Niall Horan: Little More Time, Touring & His Upcoming Album | Zane Lowe Interview

0:02 Hey, there he is.

0:04 There he is.

0:05 Hey, [cheering] it is.

0:07 Just thought we'd bring you in on a little dirty 303 action.

0:10 I hope you don't mind, bro.

0:11 I hope you don't mind.

0:12 I was going to say, what some filter is that?

0:14 That's some voice noise filter right there.

0:16 What's going on, buddy?

0:17 I missed you, man.

0:18 What's happening?

0:19 How are you?

0:20 Yeah, I'm doing great.

0:21 see.

0:21 Long time no see, man.

0:22 You've been busy living your life, making your music, doing your thing,

0:25 and it just seems to me like you found a beautiful balance, man.

0:29 So, you tell us, but there's light in your eyes and the music sounds free, bro.

0:33 So, congrats.

0:35 Thank you very much.

0:36 Yeah, no, it's been Yeah, it was a fun record to make and it feels good.

0:41 It feels Feels like me.

0:43 It didn't feel like you had to rush it at all, you know?

0:45 It feels like you know, you just waited for the songs to come and pick

0:48 the right people and really try to to your point, enjoy the experience,

0:52 which hasn't always and isn't always the case for any artist.

0:55 At times it feels like you're kind of being

0:57 pushed into a even with the best of intention

0:59 and to a creative space in order to capitalize

1:01 or just to grab something when it's there.

1:03 This doesn't sound like that to me.

1:05 Is that fair to say?

1:06 No, very fair.

1:07 I think coming off the back of 2024, I've spent the whole year touring,

1:13 playing to arenas of people all over the world,

1:15 and I just felt like I had like a I felt like a like first

1:20 time of like belonging and like the the fans were there for me and you know,

1:24 seeing those arenas full of people,

1:26 it just made me want to I was listening and getting an idea

1:30 of what they liked from previous albums and just tried to lean into the more

1:34 of that when I went into the studio and just made me more excited

1:36 to just get in there and make live music and free music and yeah,

1:41 and just get and it makes me think of what,

1:44 you know, the next tour is going to be like.

1:45 I was going to say, I mean, was that tour the tipping point for you or where

1:49 you really were able to kind of to your point

1:51 identify who you are today and look

1:54 at the faces of the people in attendance and know

1:56 that that's who they've come to see and it's

1:58 not some kind of crossover effect that you actually have

2:01 a clean road map ahead of you to build

2:04 your own journey now free of any of the stuff,

2:07 love it all or otherwise, you know?

2:09 Yeah.

2:09 Yeah, I know, exactly.

2:10 You know, I think there's trial and error in everything we do creatively.

2:14 You have to you have to paint a few pictures before you get,

2:17 you know, you can get the nice ones, but um but yeah, you know,

2:20 I I think the tour did a lot for me and the success of the last album

2:23 and and stuff like that just gave me a confidence

2:25 to just go in and stand behind the mic,

2:27 set up a band, jam, see what came from it, and release it.

2:31 It's as simple as that for me on this record,

2:33 and I think I hopefully across the album, I think you can probably hear that.

2:38 What was the first song do you remember,

2:39 and did it make it onto the album when you sat down you when you

2:41 got off tour and you sat down and you really tried to apply yourself like,

2:44 okay, I feel something stirring, there's music that needs to be get out of me.

2:48 I need to start this process, whatever shape it takes,

2:51 and you picked up a guitar or sat behind a piano

2:53 and you just started to kind of figure something out.

2:55 Did did did the first ideation make it or was it something else?

2:59 Um I always the first thing that I had.

3:02 I can't really remember.

3:03 Oh, it it could have been Taste So Good

3:05 cuz the whole the whole idea was that you know,

3:08 I could the Julian Bunetta and John Ryan came out to a few

3:11 shows on the tour um and just for them to see it live,

3:15 see the show come alive see the music come alive, watch the faces of the fans,

3:20 see what they were into, and I think the one thing the three of us

3:23 took away from it was that we are literally going to stand in a room,

3:27 we're going to be the band, and we're going to jam it out,

3:29 and I think Taste So Good was probably the first thing

3:31 that we played and when you hear that when you hear that song,

3:35 it's it just sounds like a it sounds like three dudes in a in a room jamming,

3:38 and that's exactly what it is.

3:40 Can you paint the picture of what that room is like?

3:41 I mean, I think fans and myself as one of them would love to know,

3:44 beyond the idea of three dudes with guitars jamming out a song,

3:48 what's on the table?

3:49 What's the agenda?

3:50 What time of day it is it?

3:51 You know, is there a glass of Pinot in the hand or something stronger?

3:54 Like, what's going on when you're actually just

3:56 trying to get these songs out of your system?

3:58 Well, we're down in for for that song particular, we're in Nashville.

4:01 We did a lot of like traveling for this show or this this album, yeah.

4:05 For this album, we were kind of just like bouncing around the place.

4:08 We'd rent a house in We rented a house in Austin.

4:11 We rented a house in Well, we stayed in Julian's house in Nashville.

4:13 We rented a house here in Surrey and outside of London.

4:16 And it's just like having a few beers, jamming,

4:19 maybe going if there was a tennis court or something,

4:21 we'd go and hit a few balls.

4:23 [laughter] We'd come back.

4:24 Literally, we'd have the whole the whole band set up.

4:26 Wait, were you guys Fleetwood Mac?

4:28 Like, who goes [laughter] out and plays tennis in between vocal takes?

4:32 A little bit less intense than Fleetwood, but [laughter] Okay, fine.

4:37 No inter-band like horrific divorces and high-energy cocaine habits,

4:41 but apart from that, a lot of Fleetwood Mac energy, a lot of tennis energy.

4:46 I love this just good fun, you know, cuz like we I would just get on a mic,

4:49 we'd have a guitar in my hand, Julian on the drums,

4:52 John playing whatever synth or bass or whatever,

4:55 and just we just wanted to make the record as simple as possible,

4:58 you know, and not add not over add tracks just for the sake of it.

5:01 It was very much a a basic, you know,

5:04 the four or five instruments on it a lot of the way through the record,

5:06 and it was just us jamming.

5:08 You know, coming up with melodies on the spot.

5:10 Now, that'd be a good part.

5:11 That'd be a good part for this.

5:12 That'd be a good part for that, and then just

5:14 then get catching a vibe and then writing the lyrics.

5:17 How fun.

5:18 How fun.

5:19 I mean, and also giving you giving all of you things to look

5:23 forward to, taking a break and then being like, hey, you know,

5:27 why don't we go to Austin and Airbnb be somewhere really cool

5:31 and just spend a week and just hang out and make music fun.

5:35 That's our job.

5:36 Like, that's as Brian Eno says, that's just playtime.

5:39 Literally, by the way, and because it it can get like, you know what it's like.

5:43 You've been around it long enough.

5:44 You've seen how it works.

5:45 It It You get You go to these sessions sometimes,

5:48 and it's a it feels like a 9-to-5 sometimes,

5:50 and you're like, nah, that's not how it That's not how it is.

5:52 And we just Yeah, we'd rent these houses.

5:54 We'd stay up till stupid o'clock in the morning making

5:58 tracks and making beats and stuff like that, and then,

6:01 you know, enjoy ourselves and have a few drinks and write a few songs,

6:04 and that's the way it's supposed to be.

6:06 And definitely, I get the best out of myself

6:08 with that cuz like if you're doing session after session after session,

6:11 you're kind of going to studio sometimes just going like,

6:13 all right, what do we do now?

6:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

6:15 You've done that.

6:16 You've done that.

6:16 You've done that.

6:17 You've been on that treadmill, man.

6:18 And you may end up end on it again end up on it again.

6:21 Look, I mean, life is full of twists and turns,

6:23 but man, to to to keep it present.

6:25 Um there's a lot of people around the world who are listening in.

6:27 A lot of people who love you.

6:29 Uh a lot of people who've loved you for a long time.

6:31 Boy, those One D fans are eating this year.

6:34 I mean, it it must it [laughter] must make you laugh

6:37 to some degree that the four of you have all been tucked

6:39 away doing your and every single one of you has dropped

6:43 one after the other after the other after the other this year.

6:46 It's crazy.

6:46 It's almost like there's some kind of Illuminati meeting happening,

6:48 which we know is not happening, but it feels super dialed in.

6:51 It's crazy.

6:53 No, it it is nuts that all of us are basically coming at the same time.

6:57 I I literally went to watch Louis in Paris a couple of nights ago.

7:01 That show was great.

7:02 And hearing his new record live was was really cool as well.

7:06 Yeah, we're all we're all going at the same time.

7:08 It's pretty wild.

7:09 How was the show?

7:09 Did he Does he Is he having fun on that tour?

7:11 I mean, cuz I caught up with him face-to-face not long ago,

7:14 and it struck me that he was very, very keen to make a very deep record,

7:19 but then go out there and find the joy in it.

7:20 Has he Is he finding the joy in the music?

7:23 Yeah, I know, he's definitely looks like he's having a lot of fun up there.

7:26 I'm speaking to him and he's kind of in a similar spot to me

7:29 where he's just kind of like that freedom

7:31 of like knowing where you are musically

7:33 and just being able to go do it and then get out in front

7:36 of the fans who have loved and adored and new fans and stuff like that.

7:40 So, it's it's it's pretty cool to watch him get up

7:43 there and enjoy and he's singing great and he sounds Yeah,

7:45 the whole band sounds great.

7:46 The show looks cool.

7:47 So, good for him.

7:48 It's really cool for all of us to see all of you guys,

7:52 you know, continuing continuing to establish a life that is your own.

7:57 And it and it's not lost to me that behind you right now,

7:59 you know, you've got these kind of reminders

8:00 of of what you've achieved, you know,

8:02 these Moon Men and and these like MTV Europe Awards and these VMAs

8:06 and all these things that sort of come with the with being in the club,

8:09 you know what I mean?

8:10 Those rooms are clubs.

8:11 It's like, oh, I'm in the club for a night, you know,

8:13 I guess I'm sitting in a row and I'm if I get up on stage,

8:16 I'm I'm like I'm right there, you know, this is awesome.

8:18 But like, the most important thing to which

8:21 I think we're establishing on this call and over

8:23 the course of our friendship as we're talking

8:25 more is that it's about album 30, isn't it?

8:28 Isn't it about album number 30?

8:30 Isn't it about getting to that place where you can

8:32 live a life in service to the music that's in you?

8:36 For me, it's all about that, you know, just keep just keep doing it.

8:40 As long as the the fans keep wanting it, that's all I want to hear, you know?

8:43 I I love doing what I do.

8:45 It's the I feel like as I said to you before, like the older I get,

8:48 the more aware, the more grateful you you become, the more you take it all in.

8:52 And and I'm just loving this like I wouldn't say it's a challenge,

8:56 but I'm just loving the evolution.

8:58 Yeah.

8:58 The challenge of the evolution, if you like,

9:00 uh like watching it just what's the next thing?

9:02 What's What does What does 33-year-old Niall sound like?

9:07 What does 36-year-old Niall sound like?

9:09 And and that actually makes me really excited.

9:12 Um Yeah, and I feel like the the way music is these days,

9:15 it's getting more it's becoming more live.

9:18 Um especially in the pop sphere, and and I'm really enjoying that because it's

9:23 something I've been waiting in the wings for.

9:25 You know, I wanted to make the live as sound an album as possibly could,

9:27 and I just didn't think at the time music was doing that.

9:30 So, it's it's kind of it's nice to be in this position now

9:32 where I can just pick up a guitar and jam with the boys, and that's the record.

9:36 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

9:38 I mean, that's that's clearly who you are in your heart

9:41 and soul is that person who just has that very,

9:43 very close relationship with your instrument

9:45 and your songs and with golf as well.

9:50 [laughter] How's your handicap?

9:51 Oh, it hasn't been great.

9:52 I picked up a club recently after four or five months away from it

9:56 with the bad winter we had here and it was it was like swinging sledgehammers.

10:00 I've no idea what I was [laughter] doing.

10:04 It's the most heartbreaking game I've ever tried my hand at.

10:06 You know, I I literally had one good day

10:09 at a driving range where I was hitting some pretty consistent sort

10:12 of shots and I and I and I swing in the club

10:15 well and I was taking good lessons and I said,

10:17 "Okay, I'm ready to go out on the green and do

10:18 a couple of holes." And my and my teacher was like, "I don't know if you are."

10:24 [laughter] And he and he and he took me out there.

10:25 I was like, "No, I'm going to be fine." And it

10:26 took me like 15 minutes to get round one hole.

10:29 I mean, he was he was spending his entire

10:30 time on a golf cart chasing my balls, man.

10:32 And wait.

10:35 [laughter] Woah, buddy.

10:35 How did you How did you not drop a pause in there?

10:37 That was so ready for that.

10:39 It was so ready.

10:40 But no, seriously, he was just chasing my shots around left,

10:43 right, and center, man.

10:44 It's it's a It's a go and play it.

10:46 We should Let me Let me Let me teach you.

10:48 Would you teach me?

10:49 Yeah, I'll teach you.

10:50 I'll take you out.

10:51 We don't live too far from each other.

10:52 I can do that.

10:52 All right, man.

10:53 I'm going to come and find you.

10:54 We're going to play this song called "Little More Time" and um Yeah.

10:58 You know, I love this song.

11:00 I'm so glad you're sharing it with everybody

11:02 as a representation of the body of work in itself,

11:04 but we're here to find out what you love about this song.

11:08 This is my favorite song in the album.

11:09 I don't know what it is about it.

11:10 It gives me like a it takes me back to when we wrote it in the studio.

11:13 I wrote it with Steph Jones and Rocky Block.

11:16 Um and we're in Nashville.

11:18 I just love that feeling like this could collapse on its face or it could

11:23 be the biggest song in the world and it wouldn't make a difference to me.

11:25 I just have this like You know when you just you have you make

11:29 something and you're just like so proud of it straight away from first listen.

11:34 Yeah, this song is this song is like this song is

11:36 basically about me not wanting to leave my house, you know,

11:38 and having these roots for the first time and and just wanting

11:41 to spend more time here a little more time if you like.

11:45 And yeah, and I just love the kind of '90s jam feel it has to it.

11:51 And yeah, it feels loose and it I love singing

11:55 it and it just it just makes me feel really good.

11:56 So I'm very proud of this song.

11:58 I can't wait for everyone to hear it in its totality.

12:00 I think it's just come out.

12:01 So we're I'm very excited.

12:02 literally minutes old and we're going to play it right now on the show.

12:04 It is so um such a joy to see you so

12:08 uh content but also as curious and restless as ever, man.

12:13 That is the that is the balance.

12:14 And congratulations.

12:17 The brand new album Dinner Party June 5th.

12:19 Thanks for touching base with us on the show, man.

12:20 Please come see us when the album comes out.

12:22 You know, the door's always open.

12:23 But I love hanging out with you in person and talking.

12:25 And uh You too, man.

12:27 Yeah, I don't know what you signed up for on my golf swing, but you are

12:31 [laughter] But but you made the commitment.

12:35 I'm coming to find you.

12:36 Now, so good to see you.

12:38 We love you here at Apple, bro.

12:39 Take care, man.

12:40 Have a great day.

12:41 See you, mate.