After travelling high and low around the UK for four years gigging and sleeping on various sofas, this January Ed Sheeran was signed to Atlantic Records. Dorsa Nam spoke to him about how life has changed, why his album is called + and appearing on BBCs Later With Jools Holland.

First on everyone’s list-of-questions-for-Ed, how has life changed since being signed to Atlantic Records? Still sofa diving?

Life has changed a lot but it’s kind of gradually changed over time so I haven’t noticed it that much. I’m still in the same position, I still live on my managers sofa, still with a rucksack and a guitar playing gigs, so it hasn’t changed in terms of how I am but more people are listening to my music, and I’m playing at bigger shows.

Every venue you perform at gets sold out instantly. Why do you think there’s this demand for you? What do you have that nobody else has?

I’m not sure, I guess because I’ve done the Example tour a couple of times, I have a successful E.P (Collaborations No5) and I haven’t really done a headline tour so that’s probably why they’re selling out quick. It’s really cool though.

Modest much? Zane Lowe dubbed your upcoming single A TEAM the record of the year how do you feel about that?

I think it’s wicked, I wasn’t expecting so much love from Radio 1 and for Zane Lowe to do that is really nice of him. I went in for an interview with him last Monday and he was really nice.

Who are you listening to now?

I was listening to Anthony Hamilton this morning and Bluey Robinson – Show Girl, I’ve been humming that all day. Big tune!

And who are you working with?

I was in America working with Hip-Hop and R&B producer No I.D, I had a few sessions with him and I think I’m gonna do the second album with him.

You’re working on your first album now right… Why is it called +?

It’s kind of like an addition to all the releases that I’ve done before hand. It’s like the next step in my musical journey - that would be the long explanation of it. The short explanation is that it just looked cool.

Ha! And talking of looking cool, which cool people are you hoping to work with in the future?

I’d love to carry on working with the rapper/MCs I’ve been working with already like Devlin, P Money and Dot Rotten. I’d love to do a song with a guy called Smiler and also Scrufizzer, I think they’re great.

How nervous were you to do Jools Holland – big deal or just another day in the life of Ed Sheeran?

I was really, really nervous, it was quite a weird thing because it all happened last minute, it was all live and it’s a big show to do. I was sh*tting myself, not literally but, yeah.

Ed’s album entitled + is out in August 2011, for now keep up with him via Twitter http://twitter.com/edsheeran and check out Ed On A Boat here:

http://youtu.be/xADSSBs34is 

www.edsheeran.com

WORDS: Dorsa Nam