12 September 2021
Newsdesk
To celebrate the release of brand new single ‘Shivers’, Ed Sheeran joined Jordan and Perri on KISS Breakfast today (Friday 10th September). The singer chatted all about recording his new album in Suffolk and which famous friends he’s brought to the region. He also chatted about daughter Lyra and how he remains so close to his school friends despite his mega fame. Read in for quotes!
Being worried about replicating his past success – “If you're an artist coming out with new music and there's a song like Good For You, Olivia Rodrigo or even like Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, like when you're coming out with new music and there's a song that's streaming 4 times the amount of the number 2 song... you have to basically do better than everyone else and then better than the person that is doing better than everyone else … so I looked at that and I was like, I'll be happy if it (Bad Habits) goes top 10. Thankfully did a bit better, but you can never take these things for granted.”
On bringing famous friends to Suffolk – “Dave came for dinner but like pre-pandemic, we just sat in the pub and played music. I took Stormzy to my local pub and it was one of those ones where the locals were trying to be funny with him but it just ended up being like ‘oh no, can you not say that please’… I took Taylor (Swift) there once, but when I took Taylor no one really clocked it was, it was like a week later that the person behind the bar was like, ‘Did you bring Taylor Swift in here last week?’”
On single-handily funding Air Bnbs throughout Suffolk when recording his new album - “Bad Habits was made in like an old country house they filmed like some of Bridgerton in. We had to bring in generators to power the studio, also there was no central heating so there was literally one of my mates was just lighting fires.
“This sounds so hippie saying it, but I really feel like studios don't have vibes in them, they're made to have good sound but there's not a lot of vibe in recording studios and I feel any time I've ever written songs in houses there is just different energy there that, and this sounds super hippie-like crystal whatever, but I just find when I would rent a house for a week, go in, build a studio and I get good songs out of it and then you unpack and then go to another house and rent it and do that and I just found that that worked, every time I would do that a great song would come out of it.”
On daughter Lyra turning 1 - “It has completely flown, but this is what every parent says, they're just like, oh, you know, it flies by, but really I feel like I've blinked and something like…”
“Yeah you know I've got a long tour coming up so I think by the time that she'll probably start primary school we'll have been around the world like three or four times so I think it's probably time to settle and have a normal childhood I think.”
On still being great friends with people he went to school with – “All of my friends are those people. I've got a 30th this Saturday, I'm seeing all of them. I went to a 30th last Wednesday and saw all of them. I mean, there's probably like 15, 16 of us that still see each other so... to actually find people that truly, truly love, like love you like is, is quite difficult. Since I've not been at school made like, maybe 15, 16 really, really close friends, but my school mates are the ones.
“The beginning of my career, I sort of drunk the cool aid a little bit and I was like, I moved to LA and I got famous friends, blah, blah, blah and blah, and I sort of lost touch with them. But when I came back home when I was 22, I just made a conscious effort and I was like, I'm paying for a holiday twice a year and you guys are gonna come with me and that's when we're gonna bond. And, you know, we went on like these amazing holidays and all hung out as friends. And then some of them started to move back to Suffolk, some of them moved to London, they were all sort of all around the world at different universities, travelling and stuff, and now we're all situated in England, I see them all the time and they are my closest people.”
Listen to KISS Breakfast with Jordan and Perri every weekday morning from 6am – kissfmuk.com
