ED SHEERAN’S AUTUMN VARIATIONS

‘I WANTED TO MAKE 14 SONGS ABOUT 14 FRIENDS AND BASE IT ON AUTUMN’

ED SHEERAN’s new album Autumn Variations is inspired by difficult times.

“Last autumn, I found that my friends and I were going through so many life changes. After the heat of the summer, everything either calmed, settled, fell apart, came to a head or imploded,” the 32-year-old says.

“Writing songs helped me understand my feelings and come to terms with what was going on. And when I learned about my friend’s different situations, I wrote songs, some from their perspectives, some from mine.

“My dad and brother told me about a British composer called Edward Elgar, who composed Enigma Variations, where each of the 14 orchestral compositions were about a different friend.

“This is what inspired me to make this album and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.”

He explores the shared emotions of love, heartbreak, depression and loneliness with tracks including Punchline, Plastic Bag and The Day I Was Born.

The new album arrives as he wraps up his recordbreaking Mathematics tour – his last show took place on 23 September in Los Angeles.

Since starting the tour in May, Ed has broken attendance records in almost every stadium he’s played in across America.

He’s also endeared himself to locals, using his down time between shows to, amongst other things, surprise music students at a high school in Tampa, Florida, where he handed out free guitars and tickets to his show.

He also played his early hit, Lego House, in front of a Lego store in Minneapolis.