Harry Styles Sought Approval On Tracks From His New Album

Written by . Published: April 06 2017

Harry Styles shared some of his new music with hitmaker Ed Sheeran but he didn't quite get the feedback he was looking for.


In an upcoming interview while hosting the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw, airing on Friday (07Apr17), the former One Direction star, who is preparing to release his first solo track, Sign of the Times, reveals he played his pal a few songs after the album was finished. The 23-year-old admitted that Ed didn't say he liked the songs, apart from one that never made the cut.

“I played him a few songs after the album was finished," he told Nick. "I didn’t see him for a bit because I was away. He didn’t say that he didn’t like any but he did like one song that isn’t on the album. So I did have a bit of a minute of like hmmm no but…”

During the wide-ranging interview Harry talked about finally starting a new chapter of his life as a solo artist, all without mentioning his former chart-topping band One Direction.

“It’s a bit weird, I feel like I’ve been hibernating for so long now and you hear it in the safety of the studio and now it’s time to give birth … it’s the song (debut single) I’m most proud of writing," he smiled, adding his album is "my favorite album to listen to at the moment".

Harry decamped to Jamaica, famous for its musical heritage, recording at the Geejam Studios for two months, with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and his bandmate Gary Lightbody.

“I just wanted to not be somewhere that I’d get distracted," he explained. "It was 360 of writing, you’d go home for dinner, write at the house then go back to the studio. I liked being away from everything and doing it like that.”

Harry started recording in February last year (16) but was forced to stop for around five months to make his movie debut in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk, a break he felt worked in his favor.

"By the end of the movie, because we were swimming so much I just wanted to write songs…” he recalled. “I think we wrote about 70 songs - we did 50 songs and ideas in Jamaica and that’s including like little ideas."

Harry will debut the new single on the BBC Radio 1 show on Friday and is scheduled to appear on The Graham Norton Show later that day.