Why Lewis Capaldi changed lyrics written by Ed Sheeran

How do you follow up one of the biggest albums of the last decade?

That was the dilemma Lewis Capaldi faced last year. His debut record, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, had been the UK’s best-seller for two consecutive years, earning him two Brit Awards and a US number one single.

The world was his oyster. He could have chosen any recording studio in the Western hemisphere, making an album on the sun-kissed coast of Malibu, or laying down vocals in Abbey Road’s hallowed halls.

Instead, he did it in Alan’s house… but who is Alan?

“Alan is a man from Glasgow who I haven’t spoke to since,” Capaldi explains.

“He was renting out an AirBnB and we all descended on his living room one weekend, wrote a couple of songs, and they’re all on the record.”

There were practical and psychological reasons for keeping the sessions low-key, says the singer.

“In an expensive studio, I’m like, ‘Uh-oh, here we go,’ and my anxiety starts kicking in. It’s hard not to feel like there’s time on the clock when you can see where all the money’s going.

“But also, what’s the point in going into these fancy studios when the first record did quite well without all that stuff? I just wanted everything to be chilled.”

That if-it-ain’t-broke philosophy carries over to the album itself. If you’re one of the many who cried to Capaldi’s debut, you’re going to need a whole new box of tissues.

Capaldi has been making music on his own terms since he was 11, playing Oasis and The Killers covers in pubs around Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Back then, it was just him and his guitar, hiding in the bathroom, then jumping out to perform before anyone noticed he was underage. If he could sneak in an original before he got found out, so much the better.

He possessed a voice like Joe Cocker – bruised and bold, with a barely-contained sense of emotional urgency. Before long, audiences were begging him to play for longer. And when he self-released a single, Bruises, in 2016, it became the fastest-ever song by an unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on Spotify.

By 2018, he had a major label deal, and Someone You Loved lodged itself at the top of the charts for seven weeks, selling 4.2m copies in the UK alone.

But fame had its downsides. The singer recently told fans he’d been diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle movements. He’d always had symptoms, but they were exacerbated by being thrust into the spotlight.

A Tourette’s episode descends during our interview. Capaldi’s shoulders begin to twitch, and he seems increasingly uncomfortable – but he decides to press ahead.

Would you like to take a break?

No, but can I stand up?

Of course. Does that help?

Yeah, it’s much easier… It’s strange, sometimes when I’m concentrating on talking, it just goes mental.

When did you get the diagnosis?

Seven or eight months ago.

That’s very recent.

Yeah, it’s a really new thing. I’m still trying to work out how to temper it. I got medical cannabis, which you can get in the UK apparently – although I got it off some guy on the street corner. And I’ve got Sertraline [an anti-depressant] for my anxiety in general.

Is the Tourette’s linked to the anxiety?

This is the beauty of it. I always thought it was an anxious thing but the woman said it happens when you’re stressed, anxious, excited, happy – any sort of intense emotion.

When I saw you in concert this summer, it didn’t seem to affect you as much. Does singing supress the symptoms?

Yeah, it helps if you focus on something else. Like, this would probably be worse just now if we weren’t doing an interview. I’d probably have to go and lie down. It’s an exhausting thing, because you can’t plan for it.

How important was it for you to tell people?

I never meant to announce it, I just kind of said it on Instagram Live, but I like talking about it because it takes the sting out.

That’s the worst thing, when I’m on flights people go, “Are you okay to fly?” And I’m like, “Cheeky bastard, of course I’m OK to fly”. So it’s nice to be able to go, “No, it’s just my Tourette’s.”

You said you didn’t want people to think you were on drugs.

Yeah, exactly, because I’ve had that before. I’ve had trouble getting into nightclubs because people are like, “What’s he on?” And you’re like, “Nothing. This is just who I am!”

Being just who he is, is a huge part of Capaldi’s appeal.

He’s brilliantly, joyously unfiltered, telling fans he signs into hotels as “Anita Jobby” and revealing that his Tinder profile reads “I have one dog and I’m good at fighting.”

The more serious the occasion, the more he’ll act up. On the red carpet at the 2020 Grammys, he told a bewildered Ryan Seacrest that being nominated was like “eating a whole chicken parmesan” and feeling like a “big bloated boy watching Game of Thrones”.

He carries that disregard for convention into promoting his new album which, he says, is nothing more than “12 songs that people will ingest”.

Even the video for the first single, Forget Me, is a giant spoof – with Capaldi recreating the video for Wham’s Club Tropicana shot for shot.

“It’s one of those things like, ‘Me in Speedos, that’s hilarious’,” he says. “And then to actually have to do it… Oh my God, it was horrible.”

The video flew slightly under the radar in the UK, where Capaldi’s big comeback was scheduled for Friday, 9 September – just hours after The Queen died.

“Imagine planning that release for months and then the biggest thing that could ever happen, happened?” he says. “It pulled the rug out from under us – but you can’t begrudge people for mourning.”

One of the undoubted highlights of his forthcoming album is a song called Pointless. An out-and-out love song, it’s a departure for the star, courtesy of co-writer Ed Sheeran, who “brought out the softy in me”.

Capaldi says he was initially sceptical of collaborating with pop’s most ubiquitous hitmaker simply because “every British artist who has a number one record seems to have Ed on it”.

“That’s a testament to how good he is but I was wary of it,” he explains. “My ego was going, ‘I don’t want people thinking Ed wrote my song’.

“I actually mentioned that to him and he offered to take up a pseudonym – but at the end of the day, he did help write it so there should be no question.”

You won’t win any prizes for guessing that Pointless is a big, emotional piano ballad, with Capaldi eulogising his lover’s all-healing touch.

“I bring her coffee in the mornings,” he sings. “She brings me inner peace.”

But the star insisted on cutting one of Sheeran’s original lyrics, which ran: “She gives me more than everything, I’ll give her my last name.”

“I was like, ‘Ed, this is 2022. No-one has to take anyone’s second name. I’m not singing that!’

“I don’t even think,” he adds, “that Ed’s own wife has got his last name.”

Although the album won’t be out until 2023, Capaldi lets the BBC hear a couple of his favourite cuts. Wish You The Best is a gut-punch goodbye to a former girlfriend, while Haven’t You Ever Been In Love Before showcases the star’s ability for stirring atmospherics.

They could all be hit singles, raising the question: Is Alan’s front room destined to become a Glasgow landmark?

“We’ll see what the record does,” Capaldi says.

“If it sells, maybe there’s a blue plaque. If it goes tits up, he’ll be selling the house.”

Lewis Capaldi’s new album, Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, will be released on 19 May 2023.