Lewis Capaldi is hoping his new single Pointless will be played at weddings
Scottish superstar Lewis Capaldi has released a new single about being in love, which he says is "almost an alien concept" to him. Oh, and it was co-written - kind of - with Ed Sheeran
Pointless is the new single from Lewis Capaldi, the next track from his intensely anticipated second album, Broken By Desire to be Heavenly Sent, which is set to be released on May 19.
Pointless, for a change, is not a break-up ballad. Nor is it about the popular daytime quiz show.
“It’s not about the TV programme unfortunately, though that would make quite entertaining listening,” Lewis Capaldi told The Big Issue, adding: “I’m all about Richard Osman, even though he’s left.
“No, it’s a song about being in love, which for me is an almost alien concept. My songs are usually about falling out of love or being heartbroken or something like that. They don’t often lean towards just a happy love.
“Listen, we’ve got a song like Someone You Loved, which gets played at funerals. And it’d be nice to have a song like Pointless that gets played at weddings. Basically it’s a cash grab.”
The romantic refrain that “everything is pointless without you” is likely to be ringing out of radios across the world for a long time to come.
It’s been put together by a songwriting supergroup. Capaldi wrote it with Steve Mac, responsible for dozens of chart-topping records, and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid. Mac and McDaid shared a verse from an unfinished song they’d been working on with another mildly successful singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran.
Capaldi explained: “Johnny and Steve said: ‘We’ve got this verse that Ed did if you want to try and have a crack at writing the chorus.’ They were kind of struggling. I heard it and I was like, it’s fucking great, tweaked it a little bit, put my stamp on it then wrote the chorus and middle-eight and Bob’s your uncle you’ve got a tune.
“But me and Ed were never in the same room to write the song. He did that verse with them, left, then got sent the finished song a couple of months after.”
Does that mean Capaldi owes Sheeran a verse for a song he can finish?
“I think he’s doing just fucking fine,” Capaldi replied. “I don’t think he needs my help at all.”
As soon as a short teaser clip of Pointless was released online, Capaldi found himself inundated with videos of happy couples using it to soundtrack their social media packaged affection.
“I never expected to be bombarded with beautiful couples sharing exceptional moments together. But it is nice to see some stuff that isn’t doom and gloom. And even though it does make me feel doom and gloom looking at it, I think it’s nice to celebrate being in love.”
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