Harry Styles had to ‘take distance’ from music to remember how special it is
By Carla Feric, Press Association Entertainment Reporter
Former One Direction singer Harry Styles has said that he needed to “take a little bit of distance” from making music so he could remember how special it is to him.
The 32-year-old has hit headlines recently after his return to making music after almost four years, having kept a low profile since his Love On Tour run of gigs came to an end in 2023.
Speaking during a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session, the star has opened up about why he wanted to separate himself from his music and “have a bit of time away”.
Styles said: “I’d been touring, quite a lot since I was younger, and I think I hadn’t really had like a big chunk to take some distance from everything.
“Doing music is something that I love so much, and it’s always been something that I’ve tried not to define my entire life by.
“I think if you don’t actually take any breaks from that, it’s really difficult to not define yourself by the only thing that you’re doing all the time.”
The singer rocketed to fame at 16 years old in One Direction, alongside Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, after the group were formed on ITV singing competition The X Factor in 2010.
Styles’ solo career was launched after he and his bandmates went on hiatus in 2016, almost a year after Malik left the group.
The singer continued: “I think for me it was just about taking a little bit of distance to remember how special (making music) is and re-appreciate how special it is, and why I wanted to make music.
“I’d kind of felt like I was slipping into this zone of tying how I felt about myself too much to what I was doing.
“I just wanted to re-separate those two and have a bit of time away from it. I think it has put me in a great place personally, to be able to come back and do it as the best version of myself and energised.”
Styles also reflected on spending time in Italy during his break from music, and told hosts Rickie Haywood-Williams, Melvin Odoom and Charlie Hedges that it taught him to “be a little more present in my own life”.
During the Live Lounge session, the star performed a cover of Tears For Fears’ 1985 hit Everybody Wants To Rule The World, and said the song “means a lot” to him.
When asked why he chose the track, he said: “I had a moment last summer, I was at a party and right as the sun was coming up, the DJ played this song as it was kind of this moving into the next phase of the festivities.
“It just became a very important moment for me, I think, where I was looking at everyone around me and was in a very content moment of my life.”
Styles also performed his single Aperture, which rocketed to number one on the UK Official Singles Chart after it was released last month.
Last week, he released his fourth studio album – Kiss All The Time, Disco, Occasionally – and in May this year he will be kicking off his global tour, with dates in London, Amsterdam, New York, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Melbourne and Sydney.
The Worcestershire-born star has had three UK number one singles as a solo artist with As It Was, Sign Of The Times and Aperture, and won multiple Grammy and Brit awards.
