Flirty Harry Styles on why he loves his new stuff better than his old stuff
After years of his every move being dissected, Harry Styles has figured out how to stay sane in the cyber era where pop stars are hounded. He’s also found a new great love.
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Harry Styles remains a charming, disarming flirt.
The 26-year-old pop star, who fixes an adoring gaze on Stevie Nicks whenever in her presence and flashes those pearly whites as he shimmies alongside Lizzo, is also an exceedingly polite flirt.
After expressing my appreciation of the rather grand music video for his latest single Falling, which had dropped a couple of hours before our chat, Styles thanks me “very much” and then returns the compliment.
“You have a fantastic phone voice … it’s beautiful,” he says.
All the best male pop stars across the ages – from Elvis to Prince, George Michael to Robbie Williams – have wooed female fans with songs of seduction balanced with heartfelt ballads exposing their vulnerability.
Styles learned the power, and the art, of pushing those buttons serving his pop apprenticeship with boy band One Direction, striking superstardom with the debut single What Makes You Beautiful through 16 other hits until they released their unofficial goodbye with the heartache-tinged History.
He kept that pop yin yang going on his 2017 self-titled debut solo album which featured the overtly sexual innuendo of Kiwi and the lament of a relationship in decline that was Two Ghosts.
Fine Line, his second record released in December to critical acclaim and chart domination, continued his exploration of the sex and sadness tropes and was hailed as a more confident pop album than his first.
Styles agrees, saying he wasn’t so much trying to find something new to say about something old but felt more comfortable in his songwriting skin.
“I wanted it to be free … having those kind of goals usually push towards making something exciting. At least exciting to me,” he says.
“When you make a new album and people say it doesn’t sound like the last one it’s yeah, it wasn’t supposed to sound like the last one. I think the goal on this one was to have no goal and just to see what would come out in the end.”
The videos for Fine Line’s singles also reflect the confidence Styles has developed in the decade since One Direction was formed via UK’s X Factor in 2010.
The sexually-charged Lights Up video featured a topless and sweaty Styles cavorting with likeminded party people while the aching piano ballad of Falling finds him drowning in a flood of “tears” from his instrument. The clip for another single Adore You is also water-logged.
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Styles runs with it when I joke about the videos forcing him to face a fear of water.
“I do tend to end up somewhat damp in any video or shoot I’ve been doing in recent times. Maybe one day soon I’ll do something dry but for now, I guess not,” he says.
There is no doubt after five years in the One Direction camp where perhaps the five young men – Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik – didn’t have as much freedom as perhaps they would have liked, that Styles in coming into his own as an artist with Fine Line.
It was made with a closeknit group of creative friends including British artist and producer Kid Harpoon, American studio guru Tyler Johnson and one of his best mates Mitch Rowland.
He describes the making of the record – and everything that has followed from the artwork to the videos and now the world tour – as being “free” and “joyful”.
“Obviously I love the first album. I think when I listen to it now I feel like I was a little bit scared of getting it wrong … and played it safe in a lot of places,” he says.
“And I think with this one, it sounds so much more free and the making of it was more joyous and that’s been from the music to the videos, the album cover and all the artwork and stuff.
“That I guess has been the best part for me, that I’ve probably just been having more fun and having that freedom. And obviously standing behind the music you are putting it out makes it more enjoyable.”
Styles has also learned valuable lessons about what he doesn’t want after his One Direction experiences. He’s adept at evading paparazzi or hysterical fans who don’t respect boundaries, as evidenced by his recent brush with muggers while walking home one night in London.
No one caught that on cameras – and the opportunistic thieves who stopped him with an offer of weed before demanding his phone and cash clearly didn’t recognise the pop star in the hoodie as they threatened him with a knife. He managed to break away from the group and make it home safely.
Watching the Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber documentaries and witnessing the cyber bullying of successful artists including Australia’s chartslayer Tones and I provokes the question whether being a pop star in the digital age is now as much about navigating trauma as it is creative expression.
Styles credits the tightknit group of friends, family and co-workers for his mental health.
“A lot of the times when people have a song that blows up, it’s quite instant and I don’t know really what there is that can prepare you for that. But obviously there’s so many positive things about it. For the most part the pros outweighs the cons but for some people, they don’t,” he says.
“I think for me, I feel really lucky because I feel like an important part of it all is just having good people around you and I’m very lucky to have a great friend group and people I work with and my family really support me. That makes it a lot easier.
“It’s always been really important for me to separate my personal life from my working life and I think that helps me compartmentalise things to make it easier.
“But yeah, it can be difficult for some people … it’s just one of those things where it’s not really a normal thing and it can be quite strange. But it is also great.”
Styles will head back to Australia for his third solo run of shows with the Love On Tour in November.
With two albums – generating more than 3.6 billion streams – now to his solo credit, he’s loving the challenge of creating the perfect setlist, one that satisfies both the artist and his adoring fans.
On his first world tour, he covered Ariana Grande and Fleetwood Mac – and One Direction – and with his recent bust-outs of Lizzo’s Juice, may consider weaving that awesome track into the repertoire.
“Maybe, maybe … I’m sure it will make an appearance at some point. Maybe Watermelon Sugar Juice?” Styles says, before signing off with wishes to take care and telling me to “get yourself a radio show.”
Tickets for the Love On Tour concerts go on sale from 2pm on March 20.
Harry Styles plays Qudos Bank Arena on November 20, Brisbane Entertainment Centre on November 26, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne on November 28 and RAC Arena, Perth on December 2.