Lewis Capaldi has been conquering the world, and there's no stopping him now. Last week, he unveiled his highly anticipated debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, which features twelve tracks that will tug at your heartstrings. Along with being an incredible songwriter, the world has fallen in love with his infectious sense of humour and humble nature. We had the chance to chat with him about rumours, working non-stop and whether his life has changed since climbing the charts.
Hey Lewis, how are you?
I'm very well. Thank you for talking to me. How’s things?
Very good thanks. I saw on Instagram that you literally just played on stage with James Bay. How was it?
It was incredible, yeah. I'm actually still sitting in his dressing room having a beer. Yeah, it was cool, man. It just so happened that I had a day off in London. I'm actually a huge James Bay fan. It was cool. And it is cool to get to be up there and sing with someone who you’ve come to see live. Do you know what I mean? It's very surreal.
That's awesome. And congrats on releasing the album. Has the last week felt like a whirlwind?
Yeah, a bit. I'm just kind of kicking about doing my usual thing. Every day, we get these crazy updates about how the album is doing and how it's doing in all the other countries. So, it's a bit mad. I'm just trying to keep my head down and I haven't really looked up since Friday. But yeah, I'm just trying to keep working and try and see what happens. Really looking forward to the weekend.
And how do you go about reading online stuff about you or the album? Do you like to do it or you'd rather not look at that stuff?
Oh, I fucking love it. I love reading good reviews, bad reviews, good tweets, bad tweets, anything. I fucking love it, I think you can't keep yourself insulated in the same way that you can't let criticism get you down or really dampen whatever you're doing or it'll just damage your mood. You cannot allow praise to fucking get to you too, you know what I mean? You can't allow praise to take you too far the other way. I think it is important to have balance. So, I like reading it. The ones that are nice they're always lovely, or even if it's just like a tweet or something. I think that's the major thing, to be able to talk to people. I think what's funny about the negative comments is that it's just a laugh, isn't it? I've grown up in a family where we get to slag one another or we take the piss out of each other as a sign of affection. So, I quite enjoy any kind of negative tweets I get too. It's a balancing act on both sides. I think you can't take any of it seriously, that's all.
What's the weirdest thing that you've read about yourself online that was a lie or total bullshit?
There was one thing that was going around — I don't know if you have Love Island but there was one going around about Celebrity Love Island, which is like this TV show in the UK. It's on Netflix. But yeah, there was that. The best thing that I've heard is a story that my label has hired a comedy writer to run my social media because I post stories, stupid videos and I talk about going to the bathroom and yeah, just basically I'm a child. So, apparently they've hired a comedy writer to write jokes for me or write tweets, or write stuff for me to say on Instagram. And I was thinking, if I was going to have a comedy writer, I'd definitely have them writing better jokes than I just took a poo (laughs). Do you know what I mean? Like fucking hell, but yeah, that was pretty good.
You should do Love Island (laughs).
I mean, if the money's good, I'll do it, why not. Any way I can promote the album I'll do it (laughs).
I saw a really good story the other day where a farmer named their cow after you because your face appeared on its body. Did you hear that one?
I did see the story, yeah. I kind of question the validity a bit. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. It's quite coincidental that it showed up the same day that my album came out (laughs). I mean it's cool if it's true that I'm on livestock somewhere, but yeah, it's funny. There's been loads of stuff like that. People were saying I'm on a dog spray for dogs and there's this thing called the Capaldi breakfast. So, it's been quite funny just seeing people really get on board with the fucking stupidity of my whole career.
I loved your billboards in the London Underground. I mean, you've got the vocals to match Beyoncé and you've got the moves according to the video for 'Grace', but do you have a Sasha Fierce side?
My Sasha Fierce side is Lewis Calamari. That's my Sasha Fierce. The thing is, Lewis Calamari is a bit similar to Lewis Capaldi, except I just have a different second name and I thrust, I can really... Lewis Calamari can thrust his hips on a stripper pole a lot better than Lewis Capaldi can.
Have you tested out the moves on-stage yet?
We did, yeah. We did a show in London last year and there was 2,000 people there. And then for 'Grace', we had all these topless male dancers come out on-stage, and we all redid the routine. It's on my Instagram. You should definitely go look at that if you fancy it and get yourself a look at perfection (laughs). No, it was a good laugh and it was brilliant.
I'll have to check it out (laughs).
Excellent. Please do it.
Things seem crazy for you at the moment. Has life changed much?
I'm a lot busier. And I definitely wasn't doing all this like three years ago. So that's been great. And you know, just busier and travelling a lot more. Nothing much else really. I still live with my parents at home. My mum still washes all my underwear and that. It's all good. Yeah, so I’m still a little chubby loser from Glasgow (laughs). There's not very much that's gone on except people now ask me for pictures sometimes in the street which is lovely, so that's nice. I like meeting people like that. And then sometimes there's people who film me from a distance while I'm eating my dinner, which I'm not as much of a fan of that. But it's all good. More people seem to care than they did before.
You're working really hard, will there be any room for a holiday or is it just nonstop?
I've got July 14 to July 18 off, which I'm quite looking forward to and then another four days at the end of July. So yeah, I think that for the time being, any time I get off, I'm always just like 'oh, I want to be out touring and I want to be out playing shows'. I'm young so why not just try and put as much effort in as possible?
Sounds awesome. Well, thanks so much for talking to me.
Thank you so much for taking the time, I really appreciate it.
Written by Amy Smolcic (@amysmolcic)
Listen to Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent:
