The singer-songwriter on the joys of Summer of Soul, his favourite gadget, and a song that helped him through grief
Elvis Costello was born Declan Patrick McManus in
London in 1954. Starting out on the city’s pub rock scene in the mid-70s, he released his debut album, My Aim Is True, in 1977 as punk was taking off. That and his next two albums, This Year’s Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), all feature on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and Costello won Grammy awards in 1999 and 2020. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, the jazz musician Diana Krall, and their twin sons. His just-announced new album with the Imposters, The Boy Called If, is out on EMI on 14 January 2022.