Lewis Capaldi’s aunt took her own life when he was just six years old.
The 23-year-old singer has revealed his latest single ‘Before You Go’ was written about suicide and the aftermath for the victim’s loved ones, and he has said the inspiration for the song came as he spoke to his mother about the death of her sister almost 20 years ago.
He explained: "The song’s kind of, it comes from a place of … it’s about suicide and it’s about no necessarily the act of it itself obviously, but people after it happens, the aftermath of it and people blaming themselves or starting to think, what could I have done to help that person? Or whatever.
"When I was about five or six I think, my aunt committed suicide and just remember recently speaking to my mum about their feelings, her feelings about going through that sort of rigmarole in your head of, ‘What could I have done here? Could I have done anything?’ Sort of thing. But she said it was the thing of, at first you’re angry. You’re obviously upset and then you kind of get angry at them, and then you get angry at yourself. She said it was this whole kind of … it’s a very, very strange."
And Lewis has been reflecting on his childhood a lot lately, as he says he’s also been reminiscing and listening to music that he used to listen to when he was younger, including albums from Green Day and My Chemical Romance.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio, he said: "Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of just my old stuff that I used to listen to when I was younger. Not old stuff but – I have been kind of going back to my childhood music. I was massively into select stuff like ‘American Idiot’, listening to [that] a lot recently, and ‘[Welcome to The] Black Parade’, and ‘Three Cheers [For Sweet Revenge]’. There’s so many great bands out there."
Lewis Capaldi’s aunt took her own life
