George Ezra’s new music is inspired by falling in love, the singer-songwriter has revealed.
The musician announced details of his sophomore album, Staying At Tamara’s, on Friday with the record exploring themes of escapism in the face of rolling news and “strange times”.
Ahead of the album’s release in March, Ezra unveiled new single Paradise which is dedicated to his girlfriend and focuses on his emotions during the early days of their relationship.
My new track 'Paradise' is coming to the world wide web on Friday 19.01 🌻🎵 pic.twitter.com/eoQdOMgVHF
— George E Z R A (@george_ezra) January 17, 2018
He told the Press Association he was “very much in a relationship”, adding of the track: “Instead of a particular story it’s more of a feeling that takes over when you’ve fallen in love which is just quite heady, isn’t it.”
The album follows a sense of “daydreaming and escapism”, Ezra said, which was motivated by him receiving an overwhelming number of “breaking news alerts” on his phone.
“I’d hear about something going on in rural Germany and now whilst that it is important and something bad might be happening in somewhere I am not necessarily living, I don’t need to know about it before it’s really happened. These news alerts are a headline before anyone knows who, what, where or why.
“I’m still trying to work out is this because I’m 24 and every 24-year-old before me has thought they live in the hardest times or are we living in strange times… I think there’s a mixture of both.”
He added: “We live in abundance of comfort, there’s not a war in our country, there’s not rations.”
Ezra revealed the album’s title was drawn from a period of time he spent in a Barcelona apartment owned by a woman named Tamara with a group of fashion students, designers, artists and fellow musicians which allowed him to feel like a student.
“What often happens with these trips is I never actually write any songs on them but the notepads are filled with what will become the songs once I dig back through them,” he said.
Other trips to the Isle of Skye, a pig farm in Norfolk and a converted cow shed in north Wales also helped inspire the album, Ezra said, while the record also features Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit on a track titled Saviour.
The Hertford-born singer said he felt no pressure in following up to 2014’s number one record Wanted On Voyage which was in the charts for a total of 122 weeks.
He said: “The most important part for me is that I can tour… that’s the bit I love and I love the record and I just hope it’s given a fair shot and people enjoy it.”
– Paradise is out now, Staying At Tamara’s is released on March 23.