Louis Tomlinson wanted to "follow his heart" after his One Direction success.
Louis Tomlinson
The 'Walls' hitmaker - who released the title track off his solo album earlier this month with the LP coming out today (31.01.20) - had "an epiphany" in 2019 as he realised he was chasing chart "success" rather than writing music he could connect with.
He told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "I had a bit of an epiphany last year. I was making music I wasn't comfortable with and none of that ended up on the album.
"I had a bit of break- through moment where I thought, 'I've just got to follow my heart and my inspirations, do what I love and reimagine the word success'.
"I had a lot of success with One Direction and I thought to myself, 'What have I got to tick off?' I might as well follow my heart."
The 28-year-old singer's debut solo record will be released this month, and he recently revealed he felt like he was under a lot of "pressure" to match the success of his former One Direction bandmates - Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik - instead of just focusing on his own work.
He explained: "I used to feel more pressure about matching up to anything any of the others do, but the reality is we have different skill sets and different fans.
"Harry's a star, there's no two ways about it. I'm much more reserved. If I carry myself in a slightly different way, I might be able to get a different market but it's all about staying true to you and that's what we're all doing."
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