Ed Sheeran - The A Team

OK, so I’ve spent a sad amount of today attempting to remember why I started listening to Ed Sheeran. Like, what the trigger was that got me listening to him, why I had so many of his albums almost instantly and why I was under the impression that I only started listening to him a few weeks back.

Back in February, I was going to go see Tinie Tempah perform in London. One of my friends, another singer-songwriter called Raevennan Husbandes, said that she thought Ed was going to the show. It didn’t really mean anything to me, and I said as much, but she said he was a nice lad who she’d met a few times who was also a singer-song writer, and so I said I’d give him a listen.

I remember, now that I have that piece of information, listening to his song “SO”, the first track to really draw me in, on his MySpace. The Chorus was “you’re so cool, you’re so beautiful” and it sounded like Sokol, which made me miss some of my friends in New York (incidentally, where Tinie Tempah is playing today).

I bought the album that ‘So’ was on - You Need Me - and Loose Change - because they were pretty cheap and sort of EPs. I wanted to give him a fair chance. I think I listened through it all twice on my way to the Tinie Tempah show.

At this point, I saw Tinie do a great hiphop set and got back stuck into his album, and listening to my ‘hype and gunshot’ playlist of ridiculous hiphop songs that make me want to start a riot (mainly variations of Game Over, Busta Rhymes and arrogant Kanye West and Eminem statements). I had that phase for a while and spent a while listening to a bunch of music by other friends and other people, disregarding this singer who’s song I’d enjoyed because we’d not met yet and who cares y’know?

I left my macbook on shuffle a fair amount at work, and at some point, I listened to the words being sung, and not just the melodies and I realised that “The A Team”, a song which has just begun making the rounds on the radio, thanks to people such as Fearne Cotton giving it a chance, was excellently written. The wordplay, the references, the sincerity and depth of it was great and I liked it. I downloaded more of his songs. I picked up Songs I Wrote With Amy, and heard Cold Coffee and fell in love with his song writing style. Such honesty, such simplicity at times.

I listened to the flow on You Need Me - a song that’s more like a rapped verse delivered in sung vocal - fast, quick, rolled, tight and perfectly pulled off live - and watched a video of the guy making use of a loop pedal on a song called The City, as well as You Need Me (where he beatboxes, loop pedals, guitars, raps and sings) and I thought ‘this guy seems to be putting in hard work.’

I went to Rome, and I didn’t really listen to much music out there. I was constantly around people and I wanted to hear what they had to say. That city makes you want to listen to anyone. When I came back, Ed had put out an EP for free called the One Take EP (edsheeran.com you can still get it), which featured Wayfaring Stranger, You Need Me (extended) and UNI. Wayfaring Stranger was just so powerful I began listening more and taking an interest in the musician behind the songs. 
I found out he’d been living on couches and travelling around on the grind for a good five years. That he’d been giving it a real shot - his best - and began getting recognition. That he was the same kid who I’d seen singing with Example 9 months earlier, in a Nandos ad. That he was friends with a bunch of rappers and had an EP called No.5 Collaborations, which showcased a wide variety of talented British emcees with well thought and delivered verses over reworkings of his own instrumentals and a few other songs. 

I heard from other musicians I know that he’d always been a pleasure to meet - humble and fun, talented and precise. I found a livestream he did for his fans, where he was going to play for 30 minutes and ended up doing 3 hours. Where he put on a free show at a venue and 1000 people turned up, so he ended up playing 3-4 sets back to back so he could sing for each of these people who’d queued so patiently.

He’s said its OK for me to take photos at the first show of his I’ve been able to get tickets for, in July, and that’s exciting for me. He’s pretty much sold out every show he’s listed since March. And I know I’ve written a whole lot, but I’ve been racking my brain as to how I ended up listening to such a good musician who was seemingly unknown. Turns out it was a throwaway comment that was met with a follow up, feinted interest and curiousity. Thank you Rae. I hope you guys enjoy listening to him as much as I do.