Fans have known Damiano David, the charismatic frontman of Måneskin, for half a decade, since the Italian group found global fame with their take on the song “Beggin’.”
But in September, David — who’s being recognized as one of PEOPLE’s 2024 Ones to Watch in music — made a point to reintroduce himself. “My name is Damiano David,” he said in a brief, 30-second spoken-word release. “And today is the first day of my life.”
Though it may seem counterintuitive to make an introduction nearly eight years into your career, it makes sense for David, 25, as he takes the biggest leap of his life yet: going solo.
“Everything is different,” he tells PEOPLE. “My aesthetic is different, my music is different. What’s part of the band stays with the band, and it’s property of the band because it’s what we created together. I’ll always be respectful toward it, and I’ll always be proud of it. But this is something that I’m building from scratch.”
So far, David has put out two singles, each offering a more personal side to the star than he’d ever shared with Måneskin. “Silverlines,” a collaboration with Labrinth, finds him searching for the bright side over an anthemic piano, and he explores the fear of starting what could be a beautiful relationship on “Born With a Broken Heart.”
David says that he and bandmates Victoria De Angelis, Thomas Raggi and Ethan Torchio always knew the day would come when they would pump the brakes on Måneskin in favor of individual pursuits, so alerting the group that he was ready for a change wasn’t a big to-do. Besides, they’d already achieved so much together. After placing second on the eleventh season of the Italian X-Factor, their debut album was released in 2018, and in 2021, they won the Eurovision Song Contest.
After “Beggin’” topped the U.S. rock charts in 2021 for a whopping 11 weeks, they became international stars and earned a Grammy nomination for best new artist.
But in spite of the massive success, David had started to feel burnout. The disconnect between who he was offstage and his frontman persona, he says, had started to grow past the point of ignoring.
“I got to a point where a couple of not-great things happened, and it made me understand how my personality was fragile and how much I was relying on external validation to feel safe about myself,” he explains. “When those things started to crumble, I started to really understand that I’m not enjoying this. So it was like, ‘Okay, it’s either I keep doing this and I become completely numb to my job, or I take a big step. I do the scary thing and I take everything on my shoulders and I try to do it.’ And thank God I did it because now I got back all that enthusiasm and fun and happiness.”
Though the group had known the day would come when they each wanted to challenge themselves by doing a different sort of project, it was important to David that he break away at the right moment. (De Angelis released her solo debut single in August).
“I wanted to be okay with what we did with the band, and I think that we can all say that we are okay. We did a bunch of things, we had a bunch of achievements, and so I feel good,” he says. “None of us feels like, if we take a break now, we’re going to destroy everything we created. We created enough.”
He continues: “Life goes on. I started when I was 16, now I’m 25. My priorities have changed. My habits, my goals in life… This was the moment where everything was fitting and I was needing to do this. I was really in the right headspace to do it.”
David’s releases have so far been softer, more pop-oriented tracks, as opposed to the hard rocking he did in the band. He says a different sound is “inevitable” — and that he appreciates the fact that because he’s known his bandmates for so long, he can get honest feedback from them.
“We really know each other, so we don’t have that layer of fake kindness anymore,” he says. “For some stuff they were like, ‘This is good. This is cool. I can see it.’ And for some other stuff, they were like, ‘Okay, okay, not really.’ And I was like, ‘That makes sense.’ Otherwise we would’ve done it together.”
He’s also had the support of girlfriend Dove Cameron, whom he’s been dating since the fall of 2023.
“I’m so in love,” he says. “We play each other’s music, and I would say that we are very lucky because she loves music, and I love her music, I really vibe with it. So it’s very fun.”
Still, don’t expect a collaboration between the two anytime soon.
“Maybe in a couple of years,” he says. “Right now it feels extremely cheesy.”
David understands that not all of his fans will be on board with his new sound and image. But it’s a risk he’s willing to take. He’s set to give those fans a chance to see him live on a global tour next year that will span five continents, with shows starting next September in Warsaw and ending in December in Washington, D.C.
“Some of my old fans are going to understand it for sure, because they always understood me. Other people are not going to be willing to because they’re going to be attached with the band and what I represented with the band. Of course I hope new people jump in. There’s a lot of people in the world!” he says. “I’m excited to have people just listen to it. That’s the purpose of this whole thing — write music that people can relate to and enjoy.”
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