{"id":12486,"date":"2023-05-25T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/?p=12486"},"modified":"2026-05-28T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:01:08","slug":"pop-and-spirit-an-interview-with-carlo-capobianco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2023\/05\/25\/pop-and-spirit-an-interview-with-carlo-capobianco\/","title":{"rendered":"POP AND SPIRIT :: An Interview with Carlo Capobianco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Rish Hanco<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlo Capobianco, one of Winnipeg\u2019s newest quickly rising stars, sat down with Stylus to talk about the upcoming album Pray To You<\/em>. Carlo shares the story of the album, of an underlying sense of God present in his art and life, and of the toxic, one-sided love that inspired each song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

STYLUS:<\/strong> I\u2019m curious about the use of religious imagery; where does that come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CARLO:<\/strong> I feel like I\u2019ve always had a weird relationship with God because of my upbringing in a Catholic household. It wasn\u2019t like we went to church every Sunday, but it was still an Italian household, a very old-school immigrant family. Super archaic views on what women do, what men do, and in that there wasn\u2019t really space for somebody like me, who\u2019s androgynous, who doesn\u2019t really care, you know, if I want to wear fishnets underneath my pants, or wear makeup, or play with barbies. I just didn\u2019t care as a child, and so I kind of rebelled a lot. It was just a very constricting space to be in, and I feel like that went through my music. I\u2019ve always felt connected to God. Even if I wasn\u2019t Catholic, I always felt some sort of presence in my life, kind of like a low hum that\u2019s just there, just kind of guiding me in the right places. There\u2019s a lot of imagery in Catholicism, like Adam and Eve, praying, and what\u2019s good, what\u2019s bad. I kind of like that because I\u2019m very black and white in my life, but when it comes to music and when it comes to religion\u2014or spirit, whatever you want to call it\u2014it\u2019s blended. One day I\u2019m Catholic, and one day I\u2019m not, and it\u2019s hard to explain, but I feel like once you\u2019re Catholic, you\u2019ll always be Catholic. I feel like a sinner most of the time the way that I live my life. I wanted to kind of play with that on the album because life is not that serious, and it\u2019s not a big deal. I feel like it\u2019s a conversation between me and God. And between me and myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S: <\/strong>I\u2019m kind of gathering this from what you\u2019re saying, but do you feel your Catholic identity conflicts with your sexual identity or the way you feel you are in your day-to-day life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> I feel like it conflicts if you look at it from the perspective of someone following Catholicism. I feel like God loves everyone. Even though he says if you sleep with another man, you\u2019re going to hell or whatever. If that were the case, I mean conservative people would be so careful about what they say to their neighbour because \u2026 why would you tear down a neighbour? Or judge a neighbour? Or steal from someone or whatever if it\u2019s against God\u2019s rule? I mean, it applies to the same principles. It\u2019s not a level of sin that we follow, they\u2019re all sins, and they all resolve in the same way; you go to hell, or you have to pay for it, or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> What\u2019s your favourite track on the album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> I think my favourite to write was \u201cSleeping With the Enemy\u201d because it was so easy to write, and the melody came to me quickly. It\u2019s just a really to-the-point song that seems simple, but there\u2019s a lot behind it if you really dig deep into the lyrics. If you can understand poetry in general, then you can understand that it means I\u2019m sleeping with someone that\u2019s not good for me. But I want to keep doing it because it feels good. I love how catchy it is, and I think that\u2019s my favourite song I\u2019ve ever written, honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> Does your relationship with your parents ever influence your music writing at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> I think about my dad a lot because when he was younger, he wanted to be a dancer. He wanted to be a ballet dancer, and he\u2019s vehemently homophobic now, but he was into dance, he was into singing. He was into being on stage, and he was into being a star but his mom, my grandma, didn\u2019t want him to be that. So he ended up working at my grandma\u2019s auto shop for the rest of his life, kind of stuck with his mom. The 70s was a different time to be alive, and I\u2019m sure it was a lot harder for him to express himself back then. I feel like I\u2019m almost, in a way, with this album, I\u2019m breaking maybe a generational curse that was in place for him and for my family in general. I\u2019m kind of like breaking the glass ceiling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> Where does your love of the 80s come from, and how does that influence your music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> When I was younger, I listened to a lot of modern pop, like Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, and that kind of thing. In the middle of high school, I stumbled upon some Madonna songs, Prince, and Michael Jackson, the Eurythmics and Simple Minds, and I just loved that everything sounded grand in the 80s. The songs sounded like movie songs. All the synthesizers and drums, all the little tidbits that they put into the production, made me love the 80s and pop music in general. I wanted to create the sound of grand, big pop singles that were explosive and stuck around for years. I feel like I maybe had a different life in the 80s, something like that, because I\u2019m so connected to it, and it doesn\u2019t really have a single starting point. I feel sad when I listen to 80s music or something. I feel like I was there, or I feel like some part of me is connected to the movies or the shows or the singles or the albums or the concerts. I always feel almost like I was there, like I was watching it, and it\u2019s a memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S: <\/strong>Did you have any particular musical influences for this album or just in general?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> I think definitely Madonna, Lana Del Ray, and Joni Mitchell. I love Joni Mitchell\u2019s writing; she\u2019s a wonderful writer. Prince, Michael Jackson. I had songs that inspired the album, but I feel like I just came into it and said I want to make an album that sounds like the 80s, but I want it to be influenced by modern production. I wanted you to listen to it and not be sure when it was made. Sometimes you\u2019ll hear a song that\u2019s like an 80s song, and it sounds like they bought a sample pack for drums and synths. I wanted it to sound like it was made in the 80s but with modern elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> Is there a name for the album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> Pray To You<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S: <\/strong>My next question was going to be what inspired the name. Obviously, the song, but why did you choose that one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:<\/strong> I just felt it encapsulated the whole idea of the album. This album is really a prayer to God, but I feel like it\u2019s also a prayer to my past romantic relationships. It\u2019s almost kind of like a little bible that I\u2019ve created that encapsulates the memory of what I felt when I was with that person, how I felt during that time. It\u2019s just my own little bible, that\u2019s what I like to call it, and I just felt Pray To You<\/em> was a really good name in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> You referred to the album as a sort of bible, something that you get lessons from on how to live your life and something that you learn from. When you listen to these songs, when you look back on what it is that inspired you to write these songs, do you learn anything from them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C: <\/strong>I think it just reminds me of how vulnerable I was at that point in my life and how much it made me feel like I was under the control of my romantic partner. I felt like this person was so amazing and enigmatic that I had to pray to them\u2014everything I did, texting them incessantly, calling them on the phone\u2014all of that stuff was like my version of praying to them. I was so obsessed that everything I did revolved around making them like me, and after I finished the album, I realized I was so stupid for even feeling like that. Now if they don\u2019t like me, I just move on; that\u2019s life. But I was so obsessed and so full of myself that I felt that if I made an album that might connect with them in a way, unbeknownst, if they even knew it was about them\u2026 they know it\u2019s about them, and it\u2019s changed nothing. I don\u2019t feel the same way about them. But it is what it is. I\u2019m glad I wrote the album. I\u2019m glad that the pain inspired me to create something that turned into beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S:<\/strong> You\u2019re putting a lot of emotion into this album. Do you ever feel nervous or scared about putting this much of yourself out into the world for others to observe and have opinions about?C: <\/strong>No. I think that\u2019s an artist\u2019s job. I forgot who said it, but \u2018artists are here to disturb the peace\u2019\u2014James Baldwin, \u2018artists are here to disturb the peace.\u2019 I feel like that\u2019s just a part of the artist\u2019s job, to express the pain and the beauty and the turmoil. And I don\u2019t really give a fuck what anyone thinks about my music, so I\u2019m going to keep releasing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rish Hanco Carlo Capobianco, one of Winnipeg\u2019s newest quickly rising stars, sat down with Stylus to talk about the upcoming album Pray To You. Carlo shares the story of the album, of an underlying sense of God present in his art and life, and of the toxic, one-sided love that inspired each song. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[1503,1176,1547],"class_list":["post-12486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-live-bait","tag-carlo-capobianco","tag-interview","tag-pop-and-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12490,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions\/12490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}