Niall Horan Interview

Profiling someone like Niall Horan isn’t as easy as you’d think. For starters, his life has been documented to a near-absurd degree. His favourite haunts, the tube stations he passes through, even his greatest phobias (pigeons) can be found at the click of a button.

It’s all I thought about as I boarded the District line to West Kensington on an unusually bright Monday morning, wedged between unassuming commuters, the confidential songs from his upcoming album playing through my headphones.

What an unsung privilege it is, I thought while walking to my destination, to go about the world in private.

An hour later, Niall arrives at the four-storey house we’d booked for our cover shoot, hair still wet, greeting everyone with a hug and a quick apology for the droplets that fall in the process. 

Unlike my morning, Niall’s schedule over the past month has moved at a far less forgiving pace—and for good reason. In just a few days, he’ll release “Dinner Party”, the titular track from his fourth solo studio album, out June 5th. Ever since the announcement, he’s been at the mercy of a relentless promotion cycle: podcast invitations (he just filmed Angela Harnett and Nick Grimshaw’s Dish), guest spots on live talk shows, and plans for yet another tour have been rolling in thick and fast. Just weeks ago, he surprised Sombr’s packed O2 crowd with a rendition of “Slow Hands”, and tonight, he’s headed to The Claudia Winkleman Show—like I said, hardly the recipe that allows for resting. 

Even so, Niall seems totally unfazed. He props himself in front of a mirror, blowdrying his hair (and the damp collar of his t-shirt) as a team buzz around him. Once dry, he sits across from me – rather fittingly – at the dinner table.

He plays the role of host with ease: relaxed, attentive, quick to disarm. He opens with compliments—noting he likes the stickers plastered over my laptop, filled with prepared questions I would soon disregard. And above all else – and luckily for me – he’s never short of an anecdote; always knowing exactly what to say. 

Sharing comes naturally to Niall. It began in 2010, under a spotlight big enough to engulf millions alongside his One Direction bandmates—together becoming one of the best-selling boy bands in history. Over time, that instinct has taken on different forms: first in the wide-eyed earnestness of his debut solo single “This Town”, then in the warmth of Flicker, the restless energy of Heartbreak Weather and the introspection that shaped The Show—each release revealing a new facet of someone the world thought it already knew.

But with Dinner Party, that openness feels almost deliberate—less like performance, more like invitation. Whether it’s to reflect (“Better Man”), turn back the clock (“A Little More Time”) or to let it all go (“Taste so Good”), Niall doesn’t just share another chapter of a story; he’s gathering memories, laying them out for others to experience. 

Now, looking back at his 15 years in the business – and 10 as a solo artist – it’s clear. The scale has shifted, the setting has changed, but the instinct remains: to let people in, again and again.

And that’s when it clicks: somewhere between the District line and this dinner table, I’d decided that privacy was something he must miss most—that rare, unremarkable freedom to go unnoticed.

But watching him throughout our chat: mid-sentence, mid-laugh, mid-sigh as he calls himself a “pop star”, mid-smile as he talks of his future and fandom, it feels like I’d misunderstood the equation. 

Because the real unsung privilege, at least for him, isn’t disappearing from view. It’s the chance to stay in it. Still writing, still performing, still chasing, still sharing, still leaning into the chaos of fame. 

It’s a good place to start. 

ELLA WEST: First of all, you’ve obviously been famous most of your adult life. What's something about the reality of it that people consistently get wrong?

NIALL HORAN: Wow… When I was younger it was obviously very intense—I didn't really go to many places. At the time I was just breezing through, but it can be quite a lot—it’s always in terms of everywhere you go, you have to think about it. Like even now if I go on the tube I have to wear a hat. 

ELLA: Does that even work? 

NIALL: Most of the time. And by the way, I know that sounds like a big “boo-hoo” but it’s just that there are things that you have to do that most wouldn't have to think about. So things like wearing a hat and keeping your head down. My posture is terrible. 

ELLA: Because you've had to duck. 

NIALL: Because I've been walking around like this [looks at his feet] for the last 15 years. Apart from that, nothing really like that stands out… I just have to think about where I'm going.

ELLA: So no tagging of locations on the stories. 

NIALL: Say we’re just sitting in a restaurant. Like, if the whole restaurant is over here, I'll face the wall. 

ELLA: That’s fair. I act like a complete pillock in public, so I wouldn’t want an audience. 

NIALL: I know. I'm the same, hence why I’m facing that way. When you're on the move, it's fine. It's when you sit in one place for a long time, then people start to look. We're really nosy as people aren’t we, especially with people watching—so I get it. That’s the reality, gotta get used to it. 

ELLA: And I guess that relationship with the public is all you’ve known since you were 16 years old. Do you think success came too early for you or do you think it was at the right time?

NIALL: It’s a good question, but it's hard to tell because I don't know anything else. I think it just happened for me at that time and I just dealt with it as it was going along. I'm a bit of a fly-by-the-seed-of-my-pants-type person and I just kind of see what happens. I took it all in and just rolled with it. 

ELLA: You’re someone who trusts in the universe? 

NIALL: Oh yeah. I'm not really like one of those, “How do I deal with this scenario?” people. I roll with what comes my way. 

ELLA: This all started when One Direction was first created. When people bring that up now, does it feel like a past memory or still part of your identity? Do you ever feel the need to distance yourself from it? 

NIALL: No, if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be doing this! I don't want to try and get away from it. It's a very important part of my life, obviously, and I think you realise pretty quick that anything you do after that isn’t going to be as big or as successful or anything like that because it's pretty much impossible. But you can be okay, you can just get on with it. You know, you don't have to try and chase it because it's not realistic. Once you think that way, it makes everything a little bit easier. But no, if I hadn't been a part of that, I wouldn't know what I know now about the industry and all the different parts of it, the level of fame and things like that. 

ELLA: You literally had the crash course. 

NIALL: Yeah, literally. 

ELLA: Speaking of which, is there anything from that era that you consciously now try not to repeat? Or was there a valuable lesson it taught you? 

NIALL: I think you just learn simple things like scheduling. You know, we did it the mad way. Now, I’m trying to do it a bit more of a chill way. Something else that’s important is having your time to reset and be at home and walk the dog and do normal stuff. I've gotten very good at going away to work, doing what I do there, and then coming straight back and doing the complete opposite and making sure that I have both—whereas most of my life up to that point was all about work. So yeah, I think I've just gotten better at having to almost exist in two worlds: the pop star over here, then just the dude at home. 

ELLA: The real life Hannah Montana, right? 

NIALL: That’s what they're calling me. 

ELLA: Your three albums and upcoming fourth since that time feel like a natural evolution of your personal soundscape. I wondered, if the band had never existed, do you think the music you make now would have still been the same?

NIALL: Interesting… I think there is always an evolution. My first album does not sound like this album. So in the last, what’s that 10, nine years since I released my first album, you just gradually evolve sound-wise. But even down to the people that I work with now, I work with the same people that I did when I was in 1D. Well, obviously there’s a few different additions, but the main boys are Julian Bunetta and John Ryan—and they did all the 1D stuff with us. So there's a comfort in that and they're good friends of ours and they know how I think and I know how they think about music, so when we get in the room we know what's happening and we can challenge each other and try different things. We don't want to be stuck to 10 years ago, but at the same time you want to naturally evolve. But I think to answer your question, probably. I would have gone for this kind of folky or rockier thing anyway. Whether it was in the band or not, because that's just the stuff that I grew up on. All my influences are leaning that way—like in an indie way and a singer-songwriter way. I think when I released my first album, I don't think anyone was shocked by the music that I made, which probably answers the question, to be honest. 

ELLA: It shows that you've always had your own brand within a band that also had its own brand, which I think is an impressive feat.  

NIALL: I think that was what was great about our music and the band was that you had five different personalities who had different tastes of music and we were able to combine them in some shape or form. 

ELLA: What’s been the biggest privilege and the greatest challenge of breaking out solo, then? 

NIALL: I suppose the challenge was worrying whether anyone would give a crap… And just thinking,  “Will people actually listen to this?” Or, you know, they will, but maybe for a short time. I think you might have it in your head that it could be just a flash-in-the-pan. You know, they might listen to the first single or two and then you're trying to hold on as much as you can, I suppose. But I think knowing how I know that fan base, they’ll never want to let go of it. That's the privilege, they're so loyal and they're not fickle in any way. They'll stick with you—and obviously the music has to be somewhat good for it to last, they need to actually like it. But it's bigger than just liking the music. They're very attached and how lucky are we for that because… Jesus. We are so lucky how loyal they are and how they show up. Even when I play shows now, they're out all over the place—which is just not an easy feat in this day and age. They just keep turning up for me. 

ELLA: And I guess knowing you have that support, it must give you quite a lot of confidence to creatively let go in the studio, right? 

NIALL: Yeah, 100%, especially this time. I learned so much from my last album, and the tour that came with that. I was not expecting to sell out—to sell 1.5 million tickets or whatever it was. It was just all a bit mad, and seeing and knowing that they'll come and watch makes you be a bit more free in the studio. I definitely went through periods where I would chase the next big song. You know, because I had “This Town” and “Slow Hands” in the first album—and they're not easy to find and they don't come around often. So I think with the second album I definitely was trying to chase the next one of them and I didn't really get to find out how that music and that album was gonna do, because it came out the day we got locked down in COVID. But when I started writing again for The Show, I was a bit more free because I had nowhere to go. I was in the house writing. So it's not like I was going to a studio and properly trying to create, I was just writing songs and not overthinking. It was just me in the living room.  And I learned a lot from that. And then seeing how the album did and then how the tour sold, it gave me even more confidence this time to just go in and have a fucking jam—write a few songs and see what happens. It's kind of a good freeing feeling—it felt good at the time. Now, let's hope that the fucking public agree! 

ELLA: I have no doubt. When you're writing, do you think of the sound first or the lyrics? 

NIALL: This was very much sound first. I made a lot of playlists. If you were listening to my Spotify playlist of influences for the album, it's not necessarily the bands, it's more the sounds. I like the drums in that song by Radiohead, or I like this song over here because it's got a sick guitar sound. It's not necessarily like I want to just copy all these songs, it's a bit deeper than that. And the first day of making the album, I went to Nashville with John and Julian and we said that before anyone else comes in – like our mates that we write with sometimes – we should just have a jam and write a few tunes. We set up the drum kit in Julian's studio and a couple of guitars and I was standing on a mic like a jam band and I would just start singing random melodies with no words and we would just jam it out first. I think when you listen to the album then you can probably hear that because it sounded looser and a bit more ‘90s. 

ELLA: You’re literally reading out my notes that I took when I listened to the sampler tracks of Dinner Party, by the way. 

NIALL: Really?! 

ELLA: I’m no music expert, but with the guitar and melodies it just feels very…—

NIALL: —It feels live, that’s what it is. And that was a big one for me because I think pop music for a long time, if you listen to the radio, it sounded kind of compressed and nice. I don't know who it was that changed it, but it kind of flipped a little bit. Now everyone's leaning a little bit more into it, like – even if it's a ballad – it sounds like it's recorded live, but it doesn't sound real. It was obviously artists where their artist ‘bit’ is them being really close to the mic and it being compressed and lovely like that. But if you listen to the radio more often now, it's just getting livelier and real like with Olivia Rodrigo and Yungblud. 

ELLA: I think people are begging for live, tangible art a lot more nowadays. 

NIALL: Yeah, I do too. Especially after COVID. I'm like the perfect example of that because my tour after COVID sold out and we all got to that point where we just wanted to be at events and be out and going to gigs. I went to more gigs in 2022 than I probably did in the previous seven years. I think we all did that. We couldn't wait to get out and see it. So I think music, on the back of that, has just felt a little bit more alive. One thing that I loved and one thing that pissed me off is that when people, like mates of mine, would come to a gig and they’d go, “Oh, it's so good to hear the music come alive.” And it's like, “Yeah, but I wanted it to be a bit more alive on the record!” Do you know what I mean? You put your headphones on or you listen to your laptop here and think, “Fucking hell that sounds like it’s live!” 

ELLA: You’re already answering my next question because I wanted to get a little philosophical with you… I want to know the “why” behind your making of music. Let’s be real, with the success you’ve already had you could have fucked it all off, opened a coffee chain or whatever, and still be set for life. So why do you continue to do this? 

NIALL: [Laughs.] Because the dream is still alive! It's all I ever wanted to do. I don't got a clue what I'm doing. But in a way, I'm kind of glad I didn't figure out more of my life, because I got to live my dream at 17. And it's still going and I still have the opportunity. People still want to hear it. So I'm going to keep making it. I always say to the fans on stage, “If you keep coming to watch, I'll keep coming. I'll keep coming to your city.” Playing live is the sickest thing. I love being in the studio, I love writing songs but there is no better feeling. It's so fulfilling to hear your own lyrics sung back to you by 20,000 people, every night of week. 

ELLA: That must feel like the greatest of compliments. 

NIALL: I think the older I've gotten, the more appreciative I am of everything. I think I always understood exactly what was going on around me and understood how nuts this is and how amazing it is. But I think the older you get, the more you understand each individual and person's story that’s listening to your music, or buying tickets to your show. I think back in the day, you'd look at the big numbers of people and you'd just stand there and you're like, “Fucking hell, that's a lot of people.” But when you break down, you're like, “That's a mother over there who's bought her ticket and one for the two girls beside her. This lad over here who's brought his girlfriend tonight, this group of friends who are from all over the world who have flown in because they've met because of us.” When you think about all of those things, it's mind boggling. So you can appreciate it more 15, 16 years later to be doing what I'm doing and playing arenas all over the world. That's the dream, so there's the why.

ELLA: Beautifully put. So… With your new album, which track are you most excited to play live? 

NIALL: “Little More Time.” 

ELLA: [Sings chorus.] 

NIALL: [Laughs.] I’ll take that! 

ELLA: I’ll pretend I didn’t just do that, but I agree, it is a banger… 

NIALL: I love that song. It's got a real nostalgia to me—I don't know why. It feels kind of ‘90s, early 2000s to me. The minute I wrote it, it was one of those ones where… You get one on each album – whether it ends up being successful or not is kind of irrelevant – but it just has a good feeling in the room. I still listen to it and get the same feeling I did when I was in the studio. And you always have one. I love playing “Black And White” off my second album. I love the song “Flicker” on my first album. Each album has one where you're like—

ELLA: —“That’s my jam.” 

NIALL: Exactly. I think playing that live is going to be amazing. I could be wrong, and the fans may be reading this piece going, “What's he fucking talking about?” But you have one on every album that you feel is going to be a fan favourite. Like, I can already see them. I had one, “Save My Life”, which was a song on the last album that the minute I wrote it, I was like, “They're going to love this.” And it became a big moment in the show and they were going crazy for it, the most singing and most jumping around and all that. 

ELLA: So your favourites are usually the fan favourites too? 

NIALL: Kind of, yeah. It is interesting, actually, how it works. I love “Dinner Party”, I love playing that live. We've been rehearsing that a lot recently. And I also love the really small songs because I love the idea of trying to make an arena feel the size of a theatre. It feels really intimate even though there's 15,000 eyes on you. When I play those, it feels like you're just meeting the guitar and the band within the first few feet of me. We have an acoustic section in the show that I've always done and I love doing that. It makes an arena feel very small, very quick. So I love songs like “Better Man” for that reason. 

ELLA: That’s such a nice way to describe it. For the album, how many songs did you actually write until you nailed down the track list? 

NIALL: Oof… Ones that were realistically in the hunt, I would say 20, maybe? Maybe less. Then you produce them up and some of them just don't meet the expectations sometimes and that's why they never make it out. 

ELLA: What makes them die in the studio?

NIALL: There's always one that's on the cusp and then you write the next one that kicks it off. You know what I mean? You're like, “Right, if the album was to stop today, this would be on it. But if I write a better one tomorrow, that one's gone.” That's the only way. Fans are always looking for other songs, like if I mentioned this, they'd be like, “Well, where are the other six then?” 

ELLA: Well… What does happen to them?

NIALL: They die. 

ELLA: R.I.P. I guess. 

NIALL: Some of them I forget completely. Sometimes I might open a file or something and just be like, “Oh fuck, yeah, do remember that?" But for the most part, I've never, ever heard them again. If I don't think they're good enough to put out, they shouldn't be put out. 

ELLA: Fair. And then when you listen to them all – once you've finally narrowed it down – what do you need to feel? And what did you feel specifically for this one? 

NIALL: Well, I like it to tell the listener some sort of chronological story, most of the time. Set listing and track listing are very different. Because set listing you're trying to just get energy, energy, energy, drop down and it kind of doesn't matter what the songs are saying. The gigs are different. If you had a gig that had a narrative it could be kind of limp. You kind of need moments of up and down. On the track listing I try to tell a story, so I had to put “Dinner Party” up the top somewhere. And then after I try and tell some sort of a story. It's more in hindsight because you're not thinking about it as you're writing. It's only when you go, “What song should come next” that you're piecing it all together. I couldn't write a lot of romantic songs and then track 12 be about the day we met. That needs to come first. So that's the way I do it. 

ELLA: “Dinner Party” is definitely your springboard for this album. What more can you tell me about that night and how it inspired all the tracks that came after it? 

NIALL: The good thing about the lyrics is it kind of does exactly what it says on the tin, it kind of tells you what happened. It was an event that I went to and a mate of mine introduced me to my girlfriend and that was it. I keep thinking about that and how shocking it was at the time to go, “Fuck, this is blow-your-mind-type stuff.” But it's more what it's meant in the grand scheme of things which is kind of the big one for me. The fact that one moment can just fucking set the rest of your life—that’s what the song felt like, it was kind of easy to write because I knew exactly what to say. 

ELLA: It does feel like you’re letting us all into a timeline of events spanning from a single memory. 

NIALL: And that's what it was like to write as well. It was just a “say what you see” type thing, but then that allows for a little bit more depth later because you're drawing the big circle outside of that small little moment. And that's what I've really enjoyed about it. Because you go and you're like, “Right, give me another story.” And then it's easier to pick which songs you're going to write because you know the stories. Every album needs a jumping off point. And I've been lucky the last couple of albums because I've had something to latch onto, like I wrote “The Show” during lockdown and it allowed me to write the rest of the album. Same with this, once I wrote “Dinner Party”, all those songs before it were gone. Because you have to write the centre before you can start branching out. It's a good feeling because sometimes you write albums and you're just writing songs. 

ELLA: I felt like it was very personal. Do you find it just as easy to be vulnerable in real life as you are in your writing? 

NIALL: No, no, it's a lot easier to write it down than it is to say it. 

ELLA: I feel like a lot of people feel that way. But then that's almost strange because – at least in your case – you’re then releasing your honest, written thoughts to millions of listeners. 

NIALL: I just think that's like some people who write in their journals.

ELLA: Yeah, they just don’t get released worldwide…

NIALL: Exactly… We do it a little bit differently. That's our way of doing it. Some of the biggest songs of all time are probably about some quite deep personal stuff that they wouldn't even talk about in an interview or conversation. They wouldn't really talk about it much, but they were happy to just write it down and sing it. I also find it a lot easier to do it that way—maybe easier isn’t the right word, I’ve just found that's my way of doing it. I can talk about it, but I like writing about it too. 

ELLA: And you said earlier that sound was at the forefront for you while making the album, but I think “Better Man” was the third song I listened to and it felt much more stripped back. The sentiment was also very honest—the fear of not knowing if you can show up enough for someone. Was that difficult to write? 

NIALL: No, I like having both sounds on the album, first of all. If I just wrote 12 songs and they were all up tempo, I know for a fact fans would be like, “What about the little folky fella with the guitar?!” But I also find those songs a lot easier to write. If I pick up a guitar, I don't go... [Imitates a strong guitar riff]. I just start finger-picking. I just sit down and play that riff and then just start... [hums a melody] just like that. Then I start mumbling over it. But in terms of the lyrics and stuff like that, I had that title written down. I didn't want the lyric to say, [starts singing in a country accent] “I want to be a better man than you.” I wanted to have an element of doubt or something that made it more interesting on the ear. You can do what “Dinner Party” does and say it, or you can be a bit more thoughtful about what you're trying to say and make it more relatable. Do you know what mean? I think “Better Man” is a song that makes you think, it makes you go, “Fuck, that's a bit like me actually.” And I think it could be for anyone. Like, it could be for you if you’re trying to be a better person. For the ones who are going, “Fuck. I could be doing better here.” And they might disagree with you. That person they’re talking to might be like, “No, you're fine. You're doing great.” But you start convincing yourself the opposite. And I think it's a very, very common feeling in love or in any relationship where you can kind of go, “Was I a bit of fucking prick there?” Even if you're not. 

ELLA: Been there! We have a few more minutes together so I have a closing question for you… When you think about your future, do you picture your personal life or your career? 

NIALL: Oh, that's interesting. That's a great question. Well, I suppose it’s a bit of both. I am at that stage where my personal life will come way more into play, obviously, and just our life at home. But they have to come hand in hand too because balancing what I do and home life is something that I've been able to concentrate on more over the last few years. 

ELLA: True, it sounds like you've kind of found a way to make them work simultaneously... 

NIALL: Yeah, I think we do a good job of it, to be fair. [My girlfriend’s] very understanding of what I do. And I obviously would like to be at home a lot more, but at the same time… See, I don't see tours as going away. 

ELLA: Really?! 

NIALL: Yeah, because we found a way to do it last time where she would come out at the weekends. America was tough because it was a longer period of time. But we found a good way of knowing what's too much time away. We have a good balance of figuring out home versus “pop star” life. And I think we're getting better at that. I went on a tour at a good time for us to figure that out. Then career-wise, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. I always said that I'd be happy with my goals. My goal for 2023/’24 was to play in one arena, and I happened to do that. So the year after that, I kept the goals small and wanted to play at two—the O2, for instance. 

ELLA: Have you got a dream venue that you haven't yet played? 

NIALL: I mean, playing stadiums would be a joke. Of course I'd love to do that because I have experienced that before, I know how it feels. I don't know how realistic that is, but I'm just happy where I'm at. I'm not going to get too greedy, but at the same time, if you want to buy lots of tickets and come and watch me, then great! 

ELLA: You heard it here first, readers!

NIALL: But yeah, I want to be able to just continuously try and get that balance right of still loving it – which I do and always have and hopefully always will – and then being able to just keep the fans happy. It’s the fans that are allowing me to keep doing this. Like, if no one turns up then this album doesn't exist—and that's just a fact. It sounds cliché, but it is fucking true… Like, am I just going to go into the studio and play it to no one? That would be a waste of a budget! 

ELLA: God forbid!

NIALL: So going into the future, I just want to keep doing that and then getting the balance right of making sure that that doesn't take up my whole existence. I like being able to have both and be able to go away, go to work, do what I love, give the fans the value for their money (hopefully), then come home and have that separation. I know my life is not gonna be as normal as it was when I was 15, but I try and make it as relatively normal as I can. We're very lucky to be able to do great things and live in a nice house and things like that, but I’ll just try and keep the head as down and grounded as much as I possibly, possibly, can.

ELLA: Thank you, Niall. 

NIALL: Thank you! What do we do now? 

ELLA: Let’s get shooting!