“Racism is one of the worst forms of torture because it’s directed at something you never asked for and something you can’t change.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I come from Paisley, the same town as David Sneddon, who won ‘Fame Academy.’ When he was late for his homecoming reception in the town hall, they held an impromptu talent show. I ended up singing some songs, and that’s how I was discovered.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Politicians have an arrogance that I just do not understand. I’ve seen more constructive debates in high school.”
― Paolo Nutini
“It’s not about someone making a difference on their own; it’s about everybody pulling together to make a difference.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I was lucky to move around different cultures at an early age and have experience of different lifestyles.”
― Paolo Nutini
“You walk with a different air if you’re wearing something sharp.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Touring can be really tiring. I can get homesick, and I spend a lot of time on my phone.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I remember I wanted to be Zorro, but I also wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I obviously had ideas above my station.”
― Paolo Nutini
“You’ve got to make sure that you don’t have an airbrushed picture making you look like a 15-year-old cherub when your lyrics suggest otherwise.”
― Paolo Nutini
“One of my ambitions is to move to Tuscany. I like the idea of getting a vineyard. I love being under the sun and being casual and comfortable. That’s my idea of heaven.”
― Paolo Nutini
“As I’m getting older, I work out what I want and what I need. And I just need to go home and see the people I love and write.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Music is probably one of the most honest things out there – it’s feral.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When I think of Paisley, I think of everything that has shaped my life.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I love melon! I don’t love melon; that’s a bit… Melon’s my favorite fruit.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I don’t discriminate when it comes to melon. I’m very open-minded. I really don’t mind; I can’t say I like any one better than the other. You can put them all in! A little melon mix salad, and I’m just in heaven.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When life hands you melons, eat them.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Always wash your hands, and always tell the truth.”
― Paolo Nutini
“One of the best things I get to do is meet people that have been to the shows and listened to the music. I still don’t indulge in the social media side of things, so that’s my way of starting conversations – actually hearing people talk.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’ve learned stuff, and I’ve forgotten stuff, but what I do know is that it really is all about the fans.”
― Paolo Nutini
“People make you feel like a bad guy for asking for seven quid for your album, like you are slapping them in the face, when they’ll go and pay two grand for a scarf somebody knitted in a sweat shop and stitched a designer label on.”
― Paolo Nutini
“You should have something to say, an idea you want to get out, and if you don’t, just get out of the way, ’cause there’s so many great musicians and writers that are in the queue.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I don’t know if I’ve got the capacity for all of the creativity that I want to put out there, which is annoying and frustrating – it’s kinda like torture.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Some people have just got a capacity for creativity that’s unbelievable!”
― Paolo Nutini
“A lot of people have been very dismissive of me. I’m hardly the darling of the NME. It used to get me down a bit, but you reach a point where you can laugh it off.”
― Paolo Nutini
“My parents worked very hard for me and my sister.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When I got my first publishing deal, I felt some responsibility to try to write with the people that they were asking me to write with.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Music can really help people, help individuals in beautiful ways.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Whatever I do, I like to be the one doing it. I don’t just like to get someone in to run it and put a name to it.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I never, ever thought I would get to say I was opening a show for the Bay City Rollers.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I went through a phase of buying a lot of masks, as anyone who has been to a party at the house will testify.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When you’ve displayed a weakness, you’ve displayed something a person can grab a hold of and attack you there. If you’re not ashamed of it, who can make you feel bad about it? Nobody. If you make a mistake, at least you get to see them, identify them, acknowledge them and hopefully remedy them.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I like to indulge all the facets of my personality. There’s none that I don’t think, in a way, I would want to take away from.”
― Paolo Nutini
“None of us don’t have a vice.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m at the point of view that I have to look after myself in various levels.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I started to learn some common sense. Even just sort of day-to-day things. I started to cook a little bit more and try to learn to fix things around the house. If something breaks down, rather than call a guy, there’s got to be more I can do.”
― Paolo Nutini
“My songwriting… it’s almost like a kind of self-therapy.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m not one to go down that road to say I have some kind of social consciousness.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The first time I did everything was in Paisley – the first time I went to the pictures or the bowling or the ice rink or the swimming baths.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’ve always enjoyed the bohemia of Paisley.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Paisley offered me and my family a life, way back, and it has continued to do so.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The success was a difficult thing for me to get my head round. When it gets too much, I just have to disappear – to sort my head.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The way you react to each challenge forms who you become.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The more I watch politicians in action, it just makes me angry.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Music is a good way to channel your fragile, vulnerable, needy side, but it’s also something to rejoice in.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to go on stage and bare your soul in front of hundreds of complete strangers. Singing the same songs night after night can remind you of things you’d rather forget.”
― Paolo Nutini
“To sing with Led Zeppelin has allowed me to offer the best places I could afford to my family and friends!”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m not seeking for answers; I just want to tell stories and state my opinion.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m always looking for people to play the songs to.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Really, if you’ve got people who want you to play, you play.”
― Paolo Nutini
“All of a sudden, my picture’s in the paper, or I’m making a music video, and it’s still the most surreal experience. I thought you could learn, and you would acclimatise, but I really haven’t.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When things get too grand or too big, I struggle to keep up with it all.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When you’re waking up every day, and it’s all about you, I don’t consider that to be a way to live your life if you can help it. I think people who know me know that I find time to enjoy myself and not take life – or myself – too seriously at all.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I try not to get too self-absorbed.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The songs are just an attempt to document what’s been happening in my life. If people can relate to what’s going on with me, then that’s great.”
― Paolo Nutini
“It’s all a progression towards hopefully one day making a record that can be the definitive you can offer. Some bands come in with that at first, and the great bands never really stray from that. I want to earn my stripes.”
― Paolo Nutini
“My father was very encouraging.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Charts and learning the politics behind making a record – it’s pretty soulless.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’ve met such amazing people in their 40s, in their 60s, 70s, and they completely bely their age on paper.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Maybe it’s the way that I do music, but I was never in a cool indie band or hung out with all the cool arty kids when I came to London.”
― Paolo Nutini
“My best mates when I was 19 were all in their 30s. I used to go to all their house parties, and they were crazier than the guys who were 17, 18. They were so much more liberated than the people who were apparently shackle-free.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When you open your mind up, and you go into a creative state, you can’t just switch if off. When you have an idea, a creative impulse, and then you ignore it, it can keep you up when you just want to go to your bed – which is why it’s great to have voice recorders on your phone!”
― Paolo Nutini
“To be honest, the first time round, I didn’t think ‘Fame Academy’ was the worst premise in the world. You got people on, and they would write songs and develop themselves as artists. But then, instead of getting a little bit more credible, it got a little bit more ridiculous.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m neither here nor there about this Lady Gaga, but she’s clearly very passionate about her poker face.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Love is music, and music is home.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I thought about going onto the first one, Pop Idol. My mum was saying, ‘Go on!’ But I decided not to. ‘The X Factor,’ though, doesn’t really seem to be a show about musical talent anymore.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When it comes to the business side of it, as much as you might hate it, the reality is that you give the record company a sort of ownership of your songs, so you’ve got to make sure you’re getting everything you can out of it now, because if you’re not, then who is?”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m not a fan of second-hand or vintage clothes.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I only became interested in clothes when I was in my mid-teens. I’d do things like spike my hair and put on a nice shirt, but I’d hardly call myself fashion-conscious. I just don’t have the energy.”
― Paolo Nutini
“You don’t want to go and make something, then go out and do shows, if you’re not really into it. You don’t want to go out there and make people feel like you’re grudging playing them a song. That’s a disturbing thought.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I left school just shy of 17: I’d started going into touring and that situation.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I am not steeped in all that angst. I’m never going to be Sid Vicious.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Sometimes when you get frustrated, your back is against the wall, and you come out fighting and knock out three songs in as many days.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’m in the highest bracket. There’s no way that a 22-year-old should be hit for that amount of money when he’s got his whole life ahead of him.”
― Paolo Nutini
“It’s a sacred thing, but I do want to get married. I’d love that.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I think it was definitely a love for the four- or five-part vocal male harmony groups that really took me away. I’d always try and be, like, the fifth Drifter; I’d always try and find another harmony that wasn’t there.”
― Paolo Nutini
“With the first album, there was a lot of angst. I was very naive. I thought I was on top of the whole thing, but I really didn’t know what I was getting into.”
― Paolo Nutini
“When I’ve got time off, my feet get itchy really quickly.”
― Paolo Nutini
“A lot of places think that bigger is better. It’s like consumerism is taking everything over.”
― Paolo Nutini
“One of my favourite songs is ‘A Message to You, Rudy,’ which was done by the Specials.”
― Paolo Nutini
“If you’re going to call yourself a musician, you have to go out and make music.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I get nervous all the time. Both on and off stage. You just hope it turns into adrenaline.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’ve always got a notepad on or a voice recorder recording ideas.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I write on the acoustic guitar, I write some on the piano, but I’ve been messing around with these guitar pedals and drum machines, educating myself in that world.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I like to record something pretty much as soon as I have an idea for a song, but I’m on so many buses, I have to record on my mobile.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I don’t want to slip into Johnny Borrell mode. I don’t want to be singing that there’s nothing on TV, nothing on the radio.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I know some bands that are precious about their new ideas. They’re conscious of the fact that people can – even from mobile phones – begin to get clearer and better recordings of the songs… so they’re a lot more hesitant to play them.”
― Paolo Nutini
“That’s the good thing about music: you can sing about people’s lives in its stages and feelings. Some songs can put something in context that you couldn’t. They can free your mind or can make you think or can be redeeming.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Sometimes it’s good to just sing and let the words come out. Whatever comes out is valid because it’s what you were thinking.”
― Paolo Nutini
“Just remember that if you’ve lost something, you will be open to something else.”
― Paolo Nutini
“My inspiration for songs is just everyday life. I just write down words about things that have happened to me, people I’ve met.”
― Paolo Nutini
“’Astral Weeks’ is a brilliant album, and songs like ‘Moondance’ are just beautiful lyrically.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I can’t speak much Italian. I do go down well over there, but it’s frustrating because I can’t really speak it. Even if I do talk, they can’t understand my accent, but I should try to learn it.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The first record I was really into was the Drifters’ ‘When My Little Girl Is Smiling.’”
― Paolo Nutini
“I just want people to leave a show and go, ‘That was the most rockin’ show I’ve ever seen.’ I hope people can just roll with me a little bit – you know?”
― Paolo Nutini
“Sometimes people don’t know what is behind the words they use. But an innocent little remark at school can affect you later in life.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I’ve never had anything as formal as vocal lessons.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I learned to sing from my mum and dad’s record collection.”
― Paolo Nutini
“As a kid, I loved to sing along to the Drifters and Otis Redding.”
― Paolo Nutini
“I don’t mind being criticised, but hearing yourself described as the next James Blunt – that hurts.”
― Paolo Nutini
“The people I admire are Tim Buckley and John Martyn – singers that grew into themselves and were honest. John Martyn is one of the great soul singers because soul is not a genre; it’s a feeling.”
― Paolo Nutini
Leave a Reply