I know a heartache when i see one karaoke

'Ed Sheeran once said that he would never turn down someone asking for a picture or an autograph. Who has time for that in their lives any more? The last thing he would wish to be is regarded as mysterious and aloof. He wears his regular dude persona like a badge of honour.

That is the simplest approach and seems to be connecting with people.'Р”В¬apaldi is part of that continuum, of which he seems quite aware. 'My theory is that because of the internet the easiest way to deliver a song is to sit in front of a webcam with just a guitar and a voice. The boy with the guitar has always been there but Ed has probably blazed a trail. 'We've had Britpop and the dominance of the bands for quite an amount of time. 'All music tends to have its phases,' Ed Sheeran co-writer Amy Wadge ('Thinking Out Loud') told me when I spoke to her about the rise of the boy next door superstar last year. Even Niall Horan from One Direction has reinvented himself as that guy you half remember from school who is suddenly on the telly, strumming a guitar. But also George Ezra, Ireland's Dermot Kennedy. There is Ed Sheeran, obviously the alpha and omega of the sloppy-shirted, Nando-patronising mega star. The bloke-from-down-the-road is the hot new thing in pop. It's hard not to see his rise as part of a wider trend. When fans meet and chat with me they understand I'm just a regular person.' There is no barrier between the audience and me. But I think people like the fact I'm approachable. There's nothing wrong with pop stars, don't get me wrong. 'I'm not a pop star on a pedestal,' he says. Tickets are like gold-dust - remarkable in view of the fact that Capaldi is really only just getting started. He has a few theories about his remarkable success - a progression that, in just two years, has seen him journey from headlining King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow to selling out an Ireland and UK arena tour that includes a date at 3Arena in March 2020. I don't go around with all these troubles on my shoulders. If you need to know my innermost thoughts that's where you will find them. 'Sometimes there might be artists who have all the worries of the world on their shoulders,' he says. Also, he seems notably jittery about his career and how long it will last, theorising whether he might not end up living under a bridge if it all goes wrong. He takes his music seriously - but can't bring himself to be po-faced in person. There's the 'poo humour' and general irreverence (!whoever says money can't buy ye happiness has never ordered three takeaways in one day,' Capaldi tweeted recently).Р”В«eing Scottish, he has that instinctive Celtic insouciance too.

And yet, in person he couldn't be further removed from the figure he presents on record. He performed 'Someone You Loved' on the final of Ireland's Got Talent and, amid the prime time tat and the cheese, it struck you straight in the solar plexus. Capaldi has been likened to Adele and here the comparison makes sense - he's got a huge voice and what feels like a bottomless well of heartache. Lyrically, melodically, in every way, the song is absolutely devastating. Take, for instance, break-out hit 'Someone You Loved' - written, among other things, as his way of processing grief over the death of his grandmother. As a writer he bares heart and soul unabashedly. But Capaldi, who has just released his debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, is an extreme example. It's always a mistake to conflate the artist with the song. Everything that has happened it me is so unbelievable that you're better off not trying to analyse any of it.' But people seem to have grabbed onto it for some reason. I'Р“вЂўs not something I ever thought about - 'letР“вЂўs make this a thing'. 'As it happens a lot of my humour has to do with poo jokes. 'I try to be honest about who I am and about what I find funny,' Capaldi tells Hot Press. He's also one of modern pop's foremost exponents of toilet gags and poo puns, as his 400,000 Twitter followers will tell you. Lewis Capaldi is the latest boy next door to conquer the charts. In his first major Irish interview, the 'Someone You Loved' singer talks about his irreverent humour, his hopes and fears for the future and why, if it all goes down the pan tomorrow, he'd be happy singing in a wedding band. And yet even as his songs plunge into heartache and ennui, in person and online, Lewis Capaldi comes across as an agreeable rapscallion. He's the first artist to sell-out an arena tour before releasing an album.

I know a heartache when i see one karaoke