Inspired #0007 - Lewis Capaldi

Lewis Capaldi has released a new single, 'Tough', which sees him taking it to the next level with that amazingly powerful voice of his. We had a chat with Lewis about buying his first Bob Dylan CD and the sunny city of LA.

Who are you top three musical inspirations and why?

Paolo Nutini
I was actually really late to the party when it came to listening to any of his music but I think it was only after I heard Paolo Nutini’s music that I really started to try and improve my songwriting. I totally missed his first album cause I was more into the music my brother listened to so bands like green day etc. But when I heard it when I was 13/14 it blew me away that someone was making songs like pencil full of lead and candy at that time and making it into the charts, not that, that’s important at all but it was just great to see how people reacted to great songs and a great voice. 

Kings of Leon
To this day when I’m writing songs if I’m having trouble trying to write lyrics or if I’m in two minds about a specific lyric I’ll try and imagine Caleb Followill singing it and if I can hear it in his voice without sounding weird, it goes in the song. Same trick works with Adele. There’s just something about someone with a voice as cool as that, that makes everything they sing really believable. In terms of getting in to Kings of Leon’s music I got into their albums in completely the wrong order, started with the second then only by the night came out so moved on to that then went back to because of the times so yeah it was all over the place. But for me songs like, Arizona, Cold Desert and like Walls on the new record are jus these mad gut wretching songs that only they can pull off. 

Bob Dylan
The first album I ever bought was a Bob Dylan compilation CD I think it might have just been called Dylan and the cover was red. I never bought it as a fan only bought it because I thought i was being really edgy cause I was a dick but I ended up falling in love with Bob Dylan’s tunes as a result of it so at least there’s that. But yeah I feel like lyrically there isn’t really anyone who’s a patch on his stuff. 

Is there a certain film that inspires you and why?
I think I’d go with a film called Submarine, it’s directed by Richard Ayoade adapted from a novel by Joe Dunthorne, Alex Turner, from the Arctic Monkeys did the soundtrack for it and I don’t know really there’s just something about it that I love, like it’s an amazing film but there’s just something about this story playing out in a pretty mundane setting that inspires me I’m not really sure what it is but it was the first film I ever wrote a song about and now it’s something I do regularly. 

What city do you find the most inspiring and why?
LA, is pretty mad. I think there’s something about first of all getting up and it being sunny that makes me want to go out and make stuff happen, but there’s also all these amazing studios for music and film obviously around everywhere that for some reason make me want to go and write. I think the fact that everyone who works out there specifically in music is so talented it makes you want to up your game a bit which is always good. 

Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
I think probably, anyone who has a goal they want to achieve and sees it through to be honest. Whether it’s something as small as losing a few pounds to starting fucking google or something you know it think it’s inspiring to see people achieve what they set out to do or even just attempting to! 

How would you like to inspire people?
I’ve never really thought about it before, but i suppose I’d just want to inspire people to go after whatever it is they want and again if what you want is to go down the pub and have a pint - I believe in you.

Feature created by Ant Adams