The British singer admits he feels at ease while filming the documentary because his cousin is the one who directs it.

• Aug 30, 2018

AceShowbiz - Ed Sheeran was able to show his "vulnerable" side while having his songwriting process captured on camera because he didn't care what his filmmaker cousin thought about his music.

The Shape of You singer allowed his relative, Murray Cummings, to film him at work on his hit album Divide in the new Apple Music documentary Songwriter, which gives fans an intimate behind-the-scenes look at his craft.

Ed admits he is rarely fully at ease when cameras are rolling, but having a family member shoot the film made all the difference, because he didn't need to worry about early criticism from an outsider.

"It's quite weird when they (songs) get created because you don't quite know what's gonna happen," he explained to breakfast show Today. "You can get quite vulnerable while writing a song and having a camera sit on you is something you don't really wanna do, so it's cool that those moments are actually captured.

"Murray being my cousin was like, it helps because I don't really care what he thinks! We're family..."

"I always say it's the best feeling in the world writing a good song, but it's the worst feeling in the world writing a bad song," Ed added. "I'm definitely addicted to the feeling of writing a good song."

And Cummings is fully aware of the unique opportunity he was given by joining Ed throughout the songwriting process.

"He doesn't let anybody really film in the studio and I was lucky enough to be in there, so I just wanted to capture that and show people what it felt like to be there while he's writing a song," Murray shared.

Songwriter includes never-before-seen footage from the Sheeran family archives, including photos and videos of the British hitmaker as a young aspiring musician, as well as a trip back to Ed's high school to visit his old music teacher and early mentor.

"There were a lot of teachers who didn't quite get it (his talents)," he said. "I think Mr. Hanley never had a doubt (about his future success)."

The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany earlier this year and was screened at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, before opening in theatres in the Big Apple and Los Angeles for a limited run on 17 and 24 August, respectively.