George Ezra reveals he suffered anxiety

[Nergal]

 

It was only when he was midway through writing his second album that chart-topper George Ezra realised he'd been suffering with anxiety.

It also came after enormous success for the British singer-songwriter.

Ezra released the single Budapest in 2014 as the second single from his debut album, Wanted On Voyage, and suddenly had a hit on his hands.

The album and the single climbed up the charts, reaching number one in several countries, and Ezra toured the world.

"The nature of being on tour is that you're not in one place longer than kind of 48 hours, you're in a little bubble and you're really busy which is great. It keeps you occupied and you don't have to think about much," Ezra told AAP in Sydney.

But, once he finished touring, Ezra felt a bit lost.

"On the other side of that, when you stop, there are zero commitments and I think I really struggled with that. I struggled with not having anything to do, not being able to write because I can't really turn that on and off," he said.

He took himself off to Barcelona and rented a room in an apartment in the city, spending a month there writing songs for his second album. And discovered that he'd actually been struggling while he'd been at home in England.

"I feel like I was probably experiencing mid-level anxiety, I didn't know what it was until after the fact. I was really struggling to write about anything at home, so I took myself away to Barcelona and it was kind of three-quarters of the way through that trip that I realised 'you've not been very good, you haven't been very well'," he said.

"I don't think I had the vocabulary or knew what to name it as, and I think it was only once I got myself busy again that I was able to understand what was going wrong."

It's one of the issues he addresses on his second album, Staying At Tamara's, which is released on March 23.

While he is honest on the record, it's still infectiously upbeat, inspired by his month living anonymously in Barcelona in a room rented from a girl called Tamara.

Now Ezra is in Australia, showcasing some of his new music for his fans while also dipping into favourites from the first record.

"It's lovely to be here and I think everything's going to be a bit nicer this time around because I know what to expect a bit more," he said.