Q&A: Paulo Volpe Talks Experience With Moving, How Change Affects His Creativity & More
MEMORIES OF MOVING AND LOST LOVE — shine through Paulo Volpe’s heartfelt lyrics, as an 18-year-old who began his musical journey when the world shut down in 2020. Through Paulo’s entrancing melodies and heartfelt lyrics, he manages to captivate listeners from all corners of the globe, regardless of borders or boundaries.
Luna spoke with Volpe at the end of his LA visit, where he had been for a few weeks. Gearing up to head back to his new home in Rome, he had a lot to reflect on. Wise beyond his years, Paulo opened up about his last couple years, his guardian angel, and how he prepares for the future. Read the interview below.
LUNA: Thanks for talking with me today, Paulo. You have a super interesting story on how you rose to internet fame. Tell me a bit about yourself.
VOLPE: I guess the first note for you to understand the vibe of the story [is] I move around a lot. I was born in Rio. When I was two, my parents moved to Orlando, Florida, and we stayed there for [about] 10 years. I grew up in Orlando. I'm a Florida boy at heart. But then we had to dip. So we went to Italy first, and we stayed in Milan for a few months. I finished eighth grade there. By the time that I had to start high school, we had already moved to Sicily and I stayed there for a year, and then we went to… Well, we were just all over the place.
Three months before the pandemic happened, we moved to Brazil, and that's where I really started picking up guitar, singing, and finding a love for music, I guess. I didn't have anything to do, and I had just moved to another city.
LUNA: Very relatable — the pandemic changed things creatively for a lot of people.
VOLPE: Yeah, definitely. I just didn't know a lot of people, and we couldn't leave our houses. I actually started a YouTube channel there, and then it just led to this, which is awesome.
LUNA: Right. So most of your listeners came from YouTube?
VOLPE: Well, now mostly TikTok. I didn't really want to, so it took me like two years but then I got really lucky.
LUNA: Yeah, and that's how it goes. That's why the internet is so important and powerful. Now, you’ve spent the last couple weeks in LA. How's that been?
VOLPE: Los Angeles has been amazing. I love America, and I've been doing everything to get back here. So I've been very fortunate, you know, with Jay [my manager] — I owe it all to Jay.
LUNA: He's incredible.
VOLPE: Dude. He's my guardian angel. I tell that to everybody, and I will live by it. He's amazing.
LUNA: Right. It's very special. The relationship that you guys have, too, is one in a million. Can you tell me a little bit about what inspires your music?
VOLPE: If you dig into the lyrics, they're very dramatic. And it is funny because I don't know if I'd come across as a dramatic person just talking–
LUNA: Not at all (laughs).
VOLPE: But I had a lot of time to think, you know? These last two years have been especially tough. I'm not gonna get super sappy, but I just had a lot of time to myself. I think the dramatic part of it is just going through that and not having any outlet, especially this last year when I was 17 and I had to leave for Sicily. I started out surfing alone. I had to drop out of high school. I got a job instead when I was 18, but eventually I was able to move back in with my dad and finish. I guess I'm just reeling from the thoughts of everything, you know? Processing it all.
LUNA: Do you think your experiences traveling and moving have inspired this creative, musical side of you? How does that all work together?
VOLPE: Without a doubt. I feel like there's a big theme in all of my music that it is either missing people or just not having a place to call my own.
The show I played on Thursday, I opened with the song “Home is a Hotel.” I mean, I guess it's pretty self-explanatory. Maybe it's a working title. I don't know, but I wrote about living in a hotel.
LUNA: I love the title. I can only imagine. That’s obviously not a typical thing, and it’s a specific way to grow up. How were your LA shows?
VOLPE: Winston House was the first show that I did, and it was an experience. I mean, I learned a lot from it. I think I played four songs, five songs. I wouldn't say it went perfectly, but the Genghis Cohen show completely made up for it. It was better than anything I could have imagined, you know? I had so much fun — I loved it. Everybody around me loved it. I'm super grateful for the experience.
LUNA: That’s amazing. What made it so great?
VOLPE: I feel like I played really well, and the people there watching and everyone interacting… I guess having people that were engaged really helped, you know?
LUNA: Yeah, the crowd is so important. It will be exciting to get more shows like that in the books. Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?
VOLPE: Well, I don't like making predictions about anything, in general. I guess it's just because I was moving around so much. Every single year of high school, I went to a different school. I'm used to telling people I have no idea because, even now, going back to Rome… I had just moved there two weeks before I came to LA so I'm going back there now. And then after a week, I have to move again. I just don’t like predicting my future, I guess.
LUNA: I feel like we should all live more like that, honestly. It's nice to not put too much pressure on yourself for where you're gonna be and to just work until you get to a place of feeling content. Speaking of which, what have you been working on recently?
VOLPE: Oh, well, so while in LA, I've been getting as many studio sessions as I can. I’ve been working with Jack Kaplan. He is amazing — like, the coolest person ever. We've just been producing demos. We're on a really good timeline.
LUNA: What can fans expect from this new music?
VOLPE: I cannot promise the same vibe. I can't promise that. Hopefully we'll get to a point where I can kind of, you know … Radiohead it.
LUNA: And we'll just have to listen to find out.
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