Alabaster DePlume exclusively for Mavoy Music

 

This is probably the most necessary article that I’ve published yet. It took a while to get it done, but at last it’s here.

I don’t often get „political” on this website. I usually only do it when I post songs criticizing the Trump administration (both administrations, at this point). But if you’re following me on social media, you know that I am a political person. And I am a bit of a black sheep of my very conservative family, your typical Polish Catholic folks, very traditional, „anti-woke”, whatever it means, but it seems that they made peace with the fact that I’m built differently. My political evolution was a long process, I first believed myself a liberal centrist, then I slowly realized that I’m in fact a progressive and the moderates are unfit for the moment. I’m still a practicing Catholic, but my faith changed as well.

And while I like to distance myself from the parties and most politicians, there are some values I treasure the most, like my strong disgust in the most reprehensible character trait you can find in a person - racism, which is, devastatingly, omnipresent these days. Out in the open. And if you know something about my views, you also know I’m a big supporter of Ukraine and of Palestine. And it’s the latter that I wanted to talk today with musician Alabaster DePlume, whose new EP Dear Children Of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue is inspired by the ongoing genocide, especially the settlers’ colonialism in the West Bank.

Genocide in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, specifically in Gaza and West Bank, is not a matter of opinion. People speaking for Palestinians are called out as „antisemitic” (even if they’re Jewish) and „Hamas supporters” (myself, I’d never support Hamas - they are terrorists, but it doesn’t change what Israeli goverment is doing). But genocide is a fact. It is declared by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations, and more than a dozen states.(https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds.) This report released just past week - Gaza and Ten Stages of Genocide - does a great work explaining why it is a genocide https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/special-report-gaza-and-the-ten-stages-of-genocide As a matter of fact, a lot of apartheid experts believe that the current form of treatment of Palestinians in Israel is similar to apartheid in the South Africa in the 80s. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/ Even after the so-called „ceasefire”, the hostilies never really stopped (https://www.972mag.com/gaza-israeli-airstrikes-ceasefire-slaughter/, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/israels-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza-continues-unabated-despite-ceasefire/, https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-genocide-ceasefire-update/, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20261001-gaza-genocide-continues-a-year-after-ceasefire-medical-aid-for-palestinians-warns/, https://www.saba.ye/en/news3801720.htm). And it’s probably fitting to point out that Israelis are destroying not just Palestinian population, but also the remains of their culture (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-001211_EN.html )

I’m always sensitive to the suffrage. When I see people hurting, I can’t not to react. It would be immoral to stay silent.

So here’s my conversation with Alabaster, with a few songs from his EP and a short film that he shared four months ago, when the EP was released and the idea of the interview first came to me. Naturally, I also encourage you to support this release on Bandcamp https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/album/dear-children-of-our-children-i-knew-epilogue

Mavoy Music: You were never shy about your political views, referencing Chilean leftist president Salvator Allende in one of your first music videos, but your recent release - new EP Dear Children Of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue - is dedicated to a new subject in your work: genocide in Palestine. What is your own relationship with Palestine, did you visit and when did you decide to speak on it? 

Alabaster DePlume: Thank you for bringing this up, and with such kind words. In truth I was indeed shy, once, about my political views. Certainly, up until about 2015 I kept that to myself - my father even had a go at me for not addressing political things when he was dying. Surely there are degrees of shyness, and we could always be more bold, so you could say I still am shy. 

It was when I saw the Hollywood blockbuster Lawrence of Arabia that I first observed with clarity that I inherit a relationship with colonial crimes, purely by being an Englishman. I didn’t choose this issue, I grew from it. I do visit Palestine yes, though I see this less as a distinctly political act and more an honest tourism and personal connection. There are other things I quietly do to embody my position on what I have inherited. My relationship with Palestine is, I holiday there. And I feel I haven’t yet spoken about it, fully.

 

Mavoy Music: Could you please talk about the title of the EP? As I understand it, Dear Children Of Our Children: I Knew is a sort of your message to the future generations - but why Epilogue? 

Alabaster DePlume: This piece is the closing part of the campaign for A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole. On dignity, sovereignty and the work of healing. The first part ‘Cremisan EP’ recorded in Palestine, then the album, finally this EP recorded in Brooklyn with the cover featuring artwork from a child in Gaza pasted on the walls of the streets of the US. 

 

Mavoy Music: I also know that one of the tracks on the EP, I Play A Role In It and I Know It, is using a recording of West Bank schoolchildren (if I recall correctly), but I don’t remember much from what you said about it during Bandcamp Q&A, so I’d be glad if you could refresh my memory about it.

AlabasterDePlume: In Brooklyn our friend Marta brought us to a session of the School of Wonder, where children train to be peaceful warriors. Marta later sampled these peaceful warriors for me, and my friend in Palestine sampled his children too. I used a Roland SPD to apply these sounds to the music adjusting the pitch and tone. 

Mavoy Music: The cover art of Dear Children is also related to Palestine. As the press release explains, it’s a drawing originally created by 13-year boy from Gaza. How did you come up with this particular idea, how did you find the drawing?

Alabaster DePlume: Creating the record, I found that it followed a theme. Responding to this I was drawn towards inviting a Gazan to design the cover. Speaking with friends and colleagues I connected to various people. My friend Balolas exploded with enthusiasm about a young boy she was connected to. I was shown some of his work. Out of many pictures there was this portrait of his martyred friend, Obeida. Here I pictured my audience, in the US. I pictured on the other hand, this boy and his friend. Instantly it was clear to me that I was standing between you, because I was connected to you. It was obviously my job, to get out of the way, and let you see each other.

Mavoy Music: The music featured on the EP was created spontaneously, during your last year’s tour with Shahzad Ismaily and Tsecher Holmes, who both feature on the record. How would you compare the process of creating Dear Children to your other releases, what were similarities and differences? 

Alabaster DePlume: Often I compose for sessions and curate player combinations over a long meticulously period of work that’s unseen to others, yet this piece arose urgently out of a sense that the audiences on that tour of the US wanted something to be voiced in that moment. Mayakovsky spoke of a ‘social command’ - that a poets job is to watch out for anything society wants to say, or to hear, and when they spot one, the poet must act. It’s in this spirit that we suddenly chose to record at that time.

 

Mavoy Music:What is currently inspiring you? What are you currently (or have recently) reading and watching that you could recommend? 

Alabaster DePlume: Muy Thai kickboxing,  wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu are bringing me alive more than anything right now and I recommend them to you and anyone reading, for reasons that might not be easily guessed. Depending on the culture of who you’re training with of course. Alim C Forever broadcasts some insightful journalism online. For anyone reading who is in any distress, I’ve found footage of Thich Nhat Hanh on YouTube to be deeply expanding.

 

Mavoy Music: I don’t think I have to ask you about the role of politics in music, because it’s clear that it plays an important part in your own (you also mention ICE in the album description and the subject of its crimes and the need for abolishing it is very dear to me) - but how do you convince the others to your position? Do you try to convince the others, the musicians, but also other people from the musical community, that it should play the part and speaking out is necessary? 

Alabaster DePlume: Where I find a shared concern between us, this is itself all I have to offer to the creative work - because it is what is. You (whoever is reading) are an intelligent and able individual, so it’s not my place to convince you of anything. You see what you see. Where something is true it can be observed as such. In fact to attempt persuade you might be to doubt it, and might also risk pitting me against you. I’m not against you, and I see this issue as our shared issue, that we both would love to address and make right. Naturally we are surely allies against genocide, injustice, colonialism and fascist acts of evil. I watch out also for the word ‘try’ (much like Yoda does). Ultimately it is for others to say if they find what I’m bringing to be convincing or not. 

Mavoy Music - An important, longer question to close this conversation - what do you think about the visible switch of the perception of Palestinian plight for the global population? I can tell you that I was distanced myself once. The mainstream coverage is withdrawing the real proportions from you and, a couple years ago, the popular view was still „both sides are equal and it’s best to avoid this subject”. But I started reading more about it when Israel started bombing civilians and that’s when I understood that it’s not at all balanced and the country commits acts of unspeakable evil. As I always say, the more you read, the more you learn, the more you are horrified. In most nations, Israel is viewed negatively now, even if it’s convienently ignored by politicians (in America, unfortunately, still even many Democrats portray themselves as devoted to the alliance with the state ethnically cleansing the population of Gaza and West Bank. British government still supports Israel and attacks organization like Palestine Action. In my own Poland, the government is cautious). Do you think there’s a hope for Palestine, thanks to the international support, just like it helped to beat back the apartheid state of South Africa (to which Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories have been often compared to these days)? 

Alabaster DePlume: Lately it was pointed out to me, that the Palestine I visit is not the Palestine of Darwish’s poems. That this was stolen long ago. What do we mean when we say ‘Palestine’ then?

Shall we ask a family buried and not found under the rubble, perhaps those bodies carried away as I write, to be hidden by the invading Zionists, shall we ask them if there is hope for Palestine? What does this mean? 

Also, what international support do we refer to. South Africa’s case at the ICJ perhaps? The gentle beings today straddling the Elbit Systems death factories to delay them for one day, awaiting arrest with joy in their liberated hearts?

Perhaps we could ask if there is hope for us, who are party to this. 

Do we ask about hope because we want it to be fed to us? Is our good work    conditional on it? Or does it generate it. Do we not generate it ourselves. If I could tell you ‘there is no hope for Palestine’ would you then feel free to relax your efforts?

Do you have a desire to create hope yourself? Shall I deny you of that chance by saying “yes there’s already plenty of hope, you can chill now”.

We have passed any hope, for the extinct species of this world, just as much as we have for Hind Rajab. It is too late for them. 

Hope is created and breathed into being, like love. It is an act of will. Choosing to live we choose to embody this. It isn’t bestowed upon us, it is a sunshine made by our own eyes. 

What I mean by ‘hope’ and what I mean by ‘Palestine’ is, as they say, between me and God. But we are the perfect people for this time in the world, because we are the people who are in this time in the world. If I could live at any time I would choose to live now, to face this genocide with you. 

Our solutions will be creative, individual and personal. Create what you see as hope, yourself. Then as well as growing individually, you will have defined what is to be hoped for or not. As a human, your actions define humanity. Let others see your humanity and let them hope or not hope as they choose.   

 

Alabaster’s musical recommendations

Julmud

Melt Banana

Paul Robeson

Vladimir Vysotsky - Koni Privireldliviye

Mavoy Music: Closing the post with the very important question and I believe it would be actually a great idea to make it a regular closer for EVERY interview I am conducting (it came to me after I finished working on this one and since then, I also asked Joan as Police Woman about it). Is there a specific cause, organization that you would you like to encourage people to support?

Edit: I also encourage everyone to check out this Carrd featuring various organizations supporting people from Palestine, Ukraine, Lebanon, Sudan, Congo and more. https://helpourpeople.carrd.co/

Alabaster DePlume: Go in person as a tourist to Palestine, and spend your money in the West Bank, and have your life changed. First step how: https://bedutours.com/navigating-the-border-crossings-between-jordan-and-israel-palestine/