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MUSIC FEATURE

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THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT HARRY BUILT

LIBERTY BELL In conversation with UK radio station SiriusXM last month, Harry disclosed that although he always puts 100% into his music’s creation, he’s aware of his limitations and navigating stress. “There's only so much you can do, if you're an artist and you're making something; there’s always going to be a part of you that is questioning yourself and questioning the work, and I think that can be a good thing, if you use it the right way,” he said.

And there is, of course, a positive flipside to that awareness which affords Styles a certain kind of emancipation: “At the same time I feel really happy; it's the first time I feel like I'm making music and putting music out from a real place of personal freedom, and that is a really liberating place to be creating from. The process for me has been easily the most joyous of anything that I’ve experienced so far, while making music. The reward has very much been in the process, and that helps with any pressure that I might be under.” GETTING PERSONA That liberty is completely intertwined with Harry’s perception of himself and his identity as something separate from his art. “Over the last couple of years, with the forced pause that happened for a long time, for all of us, I had a lot of time to think about, and work out, who I was – away from music,” he explained to HeartFM DJs in April. “I didn’t necessary know who I was if I didn’t do music. I left home when I was 16 and went straight into it, and didn’t have a chance to stop [once] all that started. In the last few years in particular, I’ve got a lot

It’sThird Album O’clock for the pigeon-hole-crushing and universally adored Harry Styles. In conversations around the release of Harry’s House – out this month via Sony – the 27-year-old has revealed that unbinding the knot that music wound around his identity for the last 11 years has, however paradoxically, ended up ensuring this album comprises the very best music of his career. Here’s the story in his words, along with other nuggets of info about shooting the brilliant As itWas clip, how his goddaughter clinched her album cameo, and more. Words Zoë Radas

46 MAY 2022

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