain to them what Carnic dialect means to you and why you made this choice?

Carnic, or Friulian, isn't simply a dialect but a minority language. I've spoken this language since I was born, it has always been present in my daily life and continues to be so today. In this period of my life, every time I've tried to write lyrics in other languages, like Italian or English, I've always found myself forced to translate a feeling. On "Hrudja" there were three tracks where I felt like singing in English, partly because, even though I believe it's definitely too present in music, I'm very fond of it and many of the songs that shaped me and made me dream are sung in this language. I was born, raised and now live in Carnia, my imagination and vision were shaped by these woods, rivers and mountains. I believe the language carries traces of all these real places, and choosing to sing in this tongue, for me, meant choosing spontaneity. Being myself without too many processes and artifices in between.

In an interview you said that "Surtùm" is a journey of peace and grace,

can you explain that better to us?

I think that's a line quoted by the interviewer, taken from the press room for "Surtùm", it was written by my collaborators. For me, working on "Surtùm" wasn't a journey of peace and grace. But it was the destination I felt oriented towards during the writing process: these songs are prayers that try to bring many things to the listener's attention. I feel I reached a kind of grace and peace only after this record, and I'm very happy if the people who work with me or write about this music manage to see the light that an album which is fundamentally this dark is reaching towards.

I've listened to your record and I had the impression that a lot of "Hrudja" remains, but that you tried to push even further, including in the length of the songs. For example, I think "Sorgjàl" (ten minutes) is your longest track ever.

Yes, that's true. "Surtùm" took hold inside me while we were still on tour presenting "Hrudja". This presence took hold in Nicolas and Manuel too. A great, suspended energy had built up, one that kept swelling more and more with every show. Our journey together had matured through shared experiences, and there was a lot that, in "Hrudja", had somehow been set aside or held in reserve. Our personal lives were being turned upside down, and everyone's commitment and dedication to this music was demanding another effort from us. There was something that needed to be said affirmatively. Whereas with "Hrudja", during production, we held ourselves back here and there from exploring song length out of "fear" of further burdening the listener, between language and imagery, with "Surtùm" we let go. Personally, I've always loved songs that take their time to develop, and I find today's standards of an "acceptable" length for radio and other outlets rather sad. And I hate the fear or the compromises that they end up generating.

Releasing "Sorgjàl", which runs ten minutes, as the first single was a statement of intent and the reclaiming of a freedom.

There are a lot of collaborations on this record, can you tell us about them? 

There was a tragic feeling that needed to bloom, a space to be created for weeping. That's why Benedetta Fabbri's violin and Flavia Massimo's cello were foundational. There was a need for a choral quality of wood to join the voice. Mirko Cisilino's tuba and French horn stretch out like a parallel path, sounding like calls carried on the wind blowing through the mountains, and finally Martin Mayes's horn gives voice to the mountain we wanted to listen to and evoke with this whole production. Throughout the live experience of the "Hrudja" tour, Nicolas, Manuel and I had developed a sound that in some way was waiting to be coloured in and completed on this "Surtùm".

Over the years it seems to me that your vocal range has kept expanding. Does "Surtùm" represent a further step forward for you?

I've always approached my voice with spontaneity, and it has always revealed itself by following my moods. After years of effort and struggle, what "Hrudja" gave me in terms of feedback and personal growth is truly priceless. Now, having arrived at "Surtùm", it's as if I feel welcomed into an at least favourable condition, and my voice certainly sounds more confident, more supported, stronger. I'm not saying my singing is conditioned by the size of the audience, or by the praise I receive, absolutely not, but rather that my voice manages to inhabit its cavities better when it has something to communicate to someone. Otherwise I'd only be singing to console myself.

You said that "we need to send out messages of brotherhood, prayers that go beyond any creed or religion, other than those of a shared brotherhood and love for nature". Are the dark times we're living through, and the monstrous events in Gaza, influencing your songwriting?

Certainly, how could they not influence it? They even call it into question. Strongly. I constantly ask myself what sense it makes to keep up all this waste of space, time and words, when there's so much suffering. Real suffering. I just feel this is a time to pray, to pray intensely even if one is far from religion, or has one's own, self-generated and personally fitting measure of it. If everything is falling apart, let's at least try to communicate brotherhood, empathy and introspection. Never hatred. And let's always try to have the greatest respect for the nature that surrounds us.

Can you tell us some of the dates of your upcoming tour? I hope to see you live soon.

Yes, we'll kick things off again on November 6, 2025 in Milan at Arci Bellezza, followed by:

• November 7, 2025 – Bologna, Baumhaus
• November 15, 2025 – Taranto, Mercato Nuovo
• 16 November 2025 – Naples, Auditorium Novecento
• 13 December 2025 – Bra (Cn), Artico Club
• 10 January 2026 – Trieste, Teatro Miela
• 17 January 2026 – Montecosaro (Mc), MountEcho
• 22 January 2026 – Rome, Monk
• 23 January 2026 – Turin, Magazzino sul Po
• 29 January 2026 – Palermo, I Candelai
• 30 January 2026 – Catania, Zo

(photo by Riccardo Capra)

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Valerio D'Onofrio, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition