Ed Sheeran‘s latest project, Autumn Variations, is finally here. The album — released on Friday (Sept. 29) — marks a few firsts for the English pop star, notably with it being his first independent release on his own Gingerbread Man Records, and the lack of promotional singles or music videos for the project.

“Each record before I’ve done, like, all the big going in and doing all these radio interviews, and going on the late-night shows, and doing, doing all this stuff. And this record, there’s not even a single for it. There’s not, there’s not a music video. I’m just putting it out,” Sheeran said of his new strategy in an interview with CBS Mornings that aired the day the set dropped.

The 32-year-old shared that his motivations for forgoing the typical album release model stems from being a big-budget pop star for most of his career. “I wanna put out an independent record,” he explained. “And also, like, I’ve had 12, 13 years of the, being a pop star, and having the pressure of it has to sell this week one, you have to have this hit single, you have to have this. And part of me goes, ‘Why?’”

Sheeran further stated that going the independent route alleviates him of the typical major-label pressure. Of the music industry, the “Magical” singer noted that “everything has to be the biggest and best every time, and then better the next time. I think that’s part of the independent thing, that takes away the pressure. There are no expectations because there’s no company. You have to live with it. You have to be like, ‘I don’t care what people think.’”

Autumn Variations also marks Sheeran’s first record to evoke the feeling of a specific season, inspired in part by the cozy days he’s spent at home with wife Cherry Seaborn and their two daughters. “Me and Cherry cook a lot and we always put on the same sort of records, Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me or Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams,” he recalled. “I was always like, ‘I don’t have a record like this, that’s just one producer, one mood, one feel.’ So that was very much wanting to go in and create an autumnal feeling or 14 stories about my friends.”

He also revealed that he is still grieving the loss of his best friend, Jamal Edwards. “I don’t know if you ever do [heal]. I think it’s weird to suddenly be like, ‘Cool, I’m fine. I’m not sad about my friend who died anymore.’ It’s definitely not something I think I want to be fixed. I think grief is something that lives with you forever, and some days its worse than others. I think it’s quite respectful to be sad when I think about him,” he said of his late pal, who inspired his Subtract single “Eyes Closed.”

Watch Sheeran’s full interview with CBS Mornings in the video above.