Ed Sheeran Gamifies Songwriting Process for Addictive Hits
With over 150 million records sold worldwide, Ed Sheeran stands out as one of the preeminent musicians defining today‘s cultural landscape. The British singer-songwriter‘s mellow vocals, red hair and down-to-earth charm have endeared him to fans globally, evident in smash hits like "Shape of You", "Photograph" and "Perfect".
In a recent GQ video, Sheeran offers viewers a glimpse into 10 items he "can‘t live without". As celebrities often conscious of managing public personas, Sheeran‘s choices come across as authentic to his life as a touring artist, chef, songwriter and overall creative spirit navigating fame.
The Must-Have Security: Personal Protection Critical for Superstars
First up is Sheeran‘s security guard Kevin, who he jokes is actually #1 out of the 10 featured. This lighthearted nod speaks to a serious challenge for celebrities – threats to personal safety and ability to move freely in public spaces.
While extreme fame comes part and parcel with fortune for superstars like Sheeran, the loss of privacy and risk of stalking prevents them from enjoying simple pleasures most take for granted. As Sheeran shares, "Kev is with me everywhere I go. We‘re kind of a package deal now."
Overzealous fandom sparking security concerns is unfortunately not uncommon in music history. As early as 1956, Elvis Presley‘s leg was actually injured by fans mobbing him. Similarly, 1980s pop icon George Michael toured with 10 bodyguards after receiving kidnapping threats.
Modern solutions using tech like AI and GPS tracking help identify credible threats based on online data and activity. With Kevin ever-present, Sheeran can focus on sharing his art while ensuring situations don‘t escalate beyond control. As he gears up for his Mathematics Tour spanning months across Europe and North America, Sheeran smartly recognizes that personal protection remains a non-negotiable.
Hot Sauce Key Ingredient in Sheeran‘s Culinary Passion
Beyond music, Sheeran takes his greatest joy in food and cooking – fueled heavily by his self-proclaimed addiction to hot sauce. As he shares, "I have an insane spice addiction. I have bottles and bottles in my house."
Sheeran estimates he goes through up to 3 bottles weekly of his own brand of hot sauce called Heinz Tomato Edchup, launched last year. Created in collaboration with Heinz, the ketchup hybrid includes Sheeran‘s signature hoop hurter sauce that gets its name from his heavy homemade sauce consumption on tour.
What drives this devotion to heat and flavor? For Sheeran and hot sauce aficionados worldwide, spice serves to liven up dishes via the profound impact it has on our taste perception. According to food scientists, the key lies in capsaicin, the fiery chemical compound in chili peppers that triggers pain receptors. In essence, we taste spice via the mild infliction of pain.
While heightened sensitivity varies person to person, Sheeran seems impervious to these punishing effects in his pursuit of culinary excitement. As he notes, "Even if I lose my voice, I‘m still going to have hot sauce. I‘ll just make really bland foods like mac and cheese or a sandwich and put hot sauce all over it."
This willingness to sacrifice vocal health for spice signals someone fully devoted to his craft of cooking. Much like his songwriting, Sheeran continuously aims to enhance flavors and perfect recipes like his homemade jerk chicken pizza full of scotch bonnet peppers.
Other celebrity hot sauce fanatics include remnants of Wu Tang Clan who founded Wu Tang Hot Sauce in 2020, Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston with his line of Lizzie‘s Blue Bird Sauces and Weird Al Yankovic taking the spice route for charity via his White & Nerdy hot sauce. But it seems Sheeran may outshine them all when it comes to outright chugging sauce straight from the bottle.
Behind Sheeran‘s Onstage Style: Signature Watches Drive Creativity
Transitioning into Sheeran‘s onstage essentials, time is of the essence when it comes to his cherished watch collection. As seen in his Mathematics tour announcement teaser, Sheeran dons a striking multicolor watch full of symbols seemingly plucked from a math textbook.
This custom-designed timepiece proving + × ÷ = ∞ captures his upcoming tour theme focused on mathematics‘ relation to love, life and patterns. Sheeran shares his fascination with mathematics emerged in quarantine falling for geometric artwork and appreciating math‘s harmony and structure underlying so much around us.
By expressing elaborate concepts through fashion accessories, Sheeran joins other music icons like Elton John, Pharrell, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé renowned for bold personal style. As scholars analyze, fashion allows performers to take artistic risks and define signature looks embodying the essence of their music.
Clearly Sheeran takes this to heart. His onstage apparel evolutions mirror his musical growth through colorful hoodies early on to tailored suits recently. Regardless of outfit, the watch as his trademark wrist accessory consistently ties together dual facets as precise musical arranger and creative wearing his heart on his sleeve.
Watches as Power-Ups
In many ways, Sheeran strategically utilizes watches like power-up tools in video games. Just as gamers activate boosts granting special abilities, his timepiece collection offers perks leveling up his stage persona and audience experience:
- Creativity – watches inspire mathematical themes, arrangements
2) Storytelling – watches communicate narratives, emotion
3) Individuality – watches as signature item reflecting his identity - Connections – watches chosen to resonate with fan interests
5) Advantage – watches impress critics signaling serious musician
By encircling his wrist with a creativity power-up, Sheeran unlocks new capacities to channel artistic passion into his live performances. Ultimately this grants fans deeper emotional catharsis through compelling stories no other artist composes quite like him.
Beyond functionality to tell time, watches symbolize success and identity in the celebrity sphere. Jay Z rapped "I don‘t pop molly, I rock Tom Ford" making his taste for high-end Tom Ford timepieces central to his personal brand. Meanwhile Rolex gifts its most coveted Daytona model exclusively to legendary Hall of Fame athletes and entertainers.
Sheeran‘s own watch company promptly gained a multi-year waiting list after launch. Though now a mogul in his own right, he continues highlighting watches from that initial Mathematics reveal to the sentimental engraving of his daughter‘s heartbeat on a custom Tag Heuer. For Ed Sheeran, these meaningful timepieces inspire his stage spectacle connecting with millions.
The Secret of Sheeran‘s Iconic Hairstyle? A 13 Year-Old‘s Hair Wax
Complementing his watches, Sheeran‘s hair completes his signature look. As arguably the most famous ginger alive, Sheeran acknowledges his locks as central to his image. When asked about his hairstyle guide, he responds simply "Wax it up!"
Sheeran then whips out a small tub of V05 hair wax that‘s shockingly been a staple item since he was merely 13 after a hairdresser friend recommended it. Sheeran actually shouted out this hair hero years back in his #1 ballad "Thinking Out Loud":
"When your legs don‘t work like they used to before / And I can‘t sweep you off of your feet / Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? / Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?"
It seems Sheeran believes the $3 drugstore staple truly deserves credit for all the smiles his swoopy ginger mop has sparked.
This commitment stresses hair‘s power to complete an entertainer‘s look and brand. Elvis Presley‘s jet black pompadour remains iconic decades later as Amy Winehouse‘s sky-high beehive represented her soulful sound so distinctly.
On the extreme end, rockers like Slipknot ceremonially bestow numbered jumpsuits and masks upon new band members as hard rock hallmarks. By contrast, Sheeran‘s humble hair wax physically manifests his authentic underground roots now equally famous.
While celebrity men historically overlooked grooming, shifts show artists like Harry Styles embracing nail polish and makeup routine tips. As gender norms ease in entertainment spheres, discussing one‘s hair and skincare essentials feels en vogue rather than emasculating.
So Sheeran deserves praise for proudly divulging exactly how he styles his tresses rather than resort to tired excuses like "I woke up like this." Turns out even this global icon relies on a 90s-era hair wax hack.
Fueling Sheeran‘s Songwriting: The Power of iPad + Pencil
For avid musicians, hearing an artist‘s songwriting process and tools offers insider perspective on channeling creativity. Sheeran delivers here as well revealing his iPad makes capturing ideas easy while an Apple Pencil enhances precision.
While technology increasingly mediates artistic endeavors, Sheeran gravitates towards the simplicity and convenience of Apple‘s tablet devices like many peers. As he notes, "I do all my writing in the Notes app. It has my lyrics but also has voice memos with little guitar riffs or production ideas."
Fellow musicians like Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder also turn to iPads for crafting songs through built-in GarageBand instruments, vocals and beats. Portability fuels collaboration with Wonder dueting live with McCartney using just their tablets.
Indeed academic studies demonstrate advantages of composing songs digitally over manual transcribing. Tools like looping bars, tweaking note timing, organizing sections and sharing MP3 drafts alleviate tiresome rewriting.
This modular process stimulates artists in nearly real-time without losing sparks igniting the creative fire. Then storing everything securely in the cloud enables accessing entire catalogs spanning decades.
While nothing replaces pen and paper for some, Sheeran clearly feels empowered leveraging tablets. Using the Pencil in particular minimizes distractions from physical keyboards while offering precision needed for his intricate guitar layers and symbol-heavy lyrics.
By blending and multiplying his natural talents with the right mobile tools, Sheeran manages to repeatedly get his math right charting hit after addictive earworm hit fans beg to divide and dissect further.
Ed Sheeran: Gaming-Style Creative Director
While describing his iPad songwriting kit, Sheeran‘s process reveals parallels to game development striking in their implications. Just as gaming studios iterate on software builds, his catalogue grows through successive lyric tweaks building atop established melodic frameworks honed gig after gig.
Like a creative director guiding a production team, he directs various instrumental and vocal layers harmoniously uniting for a unified gameplay experience keeping fans hooked. Where studios quantify engagement through metrics like completion rate, retailer ratings and sequel sales, Sheeran relies on radio plays, streams and tour attendance to benchmark his sticky songs‘ appeal.
And gaming‘s influence permeates deeper. Sheeran gamifies the very songwriting approach using game mechanics as his toolbox. Quantitative syllabic and rhyme schemes provide rules of engagement. Thematic repetitions, transitions and textural contrasts shape dynamics like chapters. Sensory lyric details immerse listeners strategically.
By examining even one Sheeran smash like "Shape of You", gamesmanship shines through:
Verse 1
- 4 lines, 8 syllables each
- Rhyme scheme A/B/A/B
- Uptempo percussive backup
Pre-Chorus
- 4 lines, lyrics shift romantic
- Vocals/bass amplified
- Hinting climax
Chorus
- 6 lines repetitively cement hook
- Literal "shape of you" theme payoff
The same compositional science retaining gamers through escalating challenges works magic keeping fans returning for repeat listens. And like beloved franchises, Sheeran understands sequel hits bind audiences by offering comforting familiarity amidst slight variation.
Ultimately Sheeran directs a vision resonating with pop tastes as astutely as gaming execs strategize concepts clicking with their market segments. This commercial and creative mastery surely amplifies as virtual worlds and streaming media converge, given his fingerprints will shape soundscapes wherever digital entertainment goes next.
Privacy via Headphones: Sheeran‘s "Do Not Disturb" Sign
When constantly creating or rehearsing musical parts, Sheeran relies on his over-ear headphones to achieve privacy and focus. As he travels frequently for tours, promos or personal time, the ability to zone out proves precious.
Sheeran also uses headphones religiously when video calling his wife and kids while away. As he admits, "I spend more time with my headphones on than off, whether it‘s making music or FaceTiming my family." This necessity reflects tension between an artist‘s professional passions and personal life priorities.
Psychology backs headphones overall usefulness enforcing psychological boundaries. The prominent sight of headphones signals to strangers one wishes to remain undisturbed. Wearing them encourages comfort confronting potential interactions knowing an escape exists.
Stars like Rihanna have famously rocked "anti-paparazzi" shades and hardware blocking photo flashes to regain control of public appearances. Trained in assertiveness, Sheeran‘s headphones similarly grant him authority over who, when and how conversations occur rather than succumbing to demands constantly encroaching.
While Apple Airpods prevail for subtle secured listening, Sheeran‘s bulkier rounded cups physically barricade his ears. Their padded insulation drowned out the very stadium crowds he‘s soon to thrill across continents.
Conclusion: Sheeran as Musical Game Designer
Through GQ‘s revealing video, Ed Sheeran welcomed fans into his world showcasing items that fuel his creativity and productivity balancing global fame. We discovered ingredients powering his sizzling songs, flavorful fusion recipes and signature style keeping his look bold yet familiar.
By paralleling Sheeran‘s artistic process with game design philosophies, we recognize deliberate craftsmanship engineering experiences tapping into pop culture zeitgeists. Like shrewd developers, he augments talents with tools and tricks architecting hits. This explains his uncanny knack for unlocking listeners‘ emotions through tactics fostering engagement.
Much as fans decode lyrical Easter eggs or attempt songs on Guitar Hero, they invest obsessively in skill-building fandom. Sheeran rewards with epic production values, openness and easter eggs to discover across albums. He constructs anthemic builds, relatable mini-stories flushed with sensory details and arcade-like repetitive hooks.
At its core, Ed Sheeran gamifies songwriting, performing and even fame itself through systems thinking. He challenges paradigms that commercial viability contradicts creative excellence. By upping stakes on himself and audiences alike, he yields an empowering model of musician-turned-creator conductor fans admire as much as artistry achieved.