The Quiet Scotsman
An extraordinary talent he may be, but Paolo Nutini is one of the most unassuming and likeable stars to have emerged in aeons. He talks about his Italian heritage, the influence of Damien Rice, marijuana as a source of inspiration and why he avoids blogging like the plague.
Olaf Tyaransen, 10 Feb 2010
languorously sprawled on the bed of a luxurious Glasgow hotel room, lovingly cradling a battered old Gibson guitar, Paolo Giovanni Nutini yawns widely. The 22-year-old musician sounds a lot more wrecked than he looks. “Sorry, man, but I’ve no had much sleep these past couple days,” he apologises, in his thick – and occasionally impenetrable – Scots accent.
Nutini’s exhaustion is understandable. It may be par for the course for your average multi-platinum-selling rock star, but the olive-skinned, almond-eyed and strikingly handsome Scotsman has just spent the previous 48 hours partying with a bunch of supermodels in Milan. “Aye, I’m just back this morning from a little two-day jaunt in Italy,” he laughs. “It was a Giorgio Armani gig. There was this fashion show there that I got invited to, and once my partner caught wind of it, I didn’t really have any other option but to go.”
It’s difficult to tell whether Nutini’s webbed brown wool cardigan and light blue T-shirt are designer clobber or thrift shop chic. No matter. Either way, sporting a five o’clock shadow, he looks the cover star part. Buoyed by the news that his sophomore album, Sunny Side Up, has hit the No 1 spot in Ireland, he has a lot to be cheerful about. In a way the album title says it all about Paolo Nutini right now:
Born and raised in Paisley, a suburb of Glasgow, where his family have lived for four generations, Paolo Nutini is of immigrant Italian stock. He is immensely proud of his Italian heritage and returns to the village that his great-grandparents left all those years ago as often as he can.
“I’ll try and go back again this summer,” he says, “try and get a taste of the nice weather, and the food and try and disappear for a wee while. I would usually go to Barga in Tuscany, which is like a little small town in the mountains.”
The people of Barga are obviously equally proud of him. In 2007, following the success of his million selling debut These Streets, Nutini was awarded the highest civic honour the town can bestow – the Golden St. Christopher Medal
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