Back in Winter 2010, in The Back to the Future Issue of i-D, Music Editor Hattie Collins issued her round-up of some of the freshest talent coming out of the UK. In our new ‘i-Archive’ series, we remind ourselves of one particular redhead that caught her eye…
One of the most exciting unsigned acts working in the underground right now, Ed Sheeran captured the attention of almost every MC in the game when SB:TV featured him as part of their A64 series. He counts fans in the form of Elton John and Jamie Foxxx, who he stayed with in LA earlier this year after impressing the Oscar winner with a session on his Sirius radio show, The Foxxhole. Since the age of 14, Ed’s sold over 10,000 copies of his four EPs, and over the last two years, the teenager has played over 300 gigs, becoming a fixture on the acoustic scene, and landing tour slots with Jamie T and Example. Switching effortlessly from singer to rapper – “I’m like the lovechild of Damien Rice meets Jay-Z but… different!” – the former roadie for Nizlopi will surely not be unsigned for much longer…
Describe yourself… I’m a traveling musician. I go from sofa to sofa playing gigs, scrounging money and selling CDs. I stayed on Devlin’s mum’s sofa last night. How did it compare to Jamie Foxx’s sofa? I wasn’t scheduled to stay there and he had a lot of family visiting so the first night, he had a party, and I crashed out on a big L-shaped, cow skin sofa in the studio. Randomly one night, I was going through his DVD collection and decided to watch Collateral and he walked in. That was embarrassing. What effect did SB:TV have on your career? I’d been on the small acoustic scene playing tiny places such as Mother Bar or the Three Blind Mice for about four years but as soon as I did SB things started blowing up and I started getting paid for shows. There have been 100,000 views on one video in the last month. It really helped. Hot tips for 2011? Bluey Robinson, 100%. Yasmin is going to smash it; she’ll be the one to get biggest out of this whole shoot. Maverick Sabre, True Tiger, Roxxxan and P Money. Top UK acts? Foy Vance and Nizlopi. Last tweet you wrote? I tweeted @devlinofficial ‘about to get brekkie and go to shoot’ cos I stayed at his mum’s house last night. His mum is lovely. So is he. He didn’t have to be here till 1.30pm but he got up early and made me a cup of tea. Hopes for the future? That we all get successful. Devlin can come and sleep on my sofa then.
