Okay okay I’m very excited about this blog post tonight, y’all. I met Brit nominated, MTV Brand New for 2019 winner, and very very nearly hitting the Number 1 single spot in the UK as I type, Lewis Capaldi, a couple months back. You can see the finished interview live at Redbrick Newspaper – but I also thought I’d pop it here for ya to see. Lewis Capaldi has got to be the funniest human I have ever interviewed – and he gave me a packet o’ Soothers because I was dying of a v bad cough, so I guess you could also say he’s my saviour, too.
Haves a read, y’alls!
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Lewis Capaldi is a contradiction in many terms, and by a contradiction, I mean this is a good thing. Hear me out. Heās a young musician who only has less than an album of songs released (seven, to count)- yet he single handedly sold out the O2 Instituteās main room for his November 3rd headline show. And Lewis writes heartachingly, passionate songs that produce a sob-fest mid gig from his adoring fans- yet heās potentially one of the most hilarious, happy-go-lucky people Iāve ever met.
And as I enter his dressing room on Saturday evening, a mere hour and a half before his headline show, his first words to me are: āIām so sorry, let me just spray something quickly- I kinda did a nervous fart before you came inā.
And if that doesnāt sum up Lewis Capaldi, I donāt know what will.
A happy contradiction, Lewis Capaldi is a name thatās doing the rounds in the music industry at the moment. One to watch out for, at just 22 years young, heās just hit the BBCās Sound of 2018 longlist. Heās played TRNSMT festival in Scotland and his adoring, sobbing fans include a certain Ellie Goulding and just ¼ of the UKās biggest boyband to date, One Directionās Niall Horan. So just a classic resume for a standard 22-year-oldās CV it is, then.
But itās impossible to be jealous of Lewisā skyrocketing journey to fame, because heās just the nicest lad, and you can tell he is relishing every moment of this journey. Mid his headline tour, with support Nina Nesbitt, Lewis has enjoyed every second, but his favourite date so far has to be Cambridge. He adored the venue (āyou can just see everybody, right to the backā) he adored the people (āit was Friday so everyone was a bit pissed and a bit up for itā) and heās still in shock of his success (āit was my first headline show in Cambridge, Iād never been before- it was incredible, I really liked itā).

The crowd was buzzzzed
And Lewisā musical journey to the stars began at the tender age of, well: āI was four. My family went on holiday- I donāt know why Iām telling you this- but we used to drive from Glasgow to a caravan park in France for some fucking reason. Itās a long fucking drive, and this is when planes exist!! So we used to drive down and my mum and dad always used to play Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Queen, Adam the Ant, Simon Garfunkel and The Proclaimers on repeat.ā And his favourite CD? āThe Queen one. It had We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions on it.ā
When bubba Lewis arrives at said caravan park, the karaoke entertainment was aācalling him. āI remember getting up on stage and doing a karaoke thing. I was 4-years-old, so I wasnāt a singer. I mean, I was as much of a singer as I was a professional shitter of my pants, so I got up and just sang my heart out.ā
āI think I sang We Are the Champions first and then I thought it was so cool I asked to go back up. Whether or not I realised then that this was something I wanted to do as a career; thatās a different thing.ā
As Lewis chats to me, thereās two things that delight me. The first is the fact that his parents played The Proclaimers on repeat to influence their 4-year-oldās music taste (could you get more quintessentially Scottish than that?) and the second is the fact that this guy swears, a lot. Now swearing is nowt to condone, of course, and thereās a time and a place for a cheeky swear word, but swearing seems so much of Lewisā psyche as writing sad songs does: heās just meant to be like this. And itās these things, his happy-go-lucky personality, combined with his talent for writing a song to get you sobbing, which means Lewis is winning over hordes and hordes of adoring fans.
And for someone that writes songs literally designed to get those tears flowing, I asked Lewis how he himself copes with the emotions whilst performing. āYou know, Iām not the most serious guy- I feel weāve only been talking 2 minutes but you can probably realise that! There is emotion there, but I think onstage Iām just enjoying it! Because everyoneās singing along and itās good, I donāt get sad, per say- it would be fucking difficult if I got sobby every time I go to sing!ā
But blasĆ© and partial to a good joke around like Lewis is, he isnāt afraid to talk about some pretty serious matters. Heās just quick to throw in a joke or two to lighten the mood, afterwards. When I ask him how he manages nerves before a show, I see him hesitate. āI started recently getting panic attacks and getting anxious and things, but I think I was drinking a lot last year after gigs, having a few drinks after a show. I donāt get nervous per say, but I worry- I hope the show goes well.ā Not a perfectionist, Lewis tries to take things as easy as possible, but itās hard not to let the desire to give the audience a good time worry even Mr. Capaldi. āIām not a perfectionist at all- Iām exactly the fuckinā opposite! There are so many songs Iāll send to my managers, just recordings on my phone, and theyāll tell me itās shit but Iām like nooo because they donāt get it yet. I sometimes just assume everyone can understand whatās going on in my brain. Iām not a perfectionist at all, but thereās the anxiousness of wanting to do a good show- not so much nerves, but I do a lot of nervous poos and things!ā
Donāt we all, Lewis.
Thatās where that fart was coming from at the beginning of the chat.
Talking of beginnings, Lewis wrote his first song at seven, and his second at 11. And heās so embarrassed about them, he makes them the butt of a joke. āI think [my first song] was called Two Minutes After Dawn and it was fucking shite. I was crooning about a girl leaving me ātwo minutes after dawnā and I would have been seven years old?!?ā. Heartacheās always been an inspiration for his hits, then? āThe first song I remember sitting down with a guitar to create was called The Show Must Go On and it was fuckinā shit.ā Queen seems to have been an inspiration, too, then.
āI was like 11 at this point, and the song was like: āthe economy is going down the drain and Robbie Williams is going insane, oh noooo, got to get on with the showā. At the time, Robbie Williams was into aliens and shit and I was fucking 11-years-old and there I was singing about credit cards?! It was fuckinā terrible.ā
Lewis came a long way from writing about Stoke-on-Trentās finest, aliens and our countryās crippling financial crisis: he began posting covers on YouTube, and then branched out into his own (better) song writing. And heās got some stellar advice for any young person wanting to get into the music industry themselves. āJust keep writing. Iām not knocking this at all because I did this for a while myself, but the done thing is to do covers on YouTube- but to really get yourself out there youāve got to write your own songs.ā
How does one write a good song? āItās just one of those things that if you do it long enough you just get better, itās weird as fuck. Before I released my first single, which was Bruises, I had done 9 years of solid gigging and writing songs before releasing. Just keep writing and just keep gigging!ā
Lewis is living proof that if you keep doing what he calls āchipping awayā, youāll get there. And 2019 is set to shoot Capaldi into more stratospheric heights. āIām going on tour with Bastille next year which will be fucking sick, an album will be out next year at some point and then Iām going to be touring loads more and thereāll be fucking loads more music. Hopefully I wonāt get dropped by my record label! Iām going to keep chipping away!ā
But as for the present, we part ways an hour before his headline set. I ask Lewis what he wants his audience to feel when they leave the venue that night, and he tells me he wants them to have āhad a fucking good laugh!ā. He reckons the audience will be āsuitably passionateā as itās a Saturday night in Brum, and this man was on the money. The sold-out room laughed themselves silly, they sobbed themselves silly and they got a little silly on some beverages. I leave Lewisā dressing room after an offer of a beer, a G&T, some cakes and sourdough bread, absolutely rooting for the Scottish musicianās stratospheric success, which I predict will be coming very, very soon.