Singer Ed Sheeran took to Instagram on Thursday to thank Taylor Swift for her role in helping create his new album, “Subtract.”
In the post, the “Bad Habits” singer revealed that it was actually Taylor that put him in contact with her longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner, who helped provide the instrumentals and collaborate on an album that he is “so bloody proud of.”
Ed Sheeran Thanks ‘Swizzle’ AKA Taylor Swift For Her Role In Creating ‘Subtract’
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In his latest Instagram post, the “Shape Of You” singer revealed that he had gotten a message from Taylor Swift in 2021 to work with Aaron Dessner. Although he wasn’t interested in a collaboration at the time, several things happening in his personal life led to him writing like never before. Using the instrumentals Dessner sent him for inspiration, the two ultimately wound up collaborating together in what Sheeran described as “the most incredible process.”
“So in 2021, I got a message from @taylorswift to link me up with @aarondessner. She thought he and I would make something great together,” he explained. “I have to be honest I was a bit reticent to work with him that soon after folklore and evermore because I felt that was Taylors thing and they had both been done so perfectly.”
“But we met for dinner, chatted about life and music, and he promised to send me some instrumentals for me to write over whenever inspiration hit,” he wrote. “As soon as I got them, I loved the whole overall vibe of it and knew that one day I would write to them, but at the time I was finishing up what I thought was Subtract, so would put them on the back burner for a bit.”
“Then, as I said in my announcement post, a lot of things started happening in my personal life that I just felt the need to vent about on song and write diaristically about them,” he went on. “I had Aarons instrumentals, so just started writing, and writing, and writing. He flew over to the UK and we recorded it in a week by the seaside, and its just been the most incredible process, and an album I’m so bloody proud of.”
“Thanks to Aaron and Jon for the insane amount of hard work and dedication you put into this project, and bringing out a side of me I had put on mute for so long. And of course, thanks to Swizzle, as always, you rock,” he concluded.
Many fans were excited to hear the new album. “Aaron Dessner is an absolute genius, and on top of your willingness to be so real and down-to-earth (and also your genius), I can tell this is going to be a record for the ages,” one follower commented. “This is going to be your most important and iconic work so far. So so so hyped for subtract.”
Sheeran Reveals That His New Album Explores His ‘Deepest Darkest Thoughts’
Only one day ago, the 32-year-old singer took to Instagram to announce his new album “Subtract.” In the post, Ed Sheeran admitted that he “had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art.”
“Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth,” he wrote, referring to his wife Cherry Seaborn. The couple welcomed their second daughter together last May.
“My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly, and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter,” he went on, referring to the death of Jamal Edwards and the “Shape Of You” copyright trial.
“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,” he wrote, saying that writing songs is his form of therapy.
“It helps me make sense of my feelings,” he explained. “I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts.”
“As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that,” he added.
“It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul,” he concluded. “For the first time, I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life.”
