Shadowing Practice: Up Next - Syke talks with Ed Sheeran - Learn English Speaking with Video

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first of all can we just discuss the beauty

that is the set today i think it's a hotel

i think we're in a hotel

i don't know where we are i feel like i've been transported to some magical land

this is by far the nicest setup i have ever had for an interview i think it's just

because it's your first in person in a while you mentioned

that of course yeah uh the last time i was in the city was february of 2020

so about what 15 months now and

that was the last time i did an artist interview in person I'm

so happy that I don't have to do this on zoom.

Well, I think my last in -person US interview for radio was probably 2017

and really and I haven't been in New York since 2018

So am I like the first in that many years?

Yeah, well, I did I've just been in LA

So I did Corden and so you but yeah other than that then yeah, who's better?

I mean so far it's only a couple minutes in it's me, right?

Yeah, obviously obviously well Corden Corden I've known for like 11 years.

So it's more that's more like yeah, I gotcha.

Yeah it's like catching up with an old friend i get

it no literally literally we i don't think he actually asked me anything i think we just thought

that seems like that's typically the best interview

which is what i hope to get here today um let's talk about the music uh

you're back it's been quite a few what years i would say since was it 2017 yeah

so uh in terms of like solo records i mean

i put out uh i do i class it as a project

so i put i did put together a collaboration project kind of in like the time

I was living in Nashville I was just spending

so much time with musicians I loved

and I'd always been like like I would love to do a song with Bruno Mars

but I never collaborate on my own records I just make solo records um

so I just put together a project so

that was like 2019 I put that out but the last solo record I put out was 2017

Divide yeah yeah it's been a minute

and Bad Habits yeah let's talk about it let's talk about

the theme let's talk about why this was the right song to write at this time why the comeback

you know you're i don't want to call it a comeback

but like your i would call it a re -emergence

if you will dipping a toe back yeah why was this the right song

and why was this the right time to come back uh

so for me the song the song is about um uh

there's you can start bad habits are basically like a domino

you start the night with one beer it leads to another then it leads to the vodka coke

and then it leads to the tequila and then the salad

that you were going to eat turns into the McDonald's at 4am

and then you get back home and maybe light up the smoke

or like you know it just leads there's it's just a domino effect

and I've cut out a lot of bad habits in my life

and removed some dominoes

and I felt like it needed to be a single

now my first single was always going to come out in June and the single I had chosen was a bit,

if I'm honest, a bit depressing.

And I'd written Bad Habits.

And when Boris announced that England was opening up in June,

I was like, right, we've got to switch the singles and we've got to put out the one that's actually,

you know, because clubs are going to reopen in June, hopefully.

So we'll see what happens.

And I mean, what I find interesting is the song is called Bad Habits.

You say you've now dropped some of those bad habits.

Obviously, So you pick up some good habits along the way.

You look fantastic.

How much weight have you lost?

Like 50 pounds.

And how have you done it?

Diet, working out?

I cut excess out of my life.

Excess.

So I used to binge eat, binge drink, drink, binge.

Like, binge work.

I just binged everything.

Everything.

And I've just cut everything by half.

Okay.

And so you know how many people are going to be upset to hear that you're still eating the same things.

You're just eating a little less of them.

Yeah, but I feel like portion control is like a key.

Like I feel, I've done the, I got super skinny back in like 2014 by doing the like no carbs

and I was only drinking like straight spirits and blah blah blah, but if you do it that way it's temporary,

you kind of get slim really quickly because you're not having carbohydrates, but eventually you're going to start eating carbs.

You have to have a balanced diet.

So eventually you get back to it and then I ballooned again because I was just like, okay, calm, calm, calm, calm, calm.

And the same with drinking, I'd go like completely sober and then start again and just drink, drink, drink, drink.

Whereas just being balanced is, I feel the best way to just be healthy.

You need a balanced diet.

You need to have fries every now and then.

You need to have bread every now and then.

You need to drink wine, have beer.

You need to keep a balance.

Just not, anything in excess is dangerous.

Well, I feel like, and I'm a big believer in this, is that when you feel good, you look good, you think good.

And I'm imagining maybe for you the same as a musician.

getting into a little bit of a better shape and eating right

and maybe sleeping a little bit more or a little less, being a new dad, we'll get into that in a second.

Do you feel as though this change

or this evolution of Ed has now led to better music or better songwriting in your mind?

I think no, because I think my music has always been good when I've been upset.

So I feel like I've had to have lots of confidence

and hating myself to be able to write good tunes but I feel like in terms of getting back out into...

Like, I never liked doing music videos or photo shoots because I hate the way I look, but I feel like being in a good...

I've had my eyes lasered as well, I can now see properly and like,

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I feel like being in a good shape makes me less self -conscious of taking like photos.

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I still hate them but I don't hate them as much.

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I gotcha.

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Because you're feeling good, you look good, you think good.

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Congratulations on fatherhood.

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Thank you.

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A lot of artists that I've talked to that have had kids,

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they've said the surprising thing is that while it did change them as a person, it never changed them as a musician,

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as an artist, as a singer, a songwriter.

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I feel like you might be a little different though.

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I feel like fatherhood may have opened up your eyes and I could be wrong here

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Correct me if I'm wrong.

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I feel like it could have opened your eyes to a whole new world musically or sonically

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Yeah, I think just just subject wise I had a lot of like I had a lot of

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Changes in my life when the tour the tour ended like end of 2019

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No, like August 2019 and I remember the last show at Ipswich Finishing it and being like it was heavily publicized.

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It was the biggest tour of all time we'd sold 9 million tickets

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and the album had just sold like 22 million copies

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or something like that

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which is the most i'd ever sold around i remember stepping off stage on the last show

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and just being like oh well i guess that's i guess that's the peak then

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and everything is downhill from here

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so i kind of had to uh find who i was after

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that and become okay with never like not having to be the biggest

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and the best and feeling like okay i've done that

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and let's just find a different way of writing music

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and doing music and this was all pre knowing that Lyra was coming and then you know

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Cherry told me she was pregnant, pandemic happened, I had a friend, really good friend pass away and like experienced grief for the first time

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and then turned 30 and then all these things were happening

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and Lyra was born and I feel like coming to terms with being an adult

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and I know I've had my 20s

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and I thought I was an adult at 21

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but like for instance I'd never experienced real grief

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which is i feel like when you do

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that whatever age you become an adult even if you're 10

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if you've experienced that you become a completely different person

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and understand life in a different way i think

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and i mean the time you took off nobody knew the pandemic was going to happen

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so it's almost like you got a little bit of an elongated time off

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that you weren't planning on becoming a father

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and going through all these different stages of emotion was there

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ever a point where you were like you know what i've i've done the music thing

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i'm successful i've had number ones i've done touring

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i've gone all over over the globe maybe

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i just want to stay off a little bit longer was there ever a debate

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that maybe yeah i was i was literally gonna quit full time

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i was really gonna yeah i was i had i had had lyra

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and i was like that's it i'm done i'm a dad i love this

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and then i found myself getting super depressed because i had nothing

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that i did i was dad full time and i was doing everything

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and changing diapers and making and cooking for Cherry and like cleaning everything.

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And I got sort of like six months into that.

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I didn't write a song for six, but I didn't do anything.

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I was like, this is me now, this is who I am.

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And I feel like as a human, as a man, you need your thing.

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I lost my thing and I went back and in my mind,

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I was like, do I want Lyra to grow up with essentially an unemployed dad and look at me and be like,

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oh, this is what life is.

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Life is hanging around the house and being here

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or do I want her to grow up and look at me

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and me having a work ethic and being like my dad works hard

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and my dad loves what he does

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and that's what I want to do as an adult

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so I kind of got out of the permanent retirement stage from like feeling completely lost as a human

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and then also feeling like I want to set a good example for my daughter

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so I feel like I've come full circle with it

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and now I'm proud to be getting back to work

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and working hard

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and Cherry's being like an absolute saying like i can't

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i can't explain how amazing women are like how amazing mothers are and how

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she's you know she's moved her work to being on um uh remote

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so she can travel with me and she's she's working today she's brought lyra here

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so i don't have to be like a week away from lyra

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and we're very like i say we're like hands -on parents

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but i wouldn't i wouldn't say being hands -on makes

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you a parent i think you just have to be a parent

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and just be around this is your first father's day this year right yeah

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that looked like it just hit you like you just looked off

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and smiled you're like oh my god i saw my manager had i

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so my schedule now is like work work work work work

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and i had one day off

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and i was like oh that's cool they're giving me a day off

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and it's because it's father's day he's like yeah i've given you your first father's day off

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which is really sweet yeah i feel like you know i'm not a dad

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but i feel like

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when i become a dad those little moments are going to

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be the most rewarding just looking at a day on the calendar like father's day

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and be like wait i get to celebrate that day for me

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that day that's pretty cool i think it's for me yeah i think I think it's,

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I've always had a wonderful day with my dad on Father's Day,

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we usually just go to the pub and I just can't wait to have those moments.

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It's truly amazing being a dad, truly.

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But going back to the mother thing and the women, I mean having a little girl,

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it's just, I've spent my 20s being quite sort of blind to my friends.

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problems because I've been traveling the world and working and stuff like that.

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And I've had one of my best friends from school who's a girl had a baby maybe like three years ago.

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And I kind of was just like, I knew her, she'd be fine.

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She'd be great.

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And since going through it, I kind of like really bonded with her now

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and sort of check up on her a lot and knowing what we went through as parents.

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And I've kind of messaged her just being like, I'm so sorry

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that all I did was like send a teddy bear rather

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than like send like i don't know like some something else some bubble bath

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or whatever or like a lasagna or like you know like now knowing

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but yeah yeah so now when our mates have kids we make like a proper package

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because i feel like everyone sends presents for the kids

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and never them up right you always make sure we you live

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and you learn you get older

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and you learn these things i was listening to the radio the other day

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and it was actually the day

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that i found out i was going to be doing in person

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because like i said off camera before i thought this was going to be a zoom

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so it was a pleasant surprise to know

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i was going to be in person i'm happy to be doing in -person interviews.

214

Which by the way changed my thinking of how I was going to be asking questions

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and I almost felt like it was divine intervention

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because the A -Team came on the radio

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and I found myself listening to it in a completely different way

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and I don't know if it was just

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because I had you on my mind

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and I was trying to think of some some some different you know types of questions to ask you

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and then it struck me like do you hear your music on the radio

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and are you still able to be brought back to the place you were when writing that song

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or is that kind of numb to you now when you hear your songs?

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Do you get the emotion you're looking to get out of your band?

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I don't get to hear on the radio the old songs.

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And I haven't actually listened to Plus in its entirety probably since it came out, but it's the 10th anniversary this year.

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We're going to do a 10th anniversary show and just play the album in full and then that's it.

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I always love those shows where you go to and they go, we're playing the album and then they don't play any hits.

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They just go, it's the album, back to front, that's it.

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And I love the idea of doing that.

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But I feel like listening back to songs, I mean, when I wrote

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The A -Team, I was living in a student bed sit in Guildford.

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And I had just done a gig at a homeless shelter for Christmas.

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Gone and just played like covers of Bob Marley and Oasis and blah, blah, blah.

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I met this girl called Angel.

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And I just, you know, I was 18 years old.

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I'd never really seen proper poverty

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and like it being what could sort of like brought into a world

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that sort of opened up the entire world to me I'd only just moved to London and

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Just realizing that life was not a sleepy Framlingham farm town, you know life was so much so it was yeah

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So writing that song then I probably wrote

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that song like half an hour and then having

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that as like my flagship song at gigs for like years

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and years and years and then suddenly it taking off getting a record deal being signed being able to come to America,

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come and play shows for you guys and stuff like that.

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If I were to hear that song now, I would not necessarily be taken back to the time I wrote it,

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but more about the experiences that came from it, because that opened up every single door in the world to me.

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And also, it's not a fall to the floor dance tune.

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It's like a really depressing acoustic.

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So I remember coming over to America,

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and it had been a huge hit in England, Australia, Europe and everything and I don't know if Andrew remembers this,

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but there was one guy at the record label that put a drum beat over it because he was like,

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it's not going to work on US radio without a drum beat.

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And I remember tuning into a radio and hearing it and going fucking ballistic and being like, what is this?

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But being able to have a hit without drums.

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Back then as well, when everything was David Guetta and Black White Peas and blah, blah, blah.

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So I feel like that set a precedent for all the songs that I could make after that,

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that it didn't have to be a certain way.

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What have you missed the most?

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Human interaction.

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I think like everyone.

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I've missed going to have a beer with my friends in the pub.

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I've missed introducing Lyra to people.

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I think there's been so much...

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It's been a year of changes, but I'm so happy that the world is getting back to normal.

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Touring would be the second place to that, I'm assuming?

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No, because I've toured to death.

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I've toured to death.

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I miss being on stage.

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I miss being on stage, but actual touring, like when it happens, I'll be super grateful to be on tour.

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But right now, like I'd just be happy

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if you suddenly pulled up a stage now and I got a guitar on place, five people.

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That's the same buzz as going on stage to 80 ,000 people.

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You're still performing.

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Right.

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But touring is touring is fun.

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It's going to be way more fun this time

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because I'll get to take my family and we'll travel and I'll actually do things.

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I won't just.

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I never even thought about that part of it.

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Yeah.

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How cool.

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Well, because last time, so on the Multiply tour, I got really like lonely because I was on my,

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I play on stage on my own and all of my touring crew are like 50 and married with kids.

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So like they're not coming out until four o 'clock in the morning.

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So, so I just like, I just ended up going out and partying on my own a lot

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and ending in ending up in quite like fucked up situations.

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So on the Divide tour, I took four homes, home mates.

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And one was a chef so I put him in the kitchen.

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One was like a photographer, one was a videographer.

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So they all came on tour and we kind of had, we lived our 20s big time.

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And yeah, and I feel like now that's done.

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Well thank God you lived it because that would kind of suck

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if you didn't get to live that moment in your life and then now you're dad, you can't do those moments anymore.

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I didn't really get to live because all my mates went to college.

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I just went straight into gigging.

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So actually getting, knowing what your limits of alcohol are with your friends.

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You know, you can actually like push limits with friends because if it's only four of you getting pissed in a house,

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it doesn't really matter if you throw up.

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Whereas if you're on your own in a bar.

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Mate, I remember being at a bar in Philadelphia on the Taylor Tour.

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These are the best stories.

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The bar stories are always the best stories.

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I'd gone out on my own and I was playing pool with a local.

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I know, I know.

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Sorry, I know they're waving.

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That was for me.

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That wasn't for you.

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Let me tell you.

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So I'm playing pool with a local and this

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Irish rugby team are in there

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And they're like, Ed, we want to do shots with you.

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And I was like, fuck yeah.

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And then like one of them came up, took his phone out, gave me a Jager bomb, filmed me doing a Jager bomb.

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And he's like, cool.

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And then the next one came up, took his phone out, gave me a Jager bomb.

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And like 12 of them wanted an individual video of them doing a Jager bomb with me.

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And I was just like, for me, saying no to a drink from an Irishman would be like a sin.

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So I'm just kind of, I'm kind of doing it.

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I just remember walking out, tripping and just falling into a bush.

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And I was like, I should probably like get some friends.

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Well, that's the best place to end the interview.

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And Ed Sheeran, ladies and gents, he's back.

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So happy you're back, man.

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Thank you so much for everything.

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Best of luck moving forward.

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And hopefully see you at the Paramount sometime soon.

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We'll set that up.

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Maybe.

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Nice one.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Up Next - Syke talks with Ed Sheeran”. This video has 330 sentences and 3785 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:37. The speaker talks fast, about 228 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
binge noun	/bɪnd͡ʒ/	A short period of excessive consumption, especially of food, alcohol, narcotics, etc.
tune noun	/tjuːn/	A melody.
excess noun	/ˈɛksɛs/	The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
drum noun	/ˈdɹʌm/	A percussive musical instrument spanned with a thin covering on at least one end for striking, forming an acoustic chamber; a membranophone.
musician noun	/mjuˈzɪʃən/	A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession.
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.
emotion noun	/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/	A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
grief noun	/ɡɹiːf/	Suffering, hardship.
gig noun	/ɡɪɡ/	Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer.
depressing adjective	/dɪˈpɹɛsɪŋ/	Causing depression or sadness.
zoom verb	/zuːm/	To move fast with a humming noise.
guitar noun	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
necessarily adverb	/ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/	Inevitably; of necessity.
temporary adjective	/ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/	Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
open up verb		To open.
put out verb		To blind (eyes).
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
get out of verb		To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
put together verb		To assemble, construct, build, or formulate.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

How much weight have you lost?
You're just eating a little less of them.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
What have you missed the most?
I think there's been so much...

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	i've been transported · have ever had · haven't been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	i've been transported · is called · being balanced

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 122 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: bath /bɑːθ/, ethic /ˈɛθ.ɪk/, fatherhood /ˈfɑːðəːˌhʊd/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like habit, binge, tune.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Up Next - Syke talks with Ed Sheeran - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?