When Harry Styles wrapped up his Love On Tour shows in summer 2023, he’d been on the road for 22 months. Or was it 13 years?
The singer had really been on the go since One Direction were formed in 2010. He launched a solo career in 2017, releasing three albums in five years. The most recent, Harry’s House, won album of the year at both the Grammys and the Brit Awards.
“It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life,” he recently told The Times.
“I’d always thought, or hoped, that I was the kind of person who didn’t need the dopamine hits that doing this job often gives you. But I hadn’t actually removed myself from it and it’s hard to eliminate the doubt that maybe if it all went away, I’d really miss it.”
So, on the cusp of turning 30, he retreated to Italy, recalibrated his life and took up marathon running.
During that time, Styles said he needed to “fall in love with music all over again”, embracing the experience of being a fan, from the other side of the stage.
“I went to see LCD Soundsystem a couple times… and it was just so joyous, when you’re watching them be so immersed in it,” he told BBC Radio 1’s Greg James, external.
“I think the inspiration from them came of, ‘Oh, that’s how I want to feel when I’m on stage’. And then that led to the kind of music I was making.”
So how do those experiences inform his new album, Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally?