Harry Styles has looked back on his time in One Direction, saying he felt “very alone” after the band broke up and he went solo.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Styles shed light on his transition from boyband member to solo star. “When you’re in a band with four other people, there’s so much room to hide,” he said of former bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and the late Liam Payne, who disbanded in 2015.
“There’s only ever so much weight that’s on your shoulders. The first couple of times on stage [without One Direction], I’d think, ‘What do I do with my hands?’ ”
“But I also felt very alone all of a sudden,” he continued. “I was lucky to have the opportunity where people were interested in what I was going to make, but I put a lot of that pressure on myself, wanting it to be correct.”
Reflecting on the release of his debut self-titled solo album in 2017, Styles went on to say he’d wanted to be more experimental, but worried about disappointing people.
“With that first album, I was trying to explore what music I would make by myself, but in that moment I felt there were a lot of people who had put faith in me and I didn’t want to disappoint people or let them down,” he said.
It comes ahead of Styles sharing his fourth solo effort in ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally’. Set to arrive on March 6, earlier this week, Styles revealed that some fans will have a chance to hear it ahead of its release with a series of listening parties.
Fans across 40 cities will be given the chance to listen to new material, including his latest single ‘Aperture’, which features Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell and was inspired by LCD Soundsystem. In a review of the new track, NME said it was “Styles as we’d not heard him before”.
Last month, Styles also confirmed a huge, seven-city ‘Together, Together’ tour, which includes a 12-night residency at London’s Wembley Stadium and an impressive 30 dates at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
When tickets went live for UK dates, there were queues of up to 250,000 people for each of the shows. It has also been revealed that Styles has broken several records at both Wembley and Madison Square Garden thanks to huge demand.
The Wembley gigs will see the ‘As It Was’ singer donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy, helping to protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent. You can visit here for any remaining UK tickets, and here to get international tickets.
After tickets went live, former bandmate Malik seemingly took a swipe at Styles by making a comment about ticket prices at a recent live show. “Hopefully the ticket prices weren’t too high – just saying!” he grinned at his recent Vegas gig, before shrugging. “Anyway!…”
Many fans have interpreted the comment as a nod to the conversations around the ticket prices for Styles’ upcoming shows at Wembley Stadium.
He’s also announced a “one night only” performance of the album at Manchester Co-Op Live Arena, with tickets costing £20.
In other news, Styles also recently shared that he needed to “fall in love with music all over again” after taking three years off after releasing ‘Harry’s House’ in 2022.
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