school record for fastest egg and spoon race, Norwich City could head one past a Brazilian goalkeeper, and I doubt we’d feel the swell of pride that email conjoured. You see, we take ownership of Ed – a Suffolk boy he may be, but when Ed’s sharing radio airtime with Jamie Foxx, it’s all just East Anglia to us! We caught up with Ed ahead of this month’s homecoming gig…
I
So if we took it back the beginning Ed, what made you first want to pick up your guitar back in 2002? It was Eric Clapton playing ‘Layla’ at the Queen’s Jubilee; I just really wanted to play it.
How did it progress? Was it that you started out as a bedroom musician, but developed a desire to perform in public? Very much so. I was very much a bedroom musician for about the first 3 years, but then when I moved to London I had to become more of an ‘outside’ musician and get out a bit more.
And when you started playing, did you find that it all came very easily to you? Nah, it’s been a definite learning process; when I started, I couldn’t really sing and I couldn’t really play guitar, but I think as time goes on, you nurture your skills and they really sort of get polished the more you perform and play and write. It’s been a definite gradual build.
My first introduction to you was at the Next Big Thing competition heats and you blew everyone away at B2, especially with your use of the loop pedal… When did you start to integrate the pedals? Erm, I went to see a band called Nizlopi at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and their opening act, Gary Dunne basically used one and I was blown away by it, and I checked it out and I saw that KT Tunstall had used it and so I purchased one! I was pretty bad at it for the first two years, but the more I messed up on it, and played around on it, the more polished it became.
The people that you just
t was a proud day when we received a single from Island Records for our attention from their newest signing, Ed Sheeran. Little Jimmy could smash the
mentioned, would you consider them influences of yours? I’d say Gary Dunne definitely – he was a massive influence on me to begin with, just ‘cause of the loop pedal, but yeah, Nizlopi have been a massive influence on me too. I did their tour, just as a guitar tech for about 2 or 3 years, and basically learnt everything about performing, singing and everything like that from just watching them and seeing how they do it.
I obviously mentioned the Next Big Thing competition – do you think that played a big part in accelerating your progress? Definitely on a local level; after that, more people knew who I was, I mean, before that, no-one knew who I was, so that definitely pushed it on a local level. It’s just a good thing to have on the C.V., I guess!
How important do you think things like that competition are for up and coming musicians? I think they’re great – I think they should be done more. The only problem with the Next Big Thing type of competition though is the rivalry! I found it a bit intimidating when I was in the competition, not being in a band, but as soon as the competition was over, I got to know all the bands and they were all really safe.
I saw you play at the Make Up Artist of the Year event recently, and you briefly mentioned that you’d been writing for some quite famous people… Yeah, there’s one guy who’s pretty massive and it was a real shock to find out that the song was on his album, but unfortunately I can’t actually say who it is yet until it’s listed on iTunes! All I’ll say is that he was an X Factor contestant and very popular…! There are also some rappers who have some major releases coming out this year that I also have songs on.
What’s the next release that we can look forward to? It’s an album of collaborations, but I’m either going to call it an album, or maybe a I’ll just make it a mixtape and give it out for free. It depends what happens in the next couple of months. There are a lot of rappers that I want to collaborate with, but I wouldn’t want to put them on an album, ‘cause I think an album should just be the artist with
no other help brought in to boost your career, so I’m gonna do another album or EP that’s all collaborations.
After the Noisettes gig that you were opening for, our guest editor, Emma went to buy one of your CDs straight away, and she says it was one you’d made yourself, is that right? Yeah, it was quite funny actually, because the CD was recorded but I was still waiting for the printing press to send them through, so I had to make some all by hand that night. I only made about 100, and I didn’t realise that the Noisettes gig had sold out! It was definitely a weird one, because there was only a few and they were all bought before I even got off stage!
How do you think you will retain that organic element when a major label comes and snaps you up? How are you gonna keep it real, Ed?! How am I gonna keep it real? I think by continuing to do the stuff I do at the moment; some artists get signed and think they’re too big to do stuff like that anymore, but I think if I keep that organic element by still, like, playing tiny gigs in the middle of nowhere that people appreciate, and make underground CDs that are maybe less commercial than others, then it’ll keep a grass roots element to it.
Obviously you’re coming back to Norwich in August to play a gig with The Loyal Few and We Can’t Dance – are you looking forward to it? Very much so. It’ll be the first big headline that I’ve done and I think that my band are gonna come up and do it, so it’ll be the first big band show that I’ve done in East Anglia. It should be very cool
That’s great. Do you always have a good time playing in Norwich? Yeah, I always have a good time playing in Norwich, ‘cause it’s a really, really nice, loyal fanbase to have – they’re always really supportive.
Emma Roberts
ED SHEERAN PLAYS ALONGSIDE THE LOYAL FEW AT THE
WATERFRONT ON AUGUST 5TH. FOR TICKETS, GO TO
UEATICKETBOOKINGS.CO.UK. READ THE UNCUT VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW ON OUTLINEONLINE.CO.UK
outlineonline.co.uk / JULY 2010 / 13
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