Ed Sheeran is sharing a few details about his forthcoming album.
The 30-year-old singer told BBC Radio 1 he has been working on “a lot of songs” during the COVID-19 lockdown for his first solo album since 2017’s ÷.
“It’s kind of like an amalgamation of all the records,” Sheeran teased. “The first single is really different – like really, really different. Every time I’ve released a first single from an album I’ve been nervous about it because I’m like, ‘I don’t know how this is going to go’ and I like that feeling.
“I could just release a ‘Thinking Out Loud’ or a ‘Castle on the Hill’ or something that is safe but for me, I like the idea of putting out something and being like, ‘I don’t know how people are going to feel about this.’”
Sheeran joked that the video for the first single, which he shot in late April, needs more post-production work “to make myself look beautiful.” But, he said, “the video is really good.”
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He also hinted that a tour announcement is imminent when he let it slip that he has deferred his executive box for next season’s Ipswich Town F.C. matches until after the tour. (In early May, Ipswich Town F.C. announced that Sheeran signed on as next season’s shirt sponsor.)
The team’s 2021/22 season begins in July.
Sheeran, who said he will play with a full band this time, is ready for the road. He said he started getting in shape after his massive world tour ended in 2019 “because I wasn’t having chicken wings and two bottles of wine a night.” He said the lockdown is “the first time I’ve been really healthy.”
The singer said he started exercising every day and eating better.
“I've kind of stopped all the bad habit stuff in my life,” Sheeran explained. “I was eating like a takeaway every single day, and now I don't eat takeaway every single day and it's good.”