- 2025-05-02
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MUSIC
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Ed Sheeran Announces New Album “Play”, Premieres New Song “Old Phone” on BBC Radio 1
British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has announced his upcoming studio album “Play” will be released on September 12, 2025.
From the album, he premiered a new song “Old Phone” on BBC Radio 1's New Music Show with Jack Saunders.
The song is the second single, following “Azizam”, which was released last month.
The track was inspired by Ed Sheeran turning on a phone he had stopped using in 2015, which he had to power on again in 2018 during the discovery process for “Thinking Out Loud” copyright infringement lawsuit (which he won in 2023).
It was written and produced by Ed Sheeran, with production by Blake Slatkin and ILYA.
He recorded the song in India finishing his new album.
Ed Sheeran said of the song, “I got rid of my phone 2015, and moved onto email full time. I just turned my phone off December '15 and that was it. When I got sued, the judge ordered me to give up my old devices to the other sides lawyers, to look through messages, emails, voice notes, videos, etc, to see if there's was anything on there to help their case. In the process, I switched on my old phone. The first message was from my friend Jamal Edwards, who had recently passed away. The second was from my ex girlfriend who I hadn't been in contact with for years. The third was a family member I haven't spoken to in a decade. And so on. It felt like a time capsule, a time of life that I was in, and living at that time in 2015.”- He continued, “Turning it on really spun me out, I found myself scrolling messages and conversations with people who are no longer here. I found myself crying at messages to friends who are now dead, who I won't get to speak to again. I found old photos of me with people I was so close to then, but we've lost touch since. The whole experience was such an emotional journey.”
He added, “I wrote the song Old Phone on my own at 2am whilst jet lagged in India finishing the album, and recorded it that morning. It feels like a song that should've been on my debut album, but also a song I couldn't have written until I experienced real life things happening to me. It makes me emotional to sing, I hope it finds some emotion in you too. Maybe it makes you switch on your old phone and have a look at where you were a decade ago too. Whatever it does, I'm glad I wrote it.” -
The new album comprises 13 songs. To date, he used the album title mathematical symbols. But on the next collection, he plans to use controls on record plays, like “Play”, “Pause”, “Fast Forward”, “Rewind' and “Stop”.
Ed Sheeran said of the album, “Play was an album that was made as a direct response to the darkest period of my life. 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 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 buses 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.” - source : BBC Radio 1
