A new direction
Former boy band star Niall Horan is finding some success flying solo
Niall Horan strolls into the lobby of a London hotel wearing a sweatshirt advertising the Eagles 1996 European Tour. It turns out this is not just some retro fashion statement. The former boy band star is a bit of an old rocker at heart.
“I actually saw this tour,” the 26-year-old Irishman proudly explains. “It was my first show of all time, in Dublin, with my dad.” Horan would have been all of three years old.
Horan is small (5-foot-7), gregarious and friendly, with a strong Irish accent. “There’s a humble side to being Irish that is quite appealing. Of course, a humble person wouldn’t say that! But I don’t see myself as a superstar or anything like that.”
He grew up in Mullingar, in County Westmeath. All he ever wanted to be was a musician. “I was the family show-off. I led the school choir. I was in garage bands playing Arctic Monkeys songs or playing acoustic guitar around pubs.” He was frustrated by his small town environment. “Dublin was an hour away, but it feels years away when you’ve got no money and you’re just walking to school in the rain, playing guitar, doing homework, going to bed to get up and do the same thing again.” He was 16 when his teacher filled out his application for The X Factor. He wound up in One Direction; the rest is history.
Between 2010 and 2016, One Direction sold more than 50 million records. “It was incredible. But we got tired. Not tired of it, just tired out. Five albums, five tours, in five years. We were all knackered. I can never really remember any major bust-ups, just brotherly family nagging, (silly) arguments like that. But we were gonna end up killing each other. We all sat down one day, had a chat and it was like, we need to take a break. Step back, chill out and try something new.”
Horan admits the prospect of a sabbatical made him nervous. “There was no timeline on the gap. I would have preferred if someone said five years, and it probably will end up something like that. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, but if one of the lads were to pick up the phone and say it’s time, I’d do it.”
Within One Direction, Horan was not initially considered one of the stars. “I was a couple (of places) down the ranks in terms of the best singer.” He was rarely considered for lead vocal parts.
“It used to make me angry but, in hindsight, I was 17, so I was angry anyway. As I grew up and went through puberty, the voice got better, the guitar playing got better. And when the songwriting kicked in, I started to have a bigger role.”
Horan’s debut album, Flicker, drew on his obsession with classic ’70s singing and songwriting. It went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard charts in 2017, the third solo album from a One Direction member to achieve the feat.
“There’s no rivalry. Maybe ’cause we’re all doing different types of music.”
With a second album in the works, Horan says the real luxury is being able to spend time recording. “I’ve written 60 songs for this album. I can be rational and irrational, spend three days on a chorus, write 10 crap songs to get one good one. Sometimes you bump into a hit along the way, and that’s the best feeling in the world. There’s no better.”
The first single, Nice to Meet Ya, is a bit of a departure, a playful pickup song with a rocky groove and a touch of swagger.
The playfulness, though, covers emotion. A romance with American actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld ended last year. “It was a sad time,” Horan admits. “That’s where most of these songs have come out of.”
He says he doesn’t miss One Direction mania. He made his own way to the interview, walking unmolested through the streets of Soho. “I can live a normal life. I’m a chilled-out fella but it was frustrating being hidden away. You had a fear of going out ’cause you’d get stopped every five seconds.”
And yet, last year, he experienced an epiphany when he made a guest appearance with Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium. “I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ There’s a power trip to feeling like you’ve got the crowd with you and they want you to succeed. I’ve missed the hustle and bustle of the police escort and the madness of it all. I still feel like a 14-year-old in my bedroom. I’ve got my guitar and I want to be a rock star.”