are you like for the next one you're like diamonds yeah time won't say
but i won't take it it's catchy and right now on magic chilled i am up close with the one and only
the wonderful the nicest guy in pop it's george ezra hello how are you i'm really good how are you
good i'm very well thank you for having me it's so nice to see people like in person getting like
life back to normal again yes it is lovely to be able to do things again yeah that was amazing you
are here to talk about your brand new single green green grass and your new album gold rush kid as
well we're going to get on to that in just a bit but first uh let's uh speak about the first single
from gold rush kid anyone for you why did you pick this one to be the first one off the album
it was quite normally i find this quite difficult like you've got all these songs and someone says
what you want to release and you kind of go all of them yeah you know um but this was really
it just presented itself it was one of the first songs that we wrote for the record it was the
first song we finished in the studio with the band i knew that i wanted to open the live sets with it
it just sounds like an introduction it opens the album it's track one on the album so it just felt
like the best introduction yeah to the record and i'm so happy that that's the way we did it because
there is this moment where no matter how sure you are about something there's that voice in
the back of your head like um you know it's been a while is this the song you're gonna come back with
but it's just gone amazingly well it's been a really been a really lovely thing and the thing
is as well gearing up to release music this time more than ever there is this kind of you're aware
do you not owed anything do you know what i mean so then you go like well you don't know how this
is going to be received and you can't control that and so yeah it's just really lovely that yeah
like we did open the sets with it last week and it was it was as if it had been out for years
and years it was really it was amazing yeah people have really taken to it haven't they
i know what a cool thing yeah and not a surprise it is a massive hit i mean it is a banger but i've
i've known it for a while now i've had the song for 18 months you know and and had to listen to
it so many times it does start to you it becomes familiar and when something's familiar it doesn't
i don't know it doesn't surprise you yeah i know what's coming when it before it's released so it's
just really nice to see other people hearing it for the first time i love the thought of finishing
song that's a banger well well it's all relative to yourself though so i don't go like send it
to press this is going to change everything but i do go like relative to george this is a good tune
give me my award now yeah yeah not quite uh let's talk about your new album then gold rush kid who
what why where how when i think i've covered all of them all of them yeah like i've relied in the
past on tying records to a journey of some sort so like the first record i bombed around europe for
a month on the trains it's amazing kept a little journal as i went the second one i went and lived
in barcelona for the month and kept a little journal and then you know wrote the songs on
the other side of those journeys and then of course couldn't do that because of the lockdown
um and i think like this has been echoed through my friends no matter you know all different jobs
and what people do this opportunity to go why do i do what i do why do i do it the way that i do it
how have i ended up here you know what is this thing and i really had that we'd finished two
years of really intense touring and i kind of wasn't the happiest i remember being but i think
just tired out and by my own doing you know um and so i started to go i don't know that i want to
do this i'll always play music like and i get a genuine kick out of sitting on the sofa playing
guitar and singing so then you go well if that's a kick why do you need people to hear you do it yeah
um and then and so i was going along with these thoughts in my head and letting them grow
until i started to write for the next record so i couldn't go away on a journey but started flicking
through these old journals and then started to think about what it is i actually get to do
i convince myself that it's this big scary thing and it's not at all it's like the most beautiful
thing i i have loved this thing since i was about 14 and i've cared very little about anything else
um and i really it was the most kind of inspiring thing to think you do what you love yeah but
forget all the nonsense that comes with it which there is but that's true of anything
you'd like think of the people you've met and the places you've been and the things that you've done
as a result of this thing and it's not going to last forever so instead george of you wishing
it away just just let it just go with it and and trust that it will end at some point but that's
not today um and see as a gold rush that's how i started to think of it see is this thing that's
out there for you to enjoy for now um and make the most of it and so then i got a bit like pumped up
on this idea i'm the gold rush kid you know i didn't start introducing myself as in the pub
but there was just this like thing in my head where i was like i like that and like you can't
well for me anyway you can't question too much what these ideas mean when it's creative it's
like that just sounds like an album to me and it sounds like a a good way of approaching the record
so yeah the gold rush kid also you get to have an album cover that's gold i mean i know it's not all
about that it's pretty cool yeah are you like for the next one you're like diamonds yeah time won't
say but i won't take it um yeah you can have that this starts a trilogy yeah it's worked for some
others that's all i'm saying i know yeah so that was i mean that's a very long-winded answer to
a simple question but that that and i think i covered it all but then you did you sat down
and you had a word with yourself you said you don't want to do this you absolutely do you know
because you're like i could walk away but actually i've got more in me okay tell us about your brand
new single then because someone's got a summer banger on their hands and it's not me it's george
this is incredible this brand new tune as soon as i heard it i was like right this is
a summer tune that we're going to be dancing to outside festivals parties it's going to be on
is this the vibe that you had when you were writing it completely yeah
completely so i was flicking through these old journals and there was just this one line
on one of the days and it came from i was in saint lucia with two of my closest friends um
and we were at this beach bar that was tiny tiny tiny tiny beach bar uh with these dudes that
were on the other side of the bar they had this cool box that was filled with homemade one punch
and then they had like iced lagers bottled beers so we were like a being the two it
was just beautiful um we'd go back and then this music started up loud loud loud music and i got
i was so curious about what this music was um so i ended up excusing myself i said i'll be back i
started running down these streets in this little town and i got to the high street and there was um
sound systems out people cooking out hugging dancing it was genuinely beautiful to see like
this moment so i jumped in this shop and asked the girls that worked in the shop what's going on
and they said today's a funeral day and we're celebrating three lives that we've lost in
our community which made the whole thing even more beautiful and it was so unlike anything
you know i'd seen before um and that night after quite a few one punch i didn't they
were like you should join in and i was like no i've got a very serious business to attend to
yeah um but in my little journal that i'd taken on that trip it just said green green grass blue
blue sky you better throw a party on the day that i die you know and that was maybe four years ago
i don't know a long time ago so i was flicking through this old journal saw that lyric and i was
like i love that and with everything going on and you know where my head was at of going like just
throw yourself into this thing it just made me smile made me relax as well like the whole thing
calmed me down um and it is it's just an absolute it's a joy like we played it last week and made
me smile yeah and you have that vision in your head before and a rum punch in your hand
there you go it's lethal that stuff honestly i don't know what they put it here
so you've played some intimate shows already but you've got a big gig plan for finsbury park
in the summer and then a full uk wide tour arena tour coming up later in the year are you excited
are you nervous we were we were talking about this earlier so like london was the first show
of these warm-ups and it went it couldn't have gone better yeah but most reviews agree okay
but like it could not have gone better genuinely and it was just amazing and then the next day
come 1pm so nervous for the show that night it doesn't matter what happened the night
before you're like oh i've got to do that thing again and how do i do it and so am i excited for
this show's coming out i really am and and deep down i know we've got it like we do this thing
it's what we do but i am nervous nervous excited those two things together finch park is huge
yeah it's 45 000 people yeah in the field you see that many people as well back singing back at you
because it's been a while you know what though like almost the bigger the audience the more
relaxing it is because it becomes really abstract yeah if you're playing in like a little club
that's terrifying yeah because you can see eyes
um so yeah it's almost like the it becomes more abstract it almost becomes easier it
will be scary still we're excited george it's been so lovely to have you on the show today
thank you for coming to join us of course the album's out in june is that right yeah you look
the record is out on june the 10th um
it's all very exciting park and everything that comes with the record so there's just
you know videos artworks shows all of it uh glad to have you back thank you so much