Harry Styles reveals key influences on new album: “This is why I get on stage”
Harry Styles has revealed the handful of huge musicians who have inspired his fourth studio album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occassionally.
In a new interview with Zane Lowe, the singer-songwriter discussed his newest project, which is his first solo release since 2022’s Harry’s House.
Styles began the interview by revealing that recent comments made by acclaimed electronic musician and producer, Four Tet, inspired his creative outlook this time around.
“Four Tet did an interview, and he was talking about listening to something and being like, ‘This is brilliant, how do I make something that sounds like that?’ and shifting that desire to replicate in some way, [asking], This is brilliant, how do I make something brilliant?”” Styles gushed.
Styles deemed this a “pivotal” moment for the album, the idea of “living with songs that you love so much”.
Another musician that got a huge shoutout was the British art-rockers, Radiohead. The ‘As It Was’ singer revealed that seeing them perform live inspired him to return to the stage.
“I think dancing in Berlin,” Styles told Lowe, who asked if there was a moment that profoundly inspired his return. He added, “I went to see Radiohead in Berlin, and felt so part of the audience.”
In attendance at one of their recent residencies, Styles shared that he had a very clear moment of: “This is why I get on stage”.
He went on, “I’m watching this and feeling everything that’s happening around me in the crowd. There’s people picking up each other’s things and people are bringing each other things. It’s this sense of strangers looking at each other and massaging each other’s shoulders when someone’s emotional and looking into the eyes of a stranger and screaming out a chorus together.”
Later in the interview, Styles also nodded towards Simon and Garfunkel, whom he “grew up listening to”, as a key influence on his new sound.
The last song on the new album, ‘Carla’s Song’, is about Styles’ new friend, whom he recalled to Lowe, he had the pleasure of showing Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. He said the moment was like “watching someone see in technicolor or discover magic.”
The title ‘Carla’s Song’ echoes the Simon and Garfunkel track, ‘Kathy’s Song’.
Previously, Styles also revealed that LCD Soundsystem hugely influenced the direction of the project, revealing, “When you’re watching them be so immersed in it, I think the inspiration from them came of like, ‘oh, that’s how I want to feel when I’m on stage’. And then that kind of led to the kind of music I was making.”
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occassionally is out on March 6th. Listen to the first single, ‘Aperture’, below.
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