Ed Sheeran has said he made his new album ‘Play’ as a “direct response” to what he has described as “the darkest period of my life”.
On Thursday (May 1), the singer announced that the record, which he first announced in March, will be released on September 12. Visit here to pre-order.
It came after weeks of teasing new material with fans, and it will mark the end of his ‘Mathematics’ run of albums. These were inspired by mathematical symbols (‘Plus’, ‘Multiply’, ‘Divide’, ‘Subtract’ and ‘Equals’), and the new era stems from an idea he had aged 18, when he thought about a new chapter that would be ‘Play’, ‘Pause’, ‘Fast Forward’, ‘Rewind’ and ‘Stop’.
Writing on Instagram this week, Sheeran opened up about the album’s inspiration. “‘Play’ was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life,” he said. “Coming out of all of that I just wanted to create joy and technicolour, and explore cultures in the countries I was touring. I made this record all over the world, finished it in Goa, India, and had some of the most fun, explorative creative days of my life.”
“It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish, it encapsulates everything that I love about music, and the fun in it, but also where I am in life as a human, a partner, a father. Going into this album campaign I said to myself ‘I just want everything I do to be fun and playful’ – so that’s why we are building pubs for folk jams, doing gigs on open top busses and singing in pink cowboy hats on bars. The older I get the more I just want to enjoy things, and savour the moments that are mad and chaotic.”
Sheeran has been candid in the past about his struggles with mental health, especially following the death of two of his close friends, the DJ Jamal Edwards and the Australian cricketer Shane Warne.
“I felt like I didn’t want to live anymore,” he said after those tragedies. “Those thoughts were bad enough, but shame arrived as their companion. They seemed selfish, especially as a father. I feel really embarrassed about it.”
“No one really talks about their feelings where I come from, he said. “People think it’s weird getting a therapist in England. [But,] I think it’s very helpful to be able to speak with someone and just vent and not feel guilty about venting.”
He continued: “Obviously, like, I’ve lived a very privileged life. So my friends would always look at me like, ‘Oh, it’s not that bad.’ [However,] the help isn’t a button that is pressed, where you’re automatically OK. It is something that will always be there and just has to be managed.”
He also said his 2023 album ‘-’ came out of a difficult time: “Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal [Edwards], a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety. I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.”
The track Sheeran shared from ‘Play’ this week, ‘Old Phone’, was inspired by powering up an old phone that had gone unused since 2015, and re-discovering messages from Edwards, as well as an argument with an ex and conversations with distant family members.
As for live shows, Sheeran is due to play a run of European shows from May to September 2025 before finishing up the year with performances in Bhutan, India, Qatar and Bahrain. Visit here for tickets.
