Harry Styles: It's Not The Same As It Was

                              

Harry Styles was thrown into the music business in 2010, after auditioning for X Factor and going the band One Direction, that was created by Simon Cowell. And he has been in the limelight ever since. He has realized 2 studio albums, Harry Styles and Fine Line, and is set to release his third one, Harry’s House, on May 20. 

One Direction was together for 5 years, before going on hiatus and each of the 5 members creating solo careers for themselves. The band had an incredibly busy schedule during these years, with recording 5 studio albums and 4 world tours. They typically had to record their albums in hotel rooms while on tour and had very few breaks during the 5 years as a band. 

                              
Styles first started writing while in One Direction. The first song he had a writing credit was on their album Midnight Memories, titled “Happily.” He told Rolling Stone that writing songs while in the band was a way to have a safety net. He could be a little more vulnerable in his writing because he did not have to sing the whole song, and if he felt it was too personal he would be able to distance himself from it. 
This mind set shifted while making the band’s last album Made in the A.M. He wrote a song called “Two Ghosts”, which was put on his solo debut. The song felt very personal to him, and as he was writing it he realized that he wanted to sing the whole song. Styles says that he has a very close connection to his songs and the writing process. He remembers exactly when and where and what was happening in his left when he was writing each song. 

                            

He tends to collaborate with his team while writing. Styles often writes with his producers Tyler Johnson, Tom Hull, Sammy Witte, Jeff Bhasker, and his guitarist Mitch Rowland. Styles has said that the group is very open with each other about the music and their personal lives, and they all have input on the songs and albums. Styles has been fairly open about his creative process and the involvement of psychedelic mushrooms. While writing Fine Line, he and his team would take mushrooms and lie in grass while listening to other artists’ music. When writing the song “She” from Fine Line, the team took mushrooms and Mitch Rowland had been playing the guitar, and they found the recording later and Rowland had to learn it from the track. 

                              

Harry Styles’ influences are very evident throughout his music. He has a love for the artists and music of the ‘70s, and has even befriended some of the greats from that era, such as Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks. The 1970s originated the SoCal soft rock that created a mellowness using layered guitars and harmonies. This inspiration is most seen in Styles’ debut album and in a few few songs off of Fine Line, such as “Golden.” His affinity for the ‘70s also lead to the use of a new instrument in his music. Styles loves Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue, in which she plays a mountain dulcimer and is what she wrote most of the song on. Styles tracked down the woman that built the instrument for Mitchell, Joellen Lapidus, and she taught both Styles and his producer Tom Hull on to play it. The dulcimer is used on his song “Canyon Moon,” which is also Stevie Nicks’ favorite song off of Fine Line. Harry Styles seemingly still uses his love for the music of the 1970s for a lot of his inspiration; his newest album, Harry's House, is a reference to a Joni Mitchell song from 1975 with the same title.