The BRIT Awards 2020 with Mastercard - Show Programme

Lewis
Capaldi
Divinely Uninspired
to a Hellish Extent
VIRGIN EMI. UNIVERSAL MUSIC
You kind of get the impression
that Lewis Capaldi hasn’t really
taken everything in yet.
From his seven weeks at No.1 with
single Someone You Loved to the six
weeks at No.1 with his debut collection,
he’s had no time to take stock,
understand what those numbers mean.
“Either these people all have horrible
taste in music or I must be OK,” he jokes.
Because, suffering from an insanely
bad case of imposter syndrome,
Capaldi’s easy charm means he’s
self-deprecating to a fault.
“You’re like - what the f*** is going on
here? Surely people must have better
taste in music than to listen to me?”
There’s no doubt it’s been a year of firsts
for the 22 year-old from Bathgate. And
it’s all down to the first time he got his
heart broken, fuelling an album full of
easy-to-identify-with heartbreak songs.
Out of twelve tracks, only one - Grace
- is actually happy, while Someone
You Loved is open to interpretation.
Otherwise, he says, it is “jam-packed
with big, sexy sad-bangers”.
“I never set out to make an album
full of ‘em but it just transpired
that way. When you’re sad, you
think about it, you get into your
feelings - you’re wallowing in it”.
Even the pleasure - and pressure
- of writing in California didn’t
distract his attention.
“LA? Loved it.” But “I was in LA and six
months before that I was sitting in my
house playing PlayStation in my pants”.
“I [felt] this would all be better
if I could share that with her…
being in that simpler time”.
After the writing, the album had to be
structured. “I wanted to keep it mostly
new, and I wanted people to hear
variety. I’d written about 400 piano
ballads, so there was a conscious
effort not to stick them on there”.
He says, “Now that the album is out,
it’s amazing to see the reaction”.
The tracks that did make the cut
include, as well as the singles, Capaldi
favourites Hollywood and Headspace.
“I wrote Headspace when I was 17;
I’ve always had this special feeling
about it. Hollywood is jaunty - it’s a
change of pace for the album, and
people really seem to enjoy it.”
It’s fair to say, as its title reflects, the
album had a difficult birthing process.
Enjoyed isn’t a word he’d use, to be fair.
“The actual writing of the songs?
Loved doing. The arrangements of
the song? Loved doing. But when it
comes to the actual recording process
where you sit there playing the
same guitar part 47 f***ing times?”
“Putting an album together was the
most stressful and boring thing I’ve ever
done in my entire f***ing life. Everyone
will tell you about this f***ing mad little
journey they went on with recording
the album, and for me, I was like f***ing
hell, I want this to be over so I can
just play these f***ing songs live.”
But, “It’s nice to know that people
enjoyed [the album], it’s nice to
know that people bought it.”
“It’s nice to know that I’ve got a
job for another year and a bit.”
JM Enternational
32