On One Direction:
“The
others have always been… Like Niall, for example. He’s the most lovely guy in
the world. Happy-go-lucky Irish, no sense of arrogance. And he’s fearless. There
are times I’ve thought: ‘I’d have a bit of that.’ Zayn, back in the day. He
could relate to me on a nerves level. In the first year we were both the least
confident. But Zayn has a fantastic voice and for him it was always about
owning that. Liam always had a good stage presence, same as Harry, they’ve both
got that ownership. Harry comes across very cool. Liam’s all about getting the
crowd going, doing a bit of dancing… And then there’s me.”
“You know I didn’t sing a
single solo on the X Factor,” he says, recalling the time back in 2010, when
One Direction were first put together as a band on the ITV reality show. “A lot
of people can take the piss out of that. But when you actually think about how
that feels, standing on stage every single week, thinking: ‘What have I really
done to contribute here? Sing a lower harmony that you can’t really hear in the
mix?” He guesses, smiling wryly, that in those months he was best known as “The
kid wearing espadrilles, stood in’t back.”
"And
if there was any bad news that needed giving to the label I’d always be
designated to have the argument.”
“In
the last year of One Direction I was probably the most confident I ever was.
And then it was: ‘OK, hiatus!’” Tomlinson argued against it, he says, when the
band first sat down to discuss separation. “It wasn’t necessarily a nice
conversation. I could see where it was going.”
On his solo career:
“When
you’re putting together material as a soloist,” he says, “you quickly learn
that those hot-shot collaborators who once dribbled to work with One Direction
no longer pick up the phone. I couldn’t say now that I could definitely get a
superstar writer in a session with me. And I understand that.” Tomlinson adds
with no real vinegar: “Harry won’t struggle with any of that.”
On money:
As
a self-aware northerner, from a proudly working class family, this has left
Tomlinson with residual guilt to answer about wealth and status that do not
feel to him fully earned. “And I know, I know it sounds ungrateful. But I think
about a man, on a nine-to five, working his arse off for six months so he can
go to his family and say: ‘Guys, I’m taking you to Disneyland.’ That moment…
I’ll never have that in my family life. And I’ve worked hard. But I’ve never
worked hard, not like that.”
On his Mum:
“I
remember the day I lost my virginity. I hadn’t even told any of my mates and I was,
like: ‘Mum? I know this is really weird. But I’ve got to tell you…’ I remember
thinking this is a bizarre conversation to be having with your mother. But it’s testament to how comfortable she made me.”
“I
remember saying to her: ‘Mum, how the fuck do you expect me to do this now?’
And she didn’t swear much, my mum. She’d always tell me off for swearing. And
this time she was like: ‘You’ve got to fucking do it, it’s as simple as that.’
It was football manager, team talk stuff.”
“I’m
not gonna claim this is all for me mum. But it was definitely….It was…”
“Sometimes
my reservation, or my confidence, might have prevented me from doing something.
And I’ve needed a mum in the past to kick me up the arse and go: ‘You’re doing
it.’
He taps his lighter on the table and asks what I make of everything he’s said. “Do you think your readers are still gonna wonder: ‘Why doesn’t he just not do it?’”
