Pedro Santos

I’m used to having forty minutes on a Zoom call to try and capture a personality, so meeting in person and being spoiled for time was a luxury. We talked about the transition from boy band member to solo artist and bonded over the universal experience of figuring out who you are in your twenties. He struggles to confine himself to a box and says that’s a good thing. “I am so spontaneous. I like so many different things. And I just want to show people that you don't have to be one thing.” Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he tells me about the inspiration behind his music, and how growing up surrounded by women has helped him stay in touch with his sentimental side: “I'm not nonchalant, I'm very chalant. If I love something, I will make sure people know about it. If I love someone, I'll make sure that person knows it.” His general enthusiasm and curiosity are evident as he peppers everyone at the shoot with questions, genuinely interested in getting to know them. It’s a curious tableau; eight creatives cramped into a lift or sprawled across a hotel room in between outfit changes.

We go off on a tangent, discussing the role of social media in the music industry and how creatives have to learn how to play the game. Ever the optimist, Pedro focuses on the positives, telling me how it makes him feel closer to his fans. He’s excited about this new chapter and how growing up and figuring things out will influence his music.

Are you excited for today?
Very excited, I love meeting new people.

I’m glad we managed to do this in person; I’m so used to Zoom calls.
It’s nice to be face-to-face. You can never get as much across on Zoom. It’s nice to be able to sit down and have a drink.

I’ve been listening to “I Don’t Know Me” nonstop. How has the transition been for you from being in a group to working as a solo artist?
Eye-opening and very interesting. There are aspects of both that I like, but they’re pretty evenly balanced. I like having my own time, but I really enjoy working with people, hence why I'm in the music industry. I don’t have that as much now. When I was in a group, we lived together. We used to have fun together. We used to work together. We used to argue together. We used to mess up and get things right together. I was the youngest, and it was really nice to just learn from them. Living with four lads was quite an experience for me. My dad was working all the time when I was growing up, and so it was usually just me, my mother and my sister. So yeah, lots of different aspects [to that transition], but now, obviously, 100% of the decisions are on me.

Okay, so you went from living in a girl's house to being in a boy band, and being the youngest. What was that like?
I really liked it. I think it was a different insight into what I do with my spare time, like playing PlayStation with everyone in the same house. When we had days off, and then when Covid hit, we had so much free time. It was a bit like, “Wow, I just get to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want.” And I had four lads with me who would just come along for the ride. It was loads of fun, we still hang out. Being a solo artist and making all of my own decisions is kind of terrifying. You have to know where you're going. Looking at the four songs I have out now, there’s definitely a through-line. Everyone always says the first song is the most exciting, but for me, it's always the next one, because I'm constantly figuring things out. In the band, I was really protected and in a bubble. And now I have to figure it out, mess it up, and learn from it. So, it's a bit lonely sometimes, but it's just as fun as it was before, just in a different way.

Would you say that you almost had a soft launch into this career, because you had a support system of people going through the same thing?
I think we were very lucky. We were very protected. But this is all hindsight, and I wouldn't take any of it back whatsoever. I think it was maybe too much of a soft launch, because when I came out of it, it took me about a year to get my first song out. I didn't understand who I was or what my music should sound like. As a band, you have your fans, and it's the look. A lot of boy bands don't really have a sound. As a solo artist, you need a message. What colours do you want? How do you want to dress? What do you want to sound like? What’s the story? It can be overwhelming. I'm now learning so much about myself, and what I want. As an immigrant—I sound very British, but I am fully Portuguese—when I'm in Portugal, I sound like a Portuguese man, and I come here and sound really British. My friends are all over the place. I have friends from a football team and a choir at the same time.

You contain multitudes!
Yeah, I have never had “the Pedro circle,” or friends that I hang out with every weekend. It was just everyone, whenever, which was really nice. But when you're in the music industry, and you want to try to define yourself, it is difficult to come from such a mixed background. I want people to know that I don't have it figured out, because I think the fans want to know the real side of it. People love authenticity. I'm not going to sing a song that I don't believe in.

I think as an audience, it's so much more compelling to see someone who is also honest about not having it all figured out. Your work is really personal. I feel like creatives in general tend to pull from their personal lives, but there's an extent to which that is overt to the public. How do you draw that line between what you're comfortable sharing and keeping a distance?
It’s very difficult to draw the line. I care about my fans, and I know them very well; without them, I wouldn't do anything. Weirdly, I study them because I want to know what they like. I'm not really trying to please the big bosses or the music industry, I'm trying to please my fans. I think for me, I draw the line when I didn’t deal with something really well, and I want to be honest about it, but I don’t want to romanticise it. A lot of my fans look up to me, and whether I’m okay with that or not, I’m aware that I do have influence. There's nothing in my life that I would want to hide; I'm very proud of who I am. I'm proud of my family and friends. I don't surround myself with people that I don't agree with morally. A line for me would be a song about someone who doesn't want me to write a song about them. That's it.

I feel like social media is a very big part of the music industry now. Everyone needs a personal brand. You have to put yourself in a box and know how to sell yourself, both as an artist and as a media personality. How did you find the transition from being a “normal” private person to becoming a public figure?
I think that in the music industry nowadays, with social media, it's not enough to be super artistic and mysterious. People don’t want that anymore, and it’s also not in my nature. I'm not nonchalant, I'm very chalant. If I love something, I will make sure people know about it. If I love someone, I'll make sure that person knows it. The transition was fine. I like being open. I want to share more on social media. I like audiences to see my personality to understand why the music sounds like it does. It’s in my nature to give more rather than less.

Do you feel that you’ve had to deal with a negative side to that? If you're very open on social media, you open the door for people to share their opinions on you. Sometimes it’s a parasocial relationship. It is sometimes exposing.
I have a Portuguese account, and my Portuguese is fluent, but it's my own family's dialect. We've got very Southern accents, and I’ll get comments like, “You can't call yourself a real Portuguese person because your accent is different,” or comments on my physical appearance. When I was a kid, I had really bad acne, so it'd be that. I used to bite my nails loads, I'd always have a way to hide them. I would never edit them, I just wouldn't put them in a photo. I’d get comments on that as well. Obviously, it hurts. I like being liked. It kind of fuels my fire a little bit. I don’t want to get too philosophical…

Go for it!
I think when my time comes, I'll be proud of who I am. It doesn't matter if I had long or short nails. It doesn't matter if I had acne. If I was a good person, I was a good person. People will always have something to say.

Still on the social media topic, viral videos can have a huge influence on someone's career. Do you find that has influenced at all how you approach creating and how you're pushing your music out?
Yeah. I mean, numbers are always attractive. It is also a way to help me continue making what I'm making. It gives me a good insight into what's working. You have to play games sometimes with engagement, for example. In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to do that. I would just make music. I'd spend all of my life in the studio. That's not the case anymore. If I'm building a team around me, and I'm not the hardest-working person on that team, there is something very wrong, and that partially includes social media. How can you hook someone in? I want people to fall in love with my personality. I want people to fall in love with my music. I want people to fall in love with how I look, with what I say, with the message that I'm giving. I want people to be inspired and see the world as I see it. You have to build a good team around you that helps you maintain your posture, whilst dancing around the idea of doing a couple of videos you might not really want to do—the cringe stuff.

To be fair, I feel that's true for every job. Even if you love what you do, there will be aspects of your work that you like less than others.
It's not me, but I have to do it because it’s part of the job.

The industry is so different now. With music, films, and writing, you’d at one time be working in a vacuum; nobody would have any input, and then it would be out in the world. Now you have instant feedback from social media.
Social media can be great when used the right way.

And what's your creative process like? Where are you getting inspiration?
Not sleeping. I’m working at 2 am every time. I don't know why. I think when I'm trying to shut off, it’s like the tap turns on for whatever reason. Sometimes I'm too tired to get out of bed, and that's when I feel guilty. I think “I should be writing this down,” but obviously it's a very anti-social hour to ring someone and go, “Hey, dude, I've got this idea.” Sometimes I do it, sometimes I won't. I try to journal a lot. There's so much in my head that I want to get out, but I'm not very good at explaining it.

You’re doing really well!
Thank you!

Creatives are always working, always taking things in. If you do have time off, what does that look like? Are you switching off?
I love being outdoors. I don't care what it is, whether it's playing a sport, cycling, or walking. The other day, I literally just got in the car, put the windows down, and listened to all my unreleased music just to make sure I liked it. I drove for about forty minutes in a circle. My brain shuts off. I've been on Facebook Marketplace to buy some rollerblades. I used to rollerblade when I was a kid with some neighbours who were also all women.

I feel like this is working in your advantage. It's very much “Man written by a woman!”
I’m definitely more in touch with my sentimental side. I think that's something I also want to show. I've always been in touch with my feminine side. I love rings. I like wearing statement pieces. I don't shy away from going to the women's section in the clothing store. I think you guys have much better clothes than we do.

You guys have much bigger pockets, though.
That's true, yeah.

You just came back from your first solo tour. What was that like?
Immense. It was brilliant. It was amazing. I got to learn so much about my fans and myself. It was a great experience. The team around me were brilliant. My family got to come and watch me in Lisbon. I did not expect the turnout that it had, selling out tickets in Europe. I have four songs out. I expected no one to be there. I sold out all my shows in Europe!

How do you feel about performing live? Was that something that came naturally, or did you have to grow into it?
I love every minute of it. I get a little bit anxious beforehand, and then I get on stage, and something just takes over. I'm still trying to figure out what it is. I just feel so free. It's not about having power, it's not about being the centre of attention. I become this other version of myself.

I totally get that. When I started writing, I didn’t care about strangers reading my work, but the thought of people I knew reading it was terrifying.
When I say my work is lonely, it's only because I have to make it lonely. If I let too many people read my writing or listen to my music, I just become a people pleaser. So sometimes I don't show my parents my music. I mean, they love everything I do; obviously, they're my parents. My sister gives me really good feedback to the point where I'm like, “I don't want it anymore, because it's getting in my head.” If she says, “Oh, it's not my favourite,” I'm like, “Oh, it's crap. That song's crap.” But when I show someone random, and they tell me it's shit, I just go, “Okay, it's not for you then.” If it's my mum doing it, I'm like, “We've gotta change everything!”

What can we expect from you in the future? Is there anything you can tease?
Well, hopefully I’ll have a festival this summer, which will be really fun. I have a bunch of music that I'm sitting on at the moment. I think the song will get to a point where it's the best it possibly can be, but I don't think I'll ever have “the Pedro sound.” I just think it's always going to be different. I am so spontaneous. I like so many different things. I want to show people that you don't have to be one thing. I started realising that because I'm quite an independent person and get in my own head sometimes, I escape by listening to upbeat music. I'm now figuring out what upbeat Pedro sounds like. I'm not saying I found it, but it's definitely a very exciting path that I'm treading on at the moment. As I said, I was in a choir. Gospel music really moves me. I'm not religious, but gospel music really moves me, and there's always going to be an element, hopefully, of that.