Niall Horan named his new single and album ‘Dinner Party’ after a low-key meal that changed his life. “Well, I met my girlfriend at a dinner party, and I felt compelled to write [that song] because obviously I’m still with her,” he says at the start of his In Conversation interview. “So it really became a bigger moment than just sitting down at a dinner table and having a few drinks.”
Due in June, ‘Dinner Party’ is Horan’s fourth solo album since One Direction – the band he conquered the world with, alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and the late Liam Payne – went on hiatus a decade ago. He says “it’s not a trillion miles away” from his last LP, 2023’s chart-topping ‘The Show’, but the major difference is that ‘Dinner Party’ sounds “way more live”. And this is firmly by design.
“I think pop music for a long time was very compressed – you know, a very drum machine sound,” Horan says. “But I feel like since Covid, really, everyone is kind of leaning towards a more live sound, which I’ve been waiting for to be honest, because all of my influences are very live-sounding in their recordings.”
He cites fellow Irishman Damien Rice as a particular influence on the album’s ballads, which include the lovely, vulnerable ‘Better Man’. “All Damien Rice’s recordings sound like they were just done in his living room,” Horan says, “and I wanted to try and get that across and in how we recorded this time.” Once again, Horan hunkered down with songwriter-producers Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, with whom he’s been working since the 1D days. “They can push me to write] ‘Better Man’, whereas I can’t push myself to write ‘Better Man’,” he says.
It’s almost become a cliché to call Horan friendly and down-to-earth, but that’s exactly the impression he makes during a relaxed and revealing In Conversation interview. Today, he readily admits “there was no guarantee I’d get past single one” when he launched his solo career with ‘This Town’, a tender acoustic ballad, in September 2016. He also talks about how Radiohead inspired his new album, the One Direction song he thinks is due for a revival, and the weirdest place he’s heard his music.
Hi, Niall! So, which song on the album do you think will surprise people the most?
“I think ‘Tastes So Good’. It’s quite aggressive for me – in a great way. Inspiration-wise, I listened to a lot of Radiohead making this [and drew from] Thom Yorke’s melodic standpoint of, like, not having many words in a phrase… I was just trying to drag the phrase out with not a lot of words. [Whereas] usually I would try and fit in as many words [as possible].”
Does that feel counter-intuitive in a way? Because obviously you’re trying to express as much as possible.
“I just think it allows you to get the thought across in a more condensed way, and the listener still understands what you’re trying to get at. You don’t have to over-explain yourself. Some songs require it; some songs don’t. But I just like the drawly-ness of Thom Yorke’s [vocal]… maybe ‘drawl’ is the wrong word, but [the way] he kind of elongates everything, it sounds darker and deeper. I mean, obviously Thom Yorke is an absolute genius, but I think there’s a lot of ’90s stuff that comes into this album… if I was to stick a decade on it, I would say ’90s is probably the most prevalent across the board.”
You’ve recently announced the ‘Dinner Party’ tour. At this point, how do you decide which One Direction songs make it into your live show? Because you could do none, if you wanted to.
“I could do, yeah, but I feel like I’d be doing the band a disservice because there’s some great [One Direction] songs. You know, you want to play great songs, and I was in that band, so that’s helpful. I’ve played ‘Drag Me Down’, ‘Fool’s Gold’, ‘Night Changes’…”
And ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ quite a lot.
“Yeah, I was putting that in and out in the last tour… I’ll just play my favourites, I suppose. And I try and stay away from [a song] if the lads are doing it. Like, if Harry’s touring and he’s playing ‘What Makes Me Beautiful’ every night, it’d be a bit stupid for me to do the same song at the same time. Or Louis did ‘Drag Me Down’ on his first tour, so I kept away from that [at first], and then I did it on the next tour… Also, [it’s about] what kind of vibe matches? What’s next? What’s either side of the song? I try and think about it that way, too.”
If any One Direction song could pop off on TikTok, which would you like it to be?
“I think ‘Steal My Girl’ – hot take! Imagine if every time someone asked me, ‘What’s your hot take?’, I was like, ‘Well, I think Steal My Girl’ should have been bigger. But no, [seriously], I think ‘Steal My Girl’ was robbed of its day in the sun. I think ‘Fool’s Gold’ is underrated too to be honest, but ‘Steal My Girl’ is the one.”
Your debut album ‘Flicker’ will turn 10 next year. Is there potential for a 10th anniversary deluxe edition with bonus tracks? Fans love that kind of thing.
“I remember [when] a deluxe used to be a place where I would hide songs that I didn’t particularly like… but now I get excited for the deluxe. A couple of the songs that’ll be on my deluxe this time are among my favourites; I just needed to make a 12-track album and, like, I didn’t really know how to put that jigsaw puzzle together… But maybe I could have a little dig and see what I can find in the old Dropbox. Because there’s probably a couple of good ones in there. Maybe you’ve just come up with an idea?”
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve heard one of your songs?
“Actually, I was talking to someone about this yesterday, but there was an Indian restaurant next to my old house in Gloucester Road, and the first time I ever went in there, this guy who’s the manager – he’s this big, big character – just started playing my music. And I was like, ‘No. What makes him think that I want this?’ If you’re a restaurant or bar owner, please don’t play my music while we walk in because it makes me want to leave! But the food was so good that I kept going back. And he actually ended up being a nice man.
“But the weirdest place? I remember being on an island in the Philippines called El Nido and hearing a 1D song called ‘Never Enough’ – a deep, deep cut. Hearing that song in a little shack on the beach [was] really random. Where else? I went to get a facial one day and they had an acoustic playlist on, and ‘This Town’ came on as I was sitting there in my goggles under an LED light.”
Let’s end with a cheesy question: what are you most proud of at this point in your career?
“I’m happy with the authenticity in my music. I’ve stuck to my guns on the type of music that I make, and it’s stood me in good stead longevity-wise. I say that – it’s only been 15 years [since One Direction launched], so let’s not call it longevity yet! But you know what I mean… And I’m proud of how it’s slowly got a little bit bigger each time. It’s not easy out there. There’s a lot of big artists doing big things that stream bigger than me and sell more records than me… But you know, my first [solo] tour was small theatres and the next one was an arena tour, and hopefully I can keep on doing that.”
It feels as though you really can trust your gut. I mean, ‘This Town’ was quite understated for a debut solo single, and it’s now got over a billion streams on Spotify.
“Yeah, it’s funny, because I don’t think anyone was shocked when I released ‘This Town’… I think they expected to be the guy with the guitar; I think that was quite a natural place for me to go. But when ‘This Time’ came out, it was a world of – if I’m not mistaken – EDM at the time, and it kind of stood out because it was the only song in the chart that was literally just [a singer] and a guitar.
“And the same with ‘Slow Hands’ – like, it’s a pop record, but it’s got an ’80s kind of Don Henley riff to it, and it’s quite groovy. I remember performing at the American Music Awards, when I won Best New Artist, and all the other performances were so different to what I was about to do. And I was thinking, ‘I’m happy with that, because it’s nice to stand out sometimes.’ But I think you do have to have a bit of luck as well as the songs being good. You have to be in the right place at the right time. So yeah, let’s see how the next stuff goes.”
Niall Horan’s album ‘Dinner Party’ is released June 5 via Capitol Records.