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You're in beautiful form.
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0:00
What a really amazing song that reflects such a strange and unusual observation.
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I mean, who actually is forced to acknowledge their life 10 years after they last did it through that kind of filter? What a crazy story.
0:15
Yeah, there was no there was no other reason for me to go on my phone other than to like I'd been ordered to by the courts.
0:21
So, uh yeah, it was weird. It was weird. Weird.
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And it was all it was all happening around the same sort of time as you know obviously like Jamal passing away etc etc.
0:32
So, um, yeah, it was weird, but it was like what was weirder was reading the first conversations with, um, people, you know, I've been now been friends with for like 15 years, but like the first text that Harry sent to me just after they' finished X Factor, they had, you just formed the band and yeah, you know, then we met up in Fulham and just like like memories like that coming coming back to me.
0:57
It's really uh, yeah, strange.
0:59
How long did it take for the text to catch up?
1:01
Had you had you disconnected your ability to actually receive messages?
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And if if not, how many messages did you have unread on your phone? Do you know what? Yeah, I did. I did.
1:09
I like cancelled the email that that iMessage was like set up to and stuff.
1:13
But there wasn't there was an old email that I hadn't done it that too.
1:17
So that there was about 21,000 emails, I think. Wow.
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But that but but that was like you know uh I don't know newsletters newsletters from this or this or this.
1:30
And yeah, there was like the odd, you know, I scrolled down them for like a quick second, but it was, you know, kind of pointless looking at them cuz yeah, for those people that don't know, Ed hasn't used a phone in what I most would consider a conventional way for, you know, 10 years.
1:45
Um, and I'm currently on I'm currently on a phone though, so I still do use a phone.
1:51
It's just not my phone, you know, but like and there in lies the punch line, ladies and gentlemen.
1:59
Thanks for blowing the joke. No, I'm joking.
2:00
I hadn't even I hadn't even gotten on to that stupid irony of all of this.
2:05
But still, when you turn the phone on, can you do your best to try to describe what was going on in your stomach or or or how it made you feel knowing you were turning this thing on?
2:17
Well, I didn't really think anything of it.
2:18
It was quite a like um the initial switching it on felt very uh purposeful.
2:24
I had to do it for the court case and blah blah blah.
2:26
But as soon as I did it, like cur curiosity got the best of me and then suddenly I was like I knew I shouldn't really be reading those old conversations cuz I knew that it was from like a time past.
2:36
But yeah, curiosity got the the the best of me and then I just scrolled for hours and hours and hours and I don't know.
2:43
I'm kind of happy that I've still got the messages, but also sort of like it just made me feel sad in lots of ways and nostalgic and and also like, you know, there's a lot of things in there like I'm glad I got rid of my phone because I realized how many people I was in touch with and how that probably isn't a good thing, but yeah. Yeah.
3:04
Uh, you got a beautiful song out of it.
3:06
Did you know when did you know pretty much straight away when when it when you felt the that that kind of strange combination of sadness and curiosity that there was a song in there?
3:16
Are you tuned enough now to go? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
3:18
There was definitely a song in there but I kept kicking it down the roads like I was it didn't cuz the record I was making was so like I was in like in India for a lot of the time making this sort of like technical record and I was like this sounds so like Americana that this just won't fit on this record so I'll just do it eventually.
3:38
And I was just in I was in India very jetlagged um with nothing else to do like everyone was asleep.
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was like 2:00 in the morning and I was like, "Well, I might as well write this song now."
3:49
And then I recorded it in the morning and I think the reactions from everyone in the studio hearing it cuz it like no one really knew it existed and then I just went in and played it and I think the reaction made me sort of realize how special it was rather than anything else.
4:03
I I find when I solo write a lot I uh second guess it more.
4:05
I think I'm very critical of uh songs when I solo write uh just because it's the I'm the only person I'm bouncing it off.
4:16
Um like I remember being like super critical of Perfect when I wrote it or the A team when I wrote it or like you could you kind of like you have to play those songs to people for people to be like they're good.
4:26
And I think that that's why why collaboration in a studio can you can you can do more interesting things because you can suck a bit more and have people encourage the sucking sometimes you know. It's true. It's true. Sometimes I'm just Yeah.
4:40
Sometimes I'm just writing a tune and if I'm like this sucks I just won't.
4:44
But that's probably why you're being hard on yourself because if you look at the lyrics it's almost they they fell out of you dude.
4:52
I mean I found my old phone today in a box that I had hidden away.
4:57
is like they say a great song can be summed up in sort of one or two lines, right?
5:01
And the rest of it is about kind of elaborating and putting color on the canvas, but ultimately your outline should be very straightforward and simple.
5:08
And I really feel like you nailed it in those first two lines. It's like I'm in.
5:12
Like if you're setting this, you know, you're setting this scene, I found my old phone today.
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I'm like, okay, that's interesting.
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In a box I had hidden away. I'm like why was it? Like I'm in.
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It's it's an easy cell, you Oh, isn't he like when you when you I found this when uh Richard Curtis pitched me the Yesterday movie. Yeah.
5:28
He was like he was like, "Imagine the Beatles never existed and then the there's one guy that remembers all the songs and I was like so good." Cool. So, yeah. So, yeah.
5:37
What oneline pictures are good? Yeah, they are. How was India? Great. Yeah. Really fun.
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I mean, I kind of like I went back a few times.
5:44
The last but last time I was there, I went on like a little pilgrimage with my dad to find Arjit Singh and get him to put in the final puzzle piece of the album. But it was really fun.
5:54
I mean the music the music out there I find that everywhere I've been to make music whether they speak English or not uh once you start playing music and creating music with people that musicians just have this like invisible language and um yeah I had a lot of fun learning table and sitar and you know like just having great musicians around me.
6:17
I found that I I I've said this before in in interviews, but I found it really similar to um Irish trad music, like just the rhythms and like even the instruments.
6:26
Like we used a bizookie on most of the tunes on the album, but it just wasn't played in the same way that it would be in a trad session. It was it was cool.
6:34
But then also like introducing trad singer like blowing his mind. It's uh it's cool. Yeah, for sure.
6:40
It's funny cuz I just came back from Tokyo and uh and we listened to a lot of J-pop and a lot of really interesting music.
6:47
We had some great tastemaker friends out there who were guiding us through it all.
6:50
And you know what it's like out there, man.
6:53
I mean, you can't be a successful J-pop artist unless you're like, it's just like a thousand ideas hitting you in three minutes, right?
7:04
It's full anime just go time steroid.
7:07
And and at the end I was like, well, I can't wait for you to come out to LA so I can just be like, check this band out. Boom. Boom. Well, that's the thing.
7:15
I do think, you know, each every everywhere every corner and pocket of the world has its own thing that's going on and happening.
7:21
And it's just as exciting for a J-pop artist to go to LA and see that than it is for a LA artist to go to Tokyo and and see that.
7:34
And I think Yeah, music's just exciting, man.
7:37
There's so much cool stuff happening. So much cool stuff, man. Around the world. Yeah.
7:40
I'm as inspired as I've ever been.
7:42
Maybe we can talk about this in more detail later, but a nice placeholder just before I I let you go.
7:47
Um there's some things jumping out at me at this point.
7:49
You know, the album being called Play. I love that term.
7:52
Spent a really good amount of time with Brianino recently talking about the concept of play and how we should actually take play pretty seriously uh and not dismiss it.
7:59
Um the idea that you went out to India and immersed yourself in a whole new language, it to me it feels I don't know whether it was conscious or subconscious, like you were searching for a place of no judgment.
8:08
You know, it's like, hey, you know, I just came out of a really tough time. I got really questioned.
8:13
I got dragged through the through the through the mud on this and came out clean, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to carry that experience with me.
8:21
Like, was there a part of you that just wanted to just get away and get back to a place where there was some innocence to this? I think so. Yeah.
8:26
But I think underneath it all, play was like just trying to have fun with music again.
8:34
like just even even the doing subtracts like even you know the interview that we did or the gigs that I was doing like that was all like really heavy and the making of the record was really heavy and I I feel like you know I'm I'm quite a fun smiley guy and I just wanted to get in the studio and make fun smiley music again.
8:51
I know the old phone isn't that.
8:53
That's why I'm saying it didn't really fit in the general vibe of it but um yeah I think I wanted to wanted to travel.
9:00
I wanted to like fall in love with making pop music again.
9:04
I'm, you know, I'm 34, got two kids, like there is a shelf life for me as a pop star and this is probably this and maybe one or two more records is probably all I'm going to get.
9:16
there's a point where you have to like transition and do like do something else, you know, like and I think I' I I think I've still got it in me. Yeah.
9:26
And I love making it, but I see this as like just me having uh a couple of last haras of making really fun pop music. I love that. No, I get that.
9:36
I understand your point of view and I think it's a very healthy mindset to be in for anyone to ultimately treat something like there's an end.
9:44
It's there's nothing wrong with that.
9:46
It also allows you to come to a new beginning. But uh I don't know.
9:48
I'm just obsessed with the moment right now.
9:52
Um I love this song, man.
9:52
I I think it's it's so good to hear you back in this place where you're able to just so beautifully sum up how you feel.
9:58
Very few people in my life can do it in such a wonderful succinct way without sacrificing emotion.
10:05
That's my little my little kind of twocent review.
10:07
And there's a lot to kind of dive in that I'd like to talk to you about in relation to what music means to you right now because I love talking about music with you.
10:14
Coachella, did you feel did did you feel like a pop star on stage in Coachella because it looked like you did?
10:20
I mean, the the whole point of Coachella was I didn't really want to uh I wanted to do something different.
10:25
So, I was like, can I just go and play secretively and then like a week before they put the lineup on?
10:29
It's like not like glass three where you can't actually just turn up secretively.
10:34
They have to like put it in. Yeah.
10:34
Um Yeah, it was cool, man. It's cool.
10:37
There was a distinct lack of like people with like traffic cones on their head, you know, like, you know, like a a real UK festival when people covered in mud with Yeah.
10:48
I mean, it's it is it is what it is.
10:50
I actually really enjoyed it as a as a as a festival, but um yeah, I feel like I I would love some like Coachella goers to go to like transmit, you know, and see what's see what's happening up north. [Music]