So, Paolo Nutini called me the other day...
Scottish singer Mr. Paolo Nutini is coming to Brazil for the first time ever and I got a chance to talk to him about it in a quick, pretty low-quality, phone call for a music website (thank you NaĆ§Ć£o da MĆŗsica!) I found a guy that might love music just as much as I do (maybe even a bit more, but Iād never admit that).
āI guess music is one of the things that always absorbs the most in my life. Itās always been one of the things that Iāve been able to communicate through. Itās like thereās a sponge in my body that soaks music more than anything else, you know?ā
Hereās is a transcript of our chat!
Weāre very excited about this show, weāve been waiting for 10 years! Paolo Nutini: Me too, me too! Iāve been working so much on itā¦ Ā I have a new concert that Iām working on and Iām only going to have over there, you know, so Iām curious to see that, but Iām excited nonetheless. Iāve never been to Brazil on other tours, or even been to South America, even other cities there in my life. I hope itās only the beginning, not the end.
Itās too bad itās only SĆ£o Pauloā¦ I hope that you get to come back to visit different cities and all of South America! PN.: We actually end in Brazil. We got a little short run. We actually begin in Mexico and we go to Chile thenā¦ Then Argentina and then we land Brazil. And the way that I hope to work things out is that can I continue from Brazil and that I can stay maybe one month in South America and do some exploringā¦
Thatās niceā¦ PN.: Thatās my plan, thatās my plan but you knowā¦ Thatās what I hope to do. Because itās something that, you know, even before we had confirmation that we could do shows (there) I knew that I wanted to make sure that I came over and and least got a piece of the culture, you know? This is my idea on how to experience it. I canāt wait. Iām very excited!
(In your music) You have different influences from different cultures but also different kinds of music in all of your albumsā¦ PN.:Ā Yeahā¦
How did that come aboutā¦How do you feel that your music has changed throughout the years? PN.: Humā¦ You know, I donāt knowā¦ I get asked that question quite a lot over course of time. By the last end of the tour people would ask me āwhy those songs changed so muchā, you know?! I donāt think they changed so muchā¦ I thinkā¦ When we come over to do the showā¦ And Iām not sure whether or not youāll be able to come and watch the show, but I hope you canā¦
Even the old songs change sometimesā¦ PN.: A lot of the songs that we do from the Caustic Love - weāve playing lotā¦ Some of the songs we just learned and the songs we do from the second one (Sunny Side Up), they are quite different to how they appear on the recordā¦ I donāt know, I think a song is a song and I think that when other people perform your song or when I perform somebody elseās song you tend to do it in a different way. And I think thatās the main thingā¦You get 8 years, you know? In 8 years the ideas changeā¦ Of course everything, you know, you can hear something and something influence it, thatās, I think thatās the main thing with musicā¦ I have conversations with people and it changes how I perform. On anything from, you know, all my relationships and on my approach to different things. So, music, definitely impacts me. I guess music is one of the things that always absorbs the most in my life. Itās always been one of the things that Iāve been able to communicate through. Itās like thereās a sponge in my body that soaks music more than anything else, you know?
Do you feel like places youāve been and people youāve met have had any influence on your music? PN.: I definitely see that the people Iāve met influenced me a lot more than the places themselves. But you know, I mean, that can beā¦ Some places, I think, some places can have typical approaches, typical traditions. You canāt generalize anybody, but you can associate certain attitudes to some places and that could be because the weather is very cold or because the weather is very hot, you know? And I thinkā¦ Obviously, when I say that about the people, maybe that is a reflection of the country and the setting, but, you know, thatās why itās important getting over there, going over in the country because, you know, from what I know, itās a place, Iām from Scotland, you know? And being in Brazil is very diverse and very exotic, you know, then again I also feel like you get a lot of grit. You get a lot of passion and grit and itās very real. Itās not all ahmā¦ I think that thatās the thing, you know, I feel like with a lot of places, I remember the first time I went to a very different place, I went to Jamaica for instance, maybe I didnāt know enough and thought everything would go like bad joints and Pirate Bays and coconuts, you know, whatever, so, and if you go to Jamaica, you have a beautiful Jamaica but thatās certainly no vacation. Itās fucking real, manā¦ And I think thatās what I like, what turns me on about Brazilā¦ What turns me on about Brazil is the fact that itās got so many angles, so many shapes, so much depth.
Oh yeah! Itās a big countryā¦ PN.:And the music is obviously so intense. Weirdly when I was in high school I remember that I used to go into the library and you know, for no real reason I used to pick up some records you know, vinyl records, I didnāt know who they were and one of them was Gilberto Gil and I think it was maybe music made in the 70ās, one of the albums was called Refazenda another oneĀ ExpressoĀ or something like that? 2222? PN.: Expresso 2222! And I used check them I think, that was one of the 70ās I think when I first started having a smoke, you knowā¦ That was the same moment that I would pick up some, like, Sergio Mendesā¦ Started with that.
Thatās so cool! I hope you have time to explore a bit when youāre here, thereās so much to see and listen to! PN.: Well, you know, hopefully I can find (time) when Iām there, hopefully we can find someone who can get me around. When I go to places, when Iām out, one of the biggest luxuries iāve been able to do is to wonder, you know. I think Iāll leave it out in the open, it will be nice if someone can give me a hand. Amy Winehouse was a friend of yours*ā¦ Did she leave any influence or mark on you? PN: Amy, well, yeahā¦ We sang on the same shows, festivals, things like that, we had a few conversations, I was 16 years old and I was a support act for her way before my first album. But she left a left a mark I think on a lot of people, I think everybody, songs like āBack to Blackā and āLove is a Losing Gameā are not gonna be expendable. I think she was very important, but people are people for good and bad and thatās just who she was.
(*Paolo opened for Amy in the beginning of his career and she was crazy about Brazilian and latin music in general)
(Our 10 minutes were up and his manager got on the phone to let me know I only had one question leftā¦)
PN: I need to give a shout out to two of my favorite Brazilian people, Moon and BĆ”, FĆ”bio Moon and Gabriel BĆ”, the animators, the artists, you know? Iām a big fan of graphic novels and they are two of my favorites, I know them, Iām mad about their stuff. There was a real kind of influence, a kind of stain on the last album, just in a sense, I was reading it at the time and I donāt know how everything speeds in the end and in a weird way it took away some of the anxiety of the reality of what I was doing you know, and like, ended up calming me and giving me some space in my head.Ā They can push all kinds of buttons, man. You know knowā¦ Much love to them.
This is my last one, so Iām gonna throw you a challenge! Itās so cool that you know so much about our cultureā¦ Did you ever think about putting some Brazilian spin on your setlist for the show here? Maybe a song or a sound? PN: Wow, I mean, I donāt knowā¦What do people want to see? Do they want to see me trying something new or me doing what usuallyĀ I do? I donāt know, thatās a hard one to decide, but yeah, maybe. I think I might have to now! (laughing)
(Click hereĀ to read this in Portuguese)
Paolo plays in Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil in April. His live gigs have been highlyĀ praised for agesĀ (The Telegraph called him:Ā the best British male soul singer this century). Donāt miss it if you get a chance.
