Ed Sheeran has been expanding his reach from making music to producing it too, and his latest signing has us very excited.

Taking to Twitter earlier this morning, the singer revealed the identity of his newest protegée – none other than Northern Irish musician Foy Vance.

Ed – who launched Gingerbread Man Records earlier this year – called Foy "one of my all time favourite artists and inspirations."

The Bangor-born singer is best known for his track Guiding Light, which caught Ed's attention back in 2013.

Having collaborated with Ed on various tracks – including a Guiding Light duet – Foy has supported Ed on various North American and Australian dates during his X World Tour this year. 

But the pair have been friends for over four years, after meeting at an Arthur's Day gig in Dublin back in 2011. In fact, they marked their "bromance" by getting matching tattoos of a Guiding Light lyric while touring in Pittsburgh. Cute!

The first Gingerbread Man signing, Jamie Lawson, has had something of a career makeover since being taken under Ed's wing.

Irish fans will know Jamie for his 2011 single, Wasn't Expecting That, a highly emotional song about a man looking back on many beautiful memories with his wife after she is diagnosed with cancer.

Jamie's single only ever had an Irish release, but this year it was re-launched and has since gone double platinum in Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, the video – released in August 2015 – has a whopping 6.6m views on YouTube.

It seems Ed's making something of a pattern of helping little-known indie musicians to bring their music to a larger audience. Like Foy, Jamie supported Ed on various shows during the X tour, mainly in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

If you're interested in hearing more of Foy's music, Ed confirmed this morning that a free download of his single She Burns is available on FoyVance.com now.