“You know what, people think I’ve made it up all the time!” laughs the fresh-faced 18-year-old singer-songwriter. “They’re always asking ‘is that your real name?’ I’m like ‘yes, unless my parents have been lying to me all my life!’ Ask Luigi about his exotic background and it all begins to make sense. Born in San Paulo, Brazil to his half-Italian/half-Brazilian father and half-Danish/half-Swedish mother (“I guess that makes me Scando-Italian-Brazilian,” he jokes, “so I just cut it short and call myself ‘international’ it’s easier”) Luigi found himself moving to London as a child when he first started developing his musical flair. “I got into pretty much everything I could. I was in the school choir, played piano, took violin lessons,” he says. “But the thing is, I’ve always been a massive pop fan. Hear’Say was actually the first gig I went to, I’m not ashamed to admit. I used to always be glued to CD:UK every Saturday morning just taking it all in and absorbing it all for future reference.” It wasn’t until Luigi turned 16 that he really began his pop dreams in earnest though. “When I started my A-levels I still wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do for university – so I thought ‘let’s get a side plan – I know, I’ll be a pop star!” he jokes, tongue only partly in cheek. Signed to newly formed Indie Bunx Records, Luigi began a two year process of recording and musical self-exploration that resulted in his killer debut album ‘Save His Shoes’. In between studying for his A Levels, Luigi would sneak the odd extended weekend break here and half term there to go and work with some the hottest and up and coming pop producers in the globe, taking in New York, LA, Stockholm, Copenhagen and London. “I pretty much kept it a secret from everyone at school for two years,” confesses Luigi. “Although I think they must have got a bit suspicious when I kept going to New York at weekends! Then they started to find out last Easter when I was supporting the Sugababes on tour so I had to come clean.” Luigi’s live debut was a bit of a trial by fire for the fledgling pop star when he got a call that someone had dropped out the opening slot for the band’s tour and had to rush back from holiday with just two days to get his first ever live show together. There were certain fringe benefits though. “When we were in Manchester the girls took me out on the town. It was the first time I’d ever been clubbing,” Luigi admits. “Well I was only 17! We ended up in a strip club with Keisha and Amelle dancing round the poles, so you could say it was a fun night!” Not long after, Luigi’s pop apprenticeship continued with the nation’s biggest pop band Girls Aloud on their summer arena tour. “So I went from nothing to theatres to arenas all in a few weeks really. It was mad,” Luigi laughs, recalling the thrill of performing in front 20,000 people at the O2. “I think I did okay though. Girls Aloud sat in on a few of my soundchecks and cheered me on from the side of the stage, which was lovely, and Nadine came up to me after and said she really liked my stuff.” Luigi’s irresistibly energetic brand of cool poptronica is guaranteed to win a lot more fans in 2009 too. From the hyperkinetic pop rush of ‘Pull The Trigger’ and Luigi’s top ten 2008 club release ‘Strobelight’ to the relentless electro-R&B of “Better Now’ (complete with a cool rap cameo from Timbaland’s brother Sebastian), ‘Save His Shoes’ is packed with classy, uplifting pop gems and calls to the dancefloor that will be wearing out shoes across the land. Not least of these is first single ‘Armed With Love’, a remarkably smart piece of pop perfection due for release on 25th May. “I always wanted my first album to be really upbeat - I didn’t want to drag it down with slow boring stuff or anything too personal,” Luigi reflects. “There’s maybe one song you could call midtempo - but even that you can dance to! There was a pop revival last year with people like the Saturdays and Alphabeat, but this year’s going to be even better. Not just because it’s got me, because pop’s coming back as a whole. So out with all those boring indie bands and in with pop!” Boasting collaborations with platinum hitmakers Jim Beanz (Nelly Furtado, Britney Spears), Quiz & Larossi (The Saturdays, Pussycat Dolls), Raine Maida & Chantal Kreviazuk (Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne) and Cutfather & Jonas Jeberg (Kylie, Jordin Sparks) alongside exciting newcomers Anton Malmberg, Elias Kapari and Eric Sanicola, Luigi worked on more than 40 tracks around the globe before settling on the twelve that made the final album. “I wanted half of it to be known major producers and the other half to be young fresh talent that I can help have a platform to work with other people,” says Luigi whose track, the anthemic pop diamond ‘Strangers Again’, exemplifies this approach as it tells an every-teen tale of a chance no-strings encounter on the dancefloor that manages to be bittersweet and utterly euphoric at the same time. “It’s about that moment when you catch someone for one song and have that connection in a club, but you can interpret it however you want,” says Luigi. “It’s about having that moment together and then it’s lost forever.” He may be only 18 years old but Luigi has been in the wings preparing and honing his pop moment for long enough. Now he’s ready to take centre stage. “It’s been two years of learning my craft and really developing my sound,” he says. “Over that time my motto’s become ‘Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself’ and I really believe that.” |
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