His music videos on the web single him out as a low-budget Maltese version of Lady Gaga: fancy costumes, flamboyant effects and coarse lyrics. Yet, in person, singer Clinton Paul is more docile than a lamb. Kristina Chetcuti caught up with him.
His attire is rock-meets-Metallica with a touch of Beckham. He is wearing a tight shiny silver V-necked shirt, rosary-bead like accessories around his neck, skinny black trousers, boots and leather straps on his wrists. “I am the only one of my siblings who dresses up like this. My family is very conservative,” he says.
By day he’s in a suit-and-tie and works and has been working as an IT administrator with a main bank since he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in maths and informatics a few years ago. By night, or whenever his shift allows, he works on his music: “Clinton at the office and Clinton the artist are two different people. I wish I could work on music full-time but it’s very difficult to make a living off it,” he admits.
Clinton Paul Cilia, 28, from Birkirkara, describes himself as “a quiet lad, really” and as “reserved but immensely creative”. It’s hard to picture him, with his skinny frame, those doe-like soft brown eyes, and the most polite and soft-spoken of voices, dancing to the role of a “badass soldier” in one of his music videos.
“When I released the single Badass Soldier everybody thought that I was referring to myself and people thought I really have a high self-esteem; I don’t. Badass soldier is the alter ego I wish to have,” he explains.
The video, with a storyline that is vaguely evocative of some horror B-movie, has attracted a lot of attention and feedback – good and bad – on the internet.
Indeed, over the past year, this and his other self-penned tracks and videos Madhouse and Rebellion – all raining with special effects – have made him a local online “sensation”. There’s fireworks, chains, sparsely clad girls, ghosts, fishnet-tights, tops and superheroes. They have been uploaded on some of Malta’s most popular blogs and shared on Facebook. The fact that feedback is not always positive does not trouble him in the least: “Any publicity is good publicity,” he says.
Recently, he also featured as a protagonist in a spoof online story about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and how they were planning to adopt him. He hadn’t read the story – but giggles when I tell him about it: “That would be great. They could fund my projects,” he jokes.
He genuinely doesn’t seem to take any flak to heart, saying that even big artists, like his role model Adam Lambert, get lots of criticism. “I’ve got a thick outer skin. I am aware that I’m still improving but I am becoming more confident with the camera. I accept all comments and try to learn from them but I won’t let them put me down.”
Besides, he says, he was bullied when he was young: “So I got into the frame of mind that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. He feels very strongly about bullying and, last year, even took part in an anti-bullying campaign in Canada with his single Superman. “The lyrics are about telling kids that they can be brave and overcome it,” he says. Images from the photo shoot of the album, which shows him in the guise of a school boy being bullied, were used in Canada after he was approached by the organisers on Facebook.
“Everything happens for a reason,” he says in a barely audible voice, explaining that he firmly believes that people should follow their dreams. “The Lord gave me this talent to make music of and I’ll keep on doing it for as long as I can.”
He is not really new to the Maltese music scene, having penned songs for other artists and participated in various festivals for several years. Now he focuses on his solo career and funds his own productions – including his own clothes designer – and tries as much as possible to get the concept through on a limited budget: “In Rebellion, for example, I wanted more fire and more fireworks but, of course, funds are a problem,” he says.
He’s obsessed by Rihanna and Lady Gaga: “They fascinate me. I see a link, a connection to their music. I don’t want to play safe with my music. My style is controversial. Life is a risk. I would not, not do it because people talk about me,” he says. He has just released Robot, the second single of his forthcoming electro-pop album, I Know Who I Am Now, scheduled for release in November. “This album is different. It’s very personal,” he says. “When I was creating the album, I came up with lots of personal things.” This includes the acronym HFIC, which features everywhere in his website and in his online messages. What does it stand for? “I can’t reveal it. I’d like to keep it a little mystery. But it has to do with a state of mind, right now, for example, I feel HFIC. I’d like to keep it a little mystery. One day I will say what it means,” he says.
His dream? To make it on the radio waves. One radio station informed him that they couldn’t play Badass Soldier because of the lyrics, which could have shocked the audience. He is aware that radio stations usually play tracks by the same four big bands and artists in Malta, however, he whispers, “My big wish is that one of my tracks is played on XFm”.