After Taylor Swift’s surprise exit folklore in the summer of 2020, critics and curious fans (namely, us) began wondering which pop star would be hiding to make their next serious, stripped-down, cottagecore-inspired album. Well, if you said Ed Sheeran, maybe it’s time to cash in on that bet. Sheeran said he works with Aaron Dessner, the National’s multi-instrumentalist who produced folklore alongside Jack Antonoff. And in addition he said it under oath.

Alright, let’s go back. Sheeran has been caught up in a UK copyright dispute over his 2017 mega-hit ‘Shape of You’, which grime musician Sami Switch and producer Ross O’Donoghue say is based on their song from 2015 “Oh Why”. Sheeran claims he hadn’t heard the song before writing “Shape of You,” which lawyers for Switch and O’Donoghue dispute. When Sheeran spoke on Monday, lawyers for Switch and O’Donoghue asked him about his songwriting process, during which Dessner’s revelation came. Sheeran said he recently spent a week with Dessner and the pair wrote 25 songs, Reuters reported.

Tease your new album in court? Now, maybe it’s a new one. But working with Dessner would make sense for Sheeran, who has been a close friend and collaborator of Swift since he invited her over. Red song “Everything Has Changed” in 2012. The two recently teamed up to re-record the song for Red (Taylor’s version) last year, and in February, Sheeran tapped Swift for a remix of his 2021 song “The Joker and the Queen.” The only question is, what mathematical symbols does Sheeran have left to name this new album?