Latest / The Breakfast Club / Ed Sheeran On Longevity In Pop Music, Fatherhood, Touring, Penis Gifts To Elton John + More!

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Ed Sheeran On Longevity In Pop Music, Fatherhood, Touring, Penis Gifts To Elton John + More! · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, those days are over there, those days
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: are over I got kids, sensible ready need it. It's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the world, nod. There's more to show to Breakfast Club.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Charlomagne and God Angelie Envy had to step out, but
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: our guy is here. Man. You know Fatherhood is kicking
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: his ass or he has to get back on that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: road and get this money. So you're working out getting
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: ready for this. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah you saw that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and sharing his hair. What's up? My brothers going on?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Happy to be back. How are you? Man? I'm good? Yeah,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm good. I feel like I I've only been here
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of days, so jet like he is actually kicking.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I was. I was actually like up at five to day,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: so I actually feel too prefect. Yeah, so we're good.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: How was Fatherhood? Man? It's good. I've got two girls now,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: two little girls. It's um. Yeah, I mean it's every
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: challenge that everyone says, but it's so rewarding. They're they're
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: they're great and it's lovely seeing them interact. And yeah,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I'm just glad that my first DAT night house a mate.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Was she jealous at first? No? No, everyone said that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: she would be, but no, she wasn't. She was just
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I think she was just really happy to be a sister,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. My brother was so jealous when I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: was born. He's only a year older than me. They
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: had to keep us separating because he was always sitting
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: on me and he thought I was a dog because
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: we had a dog. Yeah no, it's I mean, yeah,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: my first daughter, she just wants to hug the whole time.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: And my second daughter is five months. So sometimes you're like, Okay,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: what's the age difference? I forgot I think like eighteen
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: maybe twenty months, maybe twenty that's good. See my last
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: three or all like three years apart, so seven four
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in one with the oldest is fourteen, so or the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: age gap is soul bars and she's more like a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: how's the one year old? She's amazing? Oh yeah, yeah,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I mean she's amaze. Yeah. Yeah, But just I'm glad
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: like being a close in age, you'll see the bond totally. Yeah,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: more totally. And I really wanted to do that. Like
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: me and my brother were super close when we were
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: growing up, and there was like exactly two years between
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: us as well. You've got siblings. I have older brother. Yeah,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: justin you've got siblings. Yeah, I got an older sister,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: two younger brothers, younger sister. I enjoy being the youngest. Yeah, yeah,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: now what about this new music sister. They two did
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a little secret show that's a really emotional show. Man, Like, really,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I've sort of made this album I had. I had
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: like a bunch of stuff happening at the beginning of
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the year, and I made an album sort of in
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and around it, and I've never I hadn't played it
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to anyone, and then I put this show on. It
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: was for a mental health charity, and I did, you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: like what Chappelle does, you take all the phones and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, and I played all the songs for
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the first time and just it was really powerful, like
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: really like I was seeing reactions at a charity event
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: like that as well, where it's for a certain thing
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and the album's kind of lent into my own struggles
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: with that, and yeah, it was like it was a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: really really good show. Well, let's talk about what was
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the inspiration for them I had. I had my best
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: friend died in March and it was as well, actually
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: February the twentieth, as I was heading into a big
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: court case, and I had another mate die in mid
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: court case, and I had some other stuff in my
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: family that was like health issues, and it was just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what it was. It was one of those things. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you you know, I've become a problem solver in my
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: friendship group. I'm sure you both of you guys are
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: problem solvers in your friendship groups. And there's just certain
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: things you can't solve, and death is one of them.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Illness is one of them, you know. And it was
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: just I just wrote a record around it, mostly being
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: like cathartic and it being therapeutic for me because I
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: had no outlet of because I was I was basically
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in a courtroom every single day being told that I
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was like a thief and a liar, and I had
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: like no outlet of talking to people because I couldn't
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: talk to anyone because I was in this case. And
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so I just wrote a load of songs that ended
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: up being this album that I think will come out
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: next year. But it's it's definitely it's the album I
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: thought the least about, like every single album I curate,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: and I get this is the best song from this
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: week I wrote, and this is the best song this week,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: And this. This is just fourteen songs that I wrote
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: in the space of I think like a week and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a half and then and then I spent another week
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: recording them. But I'd like not thought about it at all.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: It's just like this is this is how I feel
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: at this time, and that's it. It was an album
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: full of grief basically totally yeah, well grief and like
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: processing and like, you know, because I felt when my
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: friend died, like the next day everyone's life resumed as normal,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and I was sort of looking around being like no, no, no,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the world the world has to stop for it. But
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you know, when the queen died, the world stopped. Like
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I just felt like the world had to stop and
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: just take a moment. So there's a song on there
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: called like Life goes On and it's basically just lyrics
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: are easy, come, hard, go, but life, life goes on
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: because every like the worst day of your life ends
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and the next day begins and then it's a totally
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: new day. And I just it's a lot of processing.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Like I've never never been to therapy before, and after
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: all of this started sort of speaking to someone and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it's very just opens up your glad here there well,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not even going I started. I started pretty much
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: straight afterwards. Um, when was my first one? June? Wow? Wow?
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: How was there for a session? Like horrible man? Because
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he's talking to a stranger and you're like, you're saying
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: like the deepest darkest secrets of like childhood trauma, or
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: like this happened when I was a kid, or like this,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: and I was saying that I haven't swaying to anyone
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: about and you're telling them it's an absolute stranger. And
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: then you go and how are you? And they go,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: they can't, they can't let you into their private life.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, it's been it's been very helpful. Sam
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Smith said, therapy is basically someone coming in and looking
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: at your suitcase and reorganizing it for you. Oh yeah,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I use the clouded example. I see. I think therapy
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: is like a therapist coming into your cloud that your
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: cloud that is a junkie. They help you organize your cloud,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: that you get rid of all of the stuff that
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you don't want anymore. The stuff you want to keep,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: you can organize it nicely, but there might be an
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: old jacket that hate that just has to stay in
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: there because you can't get rid of it. You know,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: it's just and and it's just there and you just
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: learn to deal that. There. Yeah, I put it to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the back a little bit. I love it. I loved there.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I'll go once a week totally. I mean it's something
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it's still quite a like taboo thing in the UK.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Everyone I know in America, like I would say nine
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: out of ten people do it. But in like even
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: speaking to my friends about it back home, you know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I've sort of mentioned it, and the reaction wasn't like
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: good for you, It was like, oh, you're right, you know. Yeah.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Whereas I think it is quite it should be normalized,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I think, And you're right. You are the person that
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I always see people commenting on how you gave them
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: some great advice when they needed help. I you were
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: telling somebody from the voice that she needs to make
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: sure she calls her parents and speaks to them. And
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: then also I saw another analogy you gave about dirty water.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I find like, um, the yeah,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I mean the dirty water things. It's actually an analogy
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I use about lots of things, but they actually started
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: with songwriting. Because everyone, all these kids that I meet
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: are like all of my first songs is so bad,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: like I'm not going to be a singer. And I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: was like, do you think that the first song that
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I wrote was thinking out loud my first songs that
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I wrote was so bad. But it's basically, you get
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: into an old house, you turn on a tap and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it runs muddy water for a bit, and you get
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: all the muddy water out, and then suddenly it starts
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: running clear water, and every now and then there's a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: fleck of mud, and there's a little bit of dirt,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and there's this, and there's that, but it just keeps flowing.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And songwritings like that. But also like talking about getting
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: your feelings and emotions are like that, because you get
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you have to let it start flowing to actually be
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to get to a point. So with songs, I'm every
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: time I write a bad song, it doesn't get me
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: down because I know I've got that bad song out
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of me, and I'm the next song will hopefully be
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a good one. But all the songs at the start
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: were dreadful, And like I like, you can pull up
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you can pull up songs that I wrote when I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: was like fourteen that are on YouTube, and I say
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it to people all the time, because people always say
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: that I was born with natural talent, and I was like, no,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it wasn't. That was so bad. I couldn't play a guitar,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I couldn't sing, I couldn't write songs. You learn to
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: do these things you have, You put in your hours
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: and you learn to do it. Do you ever go
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: back and listen to like the first radio show you did?
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I try. Yeah, exactly, when you're trying to answering me
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: for things, I act like I don't know what they're
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: talking about. Never heard that. Now. When I first started
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: in radio, I had no experience. I just went on
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the air and didn't know what I was doing at all.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And Yeah, but to start then more comfortable that you
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: get with, Yeah, you have to. I feel like with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: any profession, like anything, you have to dare to suck,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Like if you're gonna if you're going to be like
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: an amazing sports player, you have to suck at some point,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna, if you're gonna do anything, you have
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to be and also accept failure, Like failure is such
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a great part of Yeah. It's like whenever I fail
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: in something, I'm not like, oh man, that's really brought
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: me down. It's just like, Okay, what can I learn
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: from this situation and what's and what's the next thing?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And failure failure just needs to be normalized because it's
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: so everything nowadays on social media is just all the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: successes and the wins, and it's important. Like people think
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that I never have flopped singles. People just think I
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: only put out hit singles because those are the things
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: that that they're here. But there's so many times you
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: put something out and you're like, Okay, well there that
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: didn't work, So why didn't that work? And what can
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I do? And it's yeah, there's avenue a flash single.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: May I've been releasing songs, oh yeah, my my mancha.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: At the beginning of the year is you know, in
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: between albums, I'm very much like lockdown closed. I'm writing
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and I people come to me all the time and
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: they asked to do collaborations, and at the beginning of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the year, I just said, right, for the entire year,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say yes. I'm just anyone that asked me,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say yes and see see what happens.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And I'd say like three out of ten have like
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: really worked and they like the other seven have like
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: kind of worked, but on this type of scale that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: people expect from me. You might say that they haven't worked,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: but the barrow is higher for you totally. But but
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: in my mind, I was just like I'm just saying
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: yes to everything, and I know it's going to be
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: good because I'm going to make sure it's good. But
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: also like whatever happens happens, and some have like I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: did a song, an afrobeat song with an art It's
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: called fire Boy DML and it's ended up being the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: It's the biggest in collaboration in England this year. It's
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the second biggest selling song of the year. I think
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it's the biggest afro song ever in afrobeat song ever
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: in in England. And that was very much just me
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: being open to it. It was actually my friend that
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: passed away in February. He was the one that hooked
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that up. But I didn't know that was going to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: be that big. I was just like, yeah, cool, I'll
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: do that and I think it's a nice I don't
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: know if I'll do a year like this again, because
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it was a hell of a lot of shooting music
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: videos and doing this and ye yeah, yeah, precisely. Well
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: that but that but that again, I was just like, yeah,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: why not, why not? My mate, my mate Big Nasty
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: was like, yeah, Madam missed out everybody who didn't ask
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: because he was saying yeah, yeah, and well. There was
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a certain point where I had to like cut it
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: off because I think by like July, I'd committed to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: like twenty songs. You didn't do the ride waver a
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: good with the right waver. We were in touch. I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: was in temper and do you know, do you know
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: it was I don't have a phone and no one
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: else works on email. So I was in temper for
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: like three days and I messaged him, but then he
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: got back to me like a month later, so like,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: so we are going to do it. We are going
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to do it. But he sampled them that you and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I song here. Ye yeah, but yeah it will it
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: will happen, It will happen. We are in touch. But
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you know, what's so interested about you here? And that's
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: why I'm glad that you're in therapy. But I've always
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: felt like you had a handle on what's important because
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you disconnect, you know what I mean, Like you ain't
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: been on tour in five years. So you disconnect between
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the tours, you disconnect between albums. How do you know
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: when did disconnecting? Winner's time for you to come back.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I think it just naturally happens. I mean, I commit
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: to so many things, and I never really liked letting
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: people down. So I'm I'm if I've committed to a tour,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do the tour. But then if I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: need space, I won't cancel the gig if I need
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: time and space, but I will wait till the end
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of the tour and then like have real set time
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and space. So I'll just be strict, stricter in the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: off times. But you guys know what it's like, like
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you really enjoy your job and there's not really any
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: off switch because you're always doing something. So I'm yeah,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: even when I'm off tour, I'm in studio, I'm doing this,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: so I'm doing that. And yeah, another thing you were
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: doing was sending out some six foot penis. A few
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I gave a few to like some like TV and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: radio personalities in in in England. Because this came out
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: ages ago. It was Elton John's seventy fourth birthday and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: he's my next door neighbor in London and in his house,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: he's your neighbor, he is, do you know what I
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: bought the house? And they went and they went, oh,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: not the one in your hometown. No, no, no no,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and they go they go, someone really famous lives next
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: door to you. And I was like, who is it?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And they were like, we can't say. I just remember
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: walking out my house one day and just seeing him
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: getting into a car and I was like, all right, mate,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: mad anyway, the what was I going to say? I
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: probably six feet dis Yeah, so it was his. So
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: in his house he has these cock rings that Eminem
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: got him for his wedding. Him and him and David
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: had a civil partnership and they got given diamond and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: crusted cock rings by M and M and they I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: don't know that you can put diamonds. I mean, I've
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: never used a cock ring. I'm assuming diamonds, but who
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: knows if it affects it? Did you know what? Did
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you know what they were when you saw him? I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: don't I don't know how you I don't know whether
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you put it over the shark when you saw Did
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you know what it was when you saw you don't
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: know they said, here here the diamond and crusted car rings,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: because I've heard about them. You know, it's a rumor,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: but actually they exists. So it got to Elton's birthday
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and he sent me like some wild stuff in the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: past for like my like my wedding and just all
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: sorts of stuff things, just stuff that I have. I
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: have up in the pub and people like look at
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it and go, you never saw nor cock rings in
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the pub. No, I don't have cock rings. I've got
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: like a really he sent me. He's really into like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: ARTI photography. So I have this really really weird I
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: don't really know how to explain it. It's just like
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: it's like a ninety five year old woman who's naked
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: with like seven dudes around it all make it. It's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: it's I see that probably yeah, you probably would have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: done yet. And anyway, so I digress. It was his
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: birthday and I was like, what did you get Elton
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: John for his birthday? So I have a friend that
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was a stone carver and he'd made me a chessboard
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and I said can you make anything? And he was like, yeah,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I can make anything. I was like, can you do
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: me a few iterations of marble penises, like I don't
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: know if I need it a flaccid one or if
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it's erect in veiny, or if it's like big or
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: maybe one sandstone, maybe one's marble. So anyway, I got
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: a bunch made, I chose one. I got it put
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: on a plinth and I got written on it to Elton,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Happy birthday, you cunt, which I'm I'm not sure I
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: can say that happy birthday you see word? And I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: was like, this is brilliant. And I sent it to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: him and I heard nothing, and I was like, but
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I staying it a step too far, Like I know
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: he's got a sense of humor, but he's also got
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: like young kids, and like did it turn out of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the house. And anyway, like a week and a half later,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I get I get a a FaceTime from him and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: he's like, I love it, and anyway he's banging to it.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I got him a micro penis for his birthday this year,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: so like a really tiny marble one, and gave me
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a great Christmas GIF idea. But then for from that,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: like he spoke about it in an interview, and then
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I spoke about it in an interview, and then all
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: these other interviews that I was doing, people were like, well,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: can I have one? So I would just send them
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to people, and then Sam Smith came around my house.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Sam was recording it a recording studio that I have nearby.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Sam came around saw one of them that I was
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: meant to send to Welton, but I didn't like one
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: of the iterations, and Sam was like, I want the Dick.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Sam said, can I have a six foot two one?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I guess so, I don't even
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: know because Sam six foot exact look the penis and
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that it's two and a half tons, like two and
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: a half. Do you know how heavy? Two and a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: half tons? That's heavier than like a car and made
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: such heavy? Dick said, but I've now I've found a
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: cock carver in America. So if you guys want if
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: you guys want marble cops, yeah, I want the contact. No,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I can make your small one. I mean they range.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I think the cheapest has been five ground. I think
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the most expensives been forty. Let me ask you a question.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: You said you sent them to like personalities. Was there
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: anybody that did like a bad review of an album
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: or had something negative to state, so you sent it
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to them with a card that says suck my No.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I've sent plaques to people like that before, like when when, yeah,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: when I got bad, bad reviews from my first album,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: remember sending plaques to people just to let them know,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: like doing Well still sold records because records me and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: that the music was any good. I mean it coman
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: it clearly was because people like that album. Do you
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: know the thing that your music is good? But people
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: do sell trash not not now, no, no, no, mate,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: that it has to be good because it's it's you
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: can't fake well, actually you can fake streams, buying fake
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: fake streams. No, but I mean like, okay, so the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: reason that you know it's good as tickets, bums on seats,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you know, people coming coming to concerts. But what I
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: find with albums. I released my first album and it
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: got like battered by the press, and everyone's like the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: worst album. And then the second album comes back that
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: gets battered, but everyone says it's not as good as
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: his first album was the one. And every time I
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: release an album, it's always the last album is like,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: so I released equals and people are like, well, it's
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: not like Divide Divide was the But I remember releasing
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Divide in it getting absolutely panned and everyone's saying it
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't as good as the one before. So I just
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: don't believe critics anymore. I'm like, you believe people are
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: showing up. Well, yeah, Equals is still in the top
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: ten in England a year on, so people like still
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: like it a year on. So that is what I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: feel like. Sometimes I release songs that you think bomb in,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Like I remember putting out Bad Habits. In the first
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: day streams of Bad Habits were like, to say the least,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: everyone at the record label was like, oh my god.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: But then a year on it's a hit. And that's
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: actually how you know what it is. And I've I
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: used to judge my worth on day one or the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: reviews or week one, and it's really about the long
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: game of like what what sticks around? Like Bad Habits
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: is still in the top fifty in England. It has
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: stuck around, whereas on the first day I was like,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: oh my god, like I've really fucked up here. But yeah,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: so I just don't believe it. Like when people are
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: like so like week week one albums, always people go
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: like that's such an important thing and it needs to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: be normalized that it's not the be all and end all,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Like obviously, like a week one figure is impressive, but
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: there have been so many records that have come out
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: that may may not have had like a great week one.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: They just stick around and then people discover them and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they get bigger and bigger and bigger. And it's it's
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: mad to like put someone's worth on what they sell,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Like to just be like this is a bad album
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: because it's not sold. This Sweet One is like crazy
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: because it's whether it's a good album, Like there's there's
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: definitely albums that have become like uh, I guess seminal
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: albums of people's careers that over time went on to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: sell like five to ten million copies that came out
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and probably had quite a disappointing first week. Mate Weekend's
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Blinding Lights is about to take over Shape of View
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: as the most stream song of all time. And I
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: don't think that that debuted at number one. I think
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: it debuted like eleven or twelve, and then it grew
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and now is the biggest song of all time. So
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it just doesn't just all this like focusing on day
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: one week one, it's just all bollocks. Do you think
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: about your position in the game now, because you know,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you come out ed sharing new guy, everybody loves you,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: grow have tremendous success. Now you're a little older as
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: artist as I'm, you know, there's always the new year,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and you think about that totally. And I see it
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: more as I see every release I do as adding
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to the catalog and adding to the setlist, and I e.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Every album, if I have one hit on the next album,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that's in the set list, but there's twenty nine hits
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in the setlist, and you just add new ones every time.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I'm less focused on everything I do having to be
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: it's more. It's it's more about being, you know, just
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: making great records that people like and that will make
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: them want to go to the show, and then they
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: go to the show and they see all the other
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: songs that that that they like. In every single year
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of my career, I've been doing doing this at a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: high level for twelve years, but doing it sort of
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: like full on for fifteen and every year. There's a
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: new person every year, and at the beginning I sort
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of felt like I was getting replaced, like there would
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: be a new singer songwriter that came out there would sell.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I remember when Sam Smith released in twenty fourteen, I
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: was putting out multiply and everyone was like Sam Smith
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: is the new blah blah blah blah blah. And I remember,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I mean me and Sam were mates at that point,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: so it never really there was no like rivalry. But
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I remember feeling like, Okay, my time in the sun's
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: probably like at an end now. And then the next year,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: like someone else comes out. It's James Bay, it's George Jesra,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: it's Sean Menderes, it's capality. But there's there's like always
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: like another one that comes in, and then you sort
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of realize it is over time. You're like, oh, like
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: like music, music isn't the Olympics. It's not like someone
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: gets golden someone doesn't. It's just everyone is doing what
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: they love for a living, and there's plenty of space
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: for everyone. You know. People can love my music. They
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: can love Taylor Swiss music, they can love Harry Styles's music,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: they can love Coldplay's music, they can love Kendrick Lamar,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: they can like love Drake and it doesn't like and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes artists get it in their head
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: that they have to be the number one, that it
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: has to be number one, number one. But if you're
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: top ten for the entirety of your career, you're fucking good.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Like have been top ten? Coldplay have never been. They've
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: probably been the biggest band in the world, but they've
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: never been like the number one, like over whoever. But
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: they've always been like three or seven or five, and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: they've had twenty two years of that, And I feel
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like that's that's a career. Like you can't you can't
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: be the best for ever or the biggest. You think
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the pop world is more fickle. Totally, Yeah, totally, the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: pop world is um very but I wouldn't say, like
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I know, I'm a pop star, but I feel like
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: my audience is kind of very spread across the board.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Like I'm played on alternative radio, I'm played on pop
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: radio and played on Triple A or Hot AC or
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: like in in England you have Radio one and Radio two.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I'm also played on Capital and then Capital Extra and
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: then so I'm kind of across the board. So I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: have pop fans, but I also have fans that are
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: in you know, and other other other genres. But I find, yeah,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the pop world is very much here today, gone tomorrow.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: And I'm thirty one now, like I'm old for a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: pop star. Like but I when I first came out,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I was eighteen and I was the new, hot, fresh
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: young thing, and then you know, Chure Mendez comes out
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and he's fifteen, and that's you're suddenly old and oh yeah,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: so yeah, pop world is is fickle. But that's why
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: it's just all it's all songs, So you just have
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to write good songs. It's not it's not about anything
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: other than songs. You can have like campaigns that are
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: based around like TikTok moments or like viral campaigns were doing. Yeah,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: but but if the song isn't good, yeah, but if
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the song's great, it explodes. But it helps a lot
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of um knew what artists too, or like independent artists
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: on TikTok l well and and there's no gatekeepers right anymore.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: It's just like you can put a song out and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it was you know, like a song like Little Yachties
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Poland it can just explode and it's the people that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: make that happen. That people are like, right, this, this
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: song is great let's make this song. Do you like
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: poland Man? I live in the poler for the first
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: time this weekend and I looked at him, like, something
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: must be wrong my phone. He said, it's only a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: minute and twenty seconds long. I love it so much.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can't miss with a minute twenty second song.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I'm like, does this even register? Like if you played
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: like but it just gets in your head. I was.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I was in the studio and Saturday with them Benny Blanco,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and he was like, I have you heard it? And
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I was like nah, And he played it to me
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and the first time I heard it, I was like,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to think about this, and then
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: it was just in my head. That's what I thought too,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Like the more you played, the more this that took.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Whatever he's saying, it's like some melody he keeps saying
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: over and I was like, what does the work? I
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: think it's coding. I gave it and apparently the company
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: is called like Wakford Wackford Farmer or something like that.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Okay that's what Urban Dictionary says. Anyway, Yeah, I was like,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I was thinking, what does it work? Well? In England?
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: The work is a giant frying pan you met. Yeah,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: so I was like, oh, he's making noodles sick? Yeah?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: What is the cigarette? In England? Something you can't say
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: here that well yeah, ok, yeah we do so I know.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But oh no, God, like I would say I say
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: in England because it is that's what the slang is.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I would just never say over here. But the C
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: word in England is a term of endearment, whereas over
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: here it is like you're kind of punched up if
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: you're saying it. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, that's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: a term of endearment. Yeah, in England. I don't understand why.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Like I think of the word bitch or snake or
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: rat or like cow or pig, those are way more
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: offensive than calling someone's tow pig. If someone called a
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: member of your family a pig or a cow versus something,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: if the female anatomy can't yeh, rat, you know you're
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: a rat, You're a snake, so much more For anyway,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: this is this is an argument I will never win
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: because people offended by what they're offended by. But I
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: just don't in in England, in my generation, is used
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: as a term of endement and it should be right
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: because I always say, why would you call somebody something
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that you don't like? Over here? If you call somebody pussy,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: that's supposed to be a bad thing. But it's like,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: if you love pussy, that's not an insult. If I'm
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: calling you that, I feel like, is that an insult? Yeah, totally.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But some people though you yeah, I mean I'm I'm not.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I think you're more insulted because of what dick means,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Like you're saying I'm a bad person. Think I think
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: if yeah, it's like a prick, if you're like you're
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a prick, Like it's that doesn't sound so bad. Prick
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: is like whatever, Man, it's just all it's all it's
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: it's all context in it, and it's all how how
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: you say it. Because the cea work can be super offensive.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: I think it's super offensive. If you use the tea,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: it's it's offensive. Un Yeah, well in England no one
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: pronounces their teas. Yeah, you know, you would call someone
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: a chatty patty rather than a chatty patty chat page.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: You know what. Another thing that here was was different
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: for us was the Queen Queen Elizabeth's funeral, And I
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: know there was a lat Why was it different though,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was huge in England. Well I'm
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: talking about here in the United States, Like we're like,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it was in the news for so long
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and you guys really care about the monarchy. Though, why
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: do what I'll be wondering, why do people here? Well,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's history like it like I feel
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: like it's historical, um cultural, and like someone put it
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: to me, they were like, I would prefer to have
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: a Queen Elizabeth than a president trust basically as well
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: as in like because every four or eight years you
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: have someone new come in and we do have prime ministers,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but are also our politics is absolutely fucked at the moment,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: but having there's something about having a head of state
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that's like comforting for people. I think having like the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Queen was there for you know, she ruled for seventy
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: years and I don't know, she kind of felt like
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: everyone's basically the monarchy. Lots of people disagree with it
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and lots of people love it, and it basically I
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: don't know, it brings tourism to our country. People like it. People, Yeah,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize you didn't have no power I didn't realize. No,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: no world. I mean she does, like, but she doesn't.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Like if she used her power, the monarchy ends. Because
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the whole point is she can if she really wants to,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: but she shouldn't. It's more of a figurehead. Yeah, because
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: if if she starts doing it. The reason it's like
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: that is like back in like the seventeen hundreds or whatever,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you just have like crazy kings that would be like,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: fuck this guy, I'm going to kill him. Yeah, you know,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: like it just turns into a dictatorship. But it's more
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: about having I don't really know how to explain it,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: but it's about having um togetherness as a country. Like
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: when COVID happened and she did a speech, the whole
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: country tuned into the speech because it felt comforting to
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: have her speech. I don't know, I don't know how.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: It sounds really weird explaining it too, because we don't
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: have that no here. Well, I don't. Yeah, were you
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: comforted by any Trump speeches COVID, Yeah, exactly at the time,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the governor's Chris Como, Governor Karma, and then I think, like, oh,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the Megan Marco controversy and everything that happened around that
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: we here paid attention because there was Megan Marco, she's
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: from here, and then there was a lat you know,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: surrounding net. Yeah, and I feel like I just I
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: feel like they made a choice to not be part
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of it, and they want to live their life the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: way that they want to live, and I don't that's
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: their choice. I feel like it's weird people being like,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: if Harry wants to step away from it, he should
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: be able to think. I think it was the reasons
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: why people were like, what's going on, you know, behind
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the scenes, because there is like, yeah, while she will
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: find that on the Crown, Sure we'll find that. You know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: they're doing seasons of the Crown. I saw a picture
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of you and the Queen. You talked about it on
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a Colbert Colbert Yeah, yeah, he says, you fired it.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: That's why she was smiling. Fired. I was standing next
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to a comedian that made a joke. Okay, but no.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: The mad thing about the Queen's Jubilee is I started
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: playing guitar watching that. I was eleven years old and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I watched that on TV and Eric Clapton came on
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and played later, and I was like, that's what I
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: want to do and then ten years exactly ten years later,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I was on the same Jubilee playing my song to
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you know audience to England, and then ten years later
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: again which was I think June June this year, ended
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: up doing it again. So it's it's mad like there's
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: mad stuff around my connection with the Jubilee and the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Queen and it means a lad to you. Totally, yeah, totally.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: And my granddad was I come from quite a like
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain it, but in Northern
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Ireland and Southern Ireland, the Queen is a very polarizing figure.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: And my grandfather was from Northern Ireland and my grandmother
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: was from Southern Ireland and they married. My grandfather was
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: a Royalist and had all these like painted plates of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the Queen and my grandmother was like not super keen
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: on the Queen. And it's so for me. I'm when
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I got like given my mbe by the palace, like
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: that means a lot to me because of the memory
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of my grandfather and what it would have meant to him.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: But it also acts like being half Irish. I don't
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: really know how to right. There's like I feel very
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: conflicted and that one and all the things that when
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you met the Queen, your parents were like, oh, edge
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: really doing it. He's somebody. They were there, they were
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: brought I brought him down. Yeah. I think the times,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the times that have made my dad's be like, oh,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: he's really doing it was actually at the Jubilee as well.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I introduced my dad to Paul McCartney and I think
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that was when he was like, Sir Paul McCartney, Yeah,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and what's mad is Paul mc cartney had seen me
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: on I don't really know how to what show it
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: would be like that. It would be like, um, it's
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a strike called Hollyoaks. I guess it would be like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: what's that show? I don't want to wait from my
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: love to be over, but you had over here, so
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I guess it's like a really really it's like an
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: English version, the version of that, but like no one
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: like my generation would watch it. But I remember the
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: first time I met Paul McCartney him being like, man,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I saw you on Hollyoaks because I played a song
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: on Hollyoaks and I was like, when do you watch Hollyoaks?
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: But yeah, he watches Hollyoaks. Wow, now talk to me
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: about math, man, Why is math so important to you? Like,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: why do you put the math symbols name on math
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to all your arm Well, it was basically I made
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: five EPs before I was signed. I basically I had.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I had all these songs and no record label wanted
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to sign me, and I was waiting to be signs
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: to release these songs. And eventually, when you've done the
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: rounds too many times and everyone's like no, I was like, well,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I guess I should probably just release them myself. So
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I went on this website called tune Call that Russ
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: like goes on about like the tune calls great. So
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I went on tune Car and I just started releasing
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: these EPs, and by the fifth EP, I had a
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: plan of five. I was going to do an acoustic one,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a pop one, a live one, a collaborations one, and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: like one with the band. And I was like, by
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the end of that, I'll have generated a fan base
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and I'll be able to tour. So I release these
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: EPs over the course of a year, and then at
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the end of it the record labels were then interested.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I signed, and then I had some songs left over,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and I was like, well, what should I call it?
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking plus because it's the addition on
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: so all the other stuff that I did. And then
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I was like, if I do plus, then the next
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: album can be multiplied because I'm going to take it
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: worldwide and make it bigger. And then the next album
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: was originally Divide, was a double album, so it was
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: like half R and B half acoustic, and then I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: basically just jumbled them up and that's what Divided. And
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: then there's Equals, which was meant to be the final
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: of the five, which was meant to be the end
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: of the equation of all the genres in one. And
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: then there's the one that I'm bringing out in next year.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Basically was that one car I've actually never confirmed the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: name of it, but it's called Subtract, and that's going
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to be I think we figured it out. No, well,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: it's called subtract. Yeah. But then but then after that,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: technically the five mathematicals, I've got like other ideas for
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: for for stuff, but that was I mean, that's been
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: twelve years of my career of of doing that. But
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: it's also just on a just on a marketing point
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: of view, I wanted to have each album, like I
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: loved whenever you Coldplay release an album, you like know
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: that they release an album, even if you see a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: poster of just like the artwork, you're like, oh, Coldplay releasing.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And I wanted to just do it simply colors, like
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: block colors. So the first album is orange and it
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: has a white plus symbol. And if you if you
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: saw orange and a white plus symbol, you'll be like, Okay,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: that's it's album. The next one is bright green with
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: a black multiply, and then it was bright blue with
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: a if I'd sign, and it was bright red with
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: an equal sign. And I love the idea of like
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: never having my name and name or face on anything,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and it's just you see a billboard of whatever, a
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: red equal sign, you go, oh, it's releasing an album
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: rather than I never really liked the way I looked,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: so I didn't really want to be in music. If
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you look at all my first music videos, I'm not
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: in any of them. And I didn't want to be
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: on album covers, you know, sort of like the jacket.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I like how you look now. I mean, I'd exercise
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a lot, so yeah, I'm prone to a bit. I
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: like food and I like alcohols. I'm prone to being fat,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: so I exercise a lot now to balance that out
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: because I still love eating. I think it's good. Is
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: if you get finer as you get older. Yeah, I
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: definitely feel that. That's they I feel like when I
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: got my eyes laser. That was when people were like, oh,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you don't look like shit? What did the eyes laser?
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Du didn't make it? Well, I just stopped wearing glasses.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I wore glasses because I didn't like the way I looked,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: so I'd wear these big glasses and I felt like
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: it was like the protection. Yeah, yeah, I felt like that.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Or i'd wear like a hat, glasses and stuff. So
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I'm a bit more comfortable since working out like I
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: do a lot of running a lot of weights and
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: eating kind of well, it's the wine that gets me though.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: It's the wine that wine, because I'll have like a
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: bottle of wine a day and that adds up. So no,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I know you, no, No, I've got I've got stopped
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: drinking spirits. Spirits. Spirits were my like trigger to all
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the other stuff. Yeah, now about the math Manictoire, You're
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: going to only be doing songs from those albums, like
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: the math albums kind of yeah, kind of, so it's
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: sort of like a great I hate saying greatt sits
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: because it makes me sound like a like I'm a
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: heritage artist. But it's the great it's the greatest hits
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of those what will be fun. The next album will
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: come out before I'm in I'm in the States, so
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: it'll be essentially the great sits. But there's like part
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: of the show where it's like the medley of the collaborations,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you know, and I'll do Fireboy dml Peru and I'll
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: do Beautiful People Kallead, and I'll do the Justin Bieber
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: song and you know, I've got It's it's a it's
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: a wide variety. I when I look at live show,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sort of like if I were to go and
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: watch cold Play and they didn't play Yellow, I feel
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: short changed. I feel short That's why it's. Yeah, sometimes
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you want artists to go and do like medley's of
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: you see, Like I went to go and see Drake
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: in like twenty thirteen and there was like a fifteen
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: minute medley of him just doing yeah all his features. Yeah,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: fucking great. You're just like because you get that excitement
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: of the song, and then it's the next one, the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: next one, the next one. So I think that that's
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: important to do of just giving the audience everything that
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: they want. Yeah, some people get sick of performing certain
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: songs because they were so big to say that before then,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but then don't play. But then the audience gets still disappointed.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: If yeah, I mean I but the thing is like,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: there's definitely songs that I play that I'm like, this
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: isn't my favorite song anymore, but when you see the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: reaction of it, You're you're playing You're you're playing it
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: for someone that has paid money to see you play
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: that song. So play that song? Would you perform a
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Rabbit Craft winning? Do you know what was mad about
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: that is everyone always wants me to play Perfect at
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: their wedding and I've never done it because I usually
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: play on weekends or my family and I don't want
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to do anything on the weekend. I've never done Perfect
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: at a wedding. And that the wet the point attended
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: the Perfect Wedding when I was playing it at Robert
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Crafts because he asked me just to play perfect. So
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: when I was playing it, I was like, oh, this
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: is the first time I've played it. What yeah, mad, Mad,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: It's fun. It was a fun, fun wedding though. Elton
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: John was my opening act. He played just before me,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: and then like Meat came on stage and it was good.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: I met Like, No, that was like I'm doing a
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: show for him. So we're doing like Gillette Stadium and
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. So that was more he was. He
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was my first stadium in the States. Oh you get
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: seat at the table and like a plate and everything. No,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: but they did get me some food. I was basically
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I was basically late that like, I'm not he had
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: his closest like mates there. I'm not. I'm yeah, I'm not.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not that we but we're close. He was my
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: first ever stadium in the States. But I'm very much
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: like in terms of like private gigs, I don't really
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: do them that much and it has to be like
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I'm playing the only the one next weekend. But that's
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: because we're not doing Austin on the tour and I
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: wanted to make sure we did or was. The last
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: private I did was in Hawaii and it was because
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go to Hawaii. But I'm I just
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: like I like playing my own shows. To be honest,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I like, just yeah, so when Elton John opens up
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: for you, right, you ever looking to see to yourself?
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I really got to step up my rider and everything
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: else because I know Elton gets everything. He gets a
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: good he gets a good rider. What was mad, though,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: is I was chatting to meet while Elton was on stage,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and we were like here and Elton's there playing to
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: like a hundred people. And then I stopped the conversation.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: I was like, me, isn't it mad that we're like
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: talking over paying an intimate like this is like, do
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: you ever think that you'd ever be in a position
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: where like this is normal? Because it just became became normal.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: But yeah, no, my rider sounds to me like you
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: were trying to tell me shut the fuck up. I'm
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: trying to listen to Elton. You were trying to get
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: up the conversation. I loved me, I really really loved it.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Would if Elton would have been there, guys. He No.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: My my rider is usually just a nice bottle of wine.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Usually just like that's that's kind of all I would
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: want to have at a gig. So I usually just
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: say this bottle of wine because I feel like if
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: you ask for one thing, they're going to get it. Yeah,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: my rider used to be um. Do you know, actually,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: do you know the rumor about Madonna getting only blue
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: M and M's people, So, do you know why people
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: do that? So tour managers do that because they have
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: a very extensive rider of like very very specific things.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: If it has to be this kind of tea and
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: it has to be this kind of water and blah
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: blah blah, and then they say all blue M and M's.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Because if it's all blue M and M's, they walk
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: into the dressing room, they see all blue Eminem's and
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: they go, right, You've got everything we need in this rider,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and I don't need to double check it, like I
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: just I just thought it was a diva thing. But
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's basically they walk in and they know that
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: everything has been followed to the tea basically. Wow, fascinating it.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I saw people congratulate. When I congratulating, you do a
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: bigging you up because you kept the ticket price is reasonable? Yeah?
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Are you doing it because you're aware of how the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: economy isn't it? I just I used to go to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: gigs as a kid, and the tickets that I bought,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I could always afford and I could go with my friends,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to, like without sounding crass, like
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: what what is the extra money going to do for
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: my life? Like I would rather play sold out gigs
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: everywhere in the world than have an extra x amount
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: of what what what whatever? And like I don't know.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I I know how much my show costs, and I
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: know how much I kind of want to walk away with.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: And after that, I'm sort of fine with it. And
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Echant is amazing too, totally yeah, And you know, and
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: people come into the gigs like this isn't going to
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: be the last time at all. You want to repeat business.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: You want people being like, do you know what, I
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: went to that show with all of my mates and
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: we had a great time, and we'll go next time.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: And people, this is what I've done for my entire career,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: is just like make tickets reasonable and affordable and they
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: will come. And last tour was the biggest selling tour
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: in the world and the highest grossing as well, so
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: we still made good money and everyone came to the gig.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm just you know, I don't believe in the
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: platinum seats in the VIP areas and the soled meeting greets,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: like we do partnerships with radio stations for meeting greets,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and it's always free and it's always competitions, so fans
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: actually enter the competitions, they excited to go. They don't
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: feel like they're parting with money to meet you and
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: feel cheated out of it. And there's just there's just
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: ways that I like to do it and it's always worked,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: so I'm not going to change it. Have you seen
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the pictures from Chris Browns and meeting greets, No, I haven't. Okay,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: take a look at that or you get into it.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I just you know, there's like different strokes for different folks,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: you know. But my rule has always been this and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: it's worked incredibly well. So I'm not gonna I'm not
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: going to start doing something that I don't believe in
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: now and I feel like it's it's I hate going.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: We would always keep the front row of arenas and
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: then go to the nosebleed seats and get the back
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: row and put them in the front row, because then
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you've got the best fans who are having the best
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: night right in front of you. Whereas opposed to I've
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: played a couple of like casinos where they control the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: front row and half of it's empty and the other
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: half are like high rollers that don't really want to
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: be there, and you're just playing to people that are
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: just rich and don't give a fuck, and that you
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: much rather play to your fans. He says, I'm just
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: now about doing that. Wanted to do things that you
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: don't believe in. How hard is it not to be
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: a cloud chasing in twenty twenty two, Because I know
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: people probably come to you and be like, you know
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: ed this person's doing this, and this person's doing that,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: maybe you should try to do this type of record,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: or maybe you should take a picture doing this totally well,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I mean TikTok is that like I've I never really
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: understood TikTok, but TikTok controls songs now really so I
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: basically there's a team in the UK that come to
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: me and they go, well, these are these are the
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: these are the trends, and I'll go, well, this is
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: quite funny and this is quite funny, and I'll just
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: choose the things that I want to do. So I
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: guess that is kind of chasing clout. But it's essentially
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that's how you advertise your music now, and if you
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: don't do that, it's a lot more it's a lot
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: more difficult to like advertise something, and I don't want
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: to make a song for it to be completely ignored.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: So that line between marketing and cloud chasing totally, Yeah, totally.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: And in terms of like genres, like, I'm I love
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: spanning all genres. I like trying different things. I like
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: making like anything. I've sung in Italian, I've sung in French,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I've sung in Japanese. I'm I'm up for trying anything.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: But I think you have to walk into something with
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: a somewhat knowledge of it and respect of it, rather
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: than just being like, oh that's the hot thing. I'm
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to do that. So when I first
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: made Afroby, I moved to Ghana and lived there for
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: a month and a lot of music that wasn't just
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: my music. I made music that went on other people's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: projects and stuff, and um, yeah, like, how will that
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: experience living so good? Did you go to the door
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: and r return and all that stuff? We save castles? No,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: we went to basically this guy that I went with,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Fuse odg. He had a house there and he had
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: a studio in his house, and I mean we went
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: out and about, but like not like huge. We would
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: like go for runs and stuff like that. But what
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the thing I loved about it is you'd be in
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the studio all day making these songs and then a
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: phone call be made, two hundred people turn up to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: the house, and then you'd have a party to the songs.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: So you'd like make these songs knowing that you were
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: going to party to them that night, and it was
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: just it's such a different vibe. And also for me,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: I'm like, like not a secretive person with my music,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: but I don't want it like leaking years before it
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: comes out and phones are out and everyone's filming. It's
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: just the culture there is just like sharing and just
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: it's great. They're really really really good. Fun was crazy.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: So what Dad said, do you have a hard time
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: just selling music nowadays? And what I mean by that
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: is people want your life totally. They want to know
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: about the wife and the kids, Like, well, no, I
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: just want to give them the music. It's it's it's
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: it's an odd line, isn't it, Because I think, well,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I think kids are always off off the table, like
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: there's no there's no point with with with with with that.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting with my life with Cherry because the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: songs are about it, so there's obviously interest in it.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: And you know, we're shooting a documentary at the moment
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: around my life, and there was a big conversation about
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: what do we include, And I think that as long
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: as it's honest and it links in with a theme
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: of something that's in a song, like, there's no point
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: putting something in if it's just detrimental to your life,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: I think. But yeah, it's definitely there's a fine line,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: isn't it, Because we're all public figures. Everyone's interested in
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: what you talk about your personal life on the radio.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: You talk about your personal life on the radio, and
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: therefore you've somewhat opened the door. But then there's also
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: this boundary preaching privacy of being like, oh, actually i'm
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: a I'm a I'm a human being that sometimes people forget.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a very fine line. But that's why
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I like, you've been to my house in Suffolk, Like,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: that's why I live where I live and I don't
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: live in Los Angeles, and I don't. My life as
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a celebrity is switched on when it needs to be
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: switched on. So I come to New York and I'm
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: working this week, so I'm doing the TVs and I'm
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: doing the radios, and I'm a celebrity for the week.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: But when I go home, I'm I'm a friend, I'm
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: a dad, I'm a husband, I'm a son, and that's
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: my Like, you can't bring celebrity baggage into a pub
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: in the Suffolk, you just have to be yourself. Well,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: would have pub in Yard? Well, I mean that's your house. Yeah,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: I mean that is you know. Actually, since you came
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: and then basically the pandemic happened, that pub hasn't really
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: been properly used as a Yeah, it's weird, like the
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the the kind of way of hanging out. I don't
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's changed here, but the way
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: of hanging out in England is very different. It's not
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: like twenty people go to I'll meet up with like
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: a mate and go to a pub. But it used
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: to just be a bit more free. I feel. I
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: would think that that would be the place everybody would
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: have came to hang out during a pandemic, little bubble rate.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know how it was here,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: but like it was very much. People were trying to
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: catch you out, so like being irresponsible. Yeah, so like
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: a neighbor of someone might tell the press of you know,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: someone coming around. You have kids in a family too,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: and they get to be more responsible when you have that. Well,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: we actually didn't have We didn't have a kid for
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the first half. Cherry was pregnant for the first half,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: but that's how we kept it so quiet. No one
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: knew she was pregnant. Yeah, but then the second one
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: was mad because Cherry was pregnant whilst I was promoting
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Equals and we went to like award shows with her
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: massive bump and no one picked up on it. And
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: then the week we gave birth, everyone found out how
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: to imperlate to be like because you know what I mean,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: it was it was like a proper bump. It was
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: a proper bump. But yeah, are you really are you
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: doing the toy just to get out of the house,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: to be honest, Well, no, they come with me, they come.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: So we've I've been on tour for the entire year.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I started touring in April and we have just been
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: renting houses. So we lived in like Dublin for a week,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: we lived in Limerick for a week, we lived in
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: frank for for a week. And yeah, it's it's fun.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Lots of zoos into lots of zoos with with with
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: with the kids, and it's great, you know, it's great
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: for my daughters. My daughters comes to the shows and
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: watches the gigs. She sort of assumes that everyone else's
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: dad sings as well, though, where's your dad sing? Yeah? Well,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and and also she assumes that every single song ever
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: is mine, so she'll hear something and she'd be honest,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: daddy singing. It's like no, no, that's like the Beatles
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: or something like that. You know what about this Pokemon
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: the celester your song? Yeah, your kids care about that.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: She hasn't really got to Pokemon stage yet, but I
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: care about that, Like I'm I love Pokemon and you're
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: a pokemonger, Yeah, totally. I mean Pokemon was my escape
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: as a as a kid. I didn't really have a
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: fun time at primary school when I was like six
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: seven eight, and that's when Pokemon came out and it
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: was my escape into a world I think that's why
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I love Harry Potter so much. You escape into a
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: world where you can sort of exist in your mind.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: And I would play Pokemon as that escape, and then
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: you get older and then it's comforting to go back
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: and play the game. And then suddenly I'm in Japan
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: and I meet the head of Pokemon and he's like,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: you should do a song for us, and I'm like,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I don't and what that sounds like? Like? What does
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: a song for Pokemon sounds like? It sounds sounds like
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: and then we ended up doing it. My favorite thing
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: about the music video was because it's all green screen
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: and they drawing the pokemons. I'm sitting there at a
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: breakfast that they set up and they're putting food on
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: the table and it's basically there was about twenty people
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: from the Japanese Pokemon company, like branch. They're making sure
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: it's all done, and they've got a Japanese director and
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: they've got an English trans translator, and I'm they're sort
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: of eating the food and then you just see this
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: kind of huddle and they're all talking like really really seriously,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and I say to translator and I was like, what's
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: what's going on. He's like, they're not sure whether the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Pikachu eats eggs or not. And I was like okay,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: and they're like, they said, they've got to do a
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: confidence call to Japan right now. So they all go
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: in and they put this zoom on and you see
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: them all like really seriously like looking and like nodding,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like, oh fuck, this is like
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: proper series. And then they come back in and everything
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: resumes and we go back to and I say they
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: translator and I was like, so, just Pikachu we eat
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: eggs and translates like he doesn't. It was like super
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: How the hell would they know it well? Because it's like,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: because it's a world that they've created, they have to
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: take it so seriously. So I did a I did
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: a TikTok for them where I got something wrong and
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I had to take it take it down. But it
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: is really super serious. You know. It's the biggest selling
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: franchise ever Pokemon ever, Wow, ever over like Harry Potter,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: over Star Wars, over, like any Din film. Yeah, it's
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: like one hundred and seventeen billion generated or something like that.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: It's complete. Remember when they hit their game, everybody was
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: working around. Oh yeah, Pokemon Go. I never got into that.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: That was that was a step too far for me
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: to collection worth anything. A Pokemon plus toy collection. I
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: don't know if they're worth anything. I don't know. I
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: don't know. I just get like, whenever I go to Japan,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: they send me one. So I'm like, Japan. Japan used
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: to be the one place that I could go and
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: blend in because like, no one liked my music there.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Basically I was tour there and played to no one.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: So when I went traveling, I took my wife there
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: and we traveled around Japan. No one said anything. And
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: then Shape of You came out and it just ended
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: all of that so much so that they won't even
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: let me promote new music there. I'll go and I'll
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: be like, can I play Bad Habits? And They're like, no,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: you need to play Shape. It's like number one for
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: like three years there. It's insane. And you said you
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: didn't get in the Pokemon Go. Why uh, I just
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: didn't like it as a game. I don't know. It's
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: not it's not I want to be in the Pokemon world.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: I don't want to exist in this world catching Pokemon
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: this world sucks at times. I want to be in canto.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Plus you don't have a phone, so no, but you
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: could play it on an iPad. But can you imagine
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: seeing a ginger kid with glasses walking around with an
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: iPad trying to catch Pokemon. It looks pretty on brand
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: and me, I got so, can we expect a new album?
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Track is coming? Yeah, some tracks is coming. There's a
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: new album, and then there's new music. I'm basically like,
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm in the most creative part of my life.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I phil because of the pressure of every album having
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: to be this like gogantuan pop machine is off. I
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: feel like that I've had I've had five of them now,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: and I feel like now is the time to actually
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: explore doing stuff and taking risks and just be like,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: well it because I'm going to be on a stadium
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: tour for five years. So even if I put out
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: an album and it bombs, I'm still playing to ninety
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: two thousand people that night. You know, there's no I
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: don't feel the pressure of it. You're going tour for
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: the next five years and well including this year. Yeah
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: we finished in twenty twenty six. Wow, that's amazing. So
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: a new album comes out the beginning of the year,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: then a North American tour starts in March. No I've
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Got I've Got Australia in January and February, okay, and
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: then I've America starts in April, and then after them
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: we're going to hit other countries and then we go
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: back to No. I think we do Asia in twenty
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: four and then we go back to Europe and then
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: we do all the all the fun countries, so the
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: ones that two thousand and nine was my fun country
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: tour where it's like, fuck it, let's play and I
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: and you go and play in icelands like one in
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: five people, and you play in Romania, and you play
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: in like I really want to play Egypt, Like there's
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a there's a venue in front of the Pyramids that
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: I really really really want to play. So I hope
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: that that works out. But that's the year of doing that.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: My manager will be listening to this being like, why
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: are you telling all all the plans? But but this
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: is the only tour we're doing in America. We're not
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: coming back to America. This is it. Well, Kale's going
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to do some dates Rusk Go and do some dates.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: We've got cat Burns, got Maizie, We've got Dylan. I
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: think Griff's doing some and yeah, it's it's going to
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: be good. The college things like really cool because he's
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: got about as many I think he's got ten ten
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: billion streaming songs and I've got ten billion streaming songs.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: So you get come to a show and you're going
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: to see twenty billion streamers in the space of like
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: three hours. I find quite quite cool and it'd be
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: great with me and Russ still haven't played that, the
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: tune that we've done together, so I'm really excited to
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: play that. Your kids are going to be so well rounded, man,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: it's so well traveled. La has been to twenty five
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: countries already. It's wild. Yeah, it's well, but I think
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: it's important to see well. I grew up in the countryside,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: so I when I first moved to London at eight seventeen,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: I remember being like, oh my god, like the world
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: is not what I thought it was. And I think
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: it's important for like when we when we tare South America,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I want Lyra to see everything, you know, not just
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: like a really lovely hotel or whatever. I want to.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I want her to travel around see like go to
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the rainforest and see shit. You know, all right? It
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: was my guy and sharing man and thank you for coming, brother, Yeah,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: thank you for always having bad to see. I don't
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: have to but it's not. I love it. I love it.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: It's always it's it's always the best interview the day
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: for me. I love it. Ask you who you fucking
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: with musically right now? The Papua otherwise? Do you know what?
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: There's a there's a song in the UK. Um it's
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: it's Sonna and Quams is it Quams? Yeah? Um called
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: yeah yeah yeah that I'm like got on repeat. What else?
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot of UK music. I mean
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I do listen to a lot of American music, but
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: UK music is so my I'm just around it the
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: whole time. Storms. He's released a new song called Hide
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: and Seek that's like the most fucking beautiful song of
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: you should you should listen? Yeah, it's so good. Um yeah,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: I mean there's a mate, there's a bunch. There's a bunch.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: I mentioned one because last time I was I was here.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Who's a Swedish rapper. But he's just about to release
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: a new record that's really really good as well. But
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: like I'm just as I tore around, I'm listening to stuff.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: What else I bought something the other day? Oh do
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: you do you listen to d Block Europe? Do you
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: block Europe? So basically d Block Europe is is that
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: that's Jada Kiss right, So they set up um uh
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Deblock Europe maybe like ten fifteen years ago, but now
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: that they're an act in their own right, they're like
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: arena level selling act. But I just did a feature
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: on their records that, um that is great, so go
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: and go and check that out as well. Okay, it's
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: my man, it's sharing, it's the Breakfast Club. Do you
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: block you? Yeah? Man, They're they're like I remember dip
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: set head there, um Europe. Yeah, I'm too remember that said, yeah,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: oh no, yeah they fucking did. I knew those guys
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, I don't know what happened with that well,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Deep Deeper Europe. They sold like three three zero two s.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: They're like doing full arena scores across my day. They
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: don't never talk about it. Um, you should definitely check
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: them out though. Man. They're like they're the same level
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: as like Dave and Storms. And in terms of like
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: people check them up. They sold out the equivalent of
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: the Garden. They're like the big do you black Europe?
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Check them money when you leave? So you did play.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to do tomorrow? I said, what
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the whole hype was. Yeah, I got I'm late. I'm here,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I'm basically here, and I got on like super lates
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: like four years ago, Like I needed that. Yeah, I
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: h me you my picture? Are you gonna pict just
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: looking good? I love ya first and work your yeah
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: yeah yeah right out in your mind you today? So yeah,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: crushing right now? I think again and whatever to go
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: out show where you're like, are you put me the like?
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: I guess yes. M h. These questions are now, these
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: questions now they're just funny. Hey you're bisexual? Can we
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: get the track listing to from there? Oh? It is
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: on here? Yeah? Um yeah. What's going on with the
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Daily Paper interview? Okay, when is it playing? M