Audacy Check In with Louis Tomlinson

Audacy Music

Louis Tomlinson joins us in the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about his new single, “Lemonade,” his upcoming album, and more.

Transcript

00:00all right we're at the odyssey sound space at the hard rock hotel new york for your check-in

00:07with louis tomlinson hello mate bro the song lemonade is fire man not only does it sound

00:14sonically like you know different for you i feel like but just different from anything on the radio

00:20right now i appreciate that man thank you thank you tell me how it came about like everything

00:24when you first heard it all that stuff it was about i'd say about halfway into the process of

00:29writing the new album and uh at this point it's been a dream of mine for a while to i wanted to

00:35write and record somewhere tropical somewhere visually very different from home and and

00:39somewhere quite literally far away from home home being um in england so we decided to do costa

00:46rica in a lovely little town called santa teresa and it's absolutely beautiful and uh songs like

00:53lemonade i don't think would have happened in england it just there was just something magical

00:57about the place that we were the tempo the way of living the freedom all of that so i think that

01:02is just yeah it's a it's a byproduct of the beautiful beautiful environment we're in and

01:06also nico ribshaw who produced it has done such a brilliant brilliant job that's cool man so you

01:11really draw off the environment you're in for for writing and recording it's something i've been

01:16trying to challenge myself to more you know it's kind of infinite the deep dive of being creative so

01:22like with this record i wanted it to be really ambitious and i wanted to try and step it up a

01:26level so you know creatively you've got to kind of push yourself to do those things i mean you know

01:32i'm saying push yourself creatively while being paradise in costa rica it wasn't all that bad you

01:37know so all right you you finished lemonade you're pumped about it who is the first person you play it

01:43for um i don't know probably my best mate or my girlfriend i imagine but to be honest i'm like

01:50i like to keep things like maybe maybe version four or five they can hear oh cool i like i just i like

01:57it i like to get it to a certain place and then you know then it's like okay it's ready that's good

02:01man uh does writing ever feel like a um a chore to you or is it always you know you're enjoying it

02:09it's natural like i i only ever write with other people so i think it's really based on like the

02:14energy in the room and the atmosphere there's definitely not with this record but it's definitely

02:18been times in the past where it can feel like work you know definitely um i think to like that's why

02:25being in costa rica was so great because to create you need that space in your brain right um and i think

02:32you know if you ever get into that situation where writing can be frustrating or anything creative like

02:36that i think it's probably an indication that you need a little bit more space in your brain you've

02:40got a bit too much going on let life in you know i love that do you feel like at this point in your

02:45career in your life are you more fulfilled um with just the creative process like writing and recording

02:52or um you know releasing it out into the world and seeing how it impacts fans a bit of both but i'd say

02:59there's there's another part to that and that's going out to play the shows and that's when it feels

03:03like it all comes to life um you know there's like a moment like right now where i've got the

03:08record and other than lemonade no one's heard it that's kind of nice and then the next stage everyone

03:11hearing it yeah and then the next stage is then you know bringing those songs to life at the live

03:17show so that's something that it's always a really really special time for for me that's when everything

03:22becomes real i think that's cool man have you found anything at this point in your life like a

03:28hobby or something that just brings you pure joy that kind of surprised you like bro listen i gotta

03:34be honest with you i love taking care of my house plants like watering it brings me pure joy okay and

03:41i'm like how the hell did we get here but do you have anything what plants out of interest bro i got

03:45all different kinds i'm trying to have a green thumb like my mother but everything from like cacti to

03:51um just you know i i got the uh the mums in now for the season and stuff like that okay okay nice

03:57nice i like that no i've not uh i've not got a growing yet but um i'm gonna get you i'm gonna

04:03we're gonna work on this yeah okay okay uh for me i i this wasn't it's not really that surprising i

04:09suppose for a musician but like i'm not a great guitar player but i love just sitting with my guitar

04:13okay um i'd say that's like the closest i can get to like meditation it's kind of it feels really

04:19free and like that it's nice and it's for you not even necessarily anything to do with recording

04:24no i thought about like bringing it to stage and stuff but to be honest it's already a lot to

04:29fucking deal with man there's already a lot of pressure so i kind of like having it just just just

04:34for me it's nice yeah yeah so you know uh kind of piggybacking on that with with all the craziness

04:40going on in the world and just um you know you've been doing this for so long at this point dude

04:45what systems do you have in place what tools do you use to kind of um keep yourself healthy and

04:52happy um it's an obvious one but i'd say communication man and and you know deeper than

05:00how you're doing yeah i'm all right thanks we do a lot of that in england um you know it's just

05:04really talking about how you're feeling and talking about your feelings and not being afraid of doing

05:08that um because it's rarely not rewarding if you're brave enough to actually tell someone how

05:14you're feeling and it doesn't always have to be something massive you know it can be something

05:17small as well um it's yeah you rarely don't get benefit from that so i think if you if you're brave

05:22enough to communicate and you've got friends family that you can lean on yeah those things are at least

05:27for me are vital definitely so uh today man what is one one direction song that you didn't

05:35necessarily like when you guys dropped it but now you look back on it with fond memories oh that's

05:42it that's a good question i still don't like the lead single what makes you beautiful honestly

05:46yeah yeah oh my gosh yeah i know um i i do like now i think i think actually the first couple of

05:55records the first couple of albums at the time i wasn't in love with them yeah but now when i listen

06:02back there's definitely a lot of like nostalgia there um but what makes you beautiful i don't

06:07think i'll ever get around to that to be honest skip skip skip uh i just thought of this now actually

06:13and i don't know if you ever talked about this are there are there any unreleased one direction songs

06:18there's loads there's a couple that got leaked over the years maybe like three or four but um

06:23there's loads loads those ever come out or i don't think so i mean there's often i've kind of a

06:28little bit funny about that especially when they leak and stuff because it's often a reason they've

06:32not made the record you know that's often been like a creative choice um so yeah the songs were

06:40probably not good enough to make the record at the time you know probably still good songs but

06:44there's probably close to like i don't know 50 60 songs like that don't even we should erase that

06:50because as a fan man that you know i mean you want to hear everything but i i totally get what

06:55you're saying um we're so pumped for you bro before we wrap up i i just wanted to you know

06:59we both got kids like what's what's the halloween plan are we doing anything like are we dressing up

07:04what's the kiddo into k-pop demon hunters what's up not so much into the k-pop demon hunters which

07:10i'm pretty thankful because he gets up at like 6 30 in the morning and that would be a lot at that

07:14time um he loves my son freddie loves halloween i think actually it almost closely rivals christmas

07:20he literally i will say over here as well in america like you guys like we like it in england

07:25you guys love it over here oh yeah yeah yeah um it turns out what we're doing i've not even got

07:30around to that yet um i did ask him about a month ago what he was thinking of but he's very much like

07:35me i think he'll probably try and work that out maybe two or three days beforehand yeah yeah he didn't

07:41really know i don't think cool cool man i love the record i'm so excited for the tour all that man

07:45thank you for taking out the time

07:47you

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