(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WATERMELON SUGAR")
HARRY STYLES: (Singing) Watermelon sugar high, watermelon sugar high...
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Harry Styles is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, so he'd be forgiven if he didn't come prepared for yet another interviewer. But he did his homework on me.
STYLES: Leila gave the best commencement address in Northeastern history.
FADEL: Wait, you watched that?
STYLES: I did watch it.
FADEL: Oh, my God.
STYLES: It's so good.
FADEL: Thanks for watching my speech, but we're here to talk about you.
STYLES: Oh, must we?
FADEL: Nobody ever asks me questions, Harry.
STYLES: I have a list.
FADEL: OK. We never got to that list. I had too many questions of my own. Harry Styles has been constantly on the go since his teenage years in the boy band One Direction, one world tour after another. So the idea of home is something he's been reconsidering. Harry Styles' new solo album is called "Harry's House," but that wasn't the original title.
STYLES: I was in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles with my producer. And one of our songs came on from the last album, and I kind of said like, this is really strange music for a sushi restaurant. And then I was like, oh, that would be a really fun album title. And then as this as this - as the songs started being made, I kind of just said "Music For A Sushi Restaurant."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSIC FOR A SUSHI RESTAURANT")
STYLES: (Singing) Excuse me, green tea, music for a sushi restaurant, brown eyes on rice (vocalizing).
FADEL: So the next time you're in a sushi restaurant and this is playing, you'll be like...
STYLES: I'll be like, this is...
FADEL: It fits.
STYLES: This is everything I've ever wanted.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSIC FOR A SUSHI RESTAURANT")
STYLES: (Singing) You know I love you, babe.
FADEL: So this album, "Harry's House," was recorded all over the world - LA, Tokyo, Maine, London. That's indicative of the life you live, a life of a traveler. So what is home for you?
STYLES: Yeah, I think for me, like, home is just about friends. I think that's where I feel the most at home. And while this is, you know, such a personal album and so much about kind of my own journey to finding a place of home, I also feel like it's very much kind of dedicated to my friends.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRAPEJUICE")
STYLES: (Singing) There's just no getting through without you, a bottle of rouge, just me an you.
I always felt like I would land in a certain place or a certain house and feel like, oh, this is the home I've been searching for.
FADEL: Yeah.
STYLES: And I think much like happiness, that isn't necessarily a final resting place and it is a journey. And it's kind of peaks and troughs of happiness, sadness and, you know, all of the kind of things that make you feel alive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MATILDA")
STYLES: (Singing) Matilda, you talk of the pain like it's all all right.
FADEL: "Matilda."
STYLES: Yes.
FADEL: Is that about Roald Dahl's "Matilda?"
STYLES: It's definitely disguised as Roald Dahl "Matilda," yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MATILDA")
STYLES: (Singing) Nothing about the way that you were treated ever seemed especially alarming till now.
It was about an experience that I had with someone. The disguising element was kind of like, OK, we'll disguise it as, you know, if you were speaking to Matilda now that she's all grown up, who's been kind of mistreated by her family and stuff, how would you speak to her?
FADEL: And so just telling her it's OK.
STYLES: Yeah, I think, like, people have, you know, so much guilt with things that they don't necessarily need to have guilt with sometimes. And I think it's your right to kind of protect the space around you and be protective of yourself and look after yourself. And "Matilda's" a song - I mean, it means so much to me. I think it was a moment where it's not necessarily my place to make someone else's experience about me, but it's just wanting to kind of reassure them that I was listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MATILDA")
STYLES: (Singing) You can let it go. You can throw a party full of everyone you know, not invite your family because they never showed you love. You don't have to be sorry for leaving and growing up.
It's OK for you to take care of yourself over other things sometimes.
FADEL: Yeah. And I think a message a lot of people need to hear.
STYLES: Yeah.
FADEL: The single "As It Was"...
(SOUNDBITE OF HARRY STYLES SONG, "AS IT WAS")
FADEL: ...You know, it's got a really fun beat. But when you listen to the words, there's nostalgia and there's sadness.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AS IT WAS")
STYLES: (Singing) Nothing to say when everything gets in the way. It seems you cannot be replaced. And I'm the one who will stay (vocalizing).
FADEL: What moment in time are you singing about?
STYLES: I mean, I think for me "As It Was" is - you know, it's about metamorphosis and kind of losing yourself, finding yourself, embracing the fact that life hits you at different times, not when you expect it and, you know, change is scary.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AS IT WAS")
STYLES: (Singing) You know it's not the same as it was, as it was, as it was, you know it's not the same.
FADEL: You've also talked about sort of trying to figure out how to not be defined by what you do but figure out who you are separately from that. And you've been open about talking to a therapist and going on that journey. Can you talk a little bit about figuring out who you are separate from this industry that you're in?
STYLES: Yeah, I think because I started so young, it became kind of like that's who I am. And I don't know that I ever stopped for long enough to kind of realize what I was if I didn't do it. But I think getting to a place where I feel like this is what I do and I love it, but it's not necessarily who I am just, like, feels like a much healthier place to be...
FADEL: Yeah.
STYLES: ...Kind of operating from and making music from.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SATELLITE")
STYLES: (Singing) Spinnin' out, waitin' for ya to pull me in.
FADEL: Harry Styles' new album, "Harry's House," is out now. Thank you so much for your time.
STYLES: It was such a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SATELLITE")
STYLES: (Singing) Spinnin' out, waitin' for ya to pull me in. I can see you're lonely down there. Don't you know that I'm right here?
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