- 2 hours ago
Louis Tomlinson talks about his newfound confidence, the process of working on his new solo album 'How Did I Get Here?,' reflects on his time in UK boyband, One Direction, how TikTok has changed the way artists market their music, the use of AI in the music industry, appreciating the time he gets to spend with his 10 year old son, Freddie and more.
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00:00I was obviously very aware of previously there might be one or two people from a band that
00:06kind of prosper but history says there's not normally often more than two really and that
00:11was really scary because I was never going to put myself in that group of two ever so
00:16that's another reason why I feel so so thankful thanks for doing this man I'm glad to be doing
00:33this with you how's the rollout been going so far it's been good dare I say I've been enjoying it
00:38I'm not someone who's had loads of enjoyment out of promo in the past truthfully I kind of love
00:43writing and love performing but I feel really excited about the record it's the first time
00:47where I'm like really willing to show it off and I feel really good about that what's been different
00:52about this time I think the confidence that built up from the last two tours that was vital for me
00:56I think what I love about those live moments is it doesn't really leave any room for any kind of
01:01self-doubt or anything like that and I definitely struggled with that post the band but from being
01:07in those live spaces and and delivering night after night that it's like an undeniable feeling you know
01:12so I just I'm coming into this record with a different kind of I feel like revitalized in
01:17my confidence it's a nice feeling I was going to ask about that kind of confidence which I can hear
01:22on the record thank you after promoting faith in the future did you just kind of harness that energy
01:28and that confidence and get right back into it and just the ideas start flowing like how did the
01:33touring inform that studio time just in terms of like the confidence of it to write this kind of
01:38record I feel like I and to do the to write the record that I deserve to make I feel like I had
01:43to come from a more confident point of view I was I've definitely been hard on myself in the past
01:48and that and that affects the creation as well so it was towards the end of the faith of the future
01:54tour um we started doing a bit of writing like residential camps what was really nice about that
01:59is because I knew that I wasn't in any rush to make the record and this is like two years ago now
02:04I had the opportunity to be able to make mistakes and creatively that's a really good thing you know
02:10you just you're trying to find the edge and where that lives and also I didn't want to imagine being
02:15on tour and even reflecting three months after tour it's still not quite as good as writing in the moment
02:23you know so there was a couple of times where I'd have like week a week off tour or something I'd go and
02:27do a bit of writing so I did that for maybe two or three weeks and then finished the tour and then
02:33a quite a decent break really between writing after that I wanted to scratch that itch and do
02:38some writing while I was on tour but I also wanted to allow myself the time because in the past on
02:43previous records I can feel the clock ticking and that's not a good feeling as I say creatively you
02:48need space so there's the whole process with this record has just been done with the album first which
02:57yeah has been a really enjoyable way of I suppose this is the correct way of making a record yeah
03:03you said something when you announced the album which I found really interesting you said
03:06I'm still learning and getting better as a singer and a songwriter you know as someone like yourself
03:12who's accomplished so much doesn't necessarily need to say like I'm still getting better I'm still
03:17learning I'm still figuring it out like it just seems like there's this innate curiosity and innate
03:22like sense to keep growing and keep pushing forward you do you feel that kind of within yourself yeah
03:27definitely and the name of like being a songwriter or any kind of art or any kind of skill you don't
03:34get to a master level and then you've completed it like you know there's this there's always more room
03:39to grow and especially in the name of art this like like this record for example I decided to record
03:46most of it and and do a lot of the writing in Costa Rica kind of surrounding myself and how I wanted the
03:52record to feel so yeah I just this record as a whole has been about taking risks really and until
03:57now I've felt like I've been a bit of a pressure cooker so the idea of doing anything overly risky
04:02is like I've got enough on me plate as it is but as I said there's been a different feeling with this
04:08record I've been willing to kind of take those risks where did that pressure cooker come from
04:14I think that's the nature of the industry you know it's a numbers-based industry industry definitely
04:19and it's competitive by nature and also coming out of a band the size of One Direction you know eyes
04:24are on you and you're expected to succeed instantly so those things I think are normal to feel but if
04:32you let it it'll steer you that you know and it'll make you make the wrong decisions and I just I've tried
04:37to come at this record with a bit more of a bird's eye view as much as that's possible in this kind of crazy job
04:48there's this trend in in pop over the past couple years you see a lot of artists succeeding
04:58after years of putting in the work yeah think of someone like Charlie XCX Sabrina Carpenter yeah
05:03Teddy Swins like you have these artists who are breaking through after years of hard work and just
05:09kind of you know putting pedal to the metal and trying to figure it out you're about to play to your
05:15biggest solo audiences 10 years into your solo career is there more of an appreciation now than
05:22there would have been five ten years ago do you feel like you're more ready to meet this moment
05:26that's coming up I think a combination of things I think like it's the right kind of time for me
05:31to make this record and come from this place of confidence and as things are building like
05:36professionally they've almost kind of met in the middle I also think you know all of those examples
05:41you're just given none of those are by coincidence by mistake you know so I think when the industry is
05:48this competitive more competitive than it's ever been staying power is a is a really important thing
05:54so that's always it's always been on my mind you know to not be someone who kind of fizzles out I'm
06:01always trying to think long term but part of it also is lucky coincidence is the fact that I'm feeling
06:08really good right now and you know the business is doing better than it has previously I mean those
06:13two are probably connected
06:21how much of like your personal life like inspired your creative process here
06:26I'm not really very good at faking it to be honest so like I mentioned before you know there was a time
06:32in my life where things were a little bit more challenging let's just say that uh and that's frustrating
06:37as a writer in a very crass way because if you're an autobiographical writer and maybe you're not
06:42you know feeling incredible then you're not going to write joyous happy songs that's just the reality
06:47so I think I you know I'm lucky that I'm definitely in a much more positive place and I think that comes
06:54across in the record but I kind of had to wait for those feelings instead of just writing them and
07:00acting them I'm not really that kind of singer
07:02I've got a couple of names in my head and on me notes on me phone for the what the album might be
07:08called the album title you could it's kind of used on on lucid as this kind of crescendo like
07:15what made sense about that turning that moment into the album title yeah I was at the 11th hour and we
07:21really needed I had like a short list of like 10 a mix between some lyrics or some stuff that wasn't
07:26actually a lyric or whatever and nothing had the same kind of scale that I really I wanted it to
07:32feel like a big cell in the name and I also want something that I could share with the fans so I was
07:38just listening to lucid on the way to work one day and the mid late came in and of course I've heard it
07:43before but it was the first time I really was I think I was literally thinking about the album title
07:48when it was playing and from the first time I heard it in the context of the title I just I couldn't
07:54beat it like that to me is a really good title for where I'm at and also something that we can share
08:00together me and the fans and it's not a question to me necessarily it's more of a statement I'm just
08:07in awe of of what's happening and the last tour went so well we're playing even bigger spaces this
08:14time around I'm just in awe of the situation and that's me just saying how the did I get here
08:24you know it's been 15 years since your guys x-factor run which is wild um when you think about
08:40that period of x-factor into what makes you beautiful into the first album into the second
08:45album you know you play msg for the first time as you're you're playing next year how do you look back
08:50on that period specifically in terms of like the rocket ship going up and just everything clicking
08:56and everything working like with some distance to this like that's it feels increasingly rare to me
09:01as an outsider but like what what is it like for you it's something I've definitely been able to
09:06appreciate more I'm also I also not someone who I tried not to be an arrogant guy so when I was in
09:13the band I wasn't too confident talking about how great we were but now I'm not I'm more than happy to
09:18shout about that but there was an element for that first two years where you were kind of just holding
09:22on for dear life and not in a bad way in a utterly exciting way and things were changing so fast and
09:28but also you have to remember that none of us have ever had any experience of what it was supposed to be
09:33like to be in a boy band to be a recording artist to be a touring artist so when all this stuff started
09:38happening for us at a great level there was part of us that thought well this is just you know this is
09:43what like really successful artists go through at the start of their process there was one time that
09:49i often talk about was when we did a support gig with big time rush we had a long long speech from
09:55our manager at that point he's like old school manager but in the industry like i don't know 25
10:01years he's seen everything there is to see and he gives us this long long like conversation about how
10:06this is not going to be a gig that we're used to people are going to know the songs to the the words to
10:11the album tracks etc and we went out there and we opened with an album track and people were locked
10:16in from the start and that was a moment that i can remember us discussing that afterwards being like
10:21this guy's got all this experience and he didn't pre-eminent so this must be something i got goosebumps
10:27thinking about it now like this but there must be something special happening because you have to
10:32understand like when you're going through that and there's no arrogance involved in this but there's
10:35part of it you just think it's the norm this is just what happens right and then as things just keep
10:40growing you're like okay maybe maybe this is quite special i'm very excited to ask you this question
10:45how have you decided which songs from the band to perform in your solo set what goes into that process
10:52of making the decision of like you know i'll sing this one i'm not going to sing this one well for a
10:56start i do there's a couple that i do that i didn't but i like to pick one that i wrote sure definitely
11:02yeah but the biggest challenge is finding a lyric that feels kind of all right to sing as like a
11:1033 year old guy and that's actually not it's not the easiest thing to do because they some of those
11:15one direction lyrics are raunchy mine like proper so yeah it's not it's that's not the easiest thing
11:20to do but i also it's a really fun thing to do and try and integrate something that fits into the set
11:27and i'm talking more sonically there i put off singing no control forever
11:36we get everything we want right with social media like you ask for it just like and there's
11:42something kind of so beautiful about the fact that everyone was always asking for it and i never did it
11:46but i did buckle during my away from home festival and actually i really enjoyed it i've not sang that
11:52song for a long time and that was a big moment for me and the band actually that song so uh it was a
11:58nice thing to celebrate the fans sure i mean it's a huge moment yeah yeah did people lose their minds
12:02the first time you sang it again yeah i think i introduced it by saying some of the lines of i'm
12:07never gonna do this again so enjoy it all right so they had to they had to enjoy it but no they were
12:12singing really loud man it was i i instantly felt good about doing it even right before i was thinking
12:17this is a good idea doing no control but no i thought it felt great to do it for the fans i
12:22felt their love from it when you started your solo career i'm sure you had some perception of
12:27you know support from directioners and what has it been like that perception when you started versus
12:32the reality of of seeing the fans and seeing them not only remain for years and years but grow
12:39yeah well i mean it's pretty unheard of how relentless and how loyal they've been for such a
12:44long period of time you know it was in the back of my mind that one direction was the size that it was
12:48and that would that would mean something for me right i had no idea just i i've said before i when i
12:58picture my fan base it's like one entity but yeah what's really beautiful is i think you know we've
13:04shared some pretty formative years together at this point you know we really have it's a cliche but
13:10we really have grown up together and there's something really really powerful about that
13:15um you know every artist speaks about their fan base with superiority but there's just a there's
13:22just such a deep emotional bond and like i said you know you go through those experiences at such a
13:27young age it's something i really cherish and i feel very very lucky lucky to have and i think the
13:33fact that they're still around is a testament to them but it's also a testament to our relationship
13:39collectively to me no other pop group in you know the modern era has had as much individual success
13:47as all of you guys and i'm curious what it's been like to experience that for from your perspective
13:52when you see something like oh harry wins album of the year at the grammys oh niles on the voice for
13:57another season what has it been like just to look around and see that i'm glad you asked that question
14:03actually because i always knew how he was going to go on to do what he's done i mean i'm sure
14:10he's superseded his own expectations and in the way that he's taken over the world but
14:14we all will have known that deep down like definitely he's he's got everything that it
14:18takes to be a great great uh artist nile i had a good feeling about two he's irish he's lovely you
14:24know everyone loves him so of course he's on the voice that makes a lot of sense um and very very happy
14:30for him you know and he also tours at an immense level and had some great um albums etc but i was
14:36obviously very aware of previously there might be one or two people from a band that kind of prosper
14:44but history says there's not normally often more than two really and that was really scary because
14:50i was never going to put myself in that group of two ever i was never thinking i'll be in that group
14:55that succeeds so that's another reason why i feel so so thankful because there's been a million times
15:01where even just reflecting on what's gone before i'm like it can't it can't possibly work for me on
15:06the level that that it has but it has so it's also a testament to to one direction and the fact that
15:13you've got different personality types you've got people that like different types of music and that
15:17sounds chaotic to put people like that in a band but somehow we made it work but i think that's what
15:22makes it interesting now post one direction is we all have something to say you know we all have
15:27our own loves musically and luckily they're quite different to each other so it's not like you know
15:33truly competitive or anything like that so yeah it's kind of crazy thing to reflect on but another
15:37thing that just makes me feel really really grateful really grateful
15:54what has it been like in the in the years since to watch other pop groups kind of take the mantle
15:59from you guys obviously like you know they're playing on a different field than you guys they
16:04there have been different bands who have had different types of success than you guys but
16:07like are you paying attention to that stuff it's not something i paid like loads of attention to
16:12um but there was a time where like bts they just like got to their peak i know they're still there
16:18but when they're on the way up i felt like like every time i logged into twitter they just take one of
16:23our like we've got you know like some record for something fastest selling thing and they taking it
16:29and i just felt like every week i was going out just seeing a new thing taken away from bts
16:34when i was reading that that was about probably about six seven years ago now it did make me a
16:38little uh a little it was just a bit of a shame you know it's like oh we had all these we had all
16:43these things but i don't i don't i don't um i don't begrudge them that it's not it's not something
16:48that um i'm listening to all the time obviously but um no i think that's that's the nature of the music
16:55industry it keeps moving you know but i still don't think there's been anything similar really
17:01to one direction i'm sure people are trying but i i just think what what was really interesting
17:07about one direction is every pretty much every boy band that had come before us
17:12would fit into a quite a specific mold there was a way of doing boy bands back in the day you know
17:17dressing all in the same outfits dancing etc we kind of broke free from that mold and i think
17:24that was an important thing in pop you know for us to actually have a personality and not just be
17:29yes people so yeah that's something i'm really proud of it's it's interesting because like you know you
17:35guys have talked over the years how there's like there's no handbook for being a boy band um there kind
17:41of was in the 90s it seemed like there was because everyone was fucking doing the same thing
17:46you have to dress this way you have to sound like this yeah you have to dance this way
17:51um what resource would have helped you in terms of like those early days like is is there something
17:59that like if there was a playbook there is a playbook now i think this is maybe just starting to
18:06happen but i find it really interesting that sports psychology coaches are prevalent now throughout
18:13sport they're a vital part of sport it'd be interesting to see something similar in the music
18:18industry and especially people like us at young ages that were dealing with a lot of pressure
18:22at a lot at a young age but also to perform you know a really good level um because often those
18:28kind of psychiat psychologists will be you know like um performance based well this is a performance
18:34based job for sure i do think something like that would have helped that's only really in hindsight
18:40because like for my i can only speak on my own journey but you're so young and it's so exciting and
18:45every day is so different i didn't really have too much time to to really take it all in so i think
18:51that having just from having those conversations that would definitely help some kind of voice to
18:56chat to but not just in the name of like therapy also like performance based people that can bring
19:02out the best in you because you know i can remember that as an 18 year old lad you literally get
19:07brought out thrown in the lies and go deal with it you know and you you have people there to help you
19:12craft your skill but things like inner confidence you just expected to have those things yeah you
19:18know and that's something that definitely takes uh especially as a young person it takes a bit of
19:23direction i think yeah you've talked about the past year the the four of you guys becoming closer
19:29and obviously now you have a collaborative project with zane do you think that closeness
19:34is there for the long haul is it going to continue or is it kind of tbd i suppose that the reality
19:40the answer there is we'll we'll see in time um i think these things you know naturally there is a
19:48closeness but i think what's tough with all of us really is we're all so busy and i think like it
19:54definitely definitely feels closer than it was but i suppose it also depends like person to person like
19:58like niall and hopefully he'd say they say about me like we could like not exchange a text in a whole
20:03year and then go for a beer and literally be chatting non-stop so it kind of depends on the
20:09situation the circumstance
20:15what has it been like marketing music in the age of tick tock and short form and like is it harder
20:35now in terms of like social media and in you know the mid 2020s versus you know a decade ago 15 years
20:42ago i suppose it's like one of those there's probably pros and cons really to the new form
20:48i resisted it for the longest time tick tock i just it's like an ever-growing list of requirements
20:53as an artist these days and tick tock just joined that i thought that it made me cool to not be on
20:58tick tock and i've now realized it makes me old so and i'm at that age where i'm at that sweet spot
21:04where i still want to come across as a young lad you know so um tick tock it is
21:09this is your how do you do fellow kids uh moment yes exactly exactly yeah yeah um but that yeah
21:18that that even that thing like that's another like it doesn't feel like a risk to anyone else other than
21:24me but it was something i didn't really feel comfortable doing at first um and yeah i'm just
21:30trying to push the boundaries on this record even with things like that you're not going to catch me
21:33doing no daft dance yet but yeah it's kind of fun i suppose you know it's it's interesting obviously
21:40not just in terms of artists but all of music is kind of grappling with how to use ai and how
21:48like there's ai songs and there's computer generated songs and what's interesting to me is like
21:53when you guys started out you guys exploded in part because of not only the music but the personality
22:00and is it strange to see like you know the the rise of music that is no personality that's
22:07literally computer generally like how how do you view something like that that that more and more
22:11people are talking about now i do think that there will be like a shelf life for that kind of music
22:16and those kind of songs i won't be as uh specific as saying boy bands but like let's say there are
22:24other art there are there is other music that maybe there's some music that has more personality
22:29than others there's other music that kind of serves a bit of a purpose i don't know if i was
22:34like if i'm like one of these streamers which is like all the rage these days and if i play me video
22:39games and i want to play music on my stream well for a start licensing's a nightmare with that so you
22:45might just put on like an ai playlist there it's really just background music so i do i do think there will
22:50be like um use cases that aren't like really like provocative and really trying to piss people off
22:58because it's a little bit like at the moment things like track gpt not everyone will uses that on the
23:04regular because a lot of people aren't necessarily sure what to do with it there's so much choice there
23:14and i think i think with ai in general human at least in its current form and who knows what the
23:21future holds but human input is still incredibly necessary so who knows what we're going into
23:28i sit in this weird halfway house where i am all authenticity always but i'm kind of into technology
23:36so like it's a difficult conundrum but i do i do think there will be use cases that
23:43hopefully don't disrupt the industry too much yeah i really struggle with the question of
23:48you know what is its relevance and importance in music again authenticity i'm a big believer in
23:55but like in terms of the everyday like brainstorming like i use it all the time like it's it's it's really
24:00important tool for me so um i think if you use it correctly tell me about the tour tell me about the
24:07you're playing arenas yeah what does that mean to you what does that represent to be playing these
24:11stages it's a reflection of where i've come from and and things like playing madison square garden
24:19never in a million years did i think i'd be playing that on my own so it forces me to give
24:24myself a bit more credit too like you know if i've already exceeded my expectations you know who
24:31knows what i'll be feeling like by the end of that tour this album comes out the same month of your
24:35your son freddy's 10th birthday um which is is wild what has it been like growing and evolving
24:43as a person as a creator as a father and kind of you know playing him music and having him grow up
24:50and watch you perform as a solo artist what has that been like it's something i've really struggled
24:54with truthfully because when i'm with freddy if there was a way to ethically hide that i was a
25:02singer and that i was doing all of this i probably would there was a point in his life where he started
25:08becoming a bit more aware that you know people would occasionally like stop me in the street
25:13and i've got a blanket rule that when i'm with freddy i don't do any pictures or anything because my time
25:18i don't get enough time in them as it is so i cherish those moments and the first couple of times i
25:24would say to people no sorry i'm not gonna do it and then i i had to have this conversation with
25:28him and be like you know i didn't use this word but basically i wanted to say that's not an arsehole
25:33like i'm not i'm not a dickhead i i the reason i'm saying these things is because i cherish my time
25:39with you and you know these people know me because i was in this band and these are conversations that
25:44i am still struggling to get my head around so having those conversations with a nine or ten year old
25:48especially in the realms of fame they are challenging now i'm always really excited to play in my
25:54music but the two come in tandem he knows that people that make music a lot of them are famous
26:00so it's something that he comes to the shows right and and that's let's say real look behind the curtain
26:06for him but it's always something that i am really really fiercely trying to protect him from
26:13occasionally i'll brag it's like he loves palaces
26:15it's not very often that i would hear specifically that he loves a certain song occasionally they will
26:27press him like do you like this he's like yeah um but he specifically said he really liked palaces
26:32i think that was the that's the first time that it's happened like that so that was cool that was
26:36cool because kids don't lie man they don't yeah if he didn't like it he would tell me so that's really
26:40nice but i think yeah the fame thing it just takes a little bit of navigating because you're trying
26:47to have grown-up conversations with kids that aren't grown-ups it's hard that's that must have been
26:52really powerful to have him be like i love this song it was amazing it was amazing like genuinely
26:58some of the most nervous i've been gigs i've done is freddy coming now the irony that is like i could
27:04i could have a botch gig and sing terribly and he'd still be proud of his dad i hope
27:09but i really want to be great for him i want to be really cool you know i want i want to look great
27:13i want to sound great i want to feel good watching those things so yeah when he said he was into the
27:16song and more than me just being like do you like dad's latest single you know um that's really cool
27:22man it makes me feel really good genuinely it's like a it's like a really yeah i'm like okay i want
27:28something with this record i love it um last last question is just in terms of looking long term
27:34beyond this album beyond this tour obviously you'll continue making music like do you have a
27:39kind of a long-term goal of just or is it something specific or is it just more of kind of a nebulous
27:44like i want to keep writing i want to keep getting closer to you know creating something that i can really
27:51like kind of captures my artistic expression what what is it like when you think five years down the
27:55line ten years down the line i always find this question really difficult to answer because i i feel like a
28:00bit of a a contradiction i like to think with scale and i like to think big picture but i hate
28:07long-term thinking i'm very much a short-term thinking kind of guy so i look to the future and
28:13my ideas you know i'm always thinking kind of long term but in a literal sense in my job things change so
28:23quickly and you have to kind of be able to react to these things it's not something i spend too much
28:29time trying to craft because i could do that right now and be like okay what does the next three years
28:33look like i guarantee i might be able to make six months of that work but in reality things just
28:39change too often even the fact that you know my son lives in la it's a lot of traveling life's just
28:45unpredictable so i'm also yeah i'm kind of just holding on for the ride see where it takes me
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