Lewis Capaldi has revealed that he became so active on social media at one point in his career that some fans thought he was a content creator rather than a musician.
The Scottish hitmaker has explained that his online presence began to overshadow his music, and at one point, his social media persona almost became more recognisable than his singing career.
“People wouldn’t always engage with the music. They’d come up to me in the street and say, ‘You’re my favourite TikToker!'” he recalled in an interview with Billboard.
The Someone You Loved singer quickly became known on the social media platform for his self-deprecating humour, behind-the-scenes clips and candid updates about his music.
Lewis has also partnered with several major brands, creating comedic content for companies including Tinder, ASOS, Netflix, Deliveroo and BetterHelp.
“I was doing so much content, and that very quickly became commodified,” he told the publication. “A lot of the second album roll-out was based around doing a funny video to go viral.”
While the 29-year-old initially enjoyed coming up with the funny clips, the novelty soon wore off.
“I became so exhausted from putting on the whole, ‘Oh, I’m so f**king silly’ thing. I felt like I was playing up to other people’s ideas of me,” he added.
Lewis admitted that his online content eventually became more focused on commercial success than connecting with fans.
“It sometimes felt a bit like, ‘How can we get money out of this? How can we f**king sell, sell, sell,'” he shared, acknowledging that he may have “not treated the fanbase in the way that I probably should have”.
“There was maybe an element of trying to extract too much from people,” he continued. “I have very confused feelings towards that time.”
