Ed Sheeran is heading for No.1 with Play, which is set to secure one of the biggest openings of the year.
Sheeran’s eighth studio album is currently on around 62,000 units, according to the Midweek sales flash.
Play is on track to be his ninth No.1 – that includes all his studio albums and the + - = ÷ X - Tour Collection compilation. In fact, that greatest hits set recently secured his 50th week at No.1 in the albums chart when it returned to the summit. Only The Beatles, Elvis Presley and ABBA have spent more weeks at the top.
Music Week recently spoke to Atlantic co-president Ed Howard – who signed Sheeran around 15 years ago – about the much-anticipated return of the superstar singer-songwriter with a big pop album. It follows more low key-releases Subtract and Autumn Variations, both in 2023.
The album campaign included a special TikTok LIVE performance as Sheeran continues to embrace the platform.
Here, in a bonus interview, Ed Howard reveals more about the making of Play, the artistry of Sheeran and where he can go from here…
Azizam showed that Ed Sheeran can still surprise people, as he did with Bad Habits. What would you say about that song and the decision to make it the lead single?
“Actually, if you think about Sing on Multiply, if you think about Shape Of You on Divide, those were surprising – maybe not looking back on it, but at the time. Certainly with Sing, I had loads of messages from people saying, ‘Oh, I wasn't paying attention to Ed – but I absolutely love this song.’ He’s always been willing to take risks and push himself way outside of what was expected of him, outside of his perceived comfort zone. And I think that's also a reason why he's still here after all this time. With Azizam, it's no different. That is not the safe option at all in terms of this album [as a lead single], but it's absolutely amazing as a record. I think it's going to be around forever. We could release it in 10 years’ time, and it’s never going to date. No one's ever going to make something like that.
“At the same time, part of this era of Play, and part of why it's so special, is that he effortlessly brings musical cultures together, and musicians together. in a way that I don't think anybody else can credibly do. That's also a hallmark of his career. He can blend styles and work with musicians from absolutely across the piece. And this one's no different, and to see it being adopted by the Persian community globally – and obviously he made it with Ilya Salmanzadeh, who is Swedish-Iranian – it's been a massive wonderful thing to see the reception from the Persian community and the way that Ed leaned into that and provoked and inspired that. It's a huge new bit of uncharted territory for us. A big, positive outcome already in this campaign has been seeing that new energy from different parts of the world.”
He effortlessly brings musical cultures together in a way that I don't think anybody else can credibly do
Ed Howard
So even at this stage, Ed Sheeran is finding new fans and new markets?
“Yes, and shining a light on musical cultures. In the making of this album, he was working with an Irishman – he himself being half Irish – in Johnny McDaid, Ilya, and also Savan Kotecha, who's Indian-American, and they were exploring the backgrounds of their respective cultures. The overlap that Ed recognised in them in these folk traditions from these different places was really inspiring to him. So the album ends up being something of a blend and representing some of these different styles, which for him has been a hugely rewarding process. Musically, it’s also really interesting, brave and something that nobody else I think could have pulled off in the same way.”
Do you think this is going to be a singles-heavy album, campaign?
“Yeah, we definitely took the view that we wanted to have multiple tracks out ahead of the album, which would allow us to explore the musical cultures and the different places around the world that it could speak to – and also have a lot of fun in this go-round of the Play campaign, the Play era. We wanted to explore Ed’s values of cultural exchange, of musical curiosity, of playfulness, the guy who brings people together. We wanted to have a summer of being able to have fun with those things in the most genuine, least kind of marketing way possible. So that was the pre-album phase of it. But actually, the album also stands up incredibly well as a body of work. People will see a level of quality in terms of production and care on the sonic side, and innovation on the sonic side, and also a level of, obviously, songwriting aptitude that they, hopefully at this point, have come to expect from Ed.”
A big, positive outcome already in this campaign has been seeing that new energy from different parts of the world
Ed Howard
As a big pop record, was there a more heightened A&R approach this time?
“Definitely, versus Subtract and Autumn Variations, where that was a much tighter group of people really writing the songs, in so far as it was mostly him and one producer. This has been a bit more of a traditional process for Ed. He's always in the driving seat, with everybody else supporting, but yes, in terms of some new faces in Ilya and Savan who I mentioned, but also Blake Slatkin, Cirkut and Amy Allen, who have come into the mix and brought a lot to the table. And yes, it's been more of a process of a greater amount of songs, and honing that down. After two albums that were very intensely personal for him, this was exploring what was possible, where he might go after 15 years of making music, what was new to say and new to try and do. The success of it, artistically, is that he's finding new ways, new people to authentically work with, and new ways of expressing himself after all this time. I think that's the biggest success, to me, of the record.”
How big an endeavor is an Ed Sheeran release for Atlantic?
“We see it as a privilege, a huge privilege. Not everybody out of the UK gets to work with an artist that sells stadiums out around the world. So the whole team in the UK see it as a huge privilege. We're lucky at Warner that we've got, in Coldplay, in Dua, we've got some serious heavy hitters. I always say to my team, and I know that they see it the same way, that in your career, you don't always get to work on these projects. You don't get to work with [artists] that are recognised all around the world, that have achieved so much. So we see it as an honour, a privilege, a big responsibility, and yes, it's an endeavour for, in the UK, 10 or 15 people pretty much full-time, and takes a lot of focus, but the rewards are huge. And like I say, it's an honour to still do it after so much time.”
Finally, where do you think Ed Sheeran can go from here?
“With the idea of taking risks and pushing forward, I think you have to set yourself different challenges than you did historically. If you're trying to judge the albums and what you're doing day-to-day as an artist against the same standards you did 10 years ago, I think you're doing something wrong. While the benchmark for exposure, ticket sales, streaming and album sales is obviously very high, and the ambition is super high, you've got to think about what else you're bringing to the world. With this era, and where Ed is at in his life, he launched the [music education] foundation for a reason. He's absolutely fascinated with the power of music to uplift people and so committed to people, kids having access to music, and in music education in this country. And that's been a beautiful thing to witness, and how the campaign's kind of interacted with that.
“Also, the way that he's bringing a spotlight to Indian music culture, Persian music culture, on this album, I think those are also goals that we need to use to judge how successful this campaign has been after 15 years. So, yes, the scale, the ambition for scale, is absolutely there. But I think the success that he's having digitally, the way that he's in those spaces [such as TikTok], still having fun, and people are enjoying him being there… What he's doing to bring amazing artists like Arijit Singh [who features on Sapphire] to wider consciousness outside of India and outside the diaspora, the same with Googoosh, who he collaborated with on the remix for Azizam, these are really brilliant, unexpected and purposeful things that he's doing.”
PHOTO: Petros Studio
FOLLOW 
