WEBVTT - Niall Horan 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:18.920 I Heart Radio Presents Inside the Studio. I'm your host, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.200 Joe Levy. Now, this episode was recorded in London, where 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.840 I spent some of my time doing exactly what Americans 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.680 in London usually do, eating fish and chips, drinking beer, 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.560 and walking by Buckingham Palace while silently playing the sex 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.400 pistols God Save the Queen inside my head. But I 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.000 also got to spend some time pretty far off the 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.479 tourist track talking with Nile Horn about his new album 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:50.199 Heartbreak Weather and his upcoming tour with Louis Capaldi. I 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.159 met up with Nile at his rehearsal space, where I 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.680 heard him and his band run through some pinpoint harmonies 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.800 for the excellent new song Everywhere, which is about being 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.200 haunted by the memory of an X, you know, seeing 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:09.600 that face everywhere you go. Except Everywhere doesn't sound haunted. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.199 It's up tempo and full of guitars that are headed 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.640 straight towards the rafters. Nile has said heartbreak Weather has 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:21.360 some sad songs dressed up as happy songs, and Everywhere 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.200 sounds like one of those. As Nile told me when 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.240 we sat down to talk, heartbreak Weather is sort of 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.160 a concept album. It charts the course of a relationship. 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.960 So it starts with three totally over the top love songs. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.280 I mean, one of them imagines looking back on a 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.039 marriage from age six, and it ends with two songs 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.600 about holding onto feelings for someone who's no longer there. 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.120 In between comes some songs about hookups, like small Talk 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.360 and Nice to Meet You, and some about breakups like 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.800 put a Little Love on Me. Nil wanted to make 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.000 a breakup album, but a different kind of breakup album, 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.880 one that had shifting points of views. Where most breakup 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.480 albums can be selfish, they're always kind of like I'm 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.160 sitting at home You've made me so sad, And there 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.400 is songs on the album which are like that. Now. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:12.880 I have a song called Arms of a Stranger on 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:14.800 there that is literally like you left me with nothing, 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:16.880 now I'm laying in the arms with a stranger. And 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.000 then there's also songs that I've written from different sides 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.200 of it, where it's about them. It might sound like 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.000 it's about me, but I've written about them. Heartbreak Weather 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.320 is nile second album. His first, Flicker, came out in 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.480 but at twenty six, he's already been a pop star 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.640 for a full decade. That's how long it's been since 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.600 he tried out for X Factor UK, didn't make the 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.880 cut as a solo artist, but got put in a 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:49.080 group with four other guys. That group, of course, was 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.679 One Direction, and for six years and five albums, One 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.519 Direction was pop music's jugg or Not. Their first four 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.720 albums debuted at number one one on the Billboard two hundred. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.480 No other group had done that before, and they put 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.160 fourteen songs in the top ten of the Hot one chart, 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.840 four of which went to number one. When the group 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.160 went on hiatus and the One D guys started putting 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.760 out solo albums saying malick In, Harry Styles and Nile, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.200 and those went to number one two. You can pick 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.520 your completely inappropriate comparison point, but it's hard to think 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.040 of a group that spawned this kind of solo success 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:36.360 outside of the Beatles or n W A, neither of 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.760 whom ever, sang a chart topping mash up of Blondie's 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.920 One Way or Another and the Undertones Teenage Kicks, as 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.120 that should have made clear One Direction we're closer to 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.040 a power pop group than a pure pop product. Except 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.680 One D was pegged as a boy band by a 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.880 world that is not long on respect for super catchy 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.600 music made by boys who rose to fame through television 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.280 Shout out to the Monkeys, and especially is not long 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.960 on respect when you can barely hear that music over 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.560 the screams of stadiums full of young women. But whether 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.719 you liked them or not, and I did one direction 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.200 where something special. Think of them as the Pixar of 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:25.279 pop music. Both assembled by teams of professional fundmakers working 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.200 together to invent new tricks for an established medium, both 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.360 relying on state of the art techniques, charged up by 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.840 a combination of super smarts and super heightened emotions, happy 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.520 and sad, both packed with bright colors and humor that 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:45.040 dazzles kids, but also full of bits aimed at the parents. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.000 I mean, that's how I always heard the classic rock 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:52.000 riffs embedded in one D songs the Who's Baba O'Reilly 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.680 in Best Song Ever? Or the clashes should I Stay 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.719 or should I Go? And while We're young or deaf leopards, 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.320 pour some sugar on me in Midnight Memories, journeys faithfully 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.640 and steal my girl queens. We will rock you in 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.240 rock me Or at least that's how I heard them before. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.680 Harry Styles and Nile released their first albums, both of 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.799 which were heavily indebted to the classic rock California singer 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.800 songwriter sound of the nineteen seventies, albeit in very different ways. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.560 Harry came off more like a Nielsen weirdo, studio obsessive, 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.680 and Nile more like James Taylor heartbroken trying to get 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.040 over it, although both of them sounded like they'd crashed 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.600 a Fleetwood Mac recording session. Nile has said he's known 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.920 how he wanted that first album to sound since he 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.800 was a kid playing Bob Dylan and Beatles covers in 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.880 Irish pubs for older patrons. But for the new Heartbreak Weather, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.320 he was a little more free with the process and 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.480 the sound, a little less worried about its sounding like 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.920 something that came before, so maybe it ended up sounding 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.000 a little more like him. A song like No Judgment 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.359 started out with him playing around with a riff that 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.960 reminded him of an old John Mayer's song Neon, but 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.520 it became something different once he put a groove under it. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.159 Now talked with me about starting writing while he was 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.279 recovering from sinus surgery and also getting over a breakup, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.839 about recording at a studio in the Bahamas that has 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.360 a champagne bottle vending machine, and about what it's like 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.680 to stand in front of fifteen thousand people and sing 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:40.400 about your feelings. Here's what else he had to say. Now, 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.799 welcome to inside the studio, very very welcome to London, 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.880 youwre and thank for having me on your podcast. So 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:52.279 let's start with the album title. What is heartbreak Weather? 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.280 Where did the phrase come from? What does it mean? 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.760 And and how does the weather change? It's been randing 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.440 hare for about two weeks, so it doesn't change that often. Um, 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.359 heartbreak Weather kind of came from I wanted to write 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.840 like a breakup album, but not very selfishly. When you 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.680 write breakup albums, they all tend to be very selfish, 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.120 sounding like very you know all about you and how 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.720 sad you are instead of thinking about other people. So 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:25.120 I when I was writing down ideas for it, I 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:26.560 was just kind of thinking, how do I how do 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.640 I write all the different feelings because it's not always 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.720 like sad or there's happy days as well. When you 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.239 go through a breakup and there's feelings that you shut 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.520 and feel you know and you do you Do It 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.680 and Heartbreak Weather. It was something I wrote down, and 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.480 the minute I wrote down, I was like, this has 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.240 now become a concept and concept album because now I 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.840 can write different feelings and relate them to different weather patterns. 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.000 So it was like, you know, if it's a sunny song, 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:54.920 it's going to be a little bit more egotistical, and 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.000 if it's a ballad, it's going to be a little 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.280 bit stormy and rainy. And that kind of helped me 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.160 stick with the con scept. So from minute one, the 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:02.960 album was always going to be called Heartbreak Weather. And 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.200 when you say breakup albums can be selfish, do you 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.840 mean only from one point of view? You're not thinking 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.440 about the other person in a way? Yeah, they're always 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.440 kind of like I'm sitting at home, You've made me 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.440 so sad, And there is songs on the album which 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.480 are like that. Now. I have a song called Arms 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.160 of a Stranger on there that is literally like you 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:22.000 left me with nothing, now I'm laying in the arms 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.840 with a stranger. And then there's also songs that I've 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:29.520 written from different sides of it, where you know, there's 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.319 it's about them, it might sound like it's about me. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.520 But I've written about them, you know, or so even 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.080 though you're speaking from the first person, you might actually 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:38.800 be coming from the other point of view. Yeah, so 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.080 sometimes it might sound like I'm saying something, but I've 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.280 actually just in terms of the heartbreak weather concept, i 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.120 was writing from a different point of view. There's just 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.440 different songs for different angles, and I'll probably have to 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.400 explain it at some point to put just once you 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.160 know that every song is not about me and how 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.680 selfish I am, then it will help. You talked about 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.000 the different moods to the first songs we heard, Nice 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.440 to Meet you put a Little Love on Me. Those 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.640 are very different moods. One's very interior and one's really 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.720 about going out on the town. Yeah, literally, that that 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.040 was That's kind of the heartbreak weather thing again, you know, 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.679 the egotistical one and nice to Meet it comes out 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.800 and makes a load of noise and good talks about 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.040 going around London on the tear and then put the 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.520 Love of Me is the piano ballad, you know, written 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.480 with the rain bashing against the window and you know 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.400 in the hills of Hollywood. It's kind of like, you know, 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.200 it's a there are two contrasting things, and that's kind 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.800 of the theme across the across the album, and of 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.240 course Heartbreak Weather it's off the title track. You're really 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.560 singing about being on the other side of the heartbreak weather, right, 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:44.319 you know, the sun's come up, it's I mean, it's 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.320 a love song, right, yeah, yeah. No. In terms of 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.560 the track listing of the album, I wanted to tell 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.559 the story from the start of the relationship, through the relationship, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.679 the feelings you might have within the relationship, and then 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.600 out the back and how you feel um. And you'll 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.480 see that if you listen to the album throughout Heartbreak Weather, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.679 it's kind of like what it was. It was all 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.200 sleepwalk living, and it's been hardship, it's been heartbreak Weather. 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.240 It's been sleepwalk living up until this point, and now 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.160 I met you. That's how the album kicks off. Black 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:15.760 and White was one for me where I was kind 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.400 of like trying to go nostalgic and be thinking, like 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.720 when I was fifteen and got my first girlfriend, was like, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:22.800 that's it marrying you, you know, And that's why I 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:24.280 was trying. I had the title black and White, and 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.520 I was thinking, how do I make it different and 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.439 that's what happens when you first get with someone and 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.440 you're in that honeymoon period. It's black and white, it's 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.960 crystal clear. The whole world is black and white to you. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.520 It's it's this or that and that. This in that 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.280 song is I'm completely in love. You're imagining at one 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.600 point when you're sixty five years old and the two 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.200 of you were together. Yeah, it just kind of like 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.800 was thinking how I had the title and I was 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:46.160 just running with it, and I was thinking, how do 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:47.719 you change this? And I was kind of thinking like 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.200 when you were a kid and the first person you meet, 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:51.640 you're like, I'm going to marry you. And then it 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.240 was kind of like, you know, thinking of a wedding 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.960 scenario and the black being the suit and the white 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.080 being the drawers. So the top of the wedding kick, Yeah, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.520 room in black and white. I see us, and you know, 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.599 I see us in black and white, crystal clear and 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.600 the starlet night. And it's kind of like very nostalgic thinking. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:10.839 And you know that honeymoon period when you first get 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.360 with someone and it's like this is it. You hear 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.960 the first few songs you've released, particularly put a Little 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.360 Love on me, and you think about the album title 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.160 heartbreak Weather. People may get the impression that this is 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.760 a sad breakup album. But those first three songs, they're 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.600 about falling in love. And the third one we talked 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.679 about the first two. The third one, dear Patients, you 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.400 the singer or you were telling yourself, slow down, let's 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.400 let's try. Let's try not to get to the altar 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.800 before we've gotten to the bedroom, almost, because they're all 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:42.400 these are all the things that go on in your head, 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.600 like when you're when you start a relationship, you're like, 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.160 I really, I really like you. This is probably gonna work. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:51.839 But if I slow down a bit and be a 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.800 bit more patient, will probably make the best of it. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.200 So that's where their patients came from. And it's kind 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:00.440 of like literally writing a letter to patients, the feeling 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.760 of patients, and like telling yourself, all right, this time, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.640 don't eff it up and just be patient with it, 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:08.559 because it could be really good if you let How 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.840 did the process, the songwriting recording process change between the 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.560 first record Flicker. In the second record, this one was 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.679 a bit more I found a bit more off the cuff, 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.240 like um in terms of the recording. Like I last 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.240 the last album, I was in with full band in 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.880 the room, playing everything completely live and then doing overdubs 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:28.920 and stuff. But this album I found like I was 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.720 just kind of I just said I'd gone right songs 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:33.719 so I could they could happen anywhere, you know. I 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.880 was just writing songs of some of them are written 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.800 at home, and some of them are written in the studio, 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.720 and then we'd kind of play instruments as we were going, 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:43.959 And a lot of this album is kind of done 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.600 at home really, to be honest, written because my idea 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.000 was that I would just write songs and then dress 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.520 them up. However, I feel production wise later on, just 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.200 write the song first. And because before I kind of 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.439 pigeonholed myself a touch, you know, I was straight away 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.480 I was noodling away, playing and like fingerpicky type stuff, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.920 which straight away sends you down the alley of Okay, 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.120 now we're writing a folk song. And that's what I 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.120 kind of did to myself on the first album. I mean, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.840 in hindsight, the album did really well, so I can't complain, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.000 but you know, I know I need to do next time, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:15.920 and this time I just wanted to just go in 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.560 write the song, and then whatever happens afterwards, we'll make 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.719 a decision do that later. The first album is it 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.800 all fingerpicking folk songs. It's it's got some big pop 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.160 songs on it. But this one I heard, unafraid of pop, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.800 unafraid of R and B, unafraid of rock and roll. 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:32.920 I listened to this one and I thought, oh, yeah, 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.320 he's he's got a swagger back. Yeah. No, I just 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:40.000 like with the success honestly, with the success of sloans Um, 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.480 I thought, well, if an eighties well, I think it's 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.720 like an eighties blues jam meets pop music can do 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.599 well in on the charts of R and B and 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.199 hip hop. Well, you know, and it did well. It 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.520 stood because it stood out. You know. I was thinking, well, 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.720 maybe I can just take a few more chances. And 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.200 that's why I was thinking, right, just let's go and 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.960 write the song, and the dressing up can can be 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.319 done afterwards. But the success of Slohan's made me walk 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.440 into the room they sim and think about things differently. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.040 Let's talk about how this record happened. You you finished 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.840 the Flicker tour eighty one shows around the world. That 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.720 was September eighteen, You're done? What happened? Then I went 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.840 back to where do they go? Went straight back to 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:34.360 London for a few weeks, and then I went back 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:36.760 to l A. And I went back to London for 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:38.200 like ten days. They went back to l A and 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.840 I had to have sinus surgery. Sinus surgery. Yeah, it 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.280 just it was like there was like some sort of 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.040 drip from me, Like I would get in sinus infections 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:47.480 all the time, and it would like drip onto my 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.000 vocal cords and kind of burned them. So when I 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.760 would lay down at night, you know, when I wake 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:55.440 up in the morning, I would be barely able to 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.600 talk because like all the drip would like dry out 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.080 my throat m over the course of the night. So 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.320 that's not great for a singer. Um. So I've been 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:05.960 talking about getting it done for a while, but then 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.880 the schedule got in the way. So I had that 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.520 done and then I was in kind of he was 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:12.400 The doctor told me to kind of stay at home 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.040 for like ten days two weeks, so that's what I did, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.440 and it was just kind of bored. And then I 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:19.240 wasn't planning on writing for a while. I was going 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.320 to take a bit of time. Obviously, I lasted like 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.040 three weeks off the back of the tour, sat down 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.480 at the piano one day and started writing the first 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.600 and the chorus for Love on Me, and then I 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.160 was just gone. So the first thing you wrote through 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:35.920 this album was put a little over. Yeah, I had 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:37.800 those cords just when I sat down and played those 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.680 cards and just kind of went man and and and 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.920 then from there that's where the album started. And once you, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.640 once you start, it's the best book you've ever had. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.800 It's like you just you just keep going and you 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.360 can't stop. Next day, next week, I wrote No Judgment 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.240 and it's just off. But you were just a few 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.480 weeks off tour and and I recovering from sinus surgery. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.000 I shouldn't have been doing anything. Well, I mean, you 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.960 didn't exactly take a vacation, did you. To be honest, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.480 I'm not very like. Actually, I went to a friend's 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.880 wedding first week of October in Spain. That's why I 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.440 went back to the UK after my tour. Then when 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:18.240 we met up in London and then we went to 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.800 a wedding in Spain and talk about a week off basically, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.880 and then went back to the States and just started 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.920 writing what do you do to recharge? Then I'm not 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.240 I'm not like I sit on the beach type holiday person. Also, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.040 a lot of my friends have like nine to five jobs, 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:34.960 so it's not like I can be just like, come on, guys, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.240 do you want to just come for two weeks with 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.200 me somewhere? And they're like no, because we've got a job. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.040 I couldn't do that, And so I just kind of 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.040 play a lot of golf, you know, like, yeah, I 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.560 don't know, I just go back to Ireland for a bit. Yeah, 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.440 just kind of general chilling stuff. I don't I'm not 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.800 like a on the beach type person. But you did 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.000 record some of this record on the beach, because you 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.920 did record it Sanctuary Studios in the Bahamas, where I've 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.600 read a little about this place. The live room overlooks 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.320 a marina that's full of yachts, and I believe it 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:11.000 has one of three vending machines in the entire world 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:17.119 that dispenses split bottles of Moette champagne. This sounds like 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.520 a place the Stones would have recorded in the seventies. 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.200 What what was it like? I mean, it was the 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.200 best ten days I've ever had. Um, yeah, a friend 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:27.640 of mine lives in the Bahamas, so I was down 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.520 there anyway, and um um, all the you know, all 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.320 my writing partners came down for ten days and we 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.600 just went into the studio. I mean the studio. It 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.879 sounds ridiculous, it sounds ball or if you like, I 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.879 mean there's the daves, like the way they've built a building. 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.439 You can always see boats in the marina. It's like 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.679 the windows are like in a slad and you can 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.879 see that. You can see you like two dat pulling 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.040 in and all sorts. It is a bit obnoxious. Um, 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.359 but we do you know what, surprisingly because we're not 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.520 in l A or we're not in London and people 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:03.920 have lives to go back to at the end of 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:05.679 the day. It doesn't feel like it didn't feel like 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.199 we were you know if like, if we're in l A, 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.640 we're going to the studio eleven and we leave at 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:12.800 six or seven, and that's just like it's more of 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.880 like a job, like a working hours job. Um. Whereas 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:18.560 you know, because people have to bring kids to school 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.360 or pick scoo kids up from school, or go home 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.480 and make dinners or something like that. Um. Whereas if 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.320 we set a time to go away, and that's all 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.120 we have to do is write songs. We don't even 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:29.920 have to, like if we don't want to sleep without 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.479 to sleep. You know. It's kind of like we actually 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.760 wrote a lot more than I thought we would. You 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.639 see your songwriting collaborators who are down there with you, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.040 Who who came down through this trip. Julian Bonetta, John Ryan, 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.239 who I always work with very closely, and they're like 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.680 my two of my best best best friends, and we've 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.240 known each other for a long time. You've been working 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.000 with them since the One Direction there, Yeah, we did. 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.320 They did it basically last three or three one day 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:57.960 albums effectively. UM and we Yeah, we worked really close together. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.480 And then it was Tobias s So Jr. Who we 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.880 wrote Meet Shelf and Julian wrote Slow Hands with um. 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.399 So we've worked well together before and we were we 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.560 had we had written No Judgment before we went to 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.639 the Bahamas. UM, so that went well. He's a greatest 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:15.120 guy in the world. Teddy Geiger and Scott Harris, who 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.760 are obviously super famous for all their for their Shawn 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:20.880 Mendez stuff. It was also a good friend of mine 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:28.639 and explicit who famous Miami writer Um wrote the famous 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.480 hit work from Home by Fifth Harmony, but also a 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:33.359 good friend of mine, So it was kind of like 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.520 friends go on holiday and write songs at the same time, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:38.640 and everybody was down there at the same time. Yeah, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:40.840 we would split off into groups, so like I would 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:43.880 it was like a writing camp, almost writing camp being 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.359 sort of where where different songwriting teams come in and 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.359 write songs, but it was your writing camps, like my 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.640 own writing camp, and I would like, I have loads 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.800 of ideas and concepts and stuff like that, and stuff 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.520 that I want to write about, and would all would 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.360 have like a verse or a chorus or something already 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:02.760 prepped a while before the trip, and then I would 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.120 like walk into the room, would say Teddy and Scotland 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.159 say right, I've got this concept and there's this first 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:10.840 and then they would kick it off and then I 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.520 would go in and start another one with like me 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.879 and Julian and then go back to them every like 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.480 twenty minutes and like this is all happening at the 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.040 same time. But that's what they were like we were 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:23.600 talking about. We all went for dinner in l A a 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:25.879 a few weeks ago, and it was just like I was. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.399 I was so busy in the Bahamas that like, I 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:30.120 think I got sick when I got when I came back, 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.720 because I was just running around the place from room 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:34.840