Every sentence he speaks feels
considered, and he sits with such casual ease in front of a camera that he
barely needs any direction from the photographer at all. He already
instinctively knows what angle to turn his face so that the light reflects off
his jaw, and he can change into a fresh outfit in the time it takes to adjust a
camera lens. He never complains, he just seems to do it without thinking. It’s quite remarkable to witness.
“During the last year of One
Direction, in particular, I definitely went a little bit… west,“ he tells me
now, raising one eyebrow before taking a sip of coffee and lighting another
menthol. “I kind of realised we were going on this hiatus and I thought ‘I’ve
been very sensible for this whole time’ and that’s not really me, so for a year
or so we definitely had a good ‘party stint’ and I got it out my system, in a
way. There were definitely those days when it felt as if touring was
relentless, and if you want to tackle it from a party point of view it can be
really fun, but it does make the whole thing even more draining. It’s just such
a difficult feeling to come off stage and have this amazing buzz and then be
like…'so what now?’ You can’t just sit on the tour bus and chill.”
“But I think it was
obvious to everyone that we were always five best mates on the road; it was
real nice. And as time went on, we all began to understand each other. There
are often misconceptions, but we’re all such good mates. If you look at the X
Factor final, when I performed my song with Steve [Aoki], all the boys came to
support me, and I didn’t know until a couple of hours beforehand. It wasn’t one
of those stupid fucking celebrity things where it’s like, ‘lets all get in a
picture and put it on Instagram and show everyone that we’re best mates’ – we
didn’t even put it online. There are always those little things that people
don’t hear about.”
“You think it sounds good?
And not predictable?” Louis asks, leaning forward, putting me on the spot. I
tell him that it’s super catchy, that I’d probably listen to it out of choice
and not just because I have to ahead of an interview. “Good, good,” he leans
back, seeming satisfied with my answer, “because it’s so melodically different
to what I was used to, I wasn’t 100 percent sure on the song initially. But
after playing it like three times, I became really excited about it. I think it’s really cool.”
“In ten years’ time, the most important thing for me
is that I’ll deliver a good album people connect with.
After that — who knows?’ he
mused. ‘I’ll set a new target. As soon as you feel comfortable, it’s a
dangerous place to be in. That keeps my drive up, keeps me going.”
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