- He's an English singer songwriter
and occasional actor.
In 2014, he was nominated for best new artist
at the 56th annual Grammy awards.
He received the songwriter of the year award in 2015.
He's Ed Sheeran, and here are his top ten
rules for success.
(whoosh)
- Carrying on the momentum,
I think that's the biggest challenge for any artist.
To get up to a stadium level for any artist
is kind of the peak,
but then the challenge from there is staying at that level.
You know, to remain at the stadium level,
to keep releasing records that,
not necessarily are hits,
but just connects with people.
I've never been worried about my records selling
millions of copies, but I have been
really intent on writing songs that come from me
but when they go out they belong to people.
That people can relate to them and get into it.
And then, they'll come to the shows.
The show is always the end goal,
I see an album as a commercial to a show.
- [Charlie] Yeah
- Buy the album, or download the album,
or stream the album, or however you listen to the album,
and then you think I want to go and see him live.
And then you go to the show.
I guess my advice to young performers is
just do you .
There's seven billion people in this world,
and there is no one like you
and there is no one who is going to write songs like you,
and no one who's going to sing like you,
as long as you keep it exactly yourself.
I mean, imitate people to a point,
to get your influence and kind of
help you write songs and help you learn,
and someone to help you sing.
But once you found your voice, just do that,
and stick with it.
Even if it sounds like it's odd,
and people are telling you it won't work,
just stick with it, and eventually it will.
'Cuz there's seven billion people in the world,
there's bound to be one person that likes your music.
Have you ever heard of this about the 10,000 hours theory?
So that theory works.
When I first started out, I saw Damien Rice in concert.
I mention it in a song, I said,
I won't stop until my name is in lights
stadium height with Damien Rice.
And literally, like, I watched him
and was like I want to do that one day,
and wrote million songs did a million gigs
and ended up kind of doing a similar thing.
But it literally came from writing a song a day,
or two songs a day, or five songs a day,
and just getting all these songs out of me.
Doing a million gigs, sometimes three gigs a day.
We did six gigs a day one in Glastonberry.
I think, you view it as a dirt,
when you switch dirt you tap on it,
it's going to flow sh-(bleep) water out
for a substantial amount of time,
and then clean water is going to start flowing.
Now and then you'll get a bit of (bleep)
but as long as it gets out of you it's fine.
(audience laughs)
So with songs, you're going to write sh-(bleep) songs
at the beginning, you are.
My songs were terrible, my raps were terrible.
I listened to it the other day, it was awful.
But I got it out of me,
and the more and more you write,
the more and more you experience.
Then you start flowing clean water,
and songs start getting better and better and better.
When you just, you're on a good streak,
you're writing good songs,
now and then you're going to write a (bleep) song,
and that song is out of you and you can move on.
It's the same with gigs.
You will always play bad gigs at the beginning,
that's what you need to do.
And then, the more gigs you do, the better you'll get.
Now and then you'll have a (bleep) gig,
but that's all right, 'cuz you've got it out of you
and you've experienced it.
So I'd just say, the more and more you can do.
Put in your 10,000 hours,
write as many songs as possible,
gig as much as possible.
What I've learned about music today is
no one has to buy your record anymore.
No one has to.
Usually they will buy your record
if you're a likable person.
Adele is incredibly likable.
Taylor's incredibly likable.
Bruno Mars is incredibly likable, Sam smith is likable.
I'd like to think that I was likable.
You have to be a likable person
- [Charlie] That's a huge hit list you just named.
- But for people to be likable persons,
you have to get to know them.
On Twitter, it's very much instant thoughts.
Snapchat's very much instant thoughts.
Facebooks instant, instant, instant.
It's all like your personality coming out through something.
You'd find kids, instead of being like,
oh, I'm going to illegally download the album
'cuz I want to hear it.
They'll be like, oh I think they're a nice person
I'm going to support that,
and then they'll go and buy the album.
I think that's a really important thing nowadays.
I've never been disproven.
'Cuz anyone that comes across as a dick
does not sell that many records.
- You think somehow that aspect of your personality
will come out and turn off people?
- I honestly do, I honestly do.
I think, it's a lot different then back in the day.
If I was a successful musician in the seventies,
and there was a newspaper article about me,
it could be true, it could not be true.
There's TMZ footage now, on line, on YouTube.
Like it's there, it definitely happened.
I think it's very important to be a good person,
nowadays in music.
I found that everyone at a certain level,
they're all nice, everyone's nice.
Everyone who's mid-tier, who's very,
what's the word?
Self conscious about themselves and their talent,
they're the ones who get a bit nasty.
The biggest lesson I've learned from like
breakthrough success is everything is not what it seems.
From good things to bad things,
everything has a kind of silver lining.
I think it's a healthy way to live
when you're in this industry, to be a little bit cautious.
'Cuz I came into this industry with
very, very wide eyes, and like everything is great.
Everyone is my friend.
Then you kind of realize the more,
the deeper you get into it, it kind of shrinks a little bit.
My dad always said to me,
if you don't need to get a degree to do a job,
then go out and experience it.
Like, if you want to be a doctor
go and get your grades and stuff,
but if you want to be a musician,
your education is going to come from doing shows,
writing songs, practicing, meeting people, networking.
So just start off as early as possible and do that.
I've been influenced by many people.
I've watched a Coldplay DVD numerous times
and taken little tricks that Chris Martin
does with the crowd.
Even if it's just like, sing this part here.
One thing I learned quite early on is,
my friend went to go see U2.
I think they were singing Streets Have No Name,
or something.
He'd paid money to be in the front row, and he was there.
And then Bono goes, about to get to the chorus,
and Bono goes, now you sing.
And my friend was like, no, no, no you sing
I paid to come and see you.
So now, every time when I play,
I'll make sure I do the whole song,
and then the singalong happens.
So I'll make sure people get what they paid for,
and then, 'cuz having the crowd sing it back
is the most amazing thing in the world.
I kind of wanted to have that for the whole concert,
but then also you need to,
so I give as much as I can, and then you do the singalong.
Basically I was an actor before I was a musician.
- You look like an actor, when you said that
Did you see that?
You actually went, basically I was an actor before I was,
let me tell you.
That was my main thing, I loved acting.
I was in loads of theater groups.
I did that at school all the time.
And then I quickly realized, like,
the weird thing is, I can show you in 30 seconds
how talented I am at music,
but I can't show you in 30 seconds
how talented I am at acting.
I realized, like,
I can't actually have a successful acting career
without having a good part first.
I just don't like auditions.
For me, there was a point where
I auditioned for this I-tv show,
and it was music and acting.
I thought, oh this will be fun.
I got down to the final six.
I said to myself, if I get this,
no more music, just acting.
And if I don't, no more acting, just music.
And, I didn't.
And then just did music.
Then it kind of all went well.
But, I've always wanted to act.
But I didn't want to do something for the sake of it.
I'm going to play you a song.
So this is my thing,
when people go, oh you're so talented.
You were born with natural talent.
I'm like, hmm, nope.
(audience laughs)
Have a listen to this, right.
This is the um--
- Has this been played in public before?
- No - Okay
- So this is um - This is an exclusive.
Ed Sheeran when he was (bleep) basically.
- Basically, all I'm saying is,
when people say artist's are born with talent, you're not.
You have to really learn and really practice.
This me playing guitar and singing.
I'm going to put it into my mic like this.
(guitar)
- It's okay so far.
- It starts good, I had the strum.
Hold me.
♫ I'm addicted to you
(audience laughs)
♫ But I'm good (voice cracks)
- Oh, oh.
(applause)
- But you know what, you know what,
I did practice.
- After that you practiced?
- I probably needed it.
- So thinking out loud 720 million views.
720 million views on YouTube.
How does that happen?
- That was a conscious decision actually.
There's certain things you can do
to make a music video go viral,
which is quite a difficult thing to do nowadays.
So you just have to do something
that makes someone click on a video, watch it,
and go I want to share that with 10 people.
I have to share that with 10 people.
I never appear in my music videos.
I always make a like a little little cameo,
if I appear at all.
I'm not a very svelte person.
I'm not very talented at much else other than music.
But I decided--
- [Charlie] It doesn't seem to have gotten in the way.
- Well, but I wanted to make a music video
where I did a ballroom dance.
A la So You Think You can Dance, but not on tv reality.
I trained on tour five hours a day,
to learn this ballroom dance.
Shot the music video, in a suit.
I never wear suits either.
It was basically doing the opposite of
what anyone thought I was as an artist.
And then seeing it, and then everyone was like
oh, that's weird.
And then they shared it with lots of other people,
and then it just kind of blew up.
But the reason I chose it for that song,
is I knew that song was the biggest song on the album.
To do the most standout video for the biggest song,
when you combine them it both blows up.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because Hussam Ezzy asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to profile next,
leave it in the comments below,
and I'll see what I an do.
I also love to know which of Ed Sheeran's top ten rules
had the biggest impact on you.
Leave it in the comments and I'll join the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching,
continue to believe.
I'll see you soon.
Brrr, so cold. (laugh)
Are we recording?
(whoosh)