Zane Lowe did a FaceTime interview with Niall Horan where Niall gives further details about his album ‘Flicker,' how he’ll never be as big as One Direction, dream collaborations, wanting ’Slow Hands’ to go #1, playing his new album for his mom, and more.
Zane Lowe x Niall Horan
Feeling like he’s writing as an adult now:
I felt like I had a lot of stuff I wanted to write about, and I'd been thinking about this recently I feel like this is the first time I've written something from an adult point of view. Now I'm writing from an adult’s perspective and I feell like even the way that the lyrics were coming out and the types of stuff I was writing it felt really natural to me whereas probably didn't feel as natural a few years previous tothat. I had to grow up a lot quicker than a lot of people would have had to grow up you know in day to day life. I was in the public eye since I was 16 years of age so you grow up a lot quicker than you expect. You have to do a lot of growin up, and in these lyrics that I've been writing recently I've shown that.
Producers on the album:
All these different people came in at poignant times. The songs that Greg Kurstin worked on were the right ones for him to work on. I wouldn’t have given him a completely different thing that I didn't think that he would be up for. It originally started with Jacquire King we worked together for three or four weeks recording a lot of the album bits and pieces here and there, songs that I would use, songs I didn’t use and then it was like what’s next? People like Greg, him and Tobias Jesso Jr, I wrote 'Slow Hands' with him. They all just fell into place. I was very lucky that the album were a good place before his people came in. I felt I was confident song-writing wise and then these guys come in and help me on a big level. If it wasn’t for those guys this album wouldn’t be in the shape is.
Niall on ‘Flicker’:
‘Flicker' is the title track of the album really. It's the one that means the most to me. It was a very poignant moment in the recording process. We were sitting in a full session band at EastWest studios in LA we were in with Jacquire and I said when we record Flicker I want to be really delicate with this I don’t want to overproduce this and he got it straight away. I went into the booth and and recorded with my acoustic guitar and after two or three takes everyone's kind of sitting there looking at the walls thinking ‘this is quite the pretty song' and I was feeling the same and we took a break. No one spoke to each other and it was quite strange and I felt like there was a real carefulness in the recording process during this song and it changed the way I recorded the rest of the album.
Niall on playing the album for his mom:
I played it for my mom and then she came to rehearsals and listened before I started the tour. I think they have to spend a bit more time with it. I think the initial excitement of hearing new songs but I swear to god I could sing Happy Birthday for 12 minutes and they would probably love it.
Niall on One Direction:
I know in my heart of hearts that no matter what any of us do individually it will never be as big as One Direction. I have stuff that I want to write about I have a sound I think I’ve got down. It's a competitive world out there and if it’s a world where I can bring this sort of music out there and be somewhat successful I'm happy with that.
on Slow Hands sitting at #2 on American radio:
Slow Hands is currently sitting number two in American radio. When you're sitting there writing it you're like you know ‘we’ve got a good song here’ but you never know and you’re in such a competitive world. You're dealing with the Ed’s and the Drakes and The Weeknds, like this is what we're up against. I would say I would be lookin to outdo 'Slow Hands' next time. I don't know how I’ll do it but I'll give it a go. At the start you’re like you know, it's out there, I'm happy with it. I want it to do well. Now it’s number two on radio - of course I want it to go number 1!
Who Niall would love to collaborate with:
The fans would love to see myself and Sean Mendes do something. I’d love to work with Sean. Myself and Maren Morris have a song on this record. We’re gonna be touring all next year so there will be a lot of writing going, lot of jamming with the band. If I'm touring with Maren Morris all summer I can pretty much guarantee there’s gonna be a lot of writing going on, whether it’s for me or her or whoever, I don’t mind. That’s why I started writing this album in the first place I just wanted to write. For the first few months it wasn’t actually for me and then these songs were coming naturally and I just went for it.
