Anne-Marie discusses her upcoming Ed Sheeran collaboration and ‘shocking’ new album

She also reveals her love of Enter Shikari

Anne-Marie has revealed that a collaboration with Ed Sheeran will be appearing on her upcoming album – and that the record might ‘shock’ some people.

The former Rudimental member turned hugely successful solo star has dominated the radio with her collaborations with the likes of Nick Jonas and Clean Bandit. Now, fans can also expect something huge with Ed Sheeran after she supported him on a lengthy tour.

“We’ve actually done a song together, which is going to be on my album,” she told NME. “We’ve been friends for nearly 10 years now, so we’ve always wanted to work with each other, and obviously he’s always out of the country and I’m always out of the country. So one time we were both in London and we just got in the studio and we did this  song. We want work with each other more definitely – it’s just the time.”

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She continued: “We did the UK and Europe and it was amazing. I had the best time ever, I leant so much. I had never actually performed in front of crowds like that, but I did with ‘Rudimental’ but not actually on my own material. It was a very big difference to me and I’m learning a lot on the way and luckily his audience were very nice, because it’s quite scary being a support act because most of the time people definitely haven’t bought a ticket just to see you. So their probably like ‘hurry up we want to see Ed Sheeran’, but they were very kind and very warming and they made me feel really good. When it was my birthday they sung happy birthday to me – so it was really cute, it was the best.

“Every person I speak to is gobsmacked that it’s just one person and a guitar. It’s just him captivating the whole stadium, its just incredible to see. The thing is, he’s got great stage presence and he has great lyrics and that’s what people are connected to, so yeah I mean he doesn’t need anything.”

Asked about what it takes for her to collaborate with another artist, she replied: “I just listen to the song. It doesn’t even matter to me who it is.  If the song connects with me and is like a really great message, I love doing it. When I heard ‘Rockabye’ I was just blown away. It had been a long time since I had heard a song that had a message like that in it – about being a single parent and caring for your child. So, as soon as I heard it I just absolutely fell in love with it. We came to where I was and then recorded it. It was a really quick process.”

Her next solo album, due for release in early 2018, was largely inspired by “a lot of hearbreak”.

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“When I’m happy and in a good mood, I just search for other things that maybe connect to me on another level,” she told NME. “I talk to my friends and see how they’re feeling – see what’s going on in their lives. I search YouTube and look for speeches by activists. I’ve got a lot of songs on my album about what’s going on in the world, and how it is growing up as a female.

“Sometimes you can’t necessarily say [these things] in a single on the radio, but, this is the importance of an album – the fact that you can just have other vibes and different subjects. That’s the beauty of it.”

Speaking of the sounds on the record, Anne-Marie revealed that while there were ‘surprises’ that would ‘shock’ people, she thinks it will be quite universal and open her up to new audiences.

“I think some of the sounds will shock people, it depends what people might have heard before,” she told NME. “There are some people that have heard my live set and they know what kind of person I am and what I want to talk about.

“I hope that every age range can really connect with it in some way, I hope there’s a song for every person because the goal really is to get everyone to like it, not just a specific age range of people or a gender you know?”

Speaking of shocks, Anne-Marie added that a great deal of her own personal music tastes came as a surprise to people – namely the likes of Enter Shikari.

“When I was growing up I was surrounded by people that were listening to a lot of pop music,” she added. “I listened to Grizzly Bear or Enter Shikari – and people were like ‘oh wow, that’s different’ – but people like that I guess.

“Enter Shikari are a mash-up of everything. I used to really love dubstep when they first came out. They had those amazing basslines, soI loved going to the live shows. And also they talked about political stuff so it that was very interesting. Their lyrics are very intelligent.”

Anne-Marie tour dates and tickets

Anne-Marie’s upcoming UK tour dates are below. Tickets are available here.

19 March               Birmingham          O2 Institute
20 March               Manchester          O2 Ritz
22 March               London                  Roundhouse
27 March               Glasgow                 O2 Academy      

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