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Maisie Peters recently opened up about her "wholesome" and "familial" connection with Ed Sheeran, who gave her indispensable advice about navigating the music industry.
"There's two pieces that always stick out to me, equally as important as each other," she told Insider earlier this month. "One is, 'If you don't want to get wasted, stay clear of spirits with little hats on top.' Because that will get you wasted."
The second, she added, is a bit more serious.
"It's just that, doing what we do, there's some really high highs, but you'll also go through periods of lows and you'll go through periods of doubt or things aren't working the way you want to," Peters said. "Ed has always said, and I so agree, that it's really important to not base your self-worth in either period."
"There'll be amazing moments and there'll be less amazing moments, but you've got to sort of keep going forward, and remember why you started in the first place. Because you love music," she continued. "Just to not dwell on either, I think, is healthy, and definitely something that I've tried to channel."
Peters released her debut album "You Signed Up for This" via Sheeran's label Gingerbread Man Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records.
Peters had already signed to Atlantic in 2018 after her first two songs, "Place We Were Made" and "Birthday," both released independently, attracted attention in indie-pop circles. Sheeran added Peters to his personal roster last year after the two musicians met and "clicked immediately," she said.
"It sounds funny to say, because he's the biggest star in the world, but we just had a lot of mutual friends," she explained, listing producers Joe Rubel and Fred Gibson (known professionally as Fred again..) as examples, as well as Amy Wadge, who won a Grammy Award for cowriting Sheeran's hit "Thinking Out Loud."
"Ed got in touch and just asked if I wanted to write some music," she continued. "And it was an obvious yes, it was very like, 'Oh my God.'"
Callie Ahlgrim
During their very first studio session together, Peters and Sheeran cowrote two songs that ended up on her debut album: the arresting acoustic ballad "Hollow" and the cheeky kiss-off "Boy."
"We're very similar in the way we work," she said. "I would like to think in our personalities as well. I feel like I model a lot of myself on him and how he operates just because it's really inspiring, and I think he's simultaneously the most talented and really the sweetest, the most polite, the most courteous to everyone."
The pair also cowrote her single "Psycho," a self-described "pop girlie moment" inspired by Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," which quickly became a fan-favorite track — even though Peters said she thought it would never see the light of day.
"When I finished that song, I was like, 'This is never coming out,'" she said, adding, "Now it's one of my favorite songs of mine."
The 21-year-old singer-songwriter will join Sheeran for his stadium tour this summer, which kicks off in Dublin on April 23.
Read Insider's full interview with Peters here.
