Ed Sheeran, the 32-year-old singer-songwriter from the UK, is geared up for a performance to launch the second season of Apple Music Live on May 10. In a recent interview with Matt Wilkinson in London, Sheeran discussed his excitement to perform his new album, (Subtract), in full for the first time, along with pre-show nerves and his preference for performing on stage and in the studio. Sheeran also touched on parenting on the road, why he avoids drinking before shows, and his collaboration with Aaron Dessner of The National on the project.

He spoke about what it's like to finally graduate to into being "an actual songwriter"
“I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be a really beautiful night. I think it’ll probably be one of the best shows I’ve ever played for so many reasons. I feel like I’ve graduated into being an actual singer-songwriter. I’ve been part singer-songwriter, part pop star for the last 10 years, 11 years or whatever. And that’s by design. I really enjoy playing songs like ‘Bad Habits.’ I really enjoy playing songs like ‘Shape of You’ and ‘Perfect,’ and stuff like that. But this record has come at the right time in my personal life, but also my professional life. I think I’ve earned the right to seat people, take away their phones and say, ‘Listen to a whole record.’”

He also touched on how nervous he was for his performance:
“I’m really nervous tonight. I almost threw up earlier. I’m really, really nervous. Really nervous. I’ve never played these songs before and I have to get them perfect. This is the first time I’m playing them. It wasn’t going to be filmed. This is the thing, this was just going to be a gig for fans. No… you guys were like, ‘We should do something special.’ And then we were like, ‘Well, we are doing this fan thing.” But if it wasn’t filmed, I’d just be like, whatever… I think it makes for a better experience because… I don’t know how many people are coming tonight, you said 3,000. So say 3,000 people are coming tonight. There’s maybe a 100,000 people that might want to watch this gig that will now tune into it. So it’s good to be able to then offer it. It’s not just this special one-off thing that no one will ever see again.”

He then went on to talk about feeling the most at home on stage, no matter where that its, “We played like 139 arenas in 2017, and by the end of that you’re like, ‘Okay, I don’t know where I am.’ But then what do I do otherwise? I am a live performer, what do I do otherwise? I’m either in studio or I’m on stage. When I stop those two things, I get really, really unhappy because I’ve got no purpose. Professionally, I’m talking about. I’d say personally, obviously there’s always stuff to do because I have a family and stuff. But professionally, there’s nothing else I want to do. I want to make records and I want to be on stage.”

And finally he touched on what dad life is like on the road: “It’s different. I always think they’re having a different childhood to what I had, but then my childhood was different to what my dad had. I think that is a normal thing and you just go where your parents are. And I think it’s far more important to have two loving parents actively in your life than one absent one and one… Yeah, so it works. It’s obviously tough. You’re moving them the whole time. But yeah, we had a lot of fun.”