Nantas heralds a metamorphic new chapter with synth-soaked “BRING OUT YOUR CLOUDS”

Amid the hustle and bustle of a city that never sleeps roams a knight in shining armour, his footsteps clank and his smile glimmers. In the elaborate video for his new single “BRING OUT YOUR CLOUDS”, from high-rise to high street, the alienating, aquamarine blue landscape of London is Nantas’ to claim. Caught up in an odyssey of side quests, intoxicating parties and isolating parks pulse with the whirlwind whispers of a romantic past that haunts him. “Babe, I don’t need no sleep tonight,” he repeatedly calls out to the cruel, indifferent world he now calls home.

Born in the solitary confinement of COVID, the song was written in 2021 during a period when Nantas – real name Pierpaolo Aprea – was obsessively listening to Pendulum, Ghettolimpo by Mahmood, and Chromatica by Lady Gaga. It’s about reconnecting with his purpose and rediscovering the love of music itself. “Making music because it moves me, not because I’m chasing success or validation,” says the 28-year-old. In his own words, his sound can be best described as: “melancholic, theatrical and epic. It’s both weed and cocaine.”

Like the melodramatic hymns of many a bad boy gone soft, “BRING OUT YOUR CLOUDS” turns back time with textbook tones and intonations invoking early 2000s balladry, akin to Robbie Williams’ “Feel”, or Scissor Sisters’ “It Can’t Come Quickly Enough”. It soars and lingers with immense 80s synths. Italo dance and europop sensibilities capture the magic of delicate, enduring harmonies. What should be, on paper, a cheese fest, Nantas’ beautifully coarse vocals bring a rough and tough edge. Think t.A.T.u. or Eiffel 65’s Jeffrey Jey.

The track opens with the line, “I’ve drawn your face on the wall”, which traces back to the years Nantas spent living in a tiny room in Shepherd’s Bush, where he would hang sheets of paper on the wall to write songs. In this record, he speaks to music “as though I were drunk-texting my toxic situationship, telling him I miss him in a sad message sent at 3 a.m.,” he confesses. The title of “BRING OUT YOUR CLOUDS” was inspired by a 1530 painting by Antonio da Correggio, Jupiter and Io, in which Jupiter transforms into a dark cloud to embrace Io. “It depicts a union with something immaterial, which I connected to the way inspiration comes to me in the stillness of the night.”

It all began with a fragile mandolin demo sent to him by his great musician friend Hamish Rosser: “the first person I met in London who truly believed in my talent... I was immediately struck by the melody, but even more so by the instrument itself because the mandolin is the official instrument of Naples,” says Nantas. They were in a band called Naïsh for many years, but now, their working relationship has evolved beyond local open-mic nights in West London. “I’m not exactly sure how I fit into today’s scene, since it was never really my ambition to do so. I fit with anyone that makes music for themselves.”

Born in Sorrento, Aprea packed his belongings and moved to London on his own in 2016. “The decision to pursue music came right after high school, at the very moment when my battle with intrusive thoughts began,” he details. “It shook me to the core and led me into depression. I remember feeling deeply confused about who I was and about life in general, so I clung to the only certainty I had: that I am, without question, devoted to art.”

He wrote his first song, “Jupiter”, when he was 17, and grew up inspired by the myth of artists like Madonna, fascinated by the idea of letting the big city shape him. “Before that I was studying musical theatre for about five years. Theatre can be a true salvation, it was my safe space. Although I had a troubled relationship with my hometown growing up, I feel extremely lucky coming from what I think is the most beautiful place in the whole world.”

Named Pierpaolo after his grandfather, “an unshakeable tradition in southern Italy”, his Nantas moniker originated from his mother: “As a teenager, she once came across the names Nantas and Era, and was so captivated by them that she promised herself she would give those names to her children one day. Nantas felt right. It’s unusual and has a touch of magic to it. Above all, it pays tribute to my greatest inspiration: my mother. A true rebel and anti-conformist, she has countless interests and was the one who introduced me to both mythology and rock music. That spirit lives in this name. As a side note, we named our family dog Era.”

“BRING OUT YOUR CLOUDS” is the first glimpse into Nantas’ upcoming project: “a labyrinthine journey inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Songs that pay tribute to Jupiter’s moons, each a universe of its own, before the story expands into a constellation of myths, legends, and cosmic encounters.”

Promising spacey vocoder numbers and more synth-heavy hits in the making, he teases a collaboration with producer Tom Leach, whom he reached out to after going to a LEAP gig. “We talked for ages about Confessions on a Dance Floor, Timbaland, Quentin Tarantino’s soundtracks, t.A.T.u., East London’s rave scene. I even played him the intro from Italian TV’s news broadcast and said, ‘I want the synths to sound like this’. He said it was unexpected, and that he hadn’t imagined the track going in that direction at first. Then he worked his magic.”

Another one of Nantas’ current producers is Patrick Fitzroy, whose fingerprints are on projects by Sorry, PVA, and Sunnbrella. “He is genuinely a musical genius. Anyone who’s collaborated with him would agree. He has such a deep understanding of music and a real obsession with sound research. He brought in instruments I couldn’t even name; at one point he was literally playing a wooden frog with a stick.”

Eight years in the making, the promising young rock star is finally starting to perform again with a much clearer vision. “I always tried to shape my music to fit a genre, but now it’s my music that’s shaping me and telling me who I am.”