In a room full of nearly 50 fans, Niall Horan performed a handful of songs from his third album, The Show, out June 9. In partnership with Spotify, Horan shared an intimate performance inside the famed Studio A at the Power Station in New York City to an audience of 48 of his most dedicated fans.
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On hand for the special performance — one Horan later admitted may be his last small show before he embarks on a nearly sold-out world tour, including his June 14 date at Madison Square Garden — were two New York City natives, who link their decade-plus friendship to Horan.
Growing up in Floral Park, Queens, Caroline O’Brien and Claudia Fuchs first met in elementary school but didn’t become friends until they reconnected over their love of One Direction in 11th grade.
“Every time he’d [Horan] come through [to perform], we’d see him,” O’Brien told American Songwriter. “It sounds so narcissistic, but in your head, you’re like, ‘This is an earned privilege.’ I waited in line so much since I was 12, so you feel like you should be one of 50 [in the room] when you’re 23.”
When the group disbanded in 2016, O’Brien and Fuchs continued following the individual One Direction members’ solo projects but found they connected more to Horan’s music. Their first Horan show was on Halloween night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City during their freshman year of college in 2017. That concert was followed by another show at Jones Beach in 2018 before Horan released his second album, Heartbreak Weather, in 2020. The two recently saw Horan again for his first live performance in five years on May 26 during the Boston Calling music festival.
“He’s still the root of everything I’m interested in,” said O’Brien, who, along with Fuchs, also took a pilgrimage to Horan’s hometown of Mullingar, Ireland. “We learned more from hearing him speak at the age of 16 than we learned in school. That sounds ridiculous, but the things you put into practice, and the things you think about later on from things he said in passing … he really raised the bar for us.”
The friends, along with the small audience, who O’Brien says she knows from a community of Horan fan interactions on Twitter, said that seeing him perform is one thing, but to hear him speak, and within such close proximity, is a moment she will never forget.
“He can be this close singing,” said O’Brien, “but to hear him actually ideate and think out loud is another thing.”
Before his 10-song set — which included The Show tracks “Heaven,” “Science,” and “You Should Start a Cult,” along with “Flicker” and a cover of Zach Bryan’s 2022 song “Something in the Orange” — Horan answered nearly a dozen fan questions. He also shared personal anecdotes about the new album, songwriting, his favorite eras of Taylor Swift, and more.
American Songwriter was in the room and captured Horan’s Q&A session here:
Q: Which song from your catalog would you use to introduce your work?
Niall Horan: I don’t know. “This Town” or “The Show, maybe, [and] “Flicker.” I can go through the whole catalog [but] probably one of those three, I’d imagine, if you’re trying to sell me to someone.
Q: If you could choose a song on the album [The Show] to describe how you’re feeling at this exact moment, which one would you choose?
NH: “On A Night Like Tonight” is probably the best representation.
Q: What artists, or albums, influenced you while creating The Show?
NH: I think it’s all kind of subconscious. I never sit down and go, “I’m going to write this type of song by this artist.” It’s because I listened to them, so that’s the way I write now. There are certain things that make its way in. The singer/songwriter stuff is based on the Damien Rice time of my life. The kind of darker ballads on this album kind of lead into a “Mad World” [Tears For Fears], Lana [Del Rey] kind of world.
It’s not exact sound. It’s more like the types of sounds, and the feeling within the types of strings or types of drums that have been used. That’s where I kind of get the influences from, and all the stuff I grew up on always makes an appearance in some shape or form. That’s just the way it is. You don’t try and remake something that’s already made, but you’re definitely influenced by stuff that exists.
Q: What are you most looking forward to on your upcoming tour?
NH: I just can’t wait to do it again. It’s been so long, and I’m even more excited now that the whole thing is nearly sold out, which is nuts. I can’t believe it. These last few days have been crazy, finding out about all of the numbers and stuff like that. I just can’t wait to develop the show I wanted to do for a while and with everything — the aesthetic and the way everything looks. It makes for a good show, and three albums, and a starving audience. It should be a lot of fun.
Q: What Taylor Swift era would you describe yourself as?
NH: What era would I be? I liked Red. I like Folklore.
Q: What were other possible titles for the new album?
NH: There was none. It was literally just The Show. After I’d written the first song, I was like, “Well that’s it.” That’s what it’s called. It sounds like a good title, and it all makes sense now. Once I wrote the first song I realized that that’s what the title is gonna be, and then it allowed me to make all the creative stuff pretty quickly. When you know, you know.
Q: You sold out Madison Square Garden. How’s it feel to be going back to the Garden?
NH: It’s crazy. I’ve played there many times [with One Direction], but it’s been weird to see my name all over the building this week in Times Square and all that stuff. I’m never going back to Times Square again — the stress levels. I thought I was gonna die. I went there to take a picture with the billboard. It came up for about six seconds, and I literally sprinted around the corner. It was too much — a Naked Cowboy and a drunk Mickey Mouse.
It’s been amazing to see it. It would have been a disaster if it didn’t sell out. … Thanks, because it’s gonna be one of the best nights of all time.
Q: What was your favorite memory of making The Show?
NH: The Joshua Tree trip, in general, was so good. [It was] 10 days in an Airbnb in the middle of nowhere, just having a few drinks, writing the songs here and there. We went there knowing exactly what we needed. We needed a bit of tempo for the album. We felt like we had everything else. We came out with “Heaven” and “Meltdown” from that trip. It turns out it worked. Again, we wouldn’t be talking about it if the songs were shit, but there’s nothing better than striking when you get that one and we’re all just jumping around like lunatics, thinking we’ve just conquered the planet. It’s a really good feeling when you get a good one.
The night we wrote “Heaven,” I was just about to go to sleep. Literally, I stood up to leave, and then John [producer John Ryan] was like, “That melody you’ve been singing for the last two days fits over these chords I’m playing on the computer for the last hour.” We didn’t go to bed and we got our first single out of it, so it was a good trip.
If we hadn’t got them [the two songs] on that trip, we probably wouldn’t have an album now. That was in June last year [2022], and I handed in the album in October.
Q: If you could only listen to three albums for the rest of your life what would they be?
NH: I think Rumours, Fleetwood Mac would be number one. Can I have four? Born to Run, Bruce [Springsteen], O by Damien Rice. I think O was the one that had the most effect on my music, all my music, and the way I write. And probably Hotel California. They’re four decent albums.
Q: What about your songwriting process has changed between this album and your previous work? Do you feel you’ve grown as a lyricist?
NH: It allows you to develop if you’re doing it all the time. It just changes, the way you do it, the more you listen to other stuff and take it in. You understand why people did this verse that way and it’s a whole mathematical thing that I’ve never figured out. Just over the years, with practice, I’ve just gotten better at it, especially on this album, because I had more time.
For instance, I would have a really good concept in my head, and if the song started off really bad I would just scrap it and not allow myself to get to the end of the song. I just wasted all that time, hence the fact that I really didn’t write that many songs for this record. When you have time to consider it, you can pull all that math into place. Now, I feel like I’ve written by best stuff, and hopefully we’ll have this same conversation in a few years when the next one comes.
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Niall Horan & Spotify Present: The Show! Set List:
- “The Show”
- “Heaven”
- “This Town”
- “On A Night Like Tonight”
- “Black and White”
- “You Could Start A Cult”
- “Something In The Orange”
- “Flicker”
- “Science”
- “Meltdown”
- “Slow Hands”
Photos: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Spotify
