Why He Owes It All To Ed Sheeran

Since British singer/songwriter Jamie Lawson supported Ed Sheeran on his recent Australian tour, he has had incredible success in Australia. 

His hit single, Wasn’t Expecting That, peaked at number three on the ARIA single charts and his upcoming national tour has sold out in Perth and Melbourne resulting in extra shows being added to those cities.

Lawson was the first artist to be signed to Sheeran’s record label Gingerbread and Sheeran set New Zealand and Australia in their sights for the re-release of Wasn’t Expecting That, which was first released in 2011 and was then a huge hit in Ireland.

“I think Ed thought as a market that Australia would really like what I do,” Lawson says.

“It was always in his mind to start there with the idea that if we can have a hit in Australia we can have a hit everywhere. So I think there are labels in other countries that are looking forward to getting their hands on the song because of the success it’s had in Australia now. We’re all gearing up to do shows in Europe now, there’s talk about going to the States because of it so it’s been amazing.”

As to the success of the song Lawson says Sheeran’s involvement definitely helped.

“But I think people like the song independently of that. People like an old fashioned love song, I think,” he says.

Wasn’t Expecting That is a quiet love song that simply features Lawson’s pure vocals and his folk guitar chords. It tells the story of a couple, from their first meeting all the way through their relationship. Lawson says the writing process for the song happened very quickly.

“The phrase ‘wasn’t expecting that’ was said to me on a night out and it really stuck in my head. So the following day I started playing with phrases that that would be useful for. The first line that came to me was ‘it was just a delicate kiss, anyone could have missed, and I wasn’t expecting that’. And the thought process was, well what leads from that and what led to that. So it was quite easy then to do a song in the structure of chronologically a couple’s life, from the first time they meet to the last.”

As well as Wasn’t Expecting That and songs off his album of the same name, fans can also expect to hear a new single played live on the tour.

“There’ll be a new single in July. We’ve finished the new album actually, we recorded it last month, we had 10 days to make it and we managed to do that. It’s being mixed as we speak and it will be out later this year. Probably September, October time. It had all been written for quite a while, I’d had some of the songs for the last couple of years.”

Lawson is blown away by the support for him on this upcoming tour especially with two sold out shows.

“I’m really chuffed that the tour is nearly sold out. I can’t quite get my head around that. I’m not quite sure what people are expecting or how it’s going to go. But I’m looking forward to it, I think it will be much more intimate than playing big arenas opening up for Ed. I think it’s going to be great, I can’t wait.”

Originally published in X-Press Magazine