"If I'm ashamed to release a song I wrote, then it's the right song."
Ed Sheeran is "ashamed" of the songs he writes.
The 30-year-old artist, who released his new album "=" (Equals) on October 29, revealed that he is always ashamed of his songs when he writes them, because they come from a very personal part of his thinking.
However, if he is not wary of releasing a song, then he knows it is not a good enough song.
"When I record them, they are mine. "It's all my thoughts and feelings that go into songs and there are a lot of things in my mind that make me ashamed and I express them in writing," Ed Sheeran told Zane Lowe and Apple Music.
If a song does not make me say "I do not want to release it", then I should not release it. "If it makes me ashamed to release it, it's the right song," he explained.
Ed Sheeran described that when he feels embarrassed about his lyrics, he understands that the song he wrote is good, because he knows that people will find solace in his words.
"Always, when I listen to songs that I love, I hear his outbursts and I say, 'This is exactly what I think, but I would never say that.' This is what I try to do by creating songs. "Sometimes I write an ataka and I think 'this is stupid, why am I saying this' and this is the magic in creating songs", he continued.
Ed Sheeran - MTV Video Music Awards 2021
But once his songs are released, Ed Sheeran no longer feels the same emotional bond with them as in the studio.
A song from his new album, "Visiting Hours", deals with the death of his close friend Michael Gudinski, who passed away in March, and Ed Sheeran says the song no longer makes him feel emotional because "It's so important to so many other people now."
"So when I write the songs they are very personal to me, but then when I release them, they belong to everyone and therefore they are no longer mine," he commented.
"They asked me if I'm excited now that I're playing 'Visiting Hours' at concerts, and I'm not excited. "I'm honestly not moved, because this song is so important to so many other people right now, so I do not feel it's my way of holding it."
"I have a lot of other songs that have not been released and they are my own songs to keep for myself, but all these songs that are out there belong to everyone," he said.
