When One Direction lost their fifth member Zayn Malik in March 2015, the pop collective wrapped up their fifth tour as a quartet and announced their indefinite hiatus that August. The foursome -- Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan -- went on to pursue different projects for "at least" a year, with Payne, Styles, and Horan inking independent record deals, while Tomlinson focuses on raising his baby boy Freddie Tomlinson.
For Horan, the Irish singer-songwriter penned a deal with Capitol Records USA and released his debut solo single "This Town," an acoustic ballad about the nostalgia that accompanies his homecoming. The cut is the first taste of his forthcoming debut solo album, which is currently in the works and has no official release date. On Wednesday morning, Horan joined On Air with Ryan Seacrest in studio to give a status update on his hotly-anticipated record and a tentative timeline for his new releases.
"I'll be bringing out [another] song starting next year I'd say, and I'll probably try to bring the album out just before the summer," he said. "Yesterday, I recorded my eighth song, so I'm kind of three-quarters of the way there."
On the sonic of his new album, Horan said "This Town's" downtempo arrangements are not a reflection of his forthcoming collection: "If I had 11, 12 'This Towns,' I'd literally put people to sleep. I don't know if I can do that, so I have to have a little bit of tempo!"
After releasing his debut album and doing the solo thing, the question on everyone's mind is, will 1D ever regroup? Although Horan -- as well as Styles and Payne who are working on their own solo projects -- is neck deep in building a standalone empire, he is confident that the band will, as promised, reunite somewhere down the line.
"We're all just kind of doing our own bits and pieces now, we're all enjoying it, we're all in touch, but I think people have this public perception that we all hate each other and One Direction is never going to happen ever again," he said. "I think people are making that up. We've never given any hint ... I think the media started to turn all of these words and make it seem like we all hate each other and One Direction will never happen again, which is complete bulls**t. It definitely will. We're just enjoying our time."
Not only did Horan guarantee the return of One Direction in the future, he also imagined what their first order of business will be: "Some of us will have music to bring to the table...but we also have an album that we never toured. We brought an album out at the end of last year, so I guess that would be the first thing, to tour that."
While fans patiently await a 1D reunion, they can watch Horan hold his own at KIIS FM's sold-out Jingle Ball at Staples Center in Los Angeles this Friday (December 2). He will join a star-studded bill featuring Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, Fifth Harmony, Diplo, and many more.
Original article at iHeartRadio