Ed Sheeran signs Foy Vance to his Gingerbread label

Ed Sheeran has officially announced that Irish-born Scotland-based singer songwriter Foy Vance – who is currently touring with him through Australia and New Zealand – is his second signing to his Gingerbread Man Records.

“Foy’s always been an artist I’ve admired since meeting him in 2006,” said Sheeran. “We’ve become touring buddies over the past few years.”

The two have collaborated on each other’s records of late. Sheeran sang on Vance’s single Guiding Light from his 2013 album Joy Of Nothing.

Vance co-wrote Tenerife Sea and Afire Love from Sheeran’s X. Sheeran covered his Make It Rain for the second last episode of the US gritty drama series Sons Of Anarchy.

Gingerbread Man’s first signing, Jamie Lawson, who also toured Australia with his label boss, went to #1 in the UK in October with his self-titled long player.

Born in 1974 in Bangor, Ireland, the talented Vance has already found success in Ireland and England through his first label Glassnote Records. Joy Of Nothing won the Northern Ireland Music Prize. He also co-wrote, and sang on, Rudimental’s hit single Never Let You Go.

His Gingerbread Man debut is due for release in the second quarter of 2016. Recording is at the legendary Blackbird Studios in Nashville with Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Norah Jones, James Bay, Kings of Leon, Of Monsters and Men).

He said, “I feel a deep sense of peace signing to an artist led label, not least of all because the artist in question is our Ed. Every time I’ve turned around in the last few years he has had my back.”

It is said that Vance’s tattoo – as gaeilge, “nuair is gá dom fháil bhaile, is tú mo réalt eolais”, meaning “when I need to get home, you’re my guiding light” – from his song Guiding Light, is written about Sheeran.

Sheeran and Sam Smith, who is also touring this country through Frontier Touring, are expected to join Taylor Swift when she does the intimate Nova’s Red Room in Hamilton Island in Queensland.