Now that Harry Styles owns 2026, it seems only right that we check in with the GRAMMY-winning artist to talk about his upcoming album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, his massive worldwide residency, and his new song, "Aperture."
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with Harry Styles
During a conversation with Bru, Styles shares that his 4th solo studio album arrives after some time away out of the spotlight, and some time in the crowd that has helped inform the sound of what's next. "The last couple of years, after finishing the tour and everything, I just kind of decided to take a couple of years away to kind of spend a bit more time swimming in different corners of my life that I hadn't necessarily paid that much attention to," Harry reveals. "The start of last year I kind of just decided I was gonna say yes to everything. I think I'd got really used to saying no to a lot of things just from being on the road, and missing certain things that maybe my friends were doing or something, and I kind of just wanted to take the year to just kind of go with it and be open to traveling a bit more and taking people up on invites and just experiencing things that otherwise I think I'd started kind of shutting myself off from a bit."
"The last two years for me has been a lot about getting on the other side of the audience experience," Styles shares. "I think I've spent a lot of time being the one on stage, and I spent a lot of time the last couple of years going to shows, having my own music experiences of being a true audience member, and reminding myself how special that is and how amazing that feeling is to be in a room with people you know, and people you don't know, and dancing and singing and having this kind of common thing together."
"When I'm on stage I wanna feel like I'm in the crowd and that was the reason why I think the album ended up sounding how it sounds. The intention was, 'how do I make it like it's made from within the crowd and not I'm up here delivering songs to you and you're receiving them?' It's like we're all here for the same thing, you know?"
That story starts with "Aperture," which Harry explains was the last song recorded for the album, but encapsulates where he's at right now. "I think it came at a time when we were feeling at our freest," he says. "It felt kind of really obvious to me that it should be first on the album, so it was kind of like, 'oh this this is exactly how I've kind of always wanted to open an album,' with this this kind of song."
"It's been a really important song to me. I think [it] represents the last couple of years of my life, the idea that you can really choose how much you let into your life, and if you're gonna be more closed off, then you're gonna close off to certain things but also you're gonna close off a lot of the positive things that can come. So I think kind of deciding at a time when I was trying to be more open in my life, I think this song wrapped that up pretty neatly for me."
To here about Styles upcoming Together, Together tour, and more about the album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, check out the full interview above.