Self-confessed ‘psycho rockstar’ Maisie Peters on Ed Sheeran and Aussie tour

Rising pop artist Maisie Peters reveals what it takes to be a hitmaker and why she’s excited for her Australian tour with Ed Sheeran.

After prolific hitmaker Ed Sheeran had “a few great writing sessions” with British pop artist Maisie Peters, he stole her from the multinational Atlantic label for his Gingerbread Man Records.

Peters was already a star on the rise before the pair announced the signing, having issued two acclaimed EPs and created the soundtrack for the second season of the Apple TV series Trying.

Sheeran released her debut album You Signed Up For This in June last year and since then, Peters has been thrust on a steep trajectory to global recognition, her songs closing in on one billion streams and opening for her label boss on his mega Mathematics world tour.

The indisputable sign the 22-year-old singer songwriter has realised her Next Big Thing potential are the sold-out stickers slapped on the headlining shows she has played while touring with Sheeran.

Her Australian shows next year were instantly upgraded to bigger venues in Sydney and Brisbane and another show added to her Melbourne run when they went on sale a few weeks ago.

Peters is feeling the love, particularly from her Perth-based family members who bought tickets “to support me”.

UK pop singer Maisie Peters says she’s spiritually and emotionally connected to Australia. Picture: Supplied

“I feel very spiritually and emotionally connected to Australia and I’ve never been – I have family there and some of my best, best friends are Australians,” she says.

“Because I’m coming to Australia for like two months basically because of the (Sheeran) tour I’m on, I think by the time I leave I actually just will be Australian.”

Peters has come of age as a new generation of clever diary-style pop songwriters, including Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray and Phoebe Bridgers, join Sheeran and Taylor Swift on influential global playlists.

Her 2021 hit Psycho, penned with Sheeran, and recent release Not Another Rockstar exemplify the sound and message of the Gen Z singer songwriter wave and their penchant for both “psychos” and “rock stars”.

Post Malone, Ava Max, Anne-Marie and Mia Rodriguez are among the artists who have enjoyed hits with “psycho” titles while Malone, DaBaby and Mallrat have namechecked “Rockstar” in singles released in the past few years.

“That’s how you describe me in two words, Psycho and Rockstar,” Peters jokes.

“Maybe it’s just because to be a songwriter, you have to be a little bit unhinged.

“I was texting Ed Sheeran who I wrote the song with and the title and lyric came from a conversation we were having over text about life and everything goes on. So it was just a very natural thing for us to write about but maybe it is a spooky (pop) talisman.

“We’re all living in the same world so there is an element of a shared human experience that we must all be subconsciously reacting to.”

Maisie Peters says supporting Ed Sheeran has helped her get used to the big stage. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Peters has been performing for audiences since she was 14 and began busking on the streets of the UK seaside music hub of Brighton.

Yet her considerable live skills could not prepare her for the sensory overload of stepping onto Sheeran’s enormous, circular stage to perform in front of crowds up to 100,000 fans for the Mathematics tour, an overwhelming experience she is finally adjusting to after more than 50 shows in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

“It’s really hard to describe because it’s so out of this world in its like proportion and scale. And I’ve never done anything like it. Like, not even close,” she says.

“Before that I did my tour in America and the most people we played to was 1500 people maybe.

“Walking up the steps to go on stage for the first time on the Ed tour in Croke Park in Dublin, I was thinking ‘I’ve got to do this. And I don’t know how to do it; the stage is round, there’s people on all sides of you, it’s an outside stadium and it’s midday. We just look so small.

“My trick was not to think about it until I had to do it. And then it became the new normal because I had to do it for six months. It’s the experience of a lifetime, of several lifetimes, so I’m very lucky.”

Maisie Peters performs at the BBC Music Festival Showcase during 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals at British Music Embassy in March in Austin, Texas. Picture: Mike Jordan/Getty Images for SXSW

Like fellow Brit pop stars Jessie Ware, with her cooking podcast Table Manners, and Dua Lipa with her At Your Service podcast, Peters has created another side hustle to inform and engage fans on Instagram with the Maisie Peters Book Club.

She likes the idea she is serving her apprenticeship as a future author with her tightly crafted pop narratives.

“Books were my first love … but I feel I can’t write a book right now because I’m busy writing an album,” she says.

“And also there’s as a part of me that holds writing fiction and nonfiction so high that I don’t know if I know enough and if I’m enough of a person yet to write one, I feel like maybe I need a couple more years to have something absolutely, truly worthwhile to say.”

Maisie Peters will open for Ed Sheeran for his Mathematics tour of Australia from February next year.

For all her headlining shows details, https://www.frontiertouring.com/maisiepeters

Originally published as Self-confessed ‘psycho rockstar’ Maisie Peters on Ed Sheeran and Aussie tour