Ed Sheeran is quite busy at the moment. He won the tumultuous Marvin Gaye plagiarism trial, though he’s still disappointed that it happened at all. He just shared his new album –, or Subtract. In the midst of all this, he’s been reflecting on his career.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, he went in-depth about a lot of things, from Taylor Swift to the negative reception of his hit “Bad Habits.” About the latter, he talked about his strong belief in the song despite what people said, saying that to “stand by something” as an artist is enough.
Read what he said in full below and watch the interview above.
“…at the heart of it all, I write songs because I like writing songs and I release songs because I’m proud of them and I like it. This is a song that I like. So I think as long as you can remember that and stand by your work, however it’s received. ‘Bad Habits’ has now become a hit for me and I get to play it live. But the reception of it was really negative when I put it out. People are just like, ‘Oh God.’ I think because it’s dance music and it’s a different thing and I’m an acoustic singer-songwriter. It’s a different thing. But I stand by it because I love it and I loved the feeling of creating it… But creating it in the studio was exciting and I was excited for people to hear it. So when it came out and there was a lukewarm, if you could call it that, reaction, I was like, ‘I believe in this. I like it. I think it’ll do well.’ And you took a bit of time. And this is the thing I say to people now because no one believes me. Everyone’s like, no, it came out and it was a very lukewarm reaction. And it wasn’t a great day one streams, it wasn’t a great week one streams. It wasn’t a great month one streams. I think if you can stand by something and you believe in it, I think that’s enough for your career. And everything that I’ve made up to this point I can look back on and be like, ‘I like that. I like that.’ And I think that’s actually all that matters as an artist.”
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
