While we're counting down the days until One Direction's new album, Four, is out, we've also been wondering what the Ed Sheeran-penned song will sound like.We now have some new details - including Ed's writing process, the name of the song, and what fans can expect. Now if we could only get a listen of it...
In a recent interview with Capital FM, Ed dished on how he wrote the song specifically for the One Direction guys, which he hadn't done with previous songs for the group.
He explained, "I got a text today saying it's definitely on the album. I wrote it in a hotel room in Cologne and I wrote it specifically for them. It's the first time I've done that, so it's a One Direction song rather than a 'me' song that they record. It's kind of a little bit of everything, it is ballad-y but it is up-tempo at the same time."
Simon Cowell gave it the stamp of approval, with Ed noting, "I wrote it by myself and I first played it to Simon Cowell and he really liked it and then they all heard it and vocalled it."
And speaking of Simon, he dished a bit on the new 1D song as well, telling Capital FM: "He [Ed] wrote a great song. The funny story was that Ed came down to see me at Got Talent, as he was performing, and he came up to the dressing room and I went, 'Where's the One Direction song?'. And he said 'I didn't know you wanted a song from me' and I went 'yeah.'"
Simon added, "And then literally a week later he comes round to my house with his manager one night, turned up around 11 o'clock and said 'Do you like this song?' and he played me '18' and it took me about a millionth of a second to say yes."
Sounds like he's a huge fan, as he explained: "It's turned out really well, Ed's a real star and the fact that he did it in such a short space of time but he was so focused and he's a brilliant songwriter. You know what I love about Ed? He's generous. He could have kept that song but he loves writing hits."