With three consecutive hit albums under his belt, Ed Sheeran has showed no signs of slowing down – until now.

Speaking on fellow musician George Ezra's new podcast, the singer-songwriter revealed that he wants to stray from his pop roots, and avoid becoming too big. Sheeran said,

I feel like it's dangerous to have a career that goes bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and everything's happening, because at some point, it's going to drop and I'm in very much in the belief that you can control your own own destiny, and I'm not going to allow myself to fall, so I might just step down, if that makes sense.

He further shared that the next record in the making is "not a pop album", citing the public's expectations of the musician as a reason for this move.

People expect you to come and the next album they're going to be like, "It has to be bigger than 'Shape Of You'", and "It has to sell better than this", but if I control it and go, "Here's a lo-fi record that I really love", my fans are going to be like "Yay!" and the pop world are going to be like, "Oh, well maybe on the next one". 

If the next album does 2 or 1 (million), or 500,000, cause I've made an album where I'm not trying to get there, so it's not a failure. No one's going to be like "That's a flop, because that's what he wants to do". If I have an album that does like that, then the next record does a bit better, then suddenly you're a success again, you control your thing.

The singer also cited Coldplay as an inspiration, and hopes to re-create the success they've had following their release of Ghost Stories at the peak of their career.

The singer was reportedly asked by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to perform at their royal wedding, so perhaps he'll show off his new lo-fi tunes there. As long he doesn't venture into country, I think we're good.