Pinc Louds makes triumphant return to Tompkins Square Park after lead singer finds his passion again

Federico, aka Claudi of the Pinc Louds, has made a welcome return to the music scene

Photo by Bob Krasner

If you’re a Pinc Louds fan, then there’s been a void in your life since last October. That’s when Claudi, the singer/songwriter who basically is Pinc Louds, took a break from performing and effectively disappeared from the East Village scene.

While that hiatus was planned, what happened during the break was not. “I had planned to stop,” he explained. “I had been performing for seven years without stopping. I wanted to recharge and write new songs.”

The flamboyant performer — frequently seen performing for fans of all ages in Tompkins Square Park — had created a character that included a very distinctive wig and makeup combined with a fabulous dress. But he admits that he “didn’t want to keep doing the same persona.”

The creation of Claudi was a manifestation of “who I wanted to be,” he muses.

“The real me, Federico, got shut in and more introverted.” Then, he explains, “once I stopped the machine and stopped being Claudi, it was hard to get it back up and running. I didn’t want to keep doing the persona.”

In addition, he needed the break “to catch up with being a parent — I wasn’t really completely there for my newborn son.”

Then came the unexpected part — a bit of a breakdown that began to spin out of control.

“Everything seemed to be going in the right direction,” he recalls. “I was supposed to curate a series of nights at the Sultan Room but coming back seemed so daunting; there was too much pressure and I cancelled it. I realized that I was not having fun — I was putting too much pressure on myself. I thought that maybe it wasn’t healthy for me to be an artist and I just spiraled from there”.

Continuing, he says that “I realized that I had nothing to fall back on. I went to a very dark place, not knowing what I’m worth if I’m not an artist.”

As things got darker, he ended up in a…