SPOTLIGHT: CRYSTAL TOTO

Meet Crystal Toto and tune into her newest single “Rhinestones Need Love Too.”

For listeners just discovering you, how would you describe your sound and artistic identity in your own words?

I would describe my artistic style as incredibly sentimental. I used to say I only made love ballads, but over time, I realized it’s less about the subject and more about the feeling. When I sing, it always feels a bit vulnerable because I feel like I’m expressing what’s in the heart of my soul. It feels fun to just treat my music as a pop experiment.

You’re a multidisciplinary artist, how do your other creative outlets influence or intersect with your music?

I love to design, so I have a habit of seeing the world in shapes, patterns, and visual rhythm. It’s second nature to translate my ideas visually! I create all of my own single covers, promo flyers, and storyboard concepts for my music videos. It’s so nice to be able to express myself through mediums where I don’t feel defensive or calculative, and its all a natural and fun process! To me, visual communication doesn’t always follow logic and can be a lot more instinctive, just like music!

Growing up in Chicago, how did the city shape your relationship to music and storytelling?

I think growing up in Chicago builds a kind of strength and character that’s hard to find anywhere else. Sometimes it feels like the center of the world. There’s so much culture, grit, and talent packed into every neighborhood. But with that beauty comes struggle. There’s a lot of systemic issues, violence, and pressure, even while trying to stay creative and push forward. A lot of the kids in this city go through a lot so it’s important to help one another be resilient and lean on the community. It can be easy to have a love-hate relationship with the city. It shapes you, sharpens you. For better or worse, it’s in everything I create, and I’m learning to love Chicago for everything that it is!

Your new single “Rhinestones Need Love Too” is such a poetic and layered title, what inspired the concept behind this track?

Thank you so much for saying that, that’s very sweet! I really like to create concepts based on my name, Crystal, and every time I would encounter something fake, I’d call it a rhinestone. I was thinking about how we often romanticize relationships, even when they’re fragile or not built to last. Rhinestones are beautiful, but they’re not diamonds, and that’s okay.

I love how the track touches on the duality of wanting to be seen while hiding behind a polished version of ourselves. How do you personally navigate that tension in your art?

That’s such a beautiful question! I feel like as an artist, there can be this double identity Hannah Montana thing going on. Especially with social media as a tool to transform yourself into however you want people to see you, it can definitely seem like we can hide behind these perfect images of ourselves. I’m still navigating everything and I’m so grateful to have people by my side that are so supportive with whichever way I’m evolving!

You use the metaphor of rhinestones versus diamonds to explore the complexities of relationships, can you talk about how that imagery came to you?

Sometimes, on the surface, something can seem like the real thing, but it’s actually just a replica of what you’ve been through in the past, and I just thought it was important to be able to dig deeper and really understand what you want out of a relationship with someone, because a lot of the emotions that we chase can be fleeting. Every time I think of a diamond, I think of all of the facets that make it shine and I feel like everybody has all of these different parts of themselves that can be hidden gems!

There’s a clear sense of vulnerability in the song, was there a specific moment or experience that sparked this reflection?

I think I was just reflecting on how intense emotions can seem in our youth. Even if we’re super careful, things can go wrong and I feel like it’s so common to try to brush it off and keep it moving. This song was kinda just me trying to face the music and process everything in a healthier way!

What was the songwriting process like for this piece, did it come together quickly or evolve over time?

My really good friend Will from Timeless Studios was actually the one that arranged the beat and he had all of these beautiful melodies and for the intro there was a very specific melody that we just couldn’t get out of our heads so we began to piece the song together by bouncing off of these ideas of being a diamond in the rough. The song came together pretty quickly within the first session!

Sonically, the track feels both delicate and cinematic. Who did you work with on production, and what kind of sound were you aiming to create?

Thank you!! Will Catucci and Luca Cuni produced the track and since their studio is called Timeless studios, I wanted to include that in the lyrics and rep them by saying “Everything I do is so timeless…”. The sound we were aiming to create was something that had a fun dance-pop tune.

As someone who bridges multiple disciplines, do you visualize the aesthetic or visual tone of a song as you’re creating it?

I’m definitely a big fan of wordplay. A lot of graphic design relies on typography, so being able to shift around different concepts and pieces of text to express an emotion or idea is one of my favorite parts of the creative process. Color is also really important when it comes to setting visual tones. For this single, I used photos that I took at a now-defunct love hotel and really loved how the ruby red imagery kind of conveyed this palette of desire and longing.

One of the standout messages in the song is that even our “flawed” parts deserve love. Why was it important for you to include that in this narrative?

I think when you first become infatuated with someone or even an idea, you’re often only seeing the light. Which is beautiful but you’re not yet familiar with the shadow side. But over time, I kept learning that real love isn’t just about the shiny parts; it’s about pulling those shadows into the light and accepting things fully, as a whole. We can’t really love ourselves deeply while ignoring the parts that are harder to face.

Do you find that writing about emotional contradictions, like love and insecurity, beauty and fragility, helps you make sense of them, or simply give them space to exist?

It does feel kind of contradictory but I don’t think all of these aspects of life can exist without the other. There’s so much beauty in being vulnerable and so much to love about the insecurities that we refuse to face. It’s soooo nice to just know that even the darkest facets of life are temporary. Maybe they do exist today and tomorrow but one day we can look back and feel silly that we ever felt that way.

How do you hope listeners feel after hearing “Rhinestones Need Love Too”? What do you want them to take away from it?

I hope listeners feel nostalgic and can resonate with a time that they identified with these lyrics. I hope they know that their light can never be frozen and that they are beautiful at any stage of their lives.

The track was featured in Taxi Society Magazine, in general, how has it felt seeing your work resonate with wider audiences and platforms?

It was really awesome for me to see that other people liked the song! It was quite different from my previous tracks and kind of leaned into a more acoustic pop style but I’m so happy that such a cool magazine would want to feature the song. I’m so blessed that Recently Played likes the song! It feels very freeing to be able to express my thoughts both in the song and during this awesome interview!

What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects, performances, or creative ventures that listeners should keep an eye out for?

So I recently became Christian and that’s been the most life-changing journey for me. I want to make happy songs! So hopefully my discography can slowly shift away from my melancholic moments and I can sing joyously for everybody. I also have a new magazine called Artificial Artist that’s in stores at Quimby’s NYC and Quimby’s Chicago! It’s also available on Metalabel.

Listen to Rhinestones Need Love Too here.