Lewis Capaldi on new-found fame, fortune, and playing for pals

Lewis Capaldi is, understandably, a hard man to get hold of. Number 1 in the singles charts and with his debut album out, he is interminably busy.

He’s also, it seems, fast asleep when I call. But incredibly apologetic and a little embarrassed when I eventually get hold of him.

“You see people’s true colours when you sleep in, though,” he says. Fortunately his PR guy Gordon is relaxed - “‘it’s all good, chill”. However, manager Ryan is more likely to hurl a (good-natured) torrent of abuse at his charge - “‘Where the *** are you?’”

“We’ve known each other for that long we can say that to each other,” smiles the West Lothian-based songwriter. So his manager is from the school of ‘tough love’? “It’s like, you know when your mum and dad would wake you up for school and they were not gentle with you! ‘It’s half past eight’ and you look at your watch and it’s just half seven!”

Happily, Capaldi is left to do his own thing when it comes to songwriting. “Any pressure’s self-imposed, rather than by label or management,” he says. And he doesn’t feel the need to succeed for financial reasons either.

“My dad always told me there’s no money in music, and I’ve remembered that as the years went on, so any money I do get, that’s nice - but it’s not paramount to what I’m doing.”

In honor of #LewisCapalDay on Saturday 18th May, we've made Lewis these beautiful bespoke fit-for-a-sold-out-arena-tour-pop-star toilet brushes and plunger set.

Lewis Capaldi's album ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’ drops this Friday. Listen to it.@LewisCapaldi pic.twitter.com/hyGoug6glr

— Victorious Festival (@VictoriousFest) May 14, 2019

Capaldi was famously estimated as having a ‘net worth’ of $10m - a far cry from the £200 in his bank account, but the rising star has a different attitude to his older musical contemporaries.

“Before Spotify, people were illegally downloading and making no money, but with Spotify you’re making some.

“It’s a very new platform, a new way of consuming music so I think it’ll evolve as the years go on... I’d not have a career if it wasn’t for streaming, but I don’t really think of my music in terms of money.”

Even though, as he points out in one of his famous Instagram rants, he is still living in his childhood room in Whitburn. Capaldi’s parents, though not involved directly, still play a part in the 23-year-old’s career.

“Mum and dad are a good gauge,” he says of the litmus test of his new material. “Though she’ll say: ‘You need new songs,’ and I’ll be: “no-one else has heard these, it’s not my fault you’ve caned the song 400 times!”

So it seems the new material has passed the test of his most serious critics. Next up, the millions who have streamed ‘Grace’ and ‘Someone You Loved’ millions of times.