Liam Payne On Industry Changes Since One Direction Days

Liam Payne looked back on his time in One Direction during an interview with Apple Music on Wednesday (April 15).

Promoting “Midnight,” his new collaboration with Alesso, the pop star reflected on how much the music industry has changed since the days of his boy band beginnings. “I think we’re all getting used to the way the music works now, and the way it is,” he told host Brooke Reese.

“Because ever since my first stuff with the band, it’s been 10 years, it’s been nearly a decade since we started,” he continued. “And the way that music’s moved… Like we were saying the other day, when an artist used to release a song and it went bad, they’re like, ‘He’s over, he’s finished, he’s out.’ Now you just go, ‘Okay, it didn’t work.’ It just gives you a lot more freedom to make stuff.”

While Payne has been busy with his solo career following the release of his long-awaited 2019 solo album, LP1, rumblings of a 1D reunion in honor of the band’s ten year anniversary have continued to gain steam in recent weeks. Payne hinted at the reunion during a recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and he, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson have all followed former bandmate Zayn on social media for the first time since he abruptly exited the group back in March 2015.

Listen to Payne’s Apple Music interview with Alesso below.