GQ Mexico: Best Dressed Men of the Week

5 November 2019: Seville, Spain, saw the ex-boybander Horan on the red carpet of the MTV EMAs. The best part? Aside from his striped suit, we think it was his performance on the stage with ‘Nice To Meet Ya’.

16 December 2019: Nothing ties together a look like a white t-shirt, especially if the pants are high. Niall shows us how an outfit always goes perfectly with shoes in the same tone. The ex-directioner gives us the perfect example of how to do it in the streets of Manhattan. 

A Pleasure, Mr Horan

GQ Mexico & Latin America, February 2020

With ‘Nice To Meet Ya’, Niall Horan evolves in pop music, and opens the way to a promising second studio album

We’re witnessing the musical evolution of Niall Horan. Yes, Katy Perry’s favourite ex-member of One Direction and his debut single as a solo artist, ‘Slow Hands’, gave us the number one album Flicker in the final week of October 2017. The album, co-written by him in its entirety, had a pop-folk sound, from which the pop blueprint with which he started his second cut has evolved.

‘Nice To Meet Ya’ is a huge pop tune, that intro with piano and hand claps…

It’s what you have to do, to keep people interested. I was in a really good mood, I took the microphone, and that chorus just slipped out. It felt like a party.

How do you do this?

With a good melody, and lyrics that others can sing along with me. I’ve realised that we have this idea of how something should sound or think a lot about the lyrics, but the reality is people want to have fun and dance like crazy.

That’s exactly what you did. And is it about anyone in particular?

I wrote it about a wild night out, although nothing much happened [laughs]. My first album was exactly what I wanted in that moment, things that were passing through my head. This time, I opted for something more fun, to reflect my 26 years.

For you, coming from the One Direction phenomenon, it must be easy to flirt. Or is it the complete opposite?

It’s very difficult, I’m very picky when it comes to meeting people. I can’t just start flirting straight away, I need to chat, to be aware of what’s happening to be able to get to know someone the right way.

Let’s talk about your new album. Where are we at with it?

I’m going to show you my inbox, so you can see it’s full of masters of the songs we’ve chosen to give finishing touches, but it’s ready. It will be out this month or in March.

 Which song are you most proud of?

There’s a couple. It was really hard to put this album together, because I ended up in love with so many of the songs, but ‘Put A Little Love On Me’ is a very sad ballad, it’s the most vulnerable I’ve been. People can say it’s the worst song, but for me, it’s the best I’ve written and I love to listen to it now.

How do you think pop music has shaped you as an artist?

I’ve loved it since I was a kid. I grew up with 70s rock and that was my first love, but I’ve always been interested in pop music, and my favourite thing about doing what I do is to make something a little different to traditional pop music, although not so rebellious, like what Billie Eilish is doing, in her way, and this helps to work in the sphere of pop music.

There’s a huge growth both vocally and sonically from Flicker to your new material. How do you see it?

For me, it hasn’t been so wild. I think ‘Nice To Meet Ya’ is a natural step forward from ‘Slow Hands’. It has been almost three years from one to the other, and in this gap, lots of things have happened to me as a person and as an artist, and in my musical tastes, and that’s what’s made me grow organically. It might sound crazy if you’re not inside my head, but I don’t think I’ve made music removed from who I am. Or at least, that’s what I think. 

Niall Horan, on Maxwell’s ‘It’s Okay To Be Loud’ podcast, 23.11.19

James Barr for Attitude Magazine, 10 October 2019

Billboard Breakdown - Hot 100 - 19 October 2019, Spectrum Pulse (Mark Grondin)

I like the strategy of drip feeding tidbits about the process/progress with the album, especially as it feels like it is actually leading somewhere (unlike some other artists I follow, who have been teasing their next projects for years). But seeing the Capitol team start the promo push would definitely add an extra layer of reassurance that it's coming soon soon! 🤞

gosh, I hope it all lines up and he does participate this year 🤞

any more hints about what to expect from the album (and when to expect it) would be most welcome 🙏

clearly #notallfans on Tumblr are entitled, so I wouldn't take it too personally... unless the shoe fits? 🤷‍♀️ but in the two minutes I spent scrolling through posts on Tumblr about the leak, I found the tone and reaction on Tumblr to be very different to Twitter.

the reaction I saw on Twitter was along the lines of: oh no, this sucks for Niall, who would do this to him, I'm not going to listen/I feel terrible for listening but I couldn't help myself. while the posts I saw on Tumblr were along the lines of: hahaha omg this is amazing! this is what we deserve! here's a download link, reblog away! 1D fans are the best at leaking stuff!

maybe that's not reflective of your experience on Tumblr, but those are the posts which seemed to be reblogged the most and thus floated to the top of the Tumblr search algorithm.

while Twitter has its own demons, there seemed to me to be a greater sense of conscience there, which I found interesting given fans on Twitter skew a bit younger. #notallfans on Twitter are bullies, just as #notallfans on Tumblr are entitled. but if your first reaction to the suggestion of entitlement is to point your finger at another group of fans and say: but! they're so much worse than us!... then you might be part of the problem? 🙄

why does this sound so accusatory? 😳 I obviously don't have much power at all because I wasn't ultimately successful, but my first instinct when I saw that it had leaked was to report where it had leaked to get it taken down and try to stop it spreading further, and to try to contact Capitol Records to flag the leak, although I doubt they saw my messages. but for a few days it didn't spread any further, and it felt like maybe, just maybe, on this occasion fans would respect that this was something Niall never intended to be shared and keep it quiet. that was clearly wishful thinking.

oh thanks 😽 but unlikely. come to Twitter, I like it much better there 😘

yes 🙈 I spent 3 days trying to stop it from leaking (further), but that was obviously a losing battle 🙄.

RuthAnne Cunningham, on writing Slow Hands