Niall Horan joins this week’s episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast!
The Irish singer-songwriter joined the show to celebrate the release of his fourth album, Dinner Party, out now. In his conversation with Editor-in-Chief Neil Griffiths, Horan discussed working on the new album and the need to “go and live your life” before writing new music, as well as his evolution as a songwriter.
Horan also reflects on the chaos of his One Direction days and a potential Australian tour to follow the new record.
Watch below or listen to the full episode on Apple Music and Spotify (subscribe and follow!).
Horan only really found his confidence as a songwriter after this third album, The Show
It’s probably an evolution. Musically, I kind of found where exactly where I was and then I think you just gain the confidence knowing that the people want it. Like, you put a tour on sale, or you put an album out, and you don’t know until the tickets are sold and the album sells well. I gained a lot of confidence from that standing in front of, you know, over a million people on that tour. It gives you a bit of a boost.
I know I’ve done it for a long time, but like that was the first time I’d played a lot of arenas and all over the world on my own. I just think you just naturally get a confidence from that, and it just makes you more excited to get back into the studio, just knowing people want to hear from you.
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Evolving his sound with Dinner Party
There were a few things that I took from, like Radiohead or Noel Gallagher or something like that, where like the cadence of a verse, I tried to get the least amount of words into a sentence as possible. I was just elongating some of my phrases, and I think you hear that in songs like ‘Flowers’ and ‘Little More Time’.
You’re always picking up stuff from different songwriters… there’s a lot of American classic rock I grew up on, a lot of that nineties stuff from over here, and singer-songwriter stuff. You can always expect to hear a little bit of everything from me, to be honest, because you can’t help but like play your influences – not that you’re sitting there going, I’m going to write a Noel Gallagher song! But, you can’t help but pick up and play it. Like, the first song I ever learned on the guitar everybody else was ‘Wonderwall’.
Reflecting on the One Direction days
I had a great time travelling the world at 17,18 years old, playing to millions of people every night. It’s exactly what I had dreamt up in a way, you know? That’s why I think I love touring as well. The touring part is exactly what I thought it would be, you know? You get on a bus, you travel, you travel all over the place at 8 o’clock every night, you get on stage, and you play to fans.
My first ever show I ever went to, I remember looking at the stage and being like, I want to do that. That feeling has become more palpable to me the older I’ve gotten, the more I understand myself, why I do it, what I do it for.
