shrugs). Indeed, on paper it was a career most songwriters would kill for, Tamposi scoring cuts with Christina Aguilera, Demi Lovato and One Direction among others. It would be an injustice to call it a drought, but trying to beat Stronger put her creativity in a pressure cooker. Gradually, Tamposi turned to alcohol for comfort.
“When I was in the thick of it, I was looking around at my life and I just felt a dependence on a substance to feel my best,” she reflects. “After a while, you look around and you start to see your relationships falling apart and your career’s not going the way that you had hoped. There was just this void that I couldn’t fill with anything. You realise that it’s just impossible to sustain doing anything when you’re not your true self and you’re just completely disconnected.” It’s easy to understand, then, why Tamposi sounds so proud when she proclaims she’s now celebrating half a decade of sobriety… “I’m able to reflect on the last five years and it’s pretty obvious that everything that I have now is a product of my sobriety,” she continues. “I’m much better creating naturally without any crutches; there was a rebirth that was extremely challenging, I had to figure out a way to feel stimulated by life without substances and that was…” She pauses for a good while. “I’m not going to lie and say it was easy, because it
and really belting out some of the choruses. She’s an exceptional writer. I feel like we raised the bar [on Midnight Sky], at least with what we can do.”
All of this success has, however, been hard won. “Ali is at the top of her field, but she isn’t an overnight success story,” observes her publisher Donna Caseine, EVP, global creative director at Reservoir. Indeed, Tamposi’s inspiring journey is not only one of extraordinary talent, but also strength, endurance and tenacity…
I
f Ali Tamposi specialises in one thing above all else, it’s getting under the skin of artists in the studio. In a good way, of course. “There’s always an element of therapy that happens in a session,” she muses. “I try to make it as comfortable for the artist as possible so they feel that it’s a safe space to be vulnerable. That’s where the meat and potatoes of the records are – they lie in that emotional space that we all suppress on a daily basis.” “Ali’s a great storyteller,” praises Donna Caseine. “She’s very thoughtful and wants to make sure she has something to contribute to every session. It’s not about her voice – although you can hear her vocals in several songs – or her story. She creates work that is authentic to the artist.” These qualities are not just the preserve of her chart-toppers. Off record, Tamposi has done much to elucidate the particular psychological pressures faced by many of today’s elite songwriters. “I’ve lost a few chips…” she laughs nervously, before trailing off momentarily. “Some pieces of my soul along the way.” It was the mass success of her first breakout hit which set the stage for some of those pieces to fall away. The “You’re only as good as your last hit” philosophy is a hard one to live by, especially when you’ve written a song as popular as Stronger. “I really felt that pressure,” she admits. “I’ve gone through so many different phases of my career and there was a window where I had a couple of placements, but nothing as large as Stronger.”
For the record, in the immediate years that followed Clarkson’s hit, many brilliant songs bore Tamposi’s name in their credits – just check out Ciara’s magnificent 2013 track Overdose (“That was one of those, like, underrated ones that didn’t get a chance to really do what I feel like it should have done,” she
46 | Music Week
wasn’t,” she continues. “For a year, I had to relearn how to write a song, relearn how to be a human in the world and in the industry, and so that took a lot of time. But that’s what I realised: that I don’t have to do everything by myself, I can rely on other creatives and the network of people that want to hold my hand and guide me through the challenging areas. It’s enhanced my way of life tremendously. It’s definitely still the hardest thing I ever had to go through, and it might always be that. You’re never quite cured from it; the alcoholic mind, for example, is very much still alive, so [I have to] do the things that are necessary to quiet the noise and preserve my well-being.”
“Ali's one of the greatest songwriters in the world”
Jeremy Levin, Mega House
Ali time high: (Top to bottom) Ali Tamposi with Andrew Watt, Diplo and Benny Blanco; Tamposi with Ozzy Osbourne; Mega House’s Jeremy Levin and David Silberstein
Tamposi has found refuge not only in the confines of the studio, but also in meditation and surfing – anything that takes her outside of herself. Moreover, in 2019 Tamposi founded the Creative Waves Foundation with her mother to “eliminate financial challenges young artists face so they will reach their full potential”. Elsewhere, she’s also planning to roll out a free online music education platform called Song Start. Tamposi is aware of what songwriters and artists go through, the temptations they face, and the disappointments they will endure. It’s why she speaks so candidly about her own tribulations. “I’ve tried to bring awareness to the things that I’ve gone through and have tried to be of service to other songwriters and artists that are struggling,” she says. “There’s nothing worse than seeing young, extraordinarily talented artists die from the disease [substance abuse]. It’s just a constant thing that’s overlooked in a way, especially with millennials. I hear about it in lyrics and songs where it’s loosely thrown out there and you can really hear the pain of some of these artists struggling and they can’t find their way out. And it’s really hard for someone to pull you out of it, you have to have that initial drive to get better and so, as much as I want to, like, come in and save everyone that’s struggling, it’s a tricky thing. The thing is you have to have that willingness to want to grow and change.” For those working with Tamposi, her strength has been a constant source of inspiration. “Ali’s one of the hardest working people in the business, period,” says Jeremy Levin of Mega House, who has co-managed Tamposi alongside David Silberstein since 2016. “When we first met, she had recently gotten sober, and she was super-focused on becoming one of the best at her craft. She knew to do that, she would need to be the best version of herself. David and I really
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PHOTOS: Christina Arza, courtesy of Ali Tamposi, Evi Kosciow, Neilson Barnard/Staff/Getty
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