IT’S a busy month for Ed Harcourt. He emerged from the hazy madness of playing Glastonbury to collaborate on a mammoth project with singer/ songwriter Beck.

Ed was the musical director for a live version of Beck’s latest album at the Barbican with guests as eclectic as Michael Kiwanuka, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joan as Police Woman and Franz Ferdinand. The stars performed Beck’s album Song Reader, which the American singer released just as sheet music.

And it’s next stop Southend, as Ed prepares to play at Metal’s Village Green festival, which will see Chalkwell Park transformed into an all-day arts festival this Saturday.

When I get through to Ed, he’s in the middle of packing away equipment from the Barbican event.

“I’ve been collecting all my keyboards and equipment,” he explains.

“It was an amazing show, a one-off that I don’t think will ever happen again. It was so intense that I’m feeling a bit bereft now it’s over. And a bit hungover.”

The big events are the latest in what’s already been a busy year for Ed, after the Mercury Prize nominee released his last album, Back into the Woods.

But he admits that the album wasn’t actually ever planned – it came about as a musical reaction to another album that he’s been working on.

“I’d been making this album for three years and it’s very expansive and dark and big and epic. But I found myself wanting to do something that was back to basics, I felt I was getting lost in production, and I ended up writing Back into the Woods in about a month.”

The album, which Ed describes as a paean to his wife, musician and singer Gita Harcourt-Smith, for putting up with him, was recorded at Abbey Road studios in just six hours – a different beast altogether from the three-year epic which Ed is still working on.

“I didn’t have a manager and wasn’t even on a label at the time,” he admits.

“I sent it to Sean Adams at Drowned in Sound, and he ended up being my manager and formed a label to release it on. The reaction’s been amazing. I thought it would be this little album that would maybe sneak into a few people’s lives, but the reaction has been amazing across the board.

“I think people like listening to something they can relate to, and it’s honest.”

He adds: “But I don’t want to be some kind of ‘I’m all about the music, I’m real man’, salt of the earth type. It is what it is, I’m not really interested in analysing it. I like to keep moving forward.”

Music has been a part of Ed’s life since he was a child – trying out his brother’s guitar, playing the right-handed instrument upside down as Ed himself is left-handed, before moving on to the piano.

But he almost took his career down another route, after he spent two years working as a chef – inspired by his great-aunt, the food writer and post-war inspirational cook Elizabeth David.

“There was a restaurant nearby and I thought ‘maybe it’s in the blood,’” says Ed.

“I thought I’d see if I could do that for a couple of years. It meant I could get a bit of money and have a few days off – and that’s when I really started writing songs.”

The job gave Ed the chance to hold himself up when he wasn’t working and develop his music, indulging what he describes as his misanthropic tendancies to spend time alone while working creatively.

“I didn’t really have any friends,” he says. “I locked myself away in this old farmhouse and I’d just write until 5am.

“I think I’m one of those people who likes to party and hang out with friends, but deep down I’m a bit of a solitary beast. I’m very happy to just kind of get lost in my own world – what I’m trying to say is I’m a misanthrope and I hate people.”

His self-assessment is not entirely true – Ed’s collaborated with some top names on plenty of projects, including his 2006 album the Beautiful Lie, which saw him team up with Blur’s Graham Coxon, the Magic Numbers and his wife Gita for contributions to the record.

And another ongoing project has seen him work with vocalist Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

“I wrote and produced a whole album for Sophie Ellis-Bextor,” he explains. “That was quite a curveball for some people. It’s a beautiful album, really gorgeous and very different”

The collaboration came about as Ed and Sophie are good family friends, and Ed says that the pair just clicked musically, despite being known for different styles.

He says: “We’re both interested in different things, but for some reason we just connected. When you do a lot of writing you can find yourself working with someone and it just doesn’t work. It can get a bit like two alpha males. I prefer working with female singers.”

Ed Harcourt plays at the Village Green featival at Chalkwell Park, Westcliff on Saturday. He is due on the Village School stage at 6.25pm.

He is also at Latitude Festival, which takes place in Southwold, Suffolk, from July 18 to 21.