Ed Sheeran finallyreleased his awaited fifth album, Subtract, after winning his copyright trial involving Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get In On’. His new studio work represents the closing of his musical pentalogy on mathematical signs: Subtraction (-), resulting in what is probably the most melancholic and sad project of his discography.
And yes, we got to talk to him in Los40! Cris Regatero, Los40 radio host, had an interesting chat with the British artist when he visited Spain to give one of his exclusive promo concerts before the release of Subtract.
Of course, we spoke with Ed about his latest release, but there was also time to reflect on mental health, his opinion on his shocking Disney+ documentary ‘La suma de todo’, the use of social networks and even the female Spanish-speaking artist with whom he would collaborate!
The Darkness Surrounding Subtract
«The album is especially about grief, fear and depression. I’ve always touched on these themes in my albums over the years, but it’s been on an ad hoc basis: in one or two songs. And this is a full album about it. In my opinion, it’s more rounded», he told us.
As for the importance of being able to reflect these kinds of feelings through music, Sheeran recognizes that it is a way to break with the idea that men can’t talk (or cry) about these kinds of traumas and experiences, at least not in a group; the so-called male fragility: «As a British man especially, never, none of my friends…. For example, my wife goes out to dinner with her group of girlfriends and, always, one of them talks about some emotional subject and they end up crying. However, when I go out with my friends, we just talk about soccer and shit, but we all have a passion for it. And, since I’ve talked about my experiences on this recording, in other interviews and in the documentary that’s coming out soon, my friends have opened up to me privately about certain topics. They’ve said ‘oh, you went through this and I went through something similar.’ And I think it’s important to talk about these kinds of experiences because it makes people feel better. In England we men tend to repress our emotions».
Ed Sheeran confessed to us that is not exempt from suffering episodes of anxiety. «It all comes down to focusing on the day to day», he insists, while reminding that is quite important to speak about this kind of problematics. «Being open about this makes people feel better», he adds.
«I remember feeling really bad; of not being able to even sing or write, when I had worked so hard for so many years…. There’s no part of me that says ‘I don’t know why this happened to me,’ because I’ve known all the previous steps to get here. I haven’t gone from being a successful popstar to this point, but my starting point has been playing at empty venues, record labels not being interested in me… and, from there, I’ve been building. I wouldn’t call it ‘Imposter Syndrome’, but I did experience quite a bit of anxiety about having to maintain myself at this level. The reason I started making music was not to make hits, although I have ended up having them. The important thing is to find the balance between pursuing making hit songs and enjoying just making music».
If you want to see everything Ed Sheeran told us, press play!
Read the Spanish version of this article here by Cris Regatero, Ana Escobar and Luis Miguel Ortiz.
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