#mitch rowland rolling stone

[zot3-flopped]

The Rolling Stone article (I can read it without subscruption...):

Mitch Rowland could have been designed in a mad scientist’s laboratory as the prototypical soft-spoken guitar dude. He’s a shy rock geek from small-town Ohio who just won a Grammy for Album of the Year, for his work on Harry Styles’ global blockbuster Harry’s House. When he met Styles, he was washing dishes at an L.A. pizzeria, a complete unknown with zero professional experience. All he had was his guitar and his ideas. He didn’t even quit his pizza job until two weeks after he joined Harry, and he still ducks the spotlight in live shows. As Harry has playfully introduced him onstage, he’s “Mr. Mysterious!”

But Rowland might have to finally get used to people noticing him. On his gorgeous solo debut, Come June, released through Styles’ Erskine Records, he ignores pop trends and finds his own voice. It’s all introspective acoustic beauty, a deeply personal song cycle inspired by his hero, the British folk legend Bert Jansch. Rowland is still adjusting to the idea of stepping out on his own. As he admits, “I still feel like I’m walking off a building going onstage to play.”

Come June is full of hushed, gentle ballads, in the mode of Nick Drake or Elliott Smith. Songs like “When It All Falls Down” show off his trademark delicate melodies and breathy vocals. But it’s a real guitar album. “Bert [Jansch] was the dartboard,” he says. “I hit the paint on the wall, but that’s what I was aiming for.” The music has a homemade feel. “I wanted it to sound as wood-y as possible,” he says. “I hope we achieved even a quarter of the way [Neil Young’s] Harvest sounds when you put it on.”

If this talk sounds strange coming from the guy who co-wrote hits like “Watermelon Sugar” and “Golden,” that’s just a sign of the times. Rowland has a unique feel for walking the line between different music worlds, gliding back and forth between mega-pop flash and meditative folk. He and Harry have always made a funny duo — the most flamboyantly charismatic starman in the glam galaxy, next to the shy Midwest boy who’d rather let his guitar do the talking. Onstage, Rowland plays the Mick Ronson/Wendy Melvoin strong-and-silent sidekick to Harry’s Bowie/Prince. But he has his own mystique and his own following. When Styles played London in the summer of 2022, there was fan graffiti on the wall outside Abbey Road, with a drawing that depicted Rowland as George Harrison. It’s the highest compliment any guitar-weeper could ask.

As Harries already know, Rowland has always been brilliant at saying a lot with a quiet sound, as in ballads like “Matilda” or “From the Dining Table.” He co-wrote gems like “Sign of the Times,” “Canyon Moon,” and “Keep Driving,” and his psychedelic guitar freakout steals the show on “She.” He plucks the guitarlele on the fan favorite “To Be So Lonely,” a song that Harry called “the articulation of Mitch’s brain.” Styles sings back-up vocals on Come June, in “Here Comes the Comeback.” But he’s always been Rowland’s most shameless fan. “Super inspiring,” Harry once described him to Rolling Stone. “There’s a magic to Mitch, past him being so good. I feel like he represents a kind of magic to me.”

Come June is the album everyone hoped Rowland would make, except even better. He takes inspiration from contemporary indie-rock guitarists like José González and Jonathan Wilson — not to mention Ben Harper, who contributes lap steel and vocals to “All the Way Back.” Some people might think it’s a pop guy trying to cross over to an indie-rock folk sound, but it’s the other way around: These are his roots. He took an old-school approach to the album, thinking of touchstones like Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. “I wanted it to be under 30 minutes,” Rowland says. “I wanted a quick album, where it doesn’t take long to get into it. It ended up being 37.”

He cut Come June with producer Rob Schnapf, who made classics in the Nineties with Beck and Elliott Smith. The band is minimal — Schnapf, engineer Matt Schuessler on upright bass, drummer Sarah Jones. Rowland and Jones are both in Styles’ band, which is how they met, fell in love, and got married. They now have a toddler son. “If I couldn’t figure out a drum part, Sarah would come down,” Rowland says. “Our son came over one day. It was very cozy. We were always in a groove.”

Jones got to know Schnapf when she drummed on Kurt Vile’s latest album, (watch my moves). When she introduced her husband to the producer, it was a full-circle moment, since Vile was a pivotal influence on Rowland. “When I first played with Harry, I had this voice note on my phone, this slowish riff,” he says. “We sped it up in the end, but it sounded pretty Stones-y slowed down. I was trying to squeeze an idea out of Kurt Vile’s Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze.” The result was the Styles banger “Only Angel.”

Rowland and Jones’ toddler has grown up around Harry Styles shows, so he’s already witnessed plenty of fan hysteria. “We took him to the Green Man Festival in Wales, with all these folk acts, really chilled out, and he’s the only one screaming,” he says with a laugh. “He thinks that’s what you do. So he’ll probably be the only one screaming at my show.”

Growing up in Ohio, Rowland’s first musical love as a kid was his older brother’s drum kit. (He later played drums on “As It Was,” which spent 15 weeks at Number One.) He taught himself guitar, and moved to L.A. in 2013, where he had enough trouble just finding a pizzeria dish-washing gig. He and Harry were from very different worlds — Styles was a global superstar making his solo debut, looking to find his voice after breaking free from One Direction. Rowland had never even heard a One Direction song. But they had an instant chemistry, sharing a fresh, eccentric sensibility.

Their collaboration didn’t make any commercial sense, and people weren’t always shy about letting them know. Rowland grins as he recalls Swedish superproducer Max Martin coming into the studio to hear one of the tracks from 2019’s Fine Linetracks early on: “He gave a list of all the things that were wrong and needed to be changed.” They didn’t take his advice. The song was “Watermelon Sugar,” which became Styles’ first Number One hit as a solo act.

Rowland and Jones were indie rockers, blissfully ignorant about the pop scene. (They’re both obsessed with Guided By Voices.) Then they each met Harry — and suddenly found themselves playing arenas. It was a baptism of fire for both of them. But Jones was a road-seasoned veteran of U.K. bands like Hot Chip and New Young Pony Club, while Rowland had never toured at all. So he experienced some serious culture shock. The first time he ever played New York, it was the legendary Radio City Music Hall. “I went missing,” he admits. “I think I was feeling squirrelly, and I must’ve found an open bar on a different level of the venue, but I was late to getting dressed.” Five or 10 minutes before showtime, manager Jeffrey Azoff pulled him aside. “He said, ‘Do you want to meet Donald Fagen?’ I was like, ‘Fuck you, telling me that Donald Fagen is here! The marquee was scary enough.’”

Rowland calls his pop career “a nice accident,” but he’s authentically fluent in both these worlds by now. “I never wanted to win a Grammy,” he says. “I just never thought about that. How could that even possibly enter my brain?” When he gets star-struck, it’s usually meeting indie-rock heroes like Jonathan Wilson. “Going back to 2012,  when I heard Jonathan Wilson’s Gentle Spirit, I thought, wow, this is something else, and it’s happening now. That was my musical lifeline.” He notes that he met the great indie singer-songwriter Kevin Morby back at the pizza shop, when serving him a birthday pie. “I arranged the pepperoni,” he says proudly.

His first gig at a solo artist was opening for Harry at Dublin’s Slayne Castle — in front of 80,000 people. No pressure. “We were the first one on the bill,” he recalls. “It was us, Annie Mac, Inhaler, and Wet Leg. Like a festival day. So we went on first thinking, ‘They’ll be trickling in,’ but it was already full. That was freaky.” How did the gig feel to him? “I don’t know. I couldn’t look at anybody onstage or out there. I looked at the white dots on the side of the guitar neck until it was over.”

It’s a great rock & roll story — from slanging slices to conquering castles. But in typical understated style, he refuses to take any credit. “I’m only prepared to play a place like Slayne because of all the places Harry’s taken me, and then I’m only playing my music to anyone because of him,” he says. He also won’t accept credit for the meteoric Styles phenomenon, despite co-writing and playing on so many hits. He’s still the same dude who didn’t want to quit the pizzeria. (“I needed the check for the rent,” he says.)

“Harry could have picked any group of people when he decided he was going to go solo,” Rowland continues. “He was massive — he was larger than life. I still can’t believe he wanted to make music with someone who had zero credit to their name, when he could have done the opposite so easily, and everyone would’ve said yes. I’ll never quite get over that.”

But Harry’s gut instincts about Mitch turned out to be justified, to say the least. “He just had a feeling, which says a lot,” Rowland says. “I’ve learned a lot from Harry, but a lot of the most important stuff is to just trust the people around you, and let something be whatever it’s going to be.”

A few years ago, it might have seemed weird to cross over between pop and folk, as Rowland does on Come June. But it’s a sign that pop audiences have gotten more broad-minded. Whenever Styles sings the intensely emotional ballad “Matilda,” with Rowland on acoustic guitar, you can hear a pin drop in the room, even in a stadium. The hush is poignant — nobody even sings along. “Well, everybody’s crying,” Rowland says. “I never play that song facing the crowd. One night I thought, ‘Why don’t I just try it one time facing the crowd?’ But it was too much. It was deep into the tour, and all of a sudden, I’m paying attention, and I almost stopped playing. I thought, ‘God, this is what we’ve been playing every night?’”

He’s hitting the road next spring with the same tight-knit group that made the album. “Sarah’s on drums, Matt’s on bass, and Rob on guitar,” he says. “Everyone who did their bit on the record has said yes to playing live, which is ideal for me. It makes it feel more like a band. When we played Slayne Castle, Rob told me, ‘The last show I played was in ’98 with Elliot Smith.’ So I thought, ‘That’s a nice trajectory.’”

But the toughest audience to impress? His young son. As Rowland says with a smile, “His new thing is putting his hand over the guitar neck when I’m trying to play. He says, ‘No, daddy. No ’tar. Play cars. Come.’ I’ll be in the middle of playing something, but it’s hard to argue with that.” 

Thank you for this! Absolutely lovely. Mitch comes across as so humble still. Really liked this description of Harry:

He and Harry have always made a funny duo — the most flamboyantly charismatic starman in the glam galaxy, next to the shy Midwest boy who’d rather let his guitar do the talking. 

#mitch rowland #mitch rowland rolling stone #harry styles #come june

[hldailyupdate]

"There’s a magic to Mitch, past him being so good. I feel like he represents a kind of magic to me.”

-Harry on Mitch. (20 October 2023)

via Rolling Stone

#harry styles #harry update #mitch rowland #quote #rolling stone #october 2023

[becauseheartsgetbroken-hs]

my heart melted 🥺

#how can he be so sweet!? #i mean he is a true angel #everyone that has harry in his life is so incredible lucky #and mitch loves him so much #i love their relationship #rolling stone #harry styles #mitch rowland

[miomiomate]

MITCH ROWLAND

Maria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone

#Mitch Rowland #rolling stone magazine #Mitch

[thestylesindependent]

Seemingly inescapable whenever you turned on the radio last summer, Harry Styles’ As It Was was one of the biggest hits of 2022, and remains on heavy rotation today. It topped Spotify’s end-of-year list of the most popular songs, and hit number one in the US and UK.

The song was co-written by Tyler Johnson alongside Kid Harpoon and Styles himself. Johnson and Harpoon both have production credits on the track - as they do on Watermelon Sugar, another Styles mega-hit - but as Johnson explained to Music Week [Paywall] last year, the creative process behind the two songs was very different.

“[Watermelon Sugar] took a while and As It Was was more speedy, right out of the gate,” he says. “Harry was sitting on the Moog One and I liked what he was playing, so I sat down and played as he started to write the melodies and the lyrics. Tom [Hull, aka Kid Harpoon] did a half-time beat around it, we were like, ‘No, it’s not right.’ So then Tom played the double time beat, which felt very good.

In terms of harmonic structure, As It Was has been compared to a-Ha’s Take On Me. As John Mayer demonstrated during a recent live performance, the two songs share a similar chord progression - ii-V-I-IV - but As It Was has a very different, highly distinctive topline.

“I said to Harry, ‘We need a lead line’ and he just came up right away with the ‘Dah, dah, dah...’ part,” reveals Tyler Johnson. “He didn’t hesitate. Then he started writing the second verse and referring to himself in the third person. So much of this song just came from Harry’s heart. And then Tom, as he does, with this magical sense of hooks that he has, came up with the idea of doing, ‘You know it’s not the same…’ after the chorus, which I was very impressed with. That turned out to be a very smart move.”

The song came together quickly, then: “Really, the record was about where it’s at now after three or four days,” Johnson recalls. “It didn’t go through a lot of [changes], there was never anything drastic. I had a guitarist friend, Doug Showalter, add electric guitars and some transition sounds. Then we got the tubular bells - another Harry idea - and I’ve got a video of him playing those. We had Mitch Rowland come in to do some live drums. We chopped those up for the ending to give it a more bombastic feeling.”

The best thing about As It Was is just how effortless it is, how it just flows over you and gives you a good energy.

Having a real drummer, it turns out, is important for Johnson, Harpoon and Styles. “For As It Was, we were thinking 2008-2012 indie rock, MGMT, Phoenix, Passion Pit. We want to be referential and for the music to sound familiar, but our process is that we don’t do as much drum programming as live drums. That’s what people in that era were doing to make things sound big, but not too programmed. Our engineer Jeremy Hatcher really helped shape that, those drum tones are unique in pop.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Kid Harpoon threw another influence on As It Was into the mix: “I’m sitting there on the drums and I was like, oh, this could have a Strokes kind of vibe,” he said. However, while he acknowledges the debt that As It Was owes to other artists and songs, he also firmly believes that it has its own identity.

"You get to the end and you hear it and you go, oh, it’s got the sort of A-ha references and the Strokes references and maybe there’s a bit of Talking Heads in there and then it becomes something bigger than the sum of its parts.”

Perhaps the relaxed vibe of As It Was stems from the fact that it was recorded in the living room in the home of A&R man Rob Stringer’s house, a place conducive to chilling out, you would have thought.

“The living room was actually a very perfect size for a control room, nice and tight but kinda long,” notes Tyler Johnson. “The back of it had a couch, an upright piano and windows that looked out over some fields, and in the front we had the desk. We rented a ton of gear, all the walls were lined with preamps and compressors. Even though we were going kind of bedroom-y, Tom and I just love lots of microphones and we do live drums, analogue synthesisers, multiple guitar amps… We love that whole element to recording.”

It was Styles, it turns out, who pushed for As It Was to be his album’s lead single. A wise move, it turns out, given its subsequent success.

“The best thing about As It Was is just how effortless it is, how it just flows over you and gives you a good energy,” thinks Tyler Johnson. “It has a gentle conversation with the listener while being upbeat. It’s easy to consume, but it still has depth and Harry brings so much character to it. Really, pop is just about people living life with music to garnish it.”

#harry styles #june 2023 #tyler johnson #kid harpoon #music radar

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

Rolling Stone Mitch profile!! Written by beloved Rob Sheffield!!

Some of these quotes legit made me 😭😭.

It’s a great rock & roll story — from slanging slices to conquering castles. But in typical understated style, he refuses to take any credit. “I’m only prepared to play a place like Slane because of all the places Harry’s taken me, and then I’m only playing my music to anyone because of him,” he says. He also won’t accept credit for the meteoric Styles phenomenon, despite co-writing and playing on so many hits. He’s still the same dude who didn’t want to quit the pizzeria. (“I needed the check for the rent,” he says.)

“Harry could have picked any group of people when he decided he was going to go solo,” Rowland continues. “He was massive — he was larger than life. I still can’t believe he wanted to make music with someone who had zero credit to their name, when he could have done the opposite so easily, and everyone would’ve said yes. I’ll never quite get over that.”

But Harry’s gut instincts about Mitch turned out to be justified, to say the least. “He just had a feeling, which says a lot,” Rowland says. “I’ve learned a lot from Harry, but a lot of the most important stuff is to just trust the people around you, and let something be whatever it’s going to be.”

And this Matilda quote!!

A few years ago, it might have seemed weird to cross over between pop and folk, as Rowland does on Come June. But it’s a sign that pop audiences have gotten more broad-minded. Whenever Styles sings the intensely emotional ballad “Matilda,” with Rowland on acoustic guitar, you can hear a pin drop in the room, even in a stadium. The hush is poignant — nobody even sings along. “Well, everybody’s crying,” Rowland says. “I never play that song facing the crowd. One night I thought, ‘Why don’t I just try it one time facing the crowd?’ But it was too much. It was deep into the tour, and all of a sudden, I’m paying attention, and I almost stopped playing. I thought, ‘God, this is what we’ve been playing every night?’”

He is such a good man; I love him and Sarah so much. Teary fans would stop them for photos this summer and Sarah would earn them “you’ll make me cry too!” when they sobbed out compliments.

Anyway - read it! Rob Sheffield (OG Haylor) 4eva.

[mr-styles]

Harry Styles Got Shameless for Harryween, to the Surprise of Literally Nobody

The two-night Fancy Dress Party at Madison Square Garden, announced two years ago, was a Halloween treat worth the wait.

Ever since Harry Styles announced his Harryween shows in New York, almost two years ago, anticipation ran high. But Harryween was worth the wait. It was the hottest Halloween party in town, as fans took him up on his challenge to dress up for the occasion in Madison Square Garden. And to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Harry overdid it. On Saturday night, he came out as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, posing with his picnic basket, dress, hair bow, and ruby slippers. For Sunday, he covered Britney Spears’ “Toxic” in a Pierrot clown suit, and he relished every ruffle of it. “I must say, I feel fabulous,” he told the crowd on Night One. “Do you feel fabulous? Good! Now we’re going to sing a sad song.” The whole Harry philosophy in one line.

The weekend was billed as a Fancy Dress Party, but it was a lot more than that. Over two nights, Harryween was a delirious glam-pop orgy, and the crowning cherry-on-top moment for his amazing Love on Tour. Originally booked for 2020, Harryween got pushed back a year when the pandemic hit. It was a long overdue victory lap for his blockbuster Fine Line, which dropped in the final days of 2019. Before the lockdown, he got to do only one proper U.S. arena show, at the L.A. Forum, where Stevie Nicks joined him to duet on “Landslide.”

But because Harry has an insatiable appetite for wreaking ungodly chaos in our lives, he topped his own standards this past weekend. Every moment of Harryween had the essence of a Harry live show, which is creating a communal sense of joy that turns total strangers into a congregation of ecstatic revelers. As he told the crowd, “Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be in this room tonight.” The boyish mischief on his face as he started the rare fan-fave “Medicine,” knowing full well he was about to intoxicate everyone with “Toxic” — just pure evil. Britney was right — a guy like him should wear a warning, although maybe a clown costume counts as one.

When Harry spoke to Rolling Stone about his debut solo tour, he summed up his live aesthetic. “To me, the greatest thing about the tour was that the room became the show,” he said. “It’s not just me. I’m just a boy, standing in front of a room, asking them to bear with him.” But the room really became the show for Harryween. So many angels, fairies, superheroes, queens, cowgirls, Britneys, Juliets, Eltons, Cher Horowitzes, “Good 4 U” Olivias, sunflowers, the Bring It On cheerleaders doing cartwheels on the floor. And the twin queens of this year’s Halloween: Megan Fox from Jennifer’s Body and Velma from Scooby Doo. Glitter everywhere. Sequins and wigs. Feather boas. One of the best audience signs: two fans dressed as zombies, with the placard “Eat People With Kindness.”

Nothing could have kept this guy out of a dress for Night One. As Judy Garland’s Dorothy, he kept prancing and skipping and curtsying. (Has anyone loved anything as much as Harry loves to curtsy?) At one point, he clicked the heels of his ruby slippers while guitarist Mitch Rowland played the psychedelic “She” solo in his Cowardly Lion costume. The whole band was decked out in Oz drag: drum goddess Sarah Jones as the Wicked Witch of the West, bassist Elin Sandburg as Glinda, keyboardist Ny Oh as the Scarecrow, keyboardist Niji Adeleye as the Tin Man, and percussion master Pauli Lovejoy as the Wiz. (In a band full of larger-than-life personalities, it took a special kind of cruelty to cast the shy guitar dude as the Lion, but Rowland worked that mane like a true king of the forest.)

Harry committed to the role, right down to the tiniest details. Even when he skipped off and onstage for the encore break, he refused to surrender his picnic basket. After introducing the band, he held up the basket and yelled, “Now also, make some noise for Toto!” For the encore, he glided right from the ballad “Sign of the Times” into “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” tipping his cap to the long queer histories encoded in the song. (Right down to how David Bowie interpolated it into “Starman.”) He captured the sad yearning in the tune, without playing it for laughs. Here’s to his Dorothy Era — let’s hope he keeps on following the yellow brick road.

For Night Two, he laced up in a Gucci clown suit full of ruffles and frills. It evoked Bowie in his classic “Ashes to Ashes” video, with a similar emotional impact. As Bowie said in the Seventies, “I’m using myself as a canvas and trying to paint the truth of our time on it. The white face, the baggy pants — they’re Pierrot, the eternal clown putting over the great sadness of 1976.” Between clowns and The Wizard of Oz, Harryween covered two-thirds of my childhood nightmares. (To complete the hat trick, he could have added the Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph.)

This might have been a fancy-dress bash, but that didn’t make it fundamentally different from his other shows — at any Love on Tour stop, it’s tough to find any corner of the room that isn’t strewn with feathers. During one of the early-October NYC shows, he singled out a group of dads to roast their fashion decisions. “You want to know how I know you’re dads? Because you’re wearing a golf shirt to a concert. All three of you, tucked in!” There was a touching moment Sunday night when he announced, “We have a very special guest in the audience — he was here last time we were in New York. Golf Daddy is back! He’s STILL tucked in!”

Musically, this tour goes for high-energy dance pop, skipping some of the biggest ballads in his songbook to keep the vibe festive, especially the 15-minute jam of “Canyon Moon,” “Treat People With Kindness,” and the early One Direction oldie “What Makes You Beautiful.” For “Treat People With Kindness,” the fans on the floor had a country boot-scootin’ line dance — they worked out the choreography long-distance around the country. And on this queerest of annual holidays, “Lights Up” took on a new resonance. Fans passed around different-colored slips of paper and Harry asked them to shine their phones’ flashlights through them, creating a rainbow around the room — a statement of Harryween Pride.

On Sunday, he stunned the crowd by busting out “Medicine,” a Stonesy pansexual anthem that got cut from his debut solo album, yet became a highlight of his first tour. He milked the surprise, pausing midpose as Jones struck up the drum intro and pandemonium swept through the room. Everyone sang the hook: “The boys and the girls are in/I mess around with them/And I’m OK with it!” (It’s officially “them,” but it’s fair to say most fans sing “him.”) And he went right from that to “A guy like you should wearing a warning.” There were rumors all night he might dip into the Spears songbook, since his stylist, Harry Lambert, changed his Twitter header to a Britney photo a few hours before the show. Yet “Toxic” was a surprise, just a few weeks after he waved a “Free Britney” banner onstage. Three years ago, in Madison Square Garden for summer 2018, a fan asked Harry his favorite Britney song. When he replied “Toxic,” the fans started chanting, “Sing it, sing it!” “You want me to sing it?” Harry asked. “Well, let me see … [Dramatic throat clearing] No.” But tonight he finally delivered his “Toxic,” and he went all the way into the song, taking his sip from the devil’s cup and slipping into a poison paradise.

The show ended, as always, with the glam-rock powerhouse “Kiwi,” which never fails to make the entire building wobble like a belly dancer. Fans on the floor gathered in a ring to create an awe-inspiring mosh pit. (At the Oct. 4 show, one of those moshing fans was Halsey.) It’s an amazing sight to witness from anywhere in the room, and it’s gloriously terrifying to get swept up in it, with the floor bouncing madly. The mania unleashed by “Kiwi” summed up everything Harryween was about: stepping into the light and finding out who you are. It was a Halloween weekend never to be forgotten.

#harry styles #love on tour

[rethesun]

My Sign of the Times Analysis

You can read it here or on my website (preferable) because the customized background delivers it best. Either way, whatever works for you is fine. 

Sign of the Times was written by: Harry Styles, Jeff Bhasker, Mitch Rowland, Ryan Nasci, Alex Salibian, & Tyler Johnson :)

Here is a truth bomb before I start. Explanation link here.

Intro & Disclaimer: I do not know Harry Styles or the other writers personally, so I apologize in advance for not noticing if I spoke for them in my writing. It is not my intention to discredit or disrespect the original meaning, so please always take Harry’s word over mine. I also will never invalidate your interpretation and feelings on a song. This song is so layered, so multi-faceted, that I could never hope to provide an exhaustive analysis. Due to it’s vagueness and openness for interpretation, I assume that everyone,  just like me, has their own ideas about it and has attached importance to it in ways that no one else's words can or should alter. This song means the world to me for reasons that aren't necessarily in this post, and that's how it is with art that touches us deeply. I've tried my best to pull it apart, lay it bare. It's still free as it can be for you all to form your own opinion on it. I will make my own conclusions in the synthesis but feel free to ignore that if yours are different. I'm just one set of brain and heart, taking in Sign of the Times and projecting whatever I think is right onto it. (Thanks to killmygoldenn for the above intro help) Even if my interpretation is far from accurate, Sign of the Times is still my favorite song. I am not rigid about my interpretations and much rather say "this is how I feel but I'm leaving it all open-ended. Fair warning, this first page is full of disclaimers. Eek, sorry. Please remember, these assumptions I make are possibly very misleading and not factual.  

Keep in mind that the story of a mother in childbirth applies just as much throughout but is not the interpretation I will write. I notice some people readily look over the childbirth story, saying 'it makes no sense,’ but maybe the story is true and it’s still valid as one interpretation. The mother could be thinking about all these things how life will treat her child. It can easily coincide with fundamentals, “Equal rights for everyone, all races sexes, everything." Check out this and the tags for further clarification and interpretation. Alternatively, this mother and child story could be a way to express this song, and it doesn't mean that it’s a true story derived from learning it second hand. 

I enjoyed finally writing this all down as it's been on my mind for so long. Thank you for taking the time to read. It honestly means the world.

Topics TW: Life, death, and human rights struggles

People have summed up this song into a few words: closeting or band struggles. I don’t think those are incorrect conclusions at all but the point of an analysis is to write and so even if my perspective is unoriginal and obvious/self explanatory to some, I still chose to write it all out as it’s therapeutic and because the song has captured my heart entirely. 

Note: Harry Styles mentioned the lyrics aren't just about a mother tragically losing her life and having five minutes with her child. Styles said he didn't want to focus on politics but wanted to focus on human rights. When asked about the meaning, Styles initially said he was leaving it ambiguous, stating: 

I don’t think I’d ever say exactly what it’s about. For each person to take away what they get from something is important. It is the most literal song on the album. It’s a view of a lot of things that go on.

However, in his April 2017 interview with Rolling Stones, Styles further elaborated on a more specific meaning:

“Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals. Equal rights for everyone, all races, sexes, everything. 'Sign of the Times' Comes from 'This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last.' The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication. The mother is told, 'the child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.' The mother has five minutes to tell the child, 'go forth and conquer.'”

A little note about song interpretations I agree with which applies to this post and they explained it best.

"Just stop your crying, it's a sign of the times."

I interpreted the beginning line as encapsulating the entire song. In my opinion, all of the interpretations can work all at once. After all, life is full of turns, and there are multiple points of view. It's another reason I love this song; you can apply many meanings. I am not telling you how to interpret it, so whatever you want works. If you dislike one or all of my interpretations, that's okay. You can also separate these ideas if you like one concept more than the others. 1. The mother and her child, 2. Human rights, 3. world issues like hunger, poverty, war, pollution, environmental devastation, our human impact, and how we keep destroying things. 4. The inner feelings - struggles of being in and leaving 1D, 5. In a broad sense, anyone can relate to concept #5: The inner feelings or critic telling you to grow up it's time for something else. Whatever it is, it is not helping you, at least not anymore. Then there are additional interpretations which are the perspectives of who is giving the message and how it is being received. 6. The loved one you trust to counsel you 7. public interpretation, fans losing boundaries, managers telling the subject to do more of what they ask of, in a boxed-in way. You can see how this can go either way: one is more loving and considerate/validating. The other is more about invalidating emotions.

BTW: I'm not saying Harry doesn't make his own decisions. In this interpretation, where it's about fame, we don't know about specific situations that are not aligned with the subject's wants but align with the music industry's preferences. One point is how 1D was overworked and very much dehumanized. Their mental and physical health was not the priority when it should always have been. "Styles never really fit the cookie-cutter role he was expected to fulfill while in One Direction, and he didn't always have the self-confidence he has today. And his fans could tell. He was always bursting out the seams with more to offer, suffocating from the confines of boyband-hood. From management to stylists to contracts, Styles was being molded into a lesser (but still genuine) version of himself."

This next paragraph is so ugh because my brain was having a low moment so it’s not concise: My last two disclaimers, promise. It doesn't have to be specific to the music world, there can be blocks due to many things, and hopefully, I touch on those topics well enough later on. When I say something like, "music/entertainment industries," I mean it’s a 'power structure' in this heteronormative world that does not tend to have your best interest at heart and is more about keeping things a certain way. Finally, when I say "violation of human rights," I'm implying everything from racism, sexism, homophobia, our heteronormative, gender strict society, etc. Still, I won't specify, and it's up to you to make that specification. Glad that’s out of the way. 

In 2017, Harry hosted The Late Late Show with James Corden and used a lyric for his comedy skit. He directed a line at trump. Harry turned to face a camera and said, "Just stop your crying, it the sign of the times." Some say it's just a comedic convince because it fits well since trump was being impeached for the first time that day, while the meanings are mutually exclusive. To me, that interpretation stands against what trump represents. People who are money-hungry, bigoted, racist, closed-minded, vile, and phobic should quit their selfish crying, make room, and adjust to the times.

To further back up my view above, during the second leg of the HS1 tour, which crossed through June, Harry said, "This is for anyone out there who needs it, this is Sign of the Times, Happy Pride!" Right before singing s.o.t.t. at several of his concerts.

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"Welcome to the final show Hope you're wearing your best clothes" Explanation part: 1. Some connect this line as a direct reflection of the 1D years and their final concert in 2015. Styles told The Sun in 2017 that his time in the band is something he has expressed in his debut album but not in a predictable way. "Rather than just go in and tell the story about what happened, I got to think about how it actually made me feel at the time." "I feel like it’s a good way of saying what you want to say about something without having to sit and be like, ‘You know what, this really p**ed me off.’ But I also wanted it to be fun to listen to. I didn’t want it to make me depressed."

Explanation part: 2. To me, it's somewhat making fun, mocking the fact we put much value on material and trivial things in this world. The following two lines support this below. It's saying hope you did your best and did not make your life all about the wrong things. It could be saying, hope you don't have regrets because there is no return. As far as we know, this is our only life.

"You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky"

Explanation: Note: In literature, doors tend to describe beginnings, endings, transitions, opportunity vs. blocks, and thus duality. 1. The sky symbolizes stardom/power, and the door is the point where you don't have much say in what you want on the road to stardom. Contracts, power hungry people, and prejudice/outdated views still profoundly impact the way things are permitted to operate. 2. The sky symbolizes the end of life/afterlife. The door represents something otherworldly, like the gate to the heavens or (a) God. So you can't bribe your way into redemption with earthly things; your life has to speak for itself. What transcends what you can see and hear, what transcends earthly things, is universal and pure? Love. Many cultures believe you can't take things with you when you die, so most things don't matter. In the end, only the love you had and shared with others will, especially to the people still here. I think it makes you ask yourself, what is your impact?

"You look pretty good down here But you ain't really good"

Explanation: 1. Again adding to the symbolic clothing, the shiny and the trivial things all seem to matter. We get caught up in the striving for something, but sometimes they aren't all as cracked up to be. They hardly matter at all. Happiness is not a goal; it's a result of doing and being. "Ease is a by-product, not a pursuit. The next time you resent the existence of an obstacle, remember that we don't grow by seeking comfort but by overcoming discomfort. Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product." - Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living. This lyric connects back to the beginning of Verse 1, "Just stop your crying, it's a sign of the times."

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"We never learn, we been here before"

Explanation: An insurmountable feeling. 1. This line seems to be coming from the suffering subject(s) or the one(s) who see the suffering and are tired of it happening again and again, not just in one's life but notice the repetition in lifetimes throughout history. 2. Will we collectively learn from human history and finally genuinely change our ways, so humans feel safe and equal? 3. On an individual level, will we ever learn? Since we already put ourselves through something terrible once or twice, why continue down the same path? An example can be about the music and film industry not allowing people the freedom to do/be 100% what they want to do/be. These lyrics can apply to all sorts of things much less complex, like particular bad habits, but I believe it's not about that, and it's more complicated, like inequality, as Harry said.

"Why are we always stuck (aka "stuckin" to sound like f-ckin) and running from"

Explanation: 1. Being stuck is usually a terrible feeling; it can feel like you have no control over things, and you're lost or stagnant in life. Then he adds "running from," meaning it's eventually tiring and draining. [ I almost interpret this as, 'why do humans over complicate things and try to accomplish so much, why can't we take smaller strides and be in the present?' I have decided that is a subcategory. It's valid but not the concept I will focus on the entire time. ] While "The bullets? The bullets?" can represent dark obstacles, maybe something that feels somewhat impossible to outrun without protection. For me, what comes to mind is still along the lines of human rights, equality, safety, and it can apply to the mistreatment in stardom. Why are we always having to outrun and work so hard to feel a sense of security or liberation? "We gotta get away from here" Explanation: 1. We have to get away from this negative thing and find a place of safety, physically or metaphorically. 2. We have to stop this bigotry and make this world a safer place.

"Just stop your crying, it'll be alright" "Stop your crying, baby, it's a sign of the times" "They told me that the end is near" "have the time of your life breaking through the atmosphere, and things are pretty good from here Remember everything will be alright"

Explanation part 1: As mentioned, we can interpret these lines in many ways/tones, even as multiple people communicating. Ex: tone-deaf, dismissive, or sometimes as more matter of fact. Alternatively, we can interpret it as someone loving and understanding someone going through life changes with trial and error. 1. The person could be thinking out loud and or listening to their conscience. Maybe as self-soothing, or they are critical of themselves. In this instance, the subject could be saying they have it good and can or should make the best of it not just for themselves but also for other people. 2. Two or more people are talking to each other about being in the same challenging situation. 3. The trusted loved one hearing them out and reminding them things will be okay eventually. 4. The music industry tells the subject how good they have it while providing them with privilege and dates, parties, drugs, alcohol, etc., while withholding certain freedoms. Unfortunately, having so many fans can be a part of this; it isn't just the industry that invades the subject's personal life. (#4 applies when you interpret the tone as something negative)

"They told me that the end is near" "breaking through the atmosphere"

Explanation part 2: 1. The "atmosphere" can be another way to say "sky." Remember, the "sky" so far has symbolized fame, fortune, ambition, the afterlife, and now I am interpreting it as breaking a glass ceiling and or collective historical milestones. Regardless of the milestones size, we are still making progress, and the end of a dark time, possibly for human rights, can be coming to a stop. Or so we wish. We still have levels to go; however, there is light making its way through the tunnel. There is so much hope.

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"We can meet again somewhere, Somewhere far away from here"

Explanation: 1. Life and death: many of us believe one day we can reconnect in peace with those we love in the afterlife. 2. We can have our equal rights and or can come together again when it's safer, hopefully soon and in this lifetime, but maybe we won't see enough change in one lifetime. "We" can stand for the subject and or anyone who can relate to them.

"We don't talk enough, we should open up. Before it's all too much Will we ever learn? We've been here before. It's just what we know"

Explanation: To me, this comes across as possibly an intimate (personal, not sexual) thought or spoken conversation. 1. There is a lack of communication with someone or a few people, which has become difficult to handle. 2. Not speaking about something can feel like a burden. The lack of discussion and safety around the topic is becoming too much, pushing the person to their limit. 3. "we don't talk enough" doesn't have to mean literal communication it can mean, in general, the subject/the subject and a few people/the world, doesn't deal with things well. 4. Alternatively, someone can see that many people are suffering at their limits.

"We've been here before" "It's just what we know"

Explanation: "It's just what we know" 1. We are personally used to, and this could be, being treated as less and not given equal rights and safety. 2. The state of the world and repeating things from history is just what we know, and we struggle to escape it because many people don't want to change. In some way, the subject is answering their own question about why they or we always feel stuck and running and why we never learn.

"We gotta getaway, we got to get away We got to, we got to, away"

Explanation: Pleading exclaiming we must stop all of this or we must get away from all of this unnecessary hurt. "Away" can be the place or a period or even a whole lifetime from now of acceptance, freedom, and love.

This song is not about just pain and feeling sad. This debut album banger and genuine masterpiece leaves everything and at the same time nothing on the table. Simply because it's the first single on the first album does not mean it lacks. There is so much growth, soul, wisdom, patience, grit, heart, life, and love in it. It is truly cathartic.

#harry styles #sign of the times #song analysis #hs1 #if i could describe this song in one word it is cathartic #sott #oh and yes I believe coacoac is collaborative with sott #its about life #rethesun #source: me

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

Hitch was based on the Larry formula. Create flirty, same-sex, in-the-band ship for fans to stan in Harry’s new solo career. Louis and 1D were gone but Larry, which I believe was organic, was tremendous for fan engagement. Harry and Mitch seem to be good friends but HSHQ pushed Hitch at the beginning with album photos of Harry flirting with Mitch and Jeff Bhasker talking about Harry & Mitch to create fan hype. I always wondered how Louis felt about this.

Right? They pushed it from the album booklet into the “Making of” video to Harry’s opening sales pitch in Rolling Stone (that interview reads so much like a scripted press release now, it’s not even funny):

The final piece of the puzzle was Mitch Rowland, Styles’ guitarist, who had worked in a pizza joint until two weeks into the sessions. “Being around musicians like this had a big effect on me,” Styles says. “Not being able to pass an instrument without sitting down and playing it?” He shakes his head. It was Styles’ first full immersion into the land of musos, and he clearly can’t get enough.

(Super funny because… is Harry even a musician anymore… )

“Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals,” Styles says. “Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. …  ’Sign of the Times’ came from ‘This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last time.’

2019:

I’ve noticed, though, how rarely Styles directs people to support specific causes, last doing so in 2018, when he encouraged people to join a march against gun violence. Why don’t you use your influence more, I ask? “Because of dilution. Because I’d prefer, when I say something, for people to think I mean it.” He runs his fingertips across the table. “To be honest, I’m still searching for that one thing, y’know. Something I can really stand up for, and get behind, and be like: This Is My Life Fight.”

2.5 years and Harry went from caring passionately about equality, to having no idea what his “issue” is. I guess “equality” didn’t poll that well with the GP.

That is true about HSHQ trying to recreate a 1D marketing strategy for Harry to transition his fans.

#harry styles #mitch rowland

[stylesprimes]

During Kiwi (at MSG), the floor was wobbling up and down... I asked a few industry people who were there, and nobody had seen anything like that before... Mitch Rowland, his genius guitarist said: 'I never went to arena shows until I started playing arena shows. I don't know what's normal. This was really scary--what I always do is look over at Adam, the bassist and see how he's taking it, because he's an adult, he's experienced, he's been around, he's seen it all. When I saw the expression on Adam's face, I thought: okay, this is it. we're all going to die.' Sarah Jones, his drummer, said: 'I was just trying to reach the drums because they were moving across the stage.' That level of frenzy, Harry understands from the inside, because he's that kind of fan himself.

Rob Sheffield on the MSG ‘Kiwi’ floor-shaking incident on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, September 2019

#i feel like i've read this before but i rly liked the part about harry at the end

[jessconrad]

Fine Line by Harry Styles: The Sunshine We Needed Through A Very Dreary Year

Or An Album Review (One Year Later)

On December 13, 2019, Harry Styles graced the world with his second studio album, Fine Line, and I don’t think it has ever left my Recently Played section on my Spotify account since its release.

I honestly don’t know how I would have survived 2020 without this album. As I reflect on everything this year had to offer, I realized this record will always shine through as it is tied to my best memories of the year.

I listened to this album a lot, with three of my five top songs from my Spotify Wrapped coming from Fine Line. (They were “Sunflower, Vol. 6″, “Golden”, and “To Be So Lonely”, respectively, if you were curious!)

I spent dull afternoons in January walking around the freshly snow covered ground on my college campus blasting “Lights Up” in my headphones. This single was released in October 2019, two months prior to the release of Fine Line, and had been a top favorite of mine with its 70s soulful style. Not to mention, the small choir of backup singers and layering synth gave me an almost nostalgic as the Christmas season started to come to an end. This song was all about finding who you are- and I was starting to figure out who I am with it.

The next month I visited Denver for a conference and I began noticing how this record was starting to become the soundtrack to my year. February’s track was “Sunflower, Vol. 6″ where I started to feel my attachment to this song. I am not sure if it was the mesmerizing lyrics, the drums, or even the Indian instrument known as a sitar that made me really hooked to this song... But as I walked through the streets of rainy Denver (which would normally make me feel very gloomy), I couldn’t help grinning from ear-to-ear as I listened to this song. It’s the feel-good musical track you listen to, in whatever mood you’re in.

Sometimes I can’t fathom how apocalyptic March felt. The beginning of March was completely normal, and I was at my peak. Looking back now, I can’t wrap my head around that I attended five live shows within one week during that month. But all good things come to an end, right? And of course suddenly, it all came crashing down. I was sent packing up my college freshman dorm and moved back home with my parents while juggling all my courses remotely. There was a song that I was always replaying though, and that was “Golden.” Arguably one of the most upbeat tracks on Fine Line, next to “Sunflower, Vol. 6,″ but the lyrics say otherwise. As the opening track, it has a very chill pop vibe, but listen closely to the lyrics. The contrast pulls at my heartstrings every. single. time.

“Cherry” and April go hand-in-hand for me. As I continued to navigate my thoughts and feelings with the pandemic, struggling with the course load of online courses, and overall the anxiousness of all the unknowns- “Cherry” was the comfort I needed. With its soft acoustic guitar, it is the perfect song for any in-your-feels playlist. And trust me when I say that the fragility of “Cherry” really helped me when I was in my feels. 

Arguably the biggest summer hit of this year was “Watermelon Sugar,” and my go-to anthem of wanting to feel any normalcy of a summer that I stayed mostly indoors for. I remember when the music video dropped in May, I was grabbing coffee with a friend and begged her to watch the video with me. We sat in her car in the middle of a park, watching the YouTube video count down to the premiere of “Watermelon Sugar”. That “this video is dedicated to touching” opening message made me laugh and realized how truly brilliant Harry’s mind is. The warm, very enjoyable tune made this the perfect summer anthem with its really good electric guitar and slide guitar mixed with the horn. It’s the one song that will stay in your head for weeks.

Another song that feels like summer to me is “Canyon Moon.” In the end of June, I went ‘glamping’ (otherwise known as glamorous camping, we stayed in a very nice tiny house in the middle of the most wooded area that Nebraska could get) with my family. It’s a very upbeat song with a nostalgic feel, and the fun instrument rhythms can’t help but make you beam. The song also experiments with a dulcimer; a musical instrument with a long rounded body and a fretted fingerboard played by bowing, plucking, and strumming. I think this is what makes the song more upbeat and happy, especially the beginning as well as the slide guitar giving it unique sounds throughout. It personally is one of my least favorites on the album, but it does make me think of warm summer days and spending time with family every time I do listen to it.

July was starting to feel a little rough for me again. I was really getting tired of staying indoors and barely seeing any of my friends. I was really longing to go back to school and being around my people again. “To Be So Lonely” was a song that felt like it really understood me. Harry revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that the song was composed on a guitalele, which resembles the sound of guitar, for that light and upbeat tone that the chords give off, backing the lyrics. It’s the perfect song you listen to when you’re sad, and you’re ready to push past it. And I knew that I was ready to push past my sadness because I had one more month until I was surrounded in community.

“Adore You” was the second single of Fine Line that was released. This song is filled with so much love and passion- and it was the same immense feelings I had in August when I got ready to move back to my college town and see all my friends again. As I packed my bags and moved into my sorority house, I constantly played this song. What can I say? This was a really great song to vibe with, especially with the opening keyboard and the consistent bass that you cannot help but groove to!

Out of all the months of this year, surprisingly September was one of my darkest. With only two weeks living into my sorority house, I made the decision to move out for the safety of mine and my family’s health. I moved back in with my parents again during this month, and I felt completely lost. “Falling” had the same underlying message of being lost. This love ballad displays a theme of brokenness and creates a tone of unhappiness- the perfect song for a post-breakup or an in-your-feels playlist. I had this song on repeat more times than I can count- the soft piano setting a broken and lonely tone. 

The beginning of October began to really turn around for me. I moved into an apartment with one of my best friends and I was back in my college town. I was starting to find community again and “Treat People With Kindness” became this month’s anthem. Coined after Harry’s Treat People With Kindness (TPWK) campaign, this song has a 1970s sound and makes you want to dance along with the catchy choir lyrics such as “Maybe we can/Find a place to feel good/And we can treat people with kindness”. The lyrics were very prevalent in my life, especially with the amping news of the presidential election and the continuation of the pandemic. This song was the best reminder to be kind to myself, and those around me. And let’s not forget the conga sound throughout! I believe Queen would have been very proud of this underrated track.

The timeless mature sound of “She” could have not fit November anymore. I celebrated my twentieth birthday this month (which of course included a Harry Styles themed birthday party with my roommate and some close friends). The guitar kicking in at the chorus giving so much emotion to Harry’s voice, and that’s exactly how I felt around my birthday. Lots of emotions. Not to mention, the guitar solo played by Mitch Rowland sounds like it could have been something that was released years ago, with a little modern touch. It’s growing to be one of my personal favorites on the album.

Lastly, we get to December and I felt as if this year was the longest year of my life (but also flown by way too quick). The song that resonated with me most this month was “Fine Line,” the last track of the album (and the longest at 6 minutes and 16 seconds). My favorite memories in December consist of driving around with my friend, looking at all the Christmas lights as we drink hot cocoa and blast “Fine Line”- singing our hearts out to the repetitive lyrics of “we’ll be fine line” and “we’ll be alright.” Harry discussed in an interview with Capital FM that this song would always be the last on the album, and how fitting that I resonated with this song most in the last month of the year. “Fine Line” represents the ups and downs of life, and the thin line that separates the two. This song that includes an orchestra, drums, horn, acoustic guitar, and melodies building in the background, it could not be the most perfect finale to the album- and to the year 2020.

Today is December 13, 2020- exactly one year after Fine Line has been released. Since then, Harry Styles has made headlines from petty to political. He has shown up for Black Lives Matter, cared for our sleeping habits by releasing an audio bedtime story, made us feel confident in wearing whatever we want as he appeared as the first solo male on American Vogue- all while accomplishing some of his greatest achievements with this album: releasing five music videos, being nominated for three Grammys, and climbing the music charts and catching the hearts of critics. 

But Harry accomplished something even greater- he made an album that made us feel good when it was nearly impossible to. To put it frankly- Fine Line was my comfort album, and I know that it was a lot of other people’s too. And as we step into the new year, with the help of this album, it does in fact feel like... we’ll be alright.

#harry styles #fine line #album review #fine line anniversary #golden #watermelon sugar #adore you #lights up #cherry #falling #to be so lonely #she #sunflower vol. 6 #canyon moon #treat people with kindness #one year of fine line #music #music blog #pop music #rock music #solo harry

[everydaystyles]

Harry Styles Reflects on Life After One Direction & More at Grammy Museum in L.A. 

Billboard

Four months after releasing his eponymous debut and hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200, One Direction alumnus Harry Styles revisited the album with executive producer Jeff Bhasker during an hour-long chat moderated by famed journalist and film director Cameron Crowe at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Friday night (Sept. 15).

During the conversation, the 23-year-old, who kicks off his world tour in San Francisco on Sept. 19, shared sharp and astute reflections on his artistic process, spanning everything from isolating himself in a studio in Jamaica to developing ideas to moving on from being in a band and how entering this chapter of his career allowed for new beginnings.

The chat began with Styles recalling how the record began: without any outside influence, and with nothing but fond memories of his time with 1D.

“We started the record without a label, so the start of the process didn’t feel like I was making any sort of commitment and I didn’t feel any pressure, [like] ‘You have to make this,’ or anyone have an influence on what they thought I should be making,” said Styles, clad in a black tee, black skinny jeans and a golf cap. “It was just a group of us writing stuff to have fun and writing some songs and seeing what came out with the thought that I would actually play them myself. I think that’s a large part of the record is that it started that way. It didn’t start from, what do they want? I think if you’re lucky, I didn’t go into making the album or leave the band coming out of it feeling suppressed or feeling like I never got to write what I wanted to write. I loved being in the band so much and got to learn so much, and with this, I felt like I could just have a good time working out what it would sound like if I made an album.”

When Bhasker, who has credits on projects from Beyonce and Rihanna to fun. and Mark Ronson, was first approached to work with Styles, he cancelled not one but two meetings with the pop star -- something Styles was quick to remind him -- but inevitably came around.

“I was in a place where I knew he was a very high profile person and artist and I was kind of searching for something else than doing that,” Bhasker explained. “When you come full circle, and I think the kind of music that we made, it’s so ironic that that first impulse I thought it would be, I think the album reflects it.” “To be honest, I didn’t know any of that,” quipped Styles to laughter. “I’m sort of sad! I mean it’s Hollywood, everyone cancels.”

Crowe served as a pensive moderator, drawing from anecdotes he learned from writing the Rolling Stone cover story on Styles in April 2017. “Are the best songs the most personal songs in general?” he asked. “I think my favorite songs,” responded Styles, “but my favorite way to listen to music is on my own, with my eyes closed for example, or not. If I’m driving, or operating machinery, I usually keep them open. But my favorite song on the album, the last song, ‘From the Dining Room,’ is the most personal to me and I think my favorite one. But I don’t think they have to be. I think it’s just as important to have songs that are fun and make you feel great, and I think that’s just as important as everything being moody and deep and meaningful.”

Bhasker recounted how he initially sat with Styles on his balcony, listening to reference tracks thinking they were Styles demos but were actually White Stripes songs. Bhasker initially had mentee producers hit the studio with Styles, but got more involved when the singer, wanting to unplug from distractions (including Instagram and Twitter, which Styles now rarely uses), took a recommendation from a friend to go to Jamaica to work in a singular recording space.

“I felt I was going into the studio to make an album I wanted to make,” said Styles. “I didn’t feel like, what do I need to make as Harry from that band for it to be good? I missed music. I just wanted to go on and write with my friends and have a good time and hopefully like what came out at the end.”

In the end, Harry Styles became a renowned success, spawning the single “Sign of the Times” that peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100, amid a year where his theatrical debut in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk also marked his first time at the top of the box office. The chat concluded with Styles taking a few questions from the fans, explaining that his signature rings that he wears are from various people including grandparents and for his goddaughter and even taking a kazoo from one fan who suggested he play any song of his choosing (he picked one from Shania Twain).

It wouldn’t be a night without some music, and Styles strapped on a six-string to play a stripped-down version of “Two Ghosts” alongside Bhasker on keys and guitarist Mitch Rowland. Some words from earlier rang true as he thanked the audience: “It made it so we were in Jamaica, we’re in the studio every day, we just didn’t think about anything else. It was about these five guys in a room, we’re in Jamaica, let’s make some music that we want to sit in Jamaica and listen to, and that was it. I found it so difficult to explain music and making it and so much of the details, and we just wanted to write what we wanted to listen to and what we loved. And we finished with an album that we’re so happy with.”

#harry styles #grammy museum #cameron crowe #billboard #15september2017

[hldailyupdate]

Harry Styles has dropped his hotly anticipated new song “As It Was.” It’s the lead single and video from his upcoming third album, Harry’s House, due May 20 — the first music he’s released since his 2019 blockbuster, Fine Line. It’s one of the most emotionally powerful songs he’s ever done. He sings about facing up to personal transitions, with the chorus “In this world it’s just us/You know it’s not the same as it was.”

It’s a daring change-up for Styles, unlike anything he’s done before musically. He kicked off his first two album eras with grand statements, “Sign of the Times” and “Lights Up.” But “As It Was” is more nakedly vulnerable, a straight-from-the-heart cry that’s also an irresistible dance-floor challenge. It begins with children’s voices calling “Come on, Harry, we wanna say good night to you!”

But the song goes deep into feelings of isolation and melancholy. The lyrics are a plea: “Answer the phone/Harry, you’re no good alone/Why are you sitting at home on the floor?/What kind of pills are you on?”

“As It Was” swerves into Eighties-style synth-pop, in the vein of A-Ha or Depeche Mode. The synth hook sounds like warped steel drums, with tolling chimes at the end — Styles is credited with playing “tubular bells.” His vocals are bittersweet, almost piercingly poignant, with the intimate vibe of a journal entry. Yet it also feels like it’s about a relationship, full of secret confessions shared between two people — the first time he’s ever started off an album era with a love song.

It’s the first taste from his astounding new Harry’s House, which is even better than you hope it is. The 13-track Harry’s House will be released globally on May 20, on vinyl, CD, and cassette, available on preorder now. The vinyl will include exclusives like Sea Grass Green (on Harry’s website) and Target Translucent Yellow; there’s also a CD photobook with 32 new photos. Later this month, he’s headlining the Coachella Festival, on the weekends of April 15 and 22, where he’ll debut “As It Was” live. This summer he returns to the road for the international stretch of Love On Tour, starting June 11 in Glasgow with Mitski, and stretching into December.

The “As It Was” video evokes the song’s sense of personal conflict, with Styles and a partner literally running in circles, fitting for sentiments like “Gravity’s holding me back.” It was filmed in London by Ukrainian director Tanu Muino. As she says in a statement, “Shooting him was bittersweet, as it was one of the happiest days of my life, but on the second day of the shoot, my country Ukraine was invaded, so you can imagine the insane emotions we had while shooting. Me and my team from Ukraine poured so much love into this video, and you can see it onscreen.”

Styles wrote “As It Was” with his trusty longtime collaborators Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, who both produced. Guitar wingman Mitch Rowland is on drums along with Harpoon. As Styles told Rolling Stone when Fine Line came out, “If you’re going in with session writers or something, you spend one or two days there, and there is no way that person really cares about your album as much as you do. Because they’re into something else tomorrow.” That’s why he’s so unusually devoted to his team. “We’ll bond over music we love and things we’re going through. It’s not like there’s one person in the group that’s like, ‘Well, no, I don’t talk about that. I just make beats.’”

When Paul McCartney — one of Styles’ main heroes — released his solo debut, he summed it up as “Home, Family, Love.” The title and cover of Harry’s House seem to evoke similar themes, as does the cryptic You Are Home site, with daily messages like “Whisper to your houseplants/Sing to your neighbors.” The gatefold to the vinyl album, as teased on his website yesterday, has a very Linda McCartney-style photo of domestic life: a garden breakfast table set for two, with coffee, eggs, and an orange. (In case you’re following the Harry Fruit Universe, there’s another one to check off your list.)

Styles has always made a point of mixing pop glam with raw emotion. As he told Rolling Stone in the Fine Line era, “It’s all about having sex and feeling sad.” That perfectly describes “As It Was” — the moment when being in love forces you to confront some of your own baggage, the feelings you usually hide from yourself. “As It Was” comes out almost exactly five years after he began his solo career. (He dropped “Sign of the Times” on April 7, 2017.) Yet it sounds like an artist who’s just getting started. “As It Was” is more than a creative peak — it’s a fearless leap into a new era.

Via Rolling Stone. (1 April 2022)

#harry styles #harry update #as it was #harry’s house #rolling stone #article #april 2022

[stylesnews]

The musicians of his band they were terrified, they felt it very much. Mitch Rowland, his genius guitarist, he said "I never went to Arena shows until I started playing them, so I don't know what's normal, so I would look over to Adam, and see how he is, cuz he's an adult, he's experienced, he's been around and he's seen it all" and he said "when I saw the expression on Adam's face, I thought okay this is where we're all going to die.

Rob Sheffield about Harry’s Kiwi performance on MSG (Rolling Stone Music Now podcast)

#harry styles #sep19 #mention

[tillidontneedfantasy]

‘Fine Line’ - Harry Styles REVIEW: Finding His Balance

“When I played it for the label, I told them, ‘This is the first single. It’s two minutes, thirty-five. You’re welcome,’” Harry Styles recalls when discussing “Lights Up” in a track-by-track breakdown of his second solo studio effort, Fine Line, with Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield. Thank you, indeed. “Lights Up” was an excellent first single choice for a number of reasons, now all the more clear in the context of the album. Though oddly structured and not particularly radio-friendly, it’s interesting, catchy, short and to the point: as much as you try to hide who you are, once the lights are up, those watching will know, so you might as well shine; but do you know?

Just as importantly, does Harry? Fine Line is a vague exploration of the self, both personally and musically, filled with cryptic platitudes and slick guitar riffs. However, the one aspect of himself Styles seems to be most acquainted with, and thus most comfortable sharing, is the “dark running through” his heart that cannot be extinguished by all the lights; in fact, it is amplified. Perhaps Styles finds it difficult to be honest in his relationships, but Fine Line is sprinkled with dark confessions, most notably in a series in the middle of the album (immediately following “Lights Up”): “I can tell that you are at your best / I’m selfish so I’m hating it” in “Cherry,” a track of spewing bitter jealousy; “There’s no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands” in “Falling,” a heart-wrenching ballad for the books; “I’m just an arrogant son of a bitch / who can’t admit when he’s sorry,” in the pleasant-sounding yet morose ditty “To Be So Lonely.”

Those confessionals are the strongest demonstrations of Styles’s songwriting potential, and are the meat and bones of Fine Line’s takeaway: losing someone you once loved can cause you to almost lose yourself. Hopefully, you find yourself along the road to healing; but Styles often leaves the listener wondering if he really does know who he is now or not. What we do know is two things: 1) The end of his last relationship caused a lot of pain and introspection and 2) The man likes to have sex. Understandable points. Good equation for a successful album.

BEST TRACK: “Fine Line”

The title track and closer, “Fine Line” immediately invokes emotion as soon as it begins, and it only intensifies throughout its six-minute and eighteen-second duration. As the song moves along, new elements are subtly and meticulously added, layered in with his low and almost careful singing in a way that sounds like nature. Around four minutes in, the song really starts to come alive, the instrumentation building and building towards an outro that reaches a crescendo at Styles’s final “we’ll be alright,” and then perfectly finishes with high-pitch vocal notes that feel like freedom before it drifts out with a few light piano notes. While its message about maintaining balance on the fine line between the extremes of love resonates, the real victory of this song is its ability to move you with just the music. Despite its length, it always feels like it ends too soon.

WEAKEST TRACK: “Golden”

While a pleasant-sounding opener and a good tone-setter for the rest of the record sonically, “Golden” could have been cut in half, with about twenty fewer repetitions of the title, and used as more of brief introduction or interlude instead. In contrast to the closer, “Fine Line,” which is the longest song on the album and includes just as much- if not more- repetitions of its title, it serves a purpose in that song, whereas in “Golden” it feels like filler. This monotonous track is the most prominent example of how often Styles’s lyrics seem to be lacking; he surely has the ability to improve, he just needs to access it.

THE IN-BETWEENS

Luckily for Styles, the production on this album is so outrageously good that it’s enough to keep you interested throughout. “She,” a six-minute psychedelic rock song is an epic trip (I mean, Styles’s guitarist, Mitch Rowland, wrote it on mushrooms, go figure) into a daydream with the perfect woman who doesn’t exist. “Canyon Moon” is a road-trip-ready, light, feel-good song where his musical influences are rather apparent; Styles cites Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, and Nash as his muses, and another idol of his, Steve Nicks, claims it to be her favorite track on the record, a lovely feat. The pre-released singles “Lights Up,” “Watermelon Sugar,” and “Adore You” are sincerely all pop perfection, more mature and refined from his 1D days. The most experimental track, “Treat People With Kindness,” is interesting but falls short for a song that feels like years in the making, considering it has been a phrase Styles and his fans have claimed for the past few years. Although it is clear that Styles’s intention with the song was to spread a positive message which focuses on being kind and not taking life too seriously (though he proclaims that “if our friends all pass away / it’s okay,” and…I don’t know, is it really okay, Harry?!?) it feels like he could have done more with it. One particularly good line is towards the end of the track when he sings, “all we ever want is automatic all the time,” and perhaps he could’ve taken his own advice and given a song with such a grand title a bit more effort.

BEST PROSPECTIVE SINGLE: “Falling”

A close second to “Fine Line,” “Falling” is one of the strongest in Styles’s solo discography and more impressive considering he wrote it in about twenty minutes in a towel. In this beautiful ballad, Styles opens his heart, grabbing the listener’s in the process. “What am I now? / What if I’m someone I don’t want around?” he sings in a panic. This moment of self-reflection after the end of a relationship truly settles in as reality and you can no longer look away from your mistakes is painfully relatable. This track is the most honest of the bunch, and thus feels necessary. With all the previously mentioned pop jams already aptly released as singles, “Falling” feels like the wisest choice going forward to keep the momentum; listeners love a man openly grieving a heartbreak and taking responsibility for his actions (even cheating, I suppose, as is mildly implied in the first verse…I mean, this is your mans? Good thing his regret sounds sincere at least), and the unbelievable tone of his voice when he belts the last word of the bridge, “and I get the feeling that you’ll never need me again” is just the icing on the cake.

                                                                   ***

It is always a difficult task for a former group member to come into their own as a solo artist, and very few have done so with the admiration and reverence that Styles has accrued thus far. With his self-titled debut solo record in 2017, Styles made it clear, as most group-departing members do, that he had a sound different from that of his claim to fame in One Direction. His seriousness as a musician was now established through the positive reception of his debut, and thus his success allowed him to have a little more fun on Fine Line. It also allowed him to get a little more candid and authentic, knowing that the world has accepted him with open arms and has been begging for more. Styles mostly delivers with Fine Line, but in some ways it feels unfinished. The musical production is intriguing and exciting, and by far the best thing about this album, but is still somewhere between a regeneration of classic inspirations and a sound unique to Styles himself; all he needs is a little more time to find his own signature style (no pun intended) rather than just creating a conglomerate of musical elements from his influences and signing his name. But in the meantime, the music still holds up. The real conundrum is the lyrics, which are well and fine, but do not effectively communicate the truth hiding behind the sentiments yet give you just enough to let him get away with it. If he had given us just a bit more, Fine Line could have been a true triumph. However, this is only his second album, and being a confessional songwriting superstar while still preserving your right to privacy is, well, a fine line to walk (I had to, I’m sorry!), but I’m sure he’ll find his balance in no time. Grade: 3.5/5

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: I was a very casual One Direction fan during their peak of fame. I think Midnight Memories is a great pop album and I stand by that. I’ve always been more of a Niall girl, but I have never been able to completely resist Harry’s charisma; I’m only human. I listened to his debut album in 2017 maybe twice, three times at most, and just thought it was fine, but not particularly impressive. But since then it’s been impossible to deny his talent and star power. I was very intrigued by “Lights Up,” and with every single release I had found myself enjoying the songs more than I wanted to admit. I think Fine Line is a really great album. Sonically, it is in my exact sweet spot of the kind of music I absolutely love, so I was doomed to like it from the start. What stopped me from giving it a grade of 4 or higher though was that even with multiple listens I struggle to understand what the hell this guy is trying to say in his music. Many times, it takes me reading what die-hard stans say to understand what message he’s trying to send. Unfortunately, that is a failure to me. I know plenty of people love cryptic and ambiguous lyrics or poetry, but as a consumer, I want to be able to understand the story or the message with at least a couple of listens. Of course, lyrics can and should be left up to interpretation, but sometimes I don’t even know what he wants me to interpret! From my perception, this is just a reflection of Harry holding back from truly saying what he wants (with few exceptions, such as “Falling”). I think he is so talented and has so much potential but just needs a little more time unlocking it. I’m excited to see what he does in the future.

#harry styles #fine line #one direction #golden #watermelon sugar #adore you #lights up #cherry #falling #to be so lonely #she #sunflower vol. 6 #canyon moon #treat people with kindness #tpwk #music #pop #stevie nicks #joni mitchell #crosby stills and nash #1d

[thestylesindependent]

Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ is Nakedly Vulnerable — and Unlike Anything He’s Done Before

The first single from Harry’s House is a both a straight-from-the-heart cry and an irresistible dance-floor challenge

By 

ROB SHEFFIELD 

Harry Styles has dropped his hotly anticipated new song “As It Was.” It’s the lead single and video from his upcoming third album, Harry’s House, due May 20 — the first music he’s released since his 2019 blockbuster, Fine Line. It’s one of the most emotionally powerful songs he’s ever done. He sings about facing up to personal transitions, with the chorus “In this world it’s just us/You know it’s not the same as it was.”

It’s a daring change-up for Styles, unlike anything he’s done before musically. He kicked off his first two album eras with grand statements, “Sign of the Times” and “Lights Up.” But “As It Was” is more nakedly vulnerable, a straight-from-the-heart cry that’s also an irresistible dance-floor challenge. It begins with children’s voices calling “Come on, Harry, we wanna say good night to you!”

But the song goes deep into feelings of isolation and melancholy. The lyrics are a plea: “Answer the phone/Harry, you’re no good alone/Why are you sitting at home on the floor?/What kind of pills are you on?”

“As It Was” swerves into Eighties-style synth-pop, in the vein of A-Ha or Depeche Mode. The synth hook sounds like warped steel drums, with tolling chimes at the end — Styles is credited with playing “tubular bells.” His vocals are bittersweet, almost piercingly poignant, with the intimate vibe of a journal entry. Yet it also feels like it’s about a relationship, full of secret confessions shared between two people — the first time he’s ever started off an album era with a love song.

It’s the first taste from his astounding new Harry’s House, which is even better than you hope it is. The 13-track Harry’s House will be released globally on May 20, on vinyl, CD, and cassette, available on preorder now. The vinyl will include exclusives like Sea Grass Green (on Harry’s website) and Target Translucent Yellow; there’s also a CD photobook with 32 new photos. Later this month, he’s headlining the Coachella Festival, on the weekends of April 15 and 22, where he’ll debut “As It Was” live. This summer he returns to the road for the international stretch of Love On Tour, starting June 11 in Glasgow with Mitski, and stretching into December.

The “As It Was” video evokes the song’s sense of personal conflict, with Styles and a partner literally running in circles, fitting for sentiments like “Gravity’s holding me back.” It was filmed in London by Ukrainian director Tanu Muino. As she says in a statement, “Shooting him was bittersweet, as it was one of the happiest days of my life, but on the second day of the shoot, my country Ukraine was invaded, so you can imagine the insane emotions we had while shooting. Me and my team from Ukraine poured so much love into this video, and you can see it onscreen.”

Styles wrote “As It Was” with his trusty longtime collaborators Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, who both produced. Guitar wingman Mitch Rowland is on drums along with Harpoon. As Styles told Rolling Stone when Fine Line came out, “If you’re going in with session writers or something, you spend one or two days there, and there is no way that person really cares about your album as much as you do. Because they’re into something else tomorrow.” That’s why he’s so unusually devoted to his team. “We’ll bond over music we love and things we’re going through. It’s not like there’s one person in the group that’s like, ‘Well, no, I don’t talk about that. I just make beats.’”

When Paul McCartney — one of Styles’ main heroes — released his solo debut, he summed it up as “Home, Family, Love.” The title and cover of Harry’s House seem to evoke similar themes, as does the cryptic You Are Home site, with daily messages like “Whisper to your houseplants/Sing to your neighbors.” The gatefold to the vinyl album, as teased on his website yesterday, has a very Linda McCartney-style photo of domestic life: a garden breakfast table set for two, with coffee, eggs, and an orange. (In case you’re following the Harry Fruit Universe, there’s another one to check off your list.)

Styles has always made a point of mixing pop glam with raw emotion. As he told Rolling Stone in the Fine Line era, “It’s all about having sex and feeling sad.” That perfectly describes “As It Was” — the moment when being in love forces you to confront some of your own baggage, the feelings you usually hide from yourself. “As It Was” comes out almost exactly five years after he began his solo career. (He dropped “Sign of the Times” on April 7, 2017.) Yet it sounds like an artist who’s just getting started. “As It Was” is more than a creative peak — it’s a fearless leap into a new era.

#as it was #rolling stone review #rob sheffield #harry styles #April 2022