Ed Sheeran is releasing his brand new album PLAY this Friday (September 12), and iHeartRadio Canada's own Shannon Burns travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark to sit down with the Grammy winner to discuss it.
Ed previously called PLAY "the most exciting thing I’ve done as an artist so far," using inspiration he took from Indian and Persian musical cultures.
"I felt like I wanted to do a lot of songs before the record came out because I hadn't done a pop record in a while," Ed explains. "Each song has a purpose. I think with each album you have the songs you think are the singles and then in the gaps, basically, you have to do purposeful songs rather than having ten singles."
"You do a song like 'Azizam' and a song like 'Sapphire' but then a song like 'Old Phone' and a little more," he continues. "I feel like they give the album a journey and purpose rather than it just being bangers. I wasn't trying to make Thriller, I was trying to make something else.
The 34-year-old admits that one of the great things to come from promoting an album of pop songs is that he can enjoy the experience a bit more, because of the nature of the music.
"It's just fun and upbeat and we've had a lot of fun promoting everything in it," Ed says. "We've had a lot of fun doing popups, doing the 'Old Phone' stuff, and we're going to continue to have fun until Christmas. And yeah, I feel like Subtract was such a sad album and all the promo around it. Even though I feel like I'm quite a fun guy, but if you're like promoting an album about grief, the tone has to be right. So, a lot of that promotion was quite heavy and a lot of the gigs were you play the album in full, you explain all the stories. I felt with PLAY, I just wanted to do the polar opposite and just everything was fun and creative."
PLAY is reported to be the first of five symbol-themed albums, following up his previous mathematical series of releases. Up next he says is REWIND.
"I made PLAY and REWIND at the same time," he says. "We finished PLAY first because it felt like the most exciting one. But yeah, they're very much like twin albums, I guess. One was one lent more into Indian culture and one lent more into nostalgia. So they kind of veered off in different directions.
As for when we can expect REWIND, Ed says it's coming out sooner than we think.
"So, REWIND is, I'd say, two months off from being totally locked and loaded and ready to go," he says. "And I guess at some point in the next 18 months, it will come out."
Watch the full interview below to hear what Ed thinks about Bluey, Peppa Pig, and his Canadian fans!