Songwriter (2018) Movie Script
1
Oh, sorry.
All right, let me hear it.
You're already done?
Motherfucker, I gave
you two hours.
Is this too happy?
Right.
I like that.
- I do like the falsetto, though.
- -What?
The falsetto.
Gonna get my laptop
and write it down
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I was thinking of doing
something like a modern-day
"Mrs. Robinson."
Or have you got
anything going on?
You just say... you can also...
I feel like it should be
about some real shit though.
- Yeah, I know but...
- Like...
Is there any relationship shit
right now? Nothing right now.
Yeah. It's gonna be quite harsh.
It's like the man
version of a girl power tune.
Yeah, I want Benny for that bit,
though, 'cause I don't know.
It just changes, man.
When you're, like...
When you're doing it
ten years...
You think I'm gonna
lose my moment?
No, you're just gonna think...
you're gonna look at it
differently.
Like, right now, you're doing
what I did. Just, like, push,
push, push.
And dude and just,
like, you know,
take care of your moment when
you have these songs in you.
And then like, you just
feel like, and then
you just feel like...
"Wait, I'm always gonna have
these songs in me, I can slow
down a little bit."
Taylor's been pushing on ten
years, and she's pushing on.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying,
though but ?
I don't know.
Like for me, I feel it's a
little bit different as a
producer, but I'm like,
"Okay, I'm only
gonna do things...
that inspire me and I don't care
what the outcome is."
- Yo, let me inspire you.
- Let me inspire you.
Oh, someone
turned off the thing.
This is what we got.
It's gotta get a little harder, you know?
A little less happy in there.
Wow.
Yeah, 'cause
everything is set up so
good until that point.
If you love the way you
look that much, you
should just go fuck yourself.
- Too much.
- Edit.
- That's dope.
- -I do think that's pretty sick.
It instantly
becomes a classic if you
say "love yourself."
Like, it becomes less of a joke.
Yeah?
You should go
and love yourself
It kinda works, yeah.
You wanna just drop
it so we have it?
You got
something on your lens.
I started filming Ed in
2008, but , we're cousins so we
go way back.
I have a lot of cousins,
but he's probably the one I'm
closest to.
He's known me, from
like, you know being a
really weird little kid.
When I first ever went
to London when I was 16,
he let me sleep on his sofa
in Bethnal Green.
I'd film his early
gigs and stick them up on his
YouTube or MySpace.
He signed a record deal
and he asked me would
I come out on tour
and capture everything?
I mean we were, like best
mates anyway, so we're cousins
but we, kind of really ,
really bonded on tour.
We went all over.
UK, Europe, America, Asia.
It was fun.
The first time I ever saw Ed
write, he had invited Foy Vance,
who was a hero of his,
one of his favorite musicians,
to be on tour with him.
At every opportunity,
Ed would, like, pull Foy aside
and find a place in the
venue that they could go
and kinda jam it out.
Those jam sessions
turned into writing sessions,
and then I'd film all of that.
I don't think it was until 2013
that I actually properly
got in the studio
and watched him do something
from start to finish.
I guess, this is the first time
on camera you're gonna see a
song being written
bit by bit, so Murray,
make sure you get all of it.
I remember it was the
first day I met Benny Blanco.
We were in New York
and Ed had an idea for a song.
You know, I'd just been
through something that
I really needed to
get on to a song.
We made "Don't" in about two
hours. I had like a vocal loop
that went...
We made a beat out of that,
and he left me in the room.
He let me write the story
and then, yeah.
I'm never like, in like a mood
for longer than a day,
but in that day if I write a
song, that song exists forever.
It's just such a cool thing.
Something come from nothing
and become the thing that people
sing back to him at gigs
or you hear it on the
radio in your car.
To watch that from start to
finish is something special.
I guess I just wanted to capture
that more and more.
Oh... He's...
- Come on, Benny.
Fucking hell.
- Beep again, mate.
- Hi guys.
- Sir Benny Blanco.
Does anyone want string cheese?
Yeah.
We are going...
I don't even know where
the fuck we are right now,
but it's a long way
away from LA.
And we're gonna write
a lot of song stuff.
Put together all my favorite
people, musicians.
Foy, Amy and Johnny.
What are you worried about?
The thing that I'm worried
about is that I work one
on one with people.
And this is like one on
seven, all in different
rooms and kind of...
I dunno, I've never done it
before. It'll be fun.
So I got this, it goes...
Yeah.
I'll have a think and a smoke.
We'll play the track
before we start.
Wait till you hear it.
That's the, like, we had the...
We had something like that.
Yeah, but when we were talking
about it lyrically, but flipping
it around
so now, it's our turn to look
after them like they did for us
when we were young.
Yeah.
But I prefer this kind
of Springsteen-y,
sort of, you know.
-I'm gonna finish this song.
-Work away.
I'm gonna come back, and then
come here. Bit of a mindfuck.
What are you thinking?
I tell you what,
it's too many ideas.
What do you want to do?
Do we finish the song
or keep the idea
and then finish later?
-No, let's finish the song.
-Alright, come on.
This is really good.
- Do you wanna hear the song?
- -Yeah.
How's it sounding?
This shit is fire.
Yes, yes, yes.
Gonna get my laptop.
And write a song.
It's
really fucking early.
No one's awake.
I'm really jet-lagged.
How did yesterday go?
Yesterday was good.
Quite confusing.
Yeah.
I don't know if it would work
better as, like, three weeks of
individual sessions.
Probably.
I think if loads of ideas are
started, that would be great.
Could just write a song.
That'd be a good one.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, yes.
Let's just write it.
Another one?
Songs are weird things.
How so?
They just come and go.
They never give you any warning.
I've been up since 5:00, Amy.
- Oh, my God, oh, my God.
- We wrote a song, though.
- Very good.
-Come down, we'll write another one.
I'm coming down now.
You dick.
- What is this?
- Just coffee.
-I can see right through
it to Australia.
-Well, it was in the pot.
What's your future?
-That was yesterday's coffee.
-Oh, who cares?
It's basically gravy.
Alright well, you can put
it off. I'll fucking
take it back then.
Give it to me.
Wait, I'll play the other riff.
-I like that.
-Lovely.
That's great.
One more time?
It's gonna be fun.
That's it.
And there's some kind
of riff there, maybe?
Then it has different
sections. Okay, should
we put that bit down?
Can you play the chorus?
- So "The Ramblas"?
- "Ramblas, I'll meet you,
we'll dance around
La Sagrada..."
That is so good.
Yeah, let's do that. So...
Like, "Ramblas, I'll meet you...
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, good!
All right, let's write this.
Let's write this.
This is really good.
- Sagrada familia...
-Everybody get their Spanish out.
-Let's just do it.
-"Te amo mi caria."
Te amo mi caria.
- Ed would like your opinion.
- -Oh, great.
What've you
been working on, Benny?
- Bullshit.
- Bullshit.
Where are you guys?
All the way down there?
Let me get my shoes.
That's the best.
I love the Spanish.
That's amazing.
What's up, homie?
Raise the roof.
Good morning.
It's like, it goes...
I like that idea of, like...
I'm guarded.
- Yeah.
- Like... You know.
Yeah.
Benny? Benny?
Benny! Benny!
- Yeah?
- We got the next bit.
- Oh, what is it?
- I'll sing it.
All right.
I do think it should go,
"Don't tell me you need me."
- "...you need me.
" -I might have to move it down, then.
- Let's get Foy.
- Oh, my God.
Can we please?
Let's get Foy to riff.
Are you serious?
I would be so excited for that.
- So we need to write that again.
- Yeah.
I want food so bad.
- Peace.
- Benny, let's fu... Benny!
- He said, "Oh, peace!"
- Sorry. Did you hear me?
Peace!
- Wait.
- I'm eating food.
Food is ready.
I worked up an appetite.
- Oh, shit.
Holy shit. Whoo!
- I'm waiting for you.
Are you OK if it wasn't a
gypsy melody, but everything
in the music was?
We'll do it with a
dancehall beat, like...
Most of it's about grandma
and granddad.
And about my grandma and
granddad were
Protestant and Catholic
and couldn't get married.
One point of
that is that granddad made
the wedding ring
out of gold that he
stole from a dentist.
No way!
That's such a cool story.
Murray, just set up the camera
and come write with us.
-Right.
-That's cool.
Yeah, it's really good.
Should it be "I met her at
Guy's in the 2nd World War,
blah, blah..."
And the next bit is "they're
from a farmer's town in
Belfast town".
And then, in the next bit,
the second half?
Maybe.
'Cause you're, like, setting up the relationship with her.
Let's hear it.
I know, but what I'm
saying is the second
verse, half of it sets off,
and half of it is the end bit,
whereas the last verse
is all set up as well.
And I don't want
to end it going...
"I met her in the
Second World War"
You should end it being
like "From a Belfast boy
in a Belfast town..."
"And now we're sat here
old and grey, blah, blah,
with our kids."
I think that works more.
Oh! Oh, no, an hour.
Cherry lands in an hour.
Yeah, nice. Yeah.
All the songs on this album have
a thread that goes through it,
and it's all family.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah. And it's all like...
it's all family.
- It's really fucking good.
- -I'm glad you're feeling that.
Really good.
It's... yeah.
I'm not worried about
the album anymore.
The thing is, we've got
four more weeks like this.
We've got...
No, three more... yes.
Yeah, no, we haven't got
a lot, we got the boat,
and then a month,
and then another two weeks,
so two months straight.
But I imagine half of that we'll
be recording, not just writing.
And if it's the same
as the last album,
you get like three singles
gone off at the very end.
Like what was it? "Thinking Out
Loud," "Sing" and "Don't"
were after the album
was finished, no?
Yeah, but that's 'cause I
was scrambling 'cause the
album wasn't great.
I don't think I'm
scrambling this time.
Now, if you could just
get a big fucking creative
drive just before.
Yeah, I think there's got
to be a point where you...
Yeah, start the next one.
Just don't tell
Benny about them.
It's great.
Who's that? Who's that?
There they go.
- Hey, you allright?
- Hey.
-How are you doing?
-Yeah, I'm good.
-Are you?
-And you?.
Dave, Cherry. Cherry, Dave.
- Hello! Hi, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
Play the... really quickly,
the one about my grandma.
- Oh, the...
- "Nancy Mulligan."
I love it.
Right. Before we start,
this traditional band's
gonna play on it, like
fiddle and everything.
You think you'll have them
on stage and shit?
Mate, I think if you produce
that up...
I'll fuck with it. Oh my
God, this food smells so good.
Should we put
your stuff in the room?
-But, like, super soft playing.
-That's easy.
So you're like...
Go to F.
You see?
- Then we can record it...
- -I like "You seem happier."
I'll record the piano.
All right, you record.
Nobody Talk!
But record soft going into hard.
Nice one, bro.
On that section, I had
had it going back to the F.
Instead of A, G, C,
I had it going A... So it's
different. Something different.
A, F, C.
- Yeah.
- That works? Okay.
Can you hear that?
Can you hear the sound of 4,000
label executives coming to you
and being like, "Yo, we need
another one of those, Benny"?
-How many times has
that happened?
-A lot.
But I always just... I
already did that.
I hate it when the labels try to
get you to do the same song.
I just go, "But I
just did that song."
Does the label ever tell you,
they're like,
"We need you to do
another one of these"?
No.
Benny's been sending it back and
forth, but we haven't touched it
since... Malibu.
So, yeah, we just
begin on the boat.
See, he's built this studio
on a boat, it's not in a
room, it's like a...
It's like a room.
It's like bigger than that.
- No.
- Really weird.
I was expecting a cabin
with, like, on the tour bus.
Yes, same.
So what's he got?
Probably about
twice the size of that.
- This is my phone.
- He does have a phone!
Oh, my God. This boat is huge.
Like in case something goes
wrong, I don't want to be in
that orange boat.
Like, look at all the
boats and then look at
the little orange boat.
Yeah mate, you can't
get a fucking boat because
you're scared of flying
and now tell me you're gonna
be scared of a boat.
Oh no, I don't care.
I talked to this guy yesterday
'cause I was so nervous.
And he said there's only one
transatlantic boat
that has ever sank,
and it was the Titanic.
I don't fly because I was on
a flight like seven or
eight years ago
and it was one of
those flights where no one
was allowed to get up.
The whole time
they were like, "Stay seated!"
Like, people were like peeing
their pants and it was like
a big thing.
And the lady was rolling
the cart down before she
shut everyone off
and all of sudden the cart moved
and she was like, "Ah!"
And she, like,
fell and rolled down the thing.
You know when you look at the
stewardess and you really...
"You're really like.
"everything's gonna be all
right," 'cause they're smiling.
On this one they're like...
And I was fucking freaked out.
And then I got off the plane and
immediately got on another plane
that was like a six-seater
and we were in a thunderstorm
and it was fucking horrible.
And then I flew one more time
and I was like, I'm not flying
ever again.
In my head, I know exactly
what's on the album.
It's like a 12-track album,
I know like 15.
For me, when I see
them all together,
I'll know how to
produce certain things.
It's a little bit hazy for me
until we get it all together.
We have 11 for the main,
'cause I don't know
about "Happier" or "New Man,"
I have to finish "Happier" ,
I have to finish "New Man."
[BennI would be a bad
producer if we didn't work on
those two songs.
Let's think of a cool
lick or something, or a way.
Yeah, I'll do that.
- Now, play it, play it out.
- What?
These lines I need to
say something cleverer
than those two.
Okay.
Oh, that you can't sleep at all.
Like, it's like...
Like it's late at night,
you can't sleep,
you're fucking
chain-smoking in a room,
deciding whether to
fucking call the person or not
or look through all
your old shit and...
I like something about smoking a
cigarette or something.
Or alcohol or something that...
All right, mate.
Should we come grab
you a... in like...
We're going to the casino,
should we come grab you
in like half an hour?
That's that pain right there.
Let's listen to it from
the beginning.
Yeah, bruh. I like that.
-I feel bad for sending
Kev away now.
-Why?
I don't know, I can't
write when someone's just
sitting there staring.
-What, Kevin?
-No, no, just anyone.
Like, Murray's filming,
but anyone who's just there,
I just feel really, like,
self-conscious.
Murray was just like,
we have to film somewhere.
He's like: "Because we could
literally just be anywhere."
He's like, yeah, he's never been
outside. You were literally
outside one time.
I don't like going outside.
Just like you don't like flying,
I don't like being
around people.
Bruh.
- We're turning him into a sailor.
- -I made him take it.
I hate to fly.
-Do you? Oh, that's brilliant.
-I hate it.
-And here's an alternative.
-I know, I like it.
-It's very relaxing, I think.
-Yeah, starting to
go a little crazy.
Zebra!
When are you gonna
turn into a Ze-Bruh?
Can you see me?
Mean it
Sounds like "Penis."
Penis
Only if you put a P
in front of it.
Penis
Alright Benny, I
want you to do me a favor?
- Oh, God, this feels weird.
- What?
-It just suddenly went...
-Whoa, look it.
Want to stand on
that to test it?
Oh, my God, I'm gonna...
Okay.
-All right.
-Benny. Benny, this is worse.
This one's scarier?
Oh, my. Okay,
okay, you go first.
That's it. Arms sideways
just in case it breaks.
Just in case.
-That's the scariest...
-Thank you so much
for showing us around.
So this is technically
the last day on the boat,
yet you will have no idea,
because we've worn the same
clothes every single day.
So it looks like we've been
on the boat for a day.
But we haven't.
Benny looks like
he hasn't changed since 2006.
2007, please, thank you.
Wait, who am I?
-Someone I'm taking
to the zoo tomorrow.
-No, I'm you. I'm Ed.
Look I have my hands
just like him now.
Oh, I'm so happy!
Is this, like,
up north or south?
No, this is east, southeast.
This is above London.
But below, like,
Manchester and stuff like that.
I'll take you for a drive.
I'll show you all the spots.
You guys, it still feels
like I'm on a boat.
- What was it, five, six days?
-Seven.
Don't you feel like that?
- Do you feel like you're on a boat?
- -Not anymore.
Oh, man, I do. Crazy.
-What's that?
-Bitch.
So, this is the town.
- So now we're in town?
- -That's the village I lived in
and this is the town,
it's called Framlingham.
This is someone going
back to school.
All right,
boy. How ya getting on.
I recorded my first ever song
down there on Damford Drive
with my old guitar teacher,
when I was 11.
What was the song?
"Typical Average Teen"?
Really rolls off the tongue.
"Typical Average Teen."
- Remember any more of it?
- -I remember all of it,
but I'm not gonna
sing any of it.
How does the chorus go?
Is it a smash?
- Wait, is it actually that?
- -Yeah.
I just guessed that.
That was fine.
Good.
Want to spice it up a bit more?
Well, when I spice it
up, it sounds too cockney.
Oh, should we put the vocals in
so I know where they're...
What? Yeah, we can.
They said they might want to
play with...
- With me singing?
- Maybe without it.
Why don't you just sing?
Why don't we just do it like that?
Everyone happy?
Here we go. Four clicks.
Lovely.
It's getting Irish today.
It's getting
very Irish today.
Did you go to the C?
That's nice.
Do we have a song?
-I hear that more as a chorus.
-Yeah?
That's why I'm thinking
play through it there.
Or whatever, somewhere else.
Yeah.
What's...
Portlaoise
Don't do Portlaoise, Jesus.
Derry girl
Derry girl?
-Yeah, or...
-Or pretty little Derry girl.
It sounds like dairy girl.
Oh, my pretty
little Galway girl
Oh, my pretty
little Galway girl
-But you can't say Galway girl.
-I don't...
'Cause there's
a song called "Galway Girl."
Cadence wise it feels good,
though.
I think that song works better
than Galway Girl.
-I think this idea of having...
-Rap on a trad song?
Yeah. It's so unique.
- I like it.
- I do, too.
The album's missing one
of these, I need to get
the verses right.
I don't like the end of that.
Like changing that...
I don't know, I'll find a
different end line for that.
So it goes...
There you go.
Like an accordion?
Can you get on the fiddle as
well and do that...
I fucking love it.
Would it sound too busy
if it had a fiddle in the verse?
We'll soon find out?
The chorus is the same chords
as well and everyone joins
in on the motif
that you would do on the verses,
if that makes sense.
So, if you had a motif for the
verse, the kinda rappy verse,
- and then when it gets into the... ...
- everyone comes in with the same motif.
Would that sound good?
- I think so.
- Wanna try it?
F sharp.
That's nice!
That would be pretty sick,
though, if we just fused them.
We just changed
the last phrase.
One more time.
Chris, do you reckon
I can stand up?
Yeah, sure.
Can't believe
you're sitting down.
I can't believe it too.
Chris is an amateur, man.
Good,
let's get that on film.
- So good.
- That's good.
So sweaty.
So, we're going
to Thomas Mills High School now,
and I'm gonna teach some music.
It's the high school I went to.
This is the award I got at
school when I was 16
for Most Likely to be famous
at the prom.
And we're gonna see Mr. Hanley,
who's a lad, a really cool guy.
Trip down memory lane.
My music teacher at school
was a guy called Mr. Hanley.
And every time I
speak to him now,
he always maintains
that he didn't do that much.
But he really did.
He wasn't like a rigid
music teacher in the sense that
he was like,
"You have to learn
music theory or do this."
He knew from a very young age
that I liked playing guitar
and liked writing songs.
And he didn't necessarily know
about the sort of music that
I was into,
but he could see
I was passionate about music
and him as a teacher
just encouraged that,
to the point that
he'd let me leave school early
on a day to catch a train to
London to go play a gig.
Look at that.
Here we go, there it is.
Is that my handwriting?
Oh, no, there I am.
Look at the little paw and
everything! Oh, that's nuts.
- Hi.
- How are you?
This is Ed Sheeran.
There were a lot of
teachers at my school who,
I think,
didn't quite get it.
And a lot of my friends as well
just didn't get it.
I remember like dropping out of
school and moving to London
"What are you doing?
This is not gonna work out. You
want to be a famous musician,
do you?"
And I think Mr. Hanley never had
a doubt. Yeah, he's really cool.
I kinda view songwriting as
like a dirty tap in an old house
'cause you switch
on the dirty tap,
I'm gonna swear, sorry.
You switch on the dirty
tap and it spits out
shit water for
about kind of 10 minutes
and it's just mud and grit and
just all sorts of messiness
coming out.
Then it starts flowing clean
water, and then little bits of
grit still come out,
but after a while
it's just clean.
When I first started writing
songs, they were terrible.
And that was the mud
and grit coming out,
and I was unplugging it.
And I tried to write two or
three songs a day for a while,
just unplugging.
Now and then you'd get
the odd good song,
the first clean
water coming out.
And then once it all... Once all
the bad songs have gone,
the good songs start flowing.
Now and then,
I'd write a bad song,
but the key is when you know
you're writing bad songs,
make sure you finish it, just so
you can get it out of you,
because if you don't, your next
song will have a bad part in it.
So just view it as
a constant stream.
Try and write a song a day,
even if it's terrible,
just get it out of you,
because the best songs
that you write will be
five years from now.
I have notes on my phone
and every time I see something
or get something that rhymes.
I remember, the way that I
wrote "A Team" is, for a month,
I had a...
I'll tell a bad story.
I had friends that sold cocaine
from just skating to people.
And just selling it, and my
initial thing was "Johnny is in
the Class A Team,"
that's the first thing
I wrote down in my notes.
Then I went into in a
homeless shelter I met
this girl called Angel
who was on a lot of drugs.
And, like, the next thing I
wrote down was "Her face
crumbling like pastries."
And so I wrote down
all these kind of,
"A Team," "daydream,"
"pastries" "they scream".
All these rhymes in my phone
and one day sat down and the
song happened in 20 minutes.
But that was like three months
of stocking stuff up...
My self-belief came from...
I wasn't good at anything else,
so, as soon as I
started excelling,
and I was in a very small pond
as well at my school,
so I was one of maybe three
people that plays guitar and
wrote songs.
Thank you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Check this out.
That's me when I was 11,
with Steve of eighth grade.
-That would be Ben.
-He's here?
Yeah.
Hello.
What's up, man?
Should we go in the main studio
and play songs?
Yeah, sure. Or we
can do it over there.
Do you want to play "Perfect"?
Yeah. It'll sound much more
unified with an actual orchestra
because there's different string
samples from different libraries
depending on how good that
they are, I think, like
tremolo and stuff.
I think we're just gonna pull it
all and make it one tight piece.
It's gonna be good.
- It'll fit in with the rest.
- Yeah. It's gonna be
sick.
-Where will you record?
-Abbey Road.
-It's gonna be cool.
-Not bad.
Have you seen it yet?
Chez.
Thank you. Drop.
Exquisite!
- This will be a lot louder.
-It's really good.
-It's in time now as well.
-Yeah.
Can you think what's
been done in this room?
-Thank you.
-Very good.
There's edges to it as well,
you know what I mean?
Lovely arrangement.
-Yeah. Matt's done all right.
-He smashed it.
Yeah, I'm really
glad my mom came.
Yeah, 'cause her mom's ill...
she's just been there.
So she really hasn't
gotten out of the house.
Lovely stuff, and...
He can be here.
Guys, if you want to come in the
room when they're doing it,
I'm sure that's fine.
That was fantastic,
um...
This is Benny, the producer of
the album.
Okay!
Let's give it a
shot, then.
Thank you,
see you guys soon.
All right. Couldn't have gone
better. Really good.
-You love it?
-Yeah.
Thanks for singing with them.
I think it's a good idea.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea.
Really fun. I enjoyed it.
Is it all
about you then?
Maybe he's got a piece on the
side that he's singing about.
-Exciting.
-How many months' work?
Two years.
What was the
first one you wrote?
I think it was "Perfect."
"Perfect" must've been
the first one on the album.
And then...
"Castle on the Hill."
I think.
And is this
the last one that you wrote?
No, the last one I wrote
you haven't heard yet.
- I'm gonna wait til a good time to play it to you.
- -Okay.
It's the one that will make
Mommy cry.
They all make Mommy cry.
- No, this one really will.
- Really?
Can you pull up
"Supermarket Flowers"?
So have you written this
in the last few weeks?
Oh, what? "Supermarket Flowers"?
Yeah, that we wrote it
when Johnny was here.
I don't think it's the time to
play it to Mommy yet.
I think we gotta
wait a bit of time.
Wow, that
was utterly beautiful.
Yeah, definitely
don't play that for a while.
No.
So this song
that they reckon is missing.
I've got an idea of a
song in my head
that I think will sort it out.
Cool.
That's my one little thing
I'm clinging onto,
being like, everything's gonna
be all right 'cause I've got
this idea.
Either than that, if I didn't
have that idea, I'd be fucked,
when they asked,
"Yeah, one more song."
I'd be like,
"I have no ideas anymore!
You've run me dry.
You run me... you run me down."
"You run me down."
They just want it to
be a classic, but...
And so do I. And I do agree with
them that it needs something
that is kind of like "Don't" or
"New Man" or "Bloodstream"
that's just kind of a bit
to the point, but that
isn't a throwaway.
Out.
I like that. The whole song
feels, like, high,
and then when that
kicks in, I like it.
Can you take out that one part?
Whatever new bit you put
in the "Oh I, oh I, oh I"
of the old one.
That needs to go,
'cause it's wrong.
And then take out
the other thing that's put in.
You guys put in so much stuff.
Just... I don't know.
So much stuff that wasn't there,
that shouldn't be there.
I thought we
were just mixing it.
Just let me do it,
it'll sound good, I promise you.
It's just there's a reason why
it comes in and comes out,
'cause if there's something
there, then by the time the "Oh
I, oh I" comes in
it doesn't lift at all.
If you want it to lift and
drop, and do all of that,
then keep it the
same way it was.
'Cause the point in it was
the chorus is a step back,
and then when it
kicks in, it kicks in.
And if it just kicks in
through the whole song, it
just gonna sound shit.
I promise you
it will sound better this way.
We'll have a listen
in the car later.
This is the best way, though.
Can that kick in more
when it comes in?
All this one?
No, that's cool,
there's a jangly guitar.
I know exactly where that is.
That's good.
I like that. No, there's like
a really high jangly one.
That...
That one.
Those need to come
down a little bit.
Or they need to be not
as high frequency.
Just a bid more mid.
Might have to
re-sing that last line.
I need to go through
those original BVs with you
just to make sure I've
got the right ones,
and make sure
we don't need to add any to it.
-Just to make it more powerful.
-That's why I liked the
lower ones.
Yeah.
So you're saying the
new low ones won't
work with the original?
No. But I don't particularly
like the original.
Right.
Because on Steve's version,
right? The newer vocals
really kick in for me.
Why don't you like those ones?
I don't dislike
them, but I think the old
one has the higher part,
which I think is the most
important part of all to me,
that's the hooky one.
You should maybe do an ad-lib
on that final chorus as well.
Cue.
Spike, do you want me to
try doing "Oh I, oh I, oh I"
the low ones?
If you want that
massive, that'll really help.
-See, I love the new
ones you did.
-Yeah?
Cause they sound like that.
They got that rich, thick...
What? I don't understand
what their...
Do you get this a lot
from labels?
-I know.
-And that's a rare
fucking thing.
- Sounds great, man.
- Yeah?
That's sick. That fucking final
chorus is incredible.
- Well done, mate.
- Thanks.
- Teamwork.
- -Teamwork makes the dream work.
So, this is Spike's mix
that I did when I went down
to Spike's house.
Of it.
That's... Use that as a
reference and have everything
the same volume.
And then in the solo, take
out everything but the
guitar and Pino's bass
and my acoustic guitar,
and then keep the ride in.
And take the "chun, chun, chun"
piano out
and put the "ding, ding, ding"
guitar in the verse.
What song is that about?
That was "Perfect," which
is the last song to be
finished for the album.
We did an orchestral version
with my brother
which was a bit too orchestral,
and then I did an acoustic
version on my own, which is a
bit too acoustic.
So, we've now fused the two
and they sound great.
Yeah, the last song to be
done on the album and then
we're mastering it.
-Tuesday. Thanks, man.
-The struggle is real.
Oh, I'm done by the way,
I'm all done.
No, you're good.
You're good, you're good.
Yeah, we're mastering it Tuesday
and then sending it
off to be printed.
- Are you excited about that?
-It's the album!
I keep listening to the radio
and being, like,
really like my competitive
side's coming back.
And I just can't wait to put
some music out so I can get...
I've had to...
I've had to sort of keep
my competitive side on
the low this year.
You know, I did a couple of
singles for other people,
which sort of kept me going.
My main target's Adele now.
I think if you don't want to be
bigger than Adele,
then you're in the
wrong industry.
Think she's the target
for everyone.
I don't want to be the male
Adele, I want to be Adele.
Wanna just... overdo that,
so gotta sell 30 million.
That's easy.
Is this on?
One, two, oh, hello.
- Can I explain the bank to you?
-Yes.
-The bank button. Basically...
-What's the bank button?
This will light up and
it will give you five,
six, seven, eight.
For the moment, we just put
a distorted guitar on key.
Then we put a reverb.
And then two more vocals.
So it's just a demo mode,
but you know how you're in five,
six, seven, eight by the light.
That's the only difference.
And when you record a loop,
these will give you undo layers,
so you can see the layers
with this one here.
Undo them, basically.
-Yeah. Couple of little new
things, but...
-This is cool.
I think that's self-explanatory.
That just needs tightening.
I agree.
I always thought that "Castle on
the Hill" would be the opening.
-It's the obvious...
-No, I know.
But "Eraser" just sounds
so good on the album.
I don't know if "Eraser" is
gonna sound... good.
Doesn't feel like it, right?
-No, doesn't, but
I don't know if it's...
I don't know if it
fits in the set yet.
I don't know.
I'm not super confident
about all the songs yet.
All right.
Yeah, I'm rehearsing.
Rehearsing the live show.
Just having a year of not
really picking up a guitar
and playing those songs, It just
kind of, it's all gone away.
But, yeah,
I'll just have to practice them.
The album is done.
Finished, mixed,
mastered, handed in.
And it's first time I've ever
had an album and looked at the
track listing
and be, like, I could
never do better than that in
my wildest dreams.
It's the peak of my songwriting
and musical ability.
And it might be the peak,
it might be that I never
get this again, but I
know that when I'm 70,
I'll look back and be,
"That's my finest bit of work."
I just have a weird sense
about this album that's gonna be
the career-defining
album, much more so than
"Plus" and "Multiply".
You know, the last two albums
were building up to something,
and I feel like this
is the payoff.
This one, it definitely
feels... feels magical.
Can't think of a better
fucking way to spend it.
- We got one minute.
- Drumroll, drumroll!
Five, four,
three, two, one!
Ed! Ed! Ed Sheeran!
Why do his guitars get this
messed up?
I never actually
planned to bring Benny,
he just invited himself.
He's like, "Hey, yo, I'm coming.
I'm coming on the road
with a studio bus."
And now he's here.
Have a good day, sir.
This is the guitar I learnt on.
It's a Christmas
present from Clapton.
Granddad would be proud.
"Subtract," maybe?
Oh, sorry.
All right, let me hear it.
You're already done?
Motherfucker, I gave
you two hours.
Is this too happy?
Right.
I like that.
- I do like the falsetto, though.
- -What?
The falsetto.
Gonna get my laptop
and write it down
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I was thinking of doing
something like a modern-day
"Mrs. Robinson."
Or have you got
anything going on?
You just say... you can also...
I feel like it should be
about some real shit though.
- Yeah, I know but...
- Like...
Is there any relationship shit
right now? Nothing right now.
Yeah. It's gonna be quite harsh.
It's like the man
version of a girl power tune.
Yeah, I want Benny for that bit,
though, 'cause I don't know.
It just changes, man.
When you're, like...
When you're doing it
ten years...
You think I'm gonna
lose my moment?
No, you're just gonna think...
you're gonna look at it
differently.
Like, right now, you're doing
what I did. Just, like, push,
push, push.
And dude and just,
like, you know,
take care of your moment when
you have these songs in you.
And then like, you just
feel like, and then
you just feel like...
"Wait, I'm always gonna have
these songs in me, I can slow
down a little bit."
Taylor's been pushing on ten
years, and she's pushing on.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying,
though but ?
I don't know.
Like for me, I feel it's a
little bit different as a
producer, but I'm like,
"Okay, I'm only
gonna do things...
that inspire me and I don't care
what the outcome is."
- Yo, let me inspire you.
- Let me inspire you.
Oh, someone
turned off the thing.
This is what we got.
It's gotta get a little harder, you know?
A little less happy in there.
Wow.
Yeah, 'cause
everything is set up so
good until that point.
If you love the way you
look that much, you
should just go fuck yourself.
- Too much.
- Edit.
- That's dope.
- -I do think that's pretty sick.
It instantly
becomes a classic if you
say "love yourself."
Like, it becomes less of a joke.
Yeah?
You should go
and love yourself
It kinda works, yeah.
You wanna just drop
it so we have it?
You got
something on your lens.
I started filming Ed in
2008, but , we're cousins so we
go way back.
I have a lot of cousins,
but he's probably the one I'm
closest to.
He's known me, from
like, you know being a
really weird little kid.
When I first ever went
to London when I was 16,
he let me sleep on his sofa
in Bethnal Green.
I'd film his early
gigs and stick them up on his
YouTube or MySpace.
He signed a record deal
and he asked me would
I come out on tour
and capture everything?
I mean we were, like best
mates anyway, so we're cousins
but we, kind of really ,
really bonded on tour.
We went all over.
UK, Europe, America, Asia.
It was fun.
The first time I ever saw Ed
write, he had invited Foy Vance,
who was a hero of his,
one of his favorite musicians,
to be on tour with him.
At every opportunity,
Ed would, like, pull Foy aside
and find a place in the
venue that they could go
and kinda jam it out.
Those jam sessions
turned into writing sessions,
and then I'd film all of that.
I don't think it was until 2013
that I actually properly
got in the studio
and watched him do something
from start to finish.
I guess, this is the first time
on camera you're gonna see a
song being written
bit by bit, so Murray,
make sure you get all of it.
I remember it was the
first day I met Benny Blanco.
We were in New York
and Ed had an idea for a song.
You know, I'd just been
through something that
I really needed to
get on to a song.
We made "Don't" in about two
hours. I had like a vocal loop
that went...
We made a beat out of that,
and he left me in the room.
He let me write the story
and then, yeah.
I'm never like, in like a mood
for longer than a day,
but in that day if I write a
song, that song exists forever.
It's just such a cool thing.
Something come from nothing
and become the thing that people
sing back to him at gigs
or you hear it on the
radio in your car.
To watch that from start to
finish is something special.
I guess I just wanted to capture
that more and more.
Oh... He's...
- Come on, Benny.
Fucking hell.
- Beep again, mate.
- Hi guys.
- Sir Benny Blanco.
Does anyone want string cheese?
Yeah.
We are going...
I don't even know where
the fuck we are right now,
but it's a long way
away from LA.
And we're gonna write
a lot of song stuff.
Put together all my favorite
people, musicians.
Foy, Amy and Johnny.
What are you worried about?
The thing that I'm worried
about is that I work one
on one with people.
And this is like one on
seven, all in different
rooms and kind of...
I dunno, I've never done it
before. It'll be fun.
So I got this, it goes...
Yeah.
I'll have a think and a smoke.
We'll play the track
before we start.
Wait till you hear it.
That's the, like, we had the...
We had something like that.
Yeah, but when we were talking
about it lyrically, but flipping
it around
so now, it's our turn to look
after them like they did for us
when we were young.
Yeah.
But I prefer this kind
of Springsteen-y,
sort of, you know.
-I'm gonna finish this song.
-Work away.
I'm gonna come back, and then
come here. Bit of a mindfuck.
What are you thinking?
I tell you what,
it's too many ideas.
What do you want to do?
Do we finish the song
or keep the idea
and then finish later?
-No, let's finish the song.
-Alright, come on.
This is really good.
- Do you wanna hear the song?
- -Yeah.
How's it sounding?
This shit is fire.
Yes, yes, yes.
Gonna get my laptop.
And write a song.
It's
really fucking early.
No one's awake.
I'm really jet-lagged.
How did yesterday go?
Yesterday was good.
Quite confusing.
Yeah.
I don't know if it would work
better as, like, three weeks of
individual sessions.
Probably.
I think if loads of ideas are
started, that would be great.
Could just write a song.
That'd be a good one.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, yes.
Let's just write it.
Another one?
Songs are weird things.
How so?
They just come and go.
They never give you any warning.
I've been up since 5:00, Amy.
- Oh, my God, oh, my God.
- We wrote a song, though.
- Very good.
-Come down, we'll write another one.
I'm coming down now.
You dick.
- What is this?
- Just coffee.
-I can see right through
it to Australia.
-Well, it was in the pot.
What's your future?
-That was yesterday's coffee.
-Oh, who cares?
It's basically gravy.
Alright well, you can put
it off. I'll fucking
take it back then.
Give it to me.
Wait, I'll play the other riff.
-I like that.
-Lovely.
That's great.
One more time?
It's gonna be fun.
That's it.
And there's some kind
of riff there, maybe?
Then it has different
sections. Okay, should
we put that bit down?
Can you play the chorus?
- So "The Ramblas"?
- "Ramblas, I'll meet you,
we'll dance around
La Sagrada..."
That is so good.
Yeah, let's do that. So...
Like, "Ramblas, I'll meet you...
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, good!
All right, let's write this.
Let's write this.
This is really good.
- Sagrada familia...
-Everybody get their Spanish out.
-Let's just do it.
-"Te amo mi caria."
Te amo mi caria.
- Ed would like your opinion.
- -Oh, great.
What've you
been working on, Benny?
- Bullshit.
- Bullshit.
Where are you guys?
All the way down there?
Let me get my shoes.
That's the best.
I love the Spanish.
That's amazing.
What's up, homie?
Raise the roof.
Good morning.
It's like, it goes...
I like that idea of, like...
I'm guarded.
- Yeah.
- Like... You know.
Yeah.
Benny? Benny?
Benny! Benny!
- Yeah?
- We got the next bit.
- Oh, what is it?
- I'll sing it.
All right.
I do think it should go,
"Don't tell me you need me."
- "...you need me.
" -I might have to move it down, then.
- Let's get Foy.
- Oh, my God.
Can we please?
Let's get Foy to riff.
Are you serious?
I would be so excited for that.
- So we need to write that again.
- Yeah.
I want food so bad.
- Peace.
- Benny, let's fu... Benny!
- He said, "Oh, peace!"
- Sorry. Did you hear me?
Peace!
- Wait.
- I'm eating food.
Food is ready.
I worked up an appetite.
- Oh, shit.
Holy shit. Whoo!
- I'm waiting for you.
Are you OK if it wasn't a
gypsy melody, but everything
in the music was?
We'll do it with a
dancehall beat, like...
Most of it's about grandma
and granddad.
And about my grandma and
granddad were
Protestant and Catholic
and couldn't get married.
One point of
that is that granddad made
the wedding ring
out of gold that he
stole from a dentist.
No way!
That's such a cool story.
Murray, just set up the camera
and come write with us.
-Right.
-That's cool.
Yeah, it's really good.
Should it be "I met her at
Guy's in the 2nd World War,
blah, blah..."
And the next bit is "they're
from a farmer's town in
Belfast town".
And then, in the next bit,
the second half?
Maybe.
'Cause you're, like, setting up the relationship with her.
Let's hear it.
I know, but what I'm
saying is the second
verse, half of it sets off,
and half of it is the end bit,
whereas the last verse
is all set up as well.
And I don't want
to end it going...
"I met her in the
Second World War"
You should end it being
like "From a Belfast boy
in a Belfast town..."
"And now we're sat here
old and grey, blah, blah,
with our kids."
I think that works more.
Oh! Oh, no, an hour.
Cherry lands in an hour.
Yeah, nice. Yeah.
All the songs on this album have
a thread that goes through it,
and it's all family.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah. And it's all like...
it's all family.
- It's really fucking good.
- -I'm glad you're feeling that.
Really good.
It's... yeah.
I'm not worried about
the album anymore.
The thing is, we've got
four more weeks like this.
We've got...
No, three more... yes.
Yeah, no, we haven't got
a lot, we got the boat,
and then a month,
and then another two weeks,
so two months straight.
But I imagine half of that we'll
be recording, not just writing.
And if it's the same
as the last album,
you get like three singles
gone off at the very end.
Like what was it? "Thinking Out
Loud," "Sing" and "Don't"
were after the album
was finished, no?
Yeah, but that's 'cause I
was scrambling 'cause the
album wasn't great.
I don't think I'm
scrambling this time.
Now, if you could just
get a big fucking creative
drive just before.
Yeah, I think there's got
to be a point where you...
Yeah, start the next one.
Just don't tell
Benny about them.
It's great.
Who's that? Who's that?
There they go.
- Hey, you allright?
- Hey.
-How are you doing?
-Yeah, I'm good.
-Are you?
-And you?.
Dave, Cherry. Cherry, Dave.
- Hello! Hi, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
Play the... really quickly,
the one about my grandma.
- Oh, the...
- "Nancy Mulligan."
I love it.
Right. Before we start,
this traditional band's
gonna play on it, like
fiddle and everything.
You think you'll have them
on stage and shit?
Mate, I think if you produce
that up...
I'll fuck with it. Oh my
God, this food smells so good.
Should we put
your stuff in the room?
-But, like, super soft playing.
-That's easy.
So you're like...
Go to F.
You see?
- Then we can record it...
- -I like "You seem happier."
I'll record the piano.
All right, you record.
Nobody Talk!
But record soft going into hard.
Nice one, bro.
On that section, I had
had it going back to the F.
Instead of A, G, C,
I had it going A... So it's
different. Something different.
A, F, C.
- Yeah.
- That works? Okay.
Can you hear that?
Can you hear the sound of 4,000
label executives coming to you
and being like, "Yo, we need
another one of those, Benny"?
-How many times has
that happened?
-A lot.
But I always just... I
already did that.
I hate it when the labels try to
get you to do the same song.
I just go, "But I
just did that song."
Does the label ever tell you,
they're like,
"We need you to do
another one of these"?
No.
Benny's been sending it back and
forth, but we haven't touched it
since... Malibu.
So, yeah, we just
begin on the boat.
See, he's built this studio
on a boat, it's not in a
room, it's like a...
It's like a room.
It's like bigger than that.
- No.
- Really weird.
I was expecting a cabin
with, like, on the tour bus.
Yes, same.
So what's he got?
Probably about
twice the size of that.
- This is my phone.
- He does have a phone!
Oh, my God. This boat is huge.
Like in case something goes
wrong, I don't want to be in
that orange boat.
Like, look at all the
boats and then look at
the little orange boat.
Yeah mate, you can't
get a fucking boat because
you're scared of flying
and now tell me you're gonna
be scared of a boat.
Oh no, I don't care.
I talked to this guy yesterday
'cause I was so nervous.
And he said there's only one
transatlantic boat
that has ever sank,
and it was the Titanic.
I don't fly because I was on
a flight like seven or
eight years ago
and it was one of
those flights where no one
was allowed to get up.
The whole time
they were like, "Stay seated!"
Like, people were like peeing
their pants and it was like
a big thing.
And the lady was rolling
the cart down before she
shut everyone off
and all of sudden the cart moved
and she was like, "Ah!"
And she, like,
fell and rolled down the thing.
You know when you look at the
stewardess and you really...
"You're really like.
"everything's gonna be all
right," 'cause they're smiling.
On this one they're like...
And I was fucking freaked out.
And then I got off the plane and
immediately got on another plane
that was like a six-seater
and we were in a thunderstorm
and it was fucking horrible.
And then I flew one more time
and I was like, I'm not flying
ever again.
In my head, I know exactly
what's on the album.
It's like a 12-track album,
I know like 15.
For me, when I see
them all together,
I'll know how to
produce certain things.
It's a little bit hazy for me
until we get it all together.
We have 11 for the main,
'cause I don't know
about "Happier" or "New Man,"
I have to finish "Happier" ,
I have to finish "New Man."
[BennI would be a bad
producer if we didn't work on
those two songs.
Let's think of a cool
lick or something, or a way.
Yeah, I'll do that.
- Now, play it, play it out.
- What?
These lines I need to
say something cleverer
than those two.
Okay.
Oh, that you can't sleep at all.
Like, it's like...
Like it's late at night,
you can't sleep,
you're fucking
chain-smoking in a room,
deciding whether to
fucking call the person or not
or look through all
your old shit and...
I like something about smoking a
cigarette or something.
Or alcohol or something that...
All right, mate.
Should we come grab
you a... in like...
We're going to the casino,
should we come grab you
in like half an hour?
That's that pain right there.
Let's listen to it from
the beginning.
Yeah, bruh. I like that.
-I feel bad for sending
Kev away now.
-Why?
I don't know, I can't
write when someone's just
sitting there staring.
-What, Kevin?
-No, no, just anyone.
Like, Murray's filming,
but anyone who's just there,
I just feel really, like,
self-conscious.
Murray was just like,
we have to film somewhere.
He's like: "Because we could
literally just be anywhere."
He's like, yeah, he's never been
outside. You were literally
outside one time.
I don't like going outside.
Just like you don't like flying,
I don't like being
around people.
Bruh.
- We're turning him into a sailor.
- -I made him take it.
I hate to fly.
-Do you? Oh, that's brilliant.
-I hate it.
-And here's an alternative.
-I know, I like it.
-It's very relaxing, I think.
-Yeah, starting to
go a little crazy.
Zebra!
When are you gonna
turn into a Ze-Bruh?
Can you see me?
Mean it
Sounds like "Penis."
Penis
Only if you put a P
in front of it.
Penis
Alright Benny, I
want you to do me a favor?
- Oh, God, this feels weird.
- What?
-It just suddenly went...
-Whoa, look it.
Want to stand on
that to test it?
Oh, my God, I'm gonna...
Okay.
-All right.
-Benny. Benny, this is worse.
This one's scarier?
Oh, my. Okay,
okay, you go first.
That's it. Arms sideways
just in case it breaks.
Just in case.
-That's the scariest...
-Thank you so much
for showing us around.
So this is technically
the last day on the boat,
yet you will have no idea,
because we've worn the same
clothes every single day.
So it looks like we've been
on the boat for a day.
But we haven't.
Benny looks like
he hasn't changed since 2006.
2007, please, thank you.
Wait, who am I?
-Someone I'm taking
to the zoo tomorrow.
-No, I'm you. I'm Ed.
Look I have my hands
just like him now.
Oh, I'm so happy!
Is this, like,
up north or south?
No, this is east, southeast.
This is above London.
But below, like,
Manchester and stuff like that.
I'll take you for a drive.
I'll show you all the spots.
You guys, it still feels
like I'm on a boat.
- What was it, five, six days?
-Seven.
Don't you feel like that?
- Do you feel like you're on a boat?
- -Not anymore.
Oh, man, I do. Crazy.
-What's that?
-Bitch.
So, this is the town.
- So now we're in town?
- -That's the village I lived in
and this is the town,
it's called Framlingham.
This is someone going
back to school.
All right,
boy. How ya getting on.
I recorded my first ever song
down there on Damford Drive
with my old guitar teacher,
when I was 11.
What was the song?
"Typical Average Teen"?
Really rolls off the tongue.
"Typical Average Teen."
- Remember any more of it?
- -I remember all of it,
but I'm not gonna
sing any of it.
How does the chorus go?
Is it a smash?
- Wait, is it actually that?
- -Yeah.
I just guessed that.
That was fine.
Good.
Want to spice it up a bit more?
Well, when I spice it
up, it sounds too cockney.
Oh, should we put the vocals in
so I know where they're...
What? Yeah, we can.
They said they might want to
play with...
- With me singing?
- Maybe without it.
Why don't you just sing?
Why don't we just do it like that?
Everyone happy?
Here we go. Four clicks.
Lovely.
It's getting Irish today.
It's getting
very Irish today.
Did you go to the C?
That's nice.
Do we have a song?
-I hear that more as a chorus.
-Yeah?
That's why I'm thinking
play through it there.
Or whatever, somewhere else.
Yeah.
What's...
Portlaoise
Don't do Portlaoise, Jesus.
Derry girl
Derry girl?
-Yeah, or...
-Or pretty little Derry girl.
It sounds like dairy girl.
Oh, my pretty
little Galway girl
Oh, my pretty
little Galway girl
-But you can't say Galway girl.
-I don't...
'Cause there's
a song called "Galway Girl."
Cadence wise it feels good,
though.
I think that song works better
than Galway Girl.
-I think this idea of having...
-Rap on a trad song?
Yeah. It's so unique.
- I like it.
- I do, too.
The album's missing one
of these, I need to get
the verses right.
I don't like the end of that.
Like changing that...
I don't know, I'll find a
different end line for that.
So it goes...
There you go.
Like an accordion?
Can you get on the fiddle as
well and do that...
I fucking love it.
Would it sound too busy
if it had a fiddle in the verse?
We'll soon find out?
The chorus is the same chords
as well and everyone joins
in on the motif
that you would do on the verses,
if that makes sense.
So, if you had a motif for the
verse, the kinda rappy verse,
- and then when it gets into the... ...
- everyone comes in with the same motif.
Would that sound good?
- I think so.
- Wanna try it?
F sharp.
That's nice!
That would be pretty sick,
though, if we just fused them.
We just changed
the last phrase.
One more time.
Chris, do you reckon
I can stand up?
Yeah, sure.
Can't believe
you're sitting down.
I can't believe it too.
Chris is an amateur, man.
Good,
let's get that on film.
- So good.
- That's good.
So sweaty.
So, we're going
to Thomas Mills High School now,
and I'm gonna teach some music.
It's the high school I went to.
This is the award I got at
school when I was 16
for Most Likely to be famous
at the prom.
And we're gonna see Mr. Hanley,
who's a lad, a really cool guy.
Trip down memory lane.
My music teacher at school
was a guy called Mr. Hanley.
And every time I
speak to him now,
he always maintains
that he didn't do that much.
But he really did.
He wasn't like a rigid
music teacher in the sense that
he was like,
"You have to learn
music theory or do this."
He knew from a very young age
that I liked playing guitar
and liked writing songs.
And he didn't necessarily know
about the sort of music that
I was into,
but he could see
I was passionate about music
and him as a teacher
just encouraged that,
to the point that
he'd let me leave school early
on a day to catch a train to
London to go play a gig.
Look at that.
Here we go, there it is.
Is that my handwriting?
Oh, no, there I am.
Look at the little paw and
everything! Oh, that's nuts.
- Hi.
- How are you?
This is Ed Sheeran.
There were a lot of
teachers at my school who,
I think,
didn't quite get it.
And a lot of my friends as well
just didn't get it.
I remember like dropping out of
school and moving to London
"What are you doing?
This is not gonna work out. You
want to be a famous musician,
do you?"
And I think Mr. Hanley never had
a doubt. Yeah, he's really cool.
I kinda view songwriting as
like a dirty tap in an old house
'cause you switch
on the dirty tap,
I'm gonna swear, sorry.
You switch on the dirty
tap and it spits out
shit water for
about kind of 10 minutes
and it's just mud and grit and
just all sorts of messiness
coming out.
Then it starts flowing clean
water, and then little bits of
grit still come out,
but after a while
it's just clean.
When I first started writing
songs, they were terrible.
And that was the mud
and grit coming out,
and I was unplugging it.
And I tried to write two or
three songs a day for a while,
just unplugging.
Now and then you'd get
the odd good song,
the first clean
water coming out.
And then once it all... Once all
the bad songs have gone,
the good songs start flowing.
Now and then,
I'd write a bad song,
but the key is when you know
you're writing bad songs,
make sure you finish it, just so
you can get it out of you,
because if you don't, your next
song will have a bad part in it.
So just view it as
a constant stream.
Try and write a song a day,
even if it's terrible,
just get it out of you,
because the best songs
that you write will be
five years from now.
I have notes on my phone
and every time I see something
or get something that rhymes.
I remember, the way that I
wrote "A Team" is, for a month,
I had a...
I'll tell a bad story.
I had friends that sold cocaine
from just skating to people.
And just selling it, and my
initial thing was "Johnny is in
the Class A Team,"
that's the first thing
I wrote down in my notes.
Then I went into in a
homeless shelter I met
this girl called Angel
who was on a lot of drugs.
And, like, the next thing I
wrote down was "Her face
crumbling like pastries."
And so I wrote down
all these kind of,
"A Team," "daydream,"
"pastries" "they scream".
All these rhymes in my phone
and one day sat down and the
song happened in 20 minutes.
But that was like three months
of stocking stuff up...
My self-belief came from...
I wasn't good at anything else,
so, as soon as I
started excelling,
and I was in a very small pond
as well at my school,
so I was one of maybe three
people that plays guitar and
wrote songs.
Thank you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Check this out.
That's me when I was 11,
with Steve of eighth grade.
-That would be Ben.
-He's here?
Yeah.
Hello.
What's up, man?
Should we go in the main studio
and play songs?
Yeah, sure. Or we
can do it over there.
Do you want to play "Perfect"?
Yeah. It'll sound much more
unified with an actual orchestra
because there's different string
samples from different libraries
depending on how good that
they are, I think, like
tremolo and stuff.
I think we're just gonna pull it
all and make it one tight piece.
It's gonna be good.
- It'll fit in with the rest.
- Yeah. It's gonna be
sick.
-Where will you record?
-Abbey Road.
-It's gonna be cool.
-Not bad.
Have you seen it yet?
Chez.
Thank you. Drop.
Exquisite!
- This will be a lot louder.
-It's really good.
-It's in time now as well.
-Yeah.
Can you think what's
been done in this room?
-Thank you.
-Very good.
There's edges to it as well,
you know what I mean?
Lovely arrangement.
-Yeah. Matt's done all right.
-He smashed it.
Yeah, I'm really
glad my mom came.
Yeah, 'cause her mom's ill...
she's just been there.
So she really hasn't
gotten out of the house.
Lovely stuff, and...
He can be here.
Guys, if you want to come in the
room when they're doing it,
I'm sure that's fine.
That was fantastic,
um...
This is Benny, the producer of
the album.
Okay!
Let's give it a
shot, then.
Thank you,
see you guys soon.
All right. Couldn't have gone
better. Really good.
-You love it?
-Yeah.
Thanks for singing with them.
I think it's a good idea.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea.
Really fun. I enjoyed it.
Is it all
about you then?
Maybe he's got a piece on the
side that he's singing about.
-Exciting.
-How many months' work?
Two years.
What was the
first one you wrote?
I think it was "Perfect."
"Perfect" must've been
the first one on the album.
And then...
"Castle on the Hill."
I think.
And is this
the last one that you wrote?
No, the last one I wrote
you haven't heard yet.
- I'm gonna wait til a good time to play it to you.
- -Okay.
It's the one that will make
Mommy cry.
They all make Mommy cry.
- No, this one really will.
- Really?
Can you pull up
"Supermarket Flowers"?
So have you written this
in the last few weeks?
Oh, what? "Supermarket Flowers"?
Yeah, that we wrote it
when Johnny was here.
I don't think it's the time to
play it to Mommy yet.
I think we gotta
wait a bit of time.
Wow, that
was utterly beautiful.
Yeah, definitely
don't play that for a while.
No.
So this song
that they reckon is missing.
I've got an idea of a
song in my head
that I think will sort it out.
Cool.
That's my one little thing
I'm clinging onto,
being like, everything's gonna
be all right 'cause I've got
this idea.
Either than that, if I didn't
have that idea, I'd be fucked,
when they asked,
"Yeah, one more song."
I'd be like,
"I have no ideas anymore!
You've run me dry.
You run me... you run me down."
"You run me down."
They just want it to
be a classic, but...
And so do I. And I do agree with
them that it needs something
that is kind of like "Don't" or
"New Man" or "Bloodstream"
that's just kind of a bit
to the point, but that
isn't a throwaway.
Out.
I like that. The whole song
feels, like, high,
and then when that
kicks in, I like it.
Can you take out that one part?
Whatever new bit you put
in the "Oh I, oh I, oh I"
of the old one.
That needs to go,
'cause it's wrong.
And then take out
the other thing that's put in.
You guys put in so much stuff.
Just... I don't know.
So much stuff that wasn't there,
that shouldn't be there.
I thought we
were just mixing it.
Just let me do it,
it'll sound good, I promise you.
It's just there's a reason why
it comes in and comes out,
'cause if there's something
there, then by the time the "Oh
I, oh I" comes in
it doesn't lift at all.
If you want it to lift and
drop, and do all of that,
then keep it the
same way it was.
'Cause the point in it was
the chorus is a step back,
and then when it
kicks in, it kicks in.
And if it just kicks in
through the whole song, it
just gonna sound shit.
I promise you
it will sound better this way.
We'll have a listen
in the car later.
This is the best way, though.
Can that kick in more
when it comes in?
All this one?
No, that's cool,
there's a jangly guitar.
I know exactly where that is.
That's good.
I like that. No, there's like
a really high jangly one.
That...
That one.
Those need to come
down a little bit.
Or they need to be not
as high frequency.
Just a bid more mid.
Might have to
re-sing that last line.
I need to go through
those original BVs with you
just to make sure I've
got the right ones,
and make sure
we don't need to add any to it.
-Just to make it more powerful.
-That's why I liked the
lower ones.
Yeah.
So you're saying the
new low ones won't
work with the original?
No. But I don't particularly
like the original.
Right.
Because on Steve's version,
right? The newer vocals
really kick in for me.
Why don't you like those ones?
I don't dislike
them, but I think the old
one has the higher part,
which I think is the most
important part of all to me,
that's the hooky one.
You should maybe do an ad-lib
on that final chorus as well.
Cue.
Spike, do you want me to
try doing "Oh I, oh I, oh I"
the low ones?
If you want that
massive, that'll really help.
-See, I love the new
ones you did.
-Yeah?
Cause they sound like that.
They got that rich, thick...
What? I don't understand
what their...
Do you get this a lot
from labels?
-I know.
-And that's a rare
fucking thing.
- Sounds great, man.
- Yeah?
That's sick. That fucking final
chorus is incredible.
- Well done, mate.
- Thanks.
- Teamwork.
- -Teamwork makes the dream work.
So, this is Spike's mix
that I did when I went down
to Spike's house.
Of it.
That's... Use that as a
reference and have everything
the same volume.
And then in the solo, take
out everything but the
guitar and Pino's bass
and my acoustic guitar,
and then keep the ride in.
And take the "chun, chun, chun"
piano out
and put the "ding, ding, ding"
guitar in the verse.
What song is that about?
That was "Perfect," which
is the last song to be
finished for the album.
We did an orchestral version
with my brother
which was a bit too orchestral,
and then I did an acoustic
version on my own, which is a
bit too acoustic.
So, we've now fused the two
and they sound great.
Yeah, the last song to be
done on the album and then
we're mastering it.
-Tuesday. Thanks, man.
-The struggle is real.
Oh, I'm done by the way,
I'm all done.
No, you're good.
You're good, you're good.
Yeah, we're mastering it Tuesday
and then sending it
off to be printed.
- Are you excited about that?
-It's the album!
I keep listening to the radio
and being, like,
really like my competitive
side's coming back.
And I just can't wait to put
some music out so I can get...
I've had to...
I've had to sort of keep
my competitive side on
the low this year.
You know, I did a couple of
singles for other people,
which sort of kept me going.
My main target's Adele now.
I think if you don't want to be
bigger than Adele,
then you're in the
wrong industry.
Think she's the target
for everyone.
I don't want to be the male
Adele, I want to be Adele.
Wanna just... overdo that,
so gotta sell 30 million.
That's easy.
Is this on?
One, two, oh, hello.
- Can I explain the bank to you?
-Yes.
-The bank button. Basically...
-What's the bank button?
This will light up and
it will give you five,
six, seven, eight.
For the moment, we just put
a distorted guitar on key.
Then we put a reverb.
And then two more vocals.
So it's just a demo mode,
but you know how you're in five,
six, seven, eight by the light.
That's the only difference.
And when you record a loop,
these will give you undo layers,
so you can see the layers
with this one here.
Undo them, basically.
-Yeah. Couple of little new
things, but...
-This is cool.
I think that's self-explanatory.
That just needs tightening.
I agree.
I always thought that "Castle on
the Hill" would be the opening.
-It's the obvious...
-No, I know.
But "Eraser" just sounds
so good on the album.
I don't know if "Eraser" is
gonna sound... good.
Doesn't feel like it, right?
-No, doesn't, but
I don't know if it's...
I don't know if it
fits in the set yet.
I don't know.
I'm not super confident
about all the songs yet.
All right.
Yeah, I'm rehearsing.
Rehearsing the live show.
Just having a year of not
really picking up a guitar
and playing those songs, It just
kind of, it's all gone away.
But, yeah,
I'll just have to practice them.
The album is done.
Finished, mixed,
mastered, handed in.
And it's first time I've ever
had an album and looked at the
track listing
and be, like, I could
never do better than that in
my wildest dreams.
It's the peak of my songwriting
and musical ability.
And it might be the peak,
it might be that I never
get this again, but I
know that when I'm 70,
I'll look back and be,
"That's my finest bit of work."
I just have a weird sense
about this album that's gonna be
the career-defining
album, much more so than
"Plus" and "Multiply".
You know, the last two albums
were building up to something,
and I feel like this
is the payoff.
This one, it definitely
feels... feels magical.
Can't think of a better
fucking way to spend it.
- We got one minute.
- Drumroll, drumroll!
Five, four,
three, two, one!
Ed! Ed! Ed Sheeran!
Why do his guitars get this
messed up?
I never actually
planned to bring Benny,
he just invited himself.
He's like, "Hey, yo, I'm coming.
I'm coming on the road
with a studio bus."
And now he's here.
Have a good day, sir.
This is the guitar I learnt on.
It's a Christmas
present from Clapton.
Granddad would be proud.
"Subtract," maybe?