\u201cI\u2019ve been doing gigs since I was in school- the last time I didn\u2019t play live for a year I was probably 13.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s safe to say the past 12 months have been strange for Ed Cosens. As guitarist for Sheffield\u2019s own Reverend and the Makers, well-renowned for their raucous performances, the stage has become like a second home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The pandemic has closed venues for now, but even more frustratingly, it has forced Cosens to twice postpone the release of his solo album, <\/span>Fortunes Favour<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe album was recorded just before lockdown, so that was done- getting the album out there is what got kiboshed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really hard at times, waiting to release something that you wrote three years ago and recorded 18 months ago- it\u2019s a long time to wait to put it out there and show people. It\u2019s been very challenging but thankfully we are nearly at the end of that road and the next part of the journey can begin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Credit- Ed Cosens<\/p><\/div>\n That journey has been a long time in the making. It was a decade ago that Cosens first considered embarking on a solo project, and it has taken patience to cultivate that newborn idea into the album now awaiting release on 9 April.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time it didn\u2019t feel right to take that break. I hadn\u2019t quite figured out what it was I wanted to do and how I wanted to sound.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAbout three years ago I started to get a batch of songs together that I was a lot happier with, I had a direction for them and a bit of confidence in what I was trying to do.\u00a0<\/span>When we got a natural gap from what we were doing as Reverend and the Makers, it allowed me to pursue it properly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very much a personal record. This is my first real foray into presenting my lyrics to the world, so I needed it to mean something to me, and to feel comfortable with what I was talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt reflects on a lot of life experiences: the classic things you go through growing up, falling in and out of love, relationships with work and people- it\u2019s all in there. \u00a0People will recognise and connect with the themes of the songs and understand a lot of what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For all the disruption of the past 12 months, Cosens admits that the pandemic has also afforded him artistic opportunities that might otherwise have failed to materialise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been difficult obviously, but it has allowed us time to think about the album a bit more. We got the chance to focus on developing the visual side and the music videos even further, which we wouldn\u2019t have got if it had been released when we intended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been awful for the industry, but creatively, it has given people the space to do interesting things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, Cosens is one of the few Sheffielders lucky enough to have found himself in The Leadmill in recent weeks. Although\u00a0the doors to this cornerstone of Sheffield\u2019s musical heritage remain closed, he was able to take advantage of its empty schedule to film the video for Lovers Blues<\/em> on its stage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great being able to film it in Leadmill, an iconic venue and somewhere I\u2019ve played many times- to get in there and do that almost felt like playing a gig. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little tantalising view of what hopefully will come back to us sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/awesome-shockley.77-68-72-77.plesk.page\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/88ED63BA-104C-4CBD-9A95-3C2161773B5B-300x234.jpeg\")