Niall Horan has said that he sends his former One Direction bandmates his unreleased music to ask for advice.
In a new interview with Esquire, Horan spoke about getting feedback from them pre-release. “Not every time, but if I feel like I need an opinion, I always send it out,” he said.
Horan is due to release his third solo album ‘The Show’ later this year on June 9. The announcement, which was made in February, was accompanied by the album’s lead single ‘Heaven’. In a TikTok posted following the announcement, the singer also said that the new record is “by far and away my favourite stuff I’ve ever worked on”.
“This time I sent it to Louis, and he gave me his honest opinion on it, which is always handy,” Horan said in the Esquire interview, referencing ‘The Show’.
“We’ve released enough songs over the years, so we know what’s decent and what’s not. All the 1D boys and artists alike, I’ll always try and send it around and get everybody’s opinion.”
Though One Direction split up for good in 2016, the ex-bandmates have shown each other support publicly in recent months. For example, Styles thanked his former bandmates after he was named Artist Of The Year at the 2023 BRIT Awards.
“I wanna start my thanking my family,” Styles began. “I wanna thank my family for being the most supportive, understanding, patient, loving family I could ask for. I wanna thank my mum for signing me up for X Factor without telling me cos I literally wouldn’t be here without you.”
He continued: “I wanna thank Niall, Louis, Liam and Zayn, because I wouldn’t be here without you either. Thank you so much. I’m really, really grateful for this and I’m very aware of my privilege up here tonight so this award is for Rina, Charli, Florence, Mabel and Becky.”
Last month, Horan made a surprise appearance at the Country To Country festival at London’s O2 in his first performance in front of a crowd since 2021. He appeared with Thomas Rhett to perform his 2017 single ‘Slow Hands’ to the delight of fans in attendance.
In a recent interview with NME, Horan said of his new album: “The last time I wrote an album I did less thinking. You don’t in your early 20s, you don’t think too much at all – well I didn’t anyway, probably just immaturity of me.
“But I think with pandemics and relationships and things like that, you subconsciously grow as a person. And then production wise and what I’m saying [lyrically], it just sounds like something that a 30-year-old would release. Not a youthful version of what I did before.’