Ed Sheeran has teased his next “curveball” project, confirming that it’s coming very soon.
Speaking to The Project NZ about his upcoming Australia and New Zealand stadium tour, the singer-songwriter explained the reasoning behind naming his albums after mathematical symbols.
“I was like, ‘I don’t really want to be a poster boy’,” Sheeran said. “So I had sort of figured out a way [to do] it with colours and symbols. I was like, ‘I’d love to get to a point that there’s a billboard of just red with an equals sign […] and people go, Oh, Ed’s got a new album coming out’.”
The star was then asked whether he’s going to switch up the longrunning theme for his next record, or if ‘–’ (Minus) would be the title of his ‘=’ follow-up.
“That’s not gonna be the next record I put out,” Sheeran replied “I’ve got something else that’s a bit more of a curveball. We’ve got the first thing of it dropping in 10 days. I don’t think it’s gonna be a massive hit in New Zealand though, I’ve got to be honest.
“It’s gonna be a big hit, somewhere else. When you hear it, you’ll understand.” You can watch the full interview in the tweet below.
Get ready Aotearoa, because one of the biggest pop stars around is heading to our shores.
And he’s here to tell us all about it – It’s @edsheeran pic.twitter.com/drQeHpA2bn
— The Project NZ (@TheProject_NZ) March 16, 2022
In February, Sheeran revealed that he was “going to write a song” with Bring Me The Horizon after the two acts joined forces for a special performance at the BRIT Awards 2022.
Cradle Of Filth, meanwhile, said they were “looking at some options” regarding a potential Ed Sheeran collaboration.
Back in November 2021, Sheeran said that he was planning to make “10 symbol records” in total, including the previously released studio efforts ‘+’ (2011), ‘x’ (2014), ‘÷’ (2017) and ‘=’ (2021).
Sheeran explained at the time that he would also drop a follow-up to 2019’s ‘No. 6 Collaborations Project’, which featured duets with the likes of Eminem, Cardi B, Justin Bieber and Stormzy.
“Between the next [album] I’ll do ‘No. 7’,” he said.
Earlier this month, Ed Sheeran revealed during his ‘Shape Of You’ copyright court case that he had written 25 songs with The National‘s Aaron Dessner.
Sheeran is set to embark on a string of small warm-up shows next week ahead of his 2022 UK and Ireland stadium tour.