One Direction: 'It's not a question of burnout: we enjoy it'
They’ve had 95 international number ones and are worth £70m, but is the world’s biggest boy band outgrowing its fans? And if so, what next?
[...] When I first get a clear look at them, these five young men with a Sri Lanka-sized body of fans, they are holding watermelons – personalised watermelons, each piece of fruit tattooed with a band members’ face. Some sort of skit is being filmed for morning telly. We are in a large studio complex in north London, the room dim except for where One Direction are sitting, on a spotlit sofa.
They’re all dressed in black and grey, an effort, their stylist explains, at making them “slicker, more rock‘n’roll”. This is the thinking behind the hair, too: shoulder-length for Harry, pushed back with a head band for Zayn, generally model-ish all round. The morning TV skit ends, the watermelons are taken away and I’m led under the spotlights for handshakes.
The new album is your fourth in three years, I say. How long can you maintain this pace before you melt?
Liam, leather jacketed, says: “Erm. It’s an often-asked question. But I think we’re feeling pretty good. We’ve just had a couple of days off, actually.” Louis, in a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt, corrects him: “A couple of weeks off.” Liam: “Couple of weeks off, yeah. Couple of weeks. So we’ve been chilling. But we’re all pretty hard-working. We just enjoy it more than anything. It’s not a question of burnout.”
To those people who haven’t given your albums a listen before, why should they?
“You know, I think, why not?” Harry asks. He’s wearing a sleeved vest and, unlike the others, who are rapid and chirpy, speaks in a slow drawl – there’s a touch of Eddie Izzard. Louis talks about there being something for their fans on the record, but also something for their fans’ parents – an 80s-influenced seam that might be found nostalgic.
I wonder about Roger Daltrey. Was it fair for him to suggest that One Direction lack purpose?
Louis: “Aaayyyuhhh ... I mean, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.” Liam: “I didn’t even hear that.” Louis: “No, that’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Zayn, wearing a knitted jumper, speaks about One Direction not trying to impress anyone. Louis returns to the matter of purpose. “Like, we’re doing a signing today, [because] it’s incredible to give back to the fans. And you only have to look at how overwhelmed some of them are, even just for a meeting with us, it’s incredible. And I think, as a parent, looking at that, there’s your purpose. You know, we’re hopefully making people happy, so ...”
I’m confused – do you keep bringing up parents because I’m from the Guardian?
Louis: “Well, no. Maybe. Maybe. I don’t know.” Niall, in a grey tee, has been hanging back. Now he leans in and says, “I don’t know too many 15-year-old girls who read the Guardian.” Thickly accented, the Irishman says this with the nuclear decisiveness of a final word, a matter settled, and Louis turns to him. “Nice, Niall, covering there. Dropping in. Sweeper!”
What motivates this band? “Giving back to the fans.” What do they make of their every utterance being second-guessed by those fans? “That’s just part of their fandom.”
From here on I will redact all mentions of fans, and of those fans being great. Just assume that One Direction knows it has fans and knows its fans to be supportive, because their every other thought is sunk under the weight of acknowledging this. When I ask about the emotional burden of their work, all those complex infatuations they can’t possibly reciprocate, the boys say it’s not a burden it’s a privilege. Zayn: “If it wasn’t for [redacted] we wouldn’t be where we are.” Liam: “We just like to think about [redacted].” Harry: “[Redacted].”
