Tutafarel Photo credit: Angel Rivera
Brazilian-born, Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary artist Raphael Rosalen, known artistically as Tutafarel (pronounced [ˌtuː.tɑː.fəˈrɛl]) is inviting listeners deeper into his world with his new single, “PINEAPPLE DIESEL.” The track offers the latest glimpse into his upcoming debut album, Monte Casanova, due out December 5 — a record that promises to blend sensuality, self-reflection, and pop hedonism in equal measure.
Seductive, hypnotic, and moody, “PINEAPPLE DIESEL” distills the rush of late-night city life into a sleek, pulsing pop moment inspired by Rosalen’s time in New York. It’s also a window into Monte Casanova’s larger sonic world — one defined by lush production, emotional complexity, and a playful edge.
While Tutafarel had been quietly building the Monte Casanova universe for some time, the project crystallized in 2025 after a road accident left Rosalen recovering for several months. Immersed in 90s action movies, Greek tragedies, and the legend of Giacomo Casanova, he began shaping a world that could hold both the chaos and beauty of modern life.
Drawing from a spectrum of influences — from Michael Jackson, Brockhampton, KAIRO, and Justin Bieber to PinkPantheress and Addison Rae — Tutafarel merges masculine pop confidence with soft, instinctive vulnerability. Notably, the entire album was self-produced in GarageBand, giving it a raw, deeply personal edge.
Tutafarel explains:
“There’s sex, drugs, and rock & roll, sure, but underneath it’s about accepting imperfection — yours, mine, everyone’s. We live in a culture obsessed with surface, so opening up the messy parts can feel wrong sometimes. This record says forget that. It’s okay to dance through it, stay home and cuddle to a black-and-white movie, or just be. Monte Casanova is a moment of escape — a big, cathartic sigh — but dressed in pop.”
More than an album, Monte Casanova serves as the foundation for a multimedia project spanning music, literature, and digital storytelling. Alongside the record, Tutafarel will release a book of the same name and a serialized TikTok video series that expand the story world.
Set in a near-future, crumbling Los Angeles ruled by media spectacle — think Succession meets Romeo & Juliet — the book unfolds as a queer two-act tragedy. It follows Monte, a fallen icon born into power, as he navigates intimacy, betrayal, and the politics of influence. Told through a chorus of journalists, influencers, and digital onlookers, it paints a sharp portrait of identity, power, and performance in the digital age — laying the emotional groundwork for the album’s themes.
Together, the album, book, and video series form an interconnected creative universe — a bold experiment in narrative pop that blurs the lines between sound, story, and screen.
You describe the album as, “a moment of escape—a big, cathartic sigh—but dressed in pop,” and about “finding joy in that chaos.” Where do you imagine people listening to Monte Casanova and what do you hope listeners take away from the record?
TUTAFAREL: Monte Casanova moves through a lot of different genres, but it all lives inside the universe of pop. The album takes you on a sonic journey that you can listen to in so many settings, whether you’re getting ready to go out, riding the subway to work, or winding down at night. There’s a song for every mood.
At its core, it’s about finding beauty in the mess of being alive and learning how to breathe through the chaos. I hope when people listen, they feel permission to feel everything: the exhaustion, the joy, the longing, the confidence. I wanted it to sound like a sigh that turns into a dance track, something that feels like escape but also reminds you that you’re still here, still feeling.
The book that inspired the album ends with a kind of moral that has always stayed with me. If you’re going to do anything, it should be for yourself, not for other people. That idea runs through the whole record too. It’s about learning to find meaning and joy in your own way, even when everything around you feels uncertain. If there’s one thing I hope people take away, it’s that even in the chaos, there’s softness. There’s always something worth holding.
Monte Casanova is a part of a multimedia project that combines music, literature (your book), and digital storytelling (a Tiktok video series). How do you see these different mediums working together to tell one cohesive story?
TUTAFAREL: All three parts are different ways into the same universe. The Monte Casanova book is the myth, the piece that gives everything its backbone. The TikTok series, The Nico Tapes, is the emotional diary. It’s where you see how power, love, and guilt move between people. And the album is the pulse. It’s the sound of that world, what it actually feels like to live in it.
They’re all connected. You can experience just one and it still stands on its own, but when you take them together, you start to notice how the stories echo each other. The same heartbreak that shows up in a journal entry might reappear as a lyric, or a melody might connect to a line in the book. One example is the final poem in the book, which ends with, “And when the air tastes of smoke and rain, remember: the sky won’t break.” That line comes back in the song “Sky Won’t Break,” a soft rap-pop track that’s meant to calm your heart and remind you that everything’s okay.
I wanted the whole project to feel like a living ecosystem, a queer world that exists across music, literature, and digital storytelling. It’s not about using “transmedia” as a label. It’s about showing how stories move through us, through our words, our songs, our screens, and how they evolve each time we tell them.
“PINEAPPLE DIESEL” feels like both a mood and a moment. What emotions or experiences were you hoping to capture with this track, and how does it fit into the world of Monte Casanova?
TUTUFAREL: “Pineapple Diesel” is the calm after the storm. It’s that late-night, post-party haze where everything slows down and the world suddenly feels softer. I wanted the song to hold that warmth that comes after chaos, when you’re tired, a little buzzed, surrounded by friends, and the night feels like it’s hanging in the air. The streets are empty, lights blur past the windows, someone’s laughing in the backseat, and for a moment it feels like time has stopped.
It’s euphoric but gentle. The energy is still there, just quieter. Emotionally, it’s about intimacy and those small, fleeting moments that somehow feel infinite. It sits right in the middle of Monte Casanova, between love and loss, between control and surrender. Where “American Nightmare” and “Passenger princess” are the chase, “Pineapple Diesel” is the memory. It’s the quiet realization that what you were chasing wasn’t the high itself, but the stillness that follows.
I wanted it to feel like a song that moves with you but also holds you. Something you can dance to and breathe to at the same time. It’s the sound of the world finally exhaling.
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