Ed Sheeran Interview

Ed Sheeran describes himself as a singer songwriter but he also employs soul melodies, the lyrical style of rappers and hip-hop tempos to create songs that are transcending musical genres. ‘No.5 Collaborations Project’ was the last of his independent EP releases that consisted of collaborations with grime artists. It reached number 1 in the iTunes chart without involvement of a label or any promotion. Instantly the labels started to make him offers and within days he was signed to Atlantic. His debut single ‘The A Team’ was the highest selling and highest charting debut single of 2011. Ed Sheeran’s album ‘+’ was released in September with a UK tour following shortly after.

What can people expect from the album?

It’s just literally a collection of my favourite songs that I have written over the past 5 years and put together on the alum and recorded them in kind of a DIY way. I am really looking forward to putting it out.

You just did 8 performances at Glastonbury, how did they go?

They were good; they were all on different stages and to different numbers of people. The first one was in a tent that was 75 capacity which I did on a stool without any microphones and then the next one was in a tent to 5000 kids so they really differed.

The SB:TV video was quite a turning point for you, how did that come about?

It was through Twitter, I saw a re-tweet saying what film should I watch today from SB. I tweeted back and put Precious, SB was like “cool, I have heard your stuff and I really like it, lets make a video”. We did the video and it kind of blew up a little bit.

You put on a free show at Barfly and the turn out was so good you had to do 4 shows, how did that feel?

That was a very nuts day and I kind of wanted to make sure that everyone that turned up and waited got the gig that they wanted. I just waited around to the end and played again and again. It was wicked; it was a really cool experience.

You were signed to a pop management company that wanted you to change certain things about yourself but your left them as you didn’t want to change, how did you keep that self-belief?

It wasn’t so much self-believe it was more I tried it out for a couple of gigs doing what they wanted me to do and I just hated it. I was always told by my dad that you should always enjoy your job otherwise there is no point doing it, life’s to short. I kind of just like carried on doing my own thing. I was loving even playing to two people, playing the things that I wanted to play. It was self explanatory really I wanted to play the type of music I wanted to play and enjoy it in the process.

You went to LA on an impulse, are you quite spontaneous normally?

I am quite an allusive person who makes decisions last minute. For instance I still don’t have a place to live at the moment, I will be out until 4 o’clock in the morning and then kind of realise I need to sort out a place to stay. My friends are nice and know that I have kind of have impulsive decisions like that. One of my impulsive decisions was to book a flight and go to LA for a month. 

Are you planning on going back to America?

Yeah I just signed a deal over there as well so once I have released my album over here and done what I want to do I will start going over there.

Did reaching number 1 in the iTunes chart help you when you got signed?

Yeah, having that level of independent success let me do exactly what I wanted to do and now that I am with a label I kind of call the shots as it were, I say how I want the music to be and I get to basically go off for two months and record the album myself. I get full creative control as I have had that independent success and the fan base I guess.

How much input do you have in your videos?

100% input. The A team was done with my friend Ruskin who directed it and my friend Selina who was the actress. I basically had the concept that I wanted.

It was done with an amazing director called emual marger who we basically brainstormed ideas, we got a guy called maty who sign languaged the whole song which was cool, we wanted to go with something no one had ever done before.

What advice would you give to a singer songwriter starting out?

Write as many songs as possible; do as many gigs as possible, wherever, just rock up anywhere with a guitar and just start playing. Always be nice to people and always give people the time of day.

You did 186 gigs in five months in 2008, was there ever a gig where you really had to drag yourself on stage?

There is always going to be times when I am completely knackered but have never once thought I don’t want to be here, as soon as I get on stage all that tiredness and stuff goes I am straight back into it

What’s been your favourite gig so far?

For the past couple of months I have had a string of favourite gigs, they have been amazing. I did Latitude main stage, Wakestock and Waterfront and they were all just great crowds and great reactions, just exactly how I wanted them to go.

You were Nizlopi’s guitar tech for a while, what did they teach you?

How to work an audience, how to sing live and perform, how to treat people when you meet them and just a work ethic, they really smashed it hard with the gigs and did a lot of shows and it paid off.

When did you start using a loop pedal?

I went to go see Nizlopi at Shepherds Bush Empire back in 2005 and they had an opening act called Gary Dunn who was using a loop pedal and I had never seen one being used before and I was completely blown away. I messaged him and asked what it was, found out bought one and have been using one ever since.

Your mum makes jewellery and sells it on your website has she been doing that a long time?

Only about a year. She was doing it as a hobby to begin with; she made me a bracelet I used to wear at school. As soon as people started losing their jobs and had no way of earning she just started making jewellery and I started selling it from my website. Now she is selling it for a living, which is wicked because she loves it, she sits at home with the cat listening to radio 4 making jewellery all day.

Where do you see yourself in a few years?

I keep putting the goal posts further back because I keep achieving what I want to achieve. In a couple of years I just hope I am still doing what I love.


Published in Yorkshire Evening Post