By Cameron Crowe. January A lanky guy in a wool hat, overcoat and jogging pants, hands thrust deep into his pockets. Harry Styles had a lot on his mind. He had spent five years as the buoyant fan favorite in One Direction ; now, an uncertain future stretched out in front of him. The band had announced an indefinite hiatus. The white noise of adulation was gone, replaced by the hushed sound of the city below.
The fame visited upon Harry Styles in his years with One D was a special kind of mania. Hell, when he pulled over to the side of the freeway in L. Paul McCartney has interviewed him. But at the height of One Dβmania, Styles took a step back. For many, was a year of lost musical heroes and a toxic new world order. For Styles, it was a search for a new identity that began on that bench overlooking London. What would a solo Harry Styles sound like? A plan came into focus.
A song cycle about women and relationships. Ten songs. More of a rock sound. A bold single-color cover to match the working title: Pink. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. As we weave through traffic today, the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone.
We arrive at a crowded diner, and Styles cuts through the room holding a black notebook jammed with papers and artifacts from his album, looking like a college student searching for a quiet place to study.
Often in the past there was another One D member to vector questions into a charmingly evasive display of band camaraderie. Today, Styles is a game but careful custodian of his words, sometimes silently consulting the tablecloth before answering.
