George Ezra is a British author, composer and performer. It was the BBC that propelled him to center stage at the Glastonbury Festival intro night in 2013. His first two albums topped the charts in the UK. On June 10, he released a new album, Gold Rush Kid.
franceinfo: Gold Rush means gold rush, Kid : child. Does that mean you’re a child chasing the gold rush?
George Ezra: I don’t know if it’s as precise as that. It’s more of a feeling, that the gold rush is a bit of a chase. And now I know that when I’m on tour or traveling with my music, all of these experiences and people that I meet are part of it.
You needed to cross the country by train to want to write. Are these trips the food of your writing?
I think it’s essential to meet people and see things that are unusual for me, especially when I was younger.
“Other people’s stories have helped me a lot to write.”
george ezraat franceinfo
What little boy were you? What were you dreaming about? What did you want to do?
I think I always wanted to be a musician, but I didn’t think beyond performance and then I dreamed of traveling too. I think I didn’t want to grow up especially!
At first you wanted to be a teacher like your parents. And then the music came to shake things up a bit. When do you decide that music will finally become the engine of your life?
Both my parents were teachers, yes, and I went all the way to college. I was studying music, but at no time did I think of making a career out of it. The idea was to be a teacher or to be in education anyway. And then, in my first year, I met the person who became my manager. We had a conversation:Do you want to sing and perform?“I was always saying yes and then it got busier and busier.
There is a title that will really make you stand out, very quickly, it’s Budapest. You are going to meet an audience, you are going to be number one in many countries. What does this song represent for you?
I still love playing it and singing it. For me, it’s not so much a song, at least not my song. She makes me smile, that’s for sure. And when I think back to that time, it actually didn’t get past me when it was happening because we weren’t stopping. I didn’t really have time to realize all that was going on around this song and the success. Whereas now, looking back. Yes, I would love to go back and stir the 19 year old man that I was and say to myself: but it’s crazy what is happening to you.
You have this “old soul” side as if your voice conveyed an experience, a view of the world.
I do not know. I think a lot, but I think it always comes down to travel. And when you’re younger, you use other people’s stories. I think at one point in my life, I didn’t have much to say, I hadn’t experienced a lot yet. So I was taking things right, left.
You really let go of the horses, you let go in this album, you are unfiltered. It is a writing that is direct. Is it difficult to “offer” so much to the public?
It’s a two-way street. I thought it was before I did. And then we do it. And then, in fact, we feel good.
“Music helps me to communicate with the world, but also to understand it better.”
george ezraat franceinfo
But writing and releasing music is interesting because you realize certain things at the same time, in real time. It’s a bit like a picture of where we are, at the present moment, how we see things and I realized that recently.
I would like to talk about the aspect gospel feeling. There is a huge work around the voice. What place does this voice occupy in your life?
I think that’s one of the most important things for me. But I cared a lot more before and it worried me. Besides, I was a little neurotic because I didn’t want to lose it or damage it. On this album, well, I’m a little more relaxed about all these things.
So this album is a new beginning? A new life ? A new man?
I think so. I also have a bit of the impression that these albums are a trilogy. I think above all that I have been very lucky and have had the time to realize certain things that I have experienced in the last ten years.
George Ezra will be on July 3 at the citadel of Arras and at the Seine Musicale on March 4, 2023.