ED HARCOURT

When embarking on a career as a musician and particularly as a songwriter, there will inevitably be difficult and challenging periods; the real-world pressures of maintaining an income, the slog of dealing with an often unsupportive industry and of course, simply keeping creatively stimulated and feeling that inspiration to write worthy work.

Ed Harcourt has faced all these challenges – and more besides – head on and has still emerged at the end of the decade as a songwriter who commands a huge amount of respect from his peers.

“My career has had a lot of peaks and troughs,” Ed tells us. “I think that’s pretty normal for a lot of people. A lot of people get a degree of success and they just work hard to maintain that. I think for my work, I want people to either really love it, or really hate it – that’s a good thing. It’s better than people just being indifferent – following your whim and not trying to please everyone is something to strive toward. That’s really the only way to survive, creatively, I think.”

We’re speaking to Ed Harcourt in his Wolf Cabin studio, based at his home near Oxford. It’s a treasure trove of gear, instruments, memorabilia, art and style. Within minutes, we’re soaked in the creatively stimulating vibe of this Aladdin’s cave. We’re visiting Ed to talk mainly about songwriting and the compositional process, Ed is more well versed (no pun intended) than most, having also written with a plethora of high-profile, chart-topping artists, including Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, James Bay, Marianne Faithfull and many more. But, of course, we can’t help but indulge in a short tour of the space.

“This studio was built here in my garden so I could literally turn things around incredibly quickly,” Ed says. “It’s really for writing, but I have been recording in here, too. The desk here at the centre is a Chilton QM3, which I actually acquired through eBay.”

TOO MUCH ENERGY

Ed Harcourt first appeared on the radar with his debut record , which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2001. But his wasn’t an overnight success story. Prior to this, Ed had already experienced his fair share of setbacks. Ed takes us back to the beginning: “Well, it was my mum who was the first to notice that I was quite musical. I was always tapping out rhythms on furniture etc, I obviously had a little bit too much energy. So she thought it’d be good for me to put my focus into something that would channel that a