Berlin-based singer and songwriter SLATE recently released a new single entitled “Poison Ivy,” which showcases how versatile his artistic skills and capabilities are as he displays a very vulnerable and dynamic side of his musicality on the new single.

“Poison Ivy” is a song that many people can listen to and relate to simultaneously due to the raw and authentic message left in the piece, which blends his melodic vocals into charming and moody instrumentation.

SLATE had a chat with us and answered our three unique questions. Take a look below.

HYPEFRESH: To begin, please introduce yourself. You can share your name, age, and where you’re from, as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.

Slate: My name’s Alex Sommer. I’m an artist from Oakland, California. I grew up singing in the Grammy-award Pacific Boychoir Academy and received rigorous musical instruction from a very young age. I grew up without understanding or caring about genres because so many vastly different music was being played around me. Oakland is the home of a massive melting pot of international culture, and I am lucky to have absorbed what I was exposed to in my youth. Artists like Tupac, Souls of Mischief, Green Day, and many others come from the Town.

HYPEFRESH: Can you tell us about your new single, “Poison Ivy”?

Slate: For all those unfortunate souls who have had a particularly virulent encounter with poison ivy, we’ve all learned the saying ‘leaves of three, let them be’ the hard way. But what about all the people who manifest what you call poison ivy? After dealing with a particularly toxic relationship and breakup a year ago, I wrote this song to wrap my head around how we all can exhibit toxic behavior in the context of relationships and with the ones we love. 

It’s the feeling of knowing that—for whatever reason—you can’t hold someone close because of something innate about you or their being. That’s what the lyric ‘poison ivy grows out of my bones’ gets at. It’s when you feel a deep incompatibility that can’t be reached because it’s embedded in your core. And it doesn’t have to be purely toxic relationships, but any core incompatibility that someone feels with another or themselves.

Further, in the bridge, the metaphor takes a turn as it plays on the idea of ‘itching for love.’ Even though something is wrong, even though we know we shouldn’t itch our skin when we’re infected with poison ivy, we still absent-mindedly scratch at it and make it worse. In the same way, as hard as this toxic relationship was for me, I found myself itching for more because I was so wrapped up in it in a poisonous way.

More than anything, I hope people connect with this song and have the same catharsis I had while writing and performing it. It wasn’t an easy feeling to go through, and I want to digest it and give it back to people to help them.

HYPEFRESH: What do you like most about being a music artist?

Slate: Regarding the joy of being an artist, I appreciate a life oriented around struggle. That sounds cheesy, but I grew up in an intensive Montessori music school where you had to work hard from a young age. Then I played Division I soccer in college, so I’ve always had that hustler or athletic mentality. 

The idea of grinding at my craft and having a space to express feelings that aren’t easily shared through casual conversation is a sacred process, and I want to inspire other people to pursue their creative path. I hope to better understand myself and the world by listening to other people’s music and creating my own. It is like learning a language. The more you teach yourself, the more you can understand others.

Stream “Poison Ivy” on Spotify

Connect with SLATE: Spotify | Instagram