Due to the corona crisis, “One Direction” star Liam Payne is also stuck at home. The swarm of women told klatsch-tratsch.de how the pandemic affects his career as a musician and how he uses the time in quarantine.
How are you with this corona situation?
Okay actually. I just do my usual program. To be honest, being isolated is not that far from my normal life. Because I have been in the band since a young age, I am used to having to be somewhere all the time. Be it in a hotel or in another country. In foreign countries we couldn’t get out so easily because we often didn’t know exactly where we wanted to go. We were very young and then spent most of the nights in the hotel. And when we had days off, we didn’t really go out because it is usually always a little bit difficult to get a security team together. So being isolated was always pretty normal for me. Painting, drawing, making music, writing songs – just being creative. That is the most important thing at this time.
What do you miss most right now?
Probably my son. It’s really hard that I can’t go to see him so easily. That’s why we facetimize a lot, but it’s a bit difficult with a three-year-old. They are always very busy with what they do all day long and if they don’t feel like facetiming, they just don’t feel like it. You have to get by with that.
Your latest single is called “Midnight”. What is it about?
“Midnight” has two meanings. One is to shake off the other’s expectations in a relationship and the one you have in yourself. And at the same time it’s about a night with a special person who should never end.
What was it like for you to shoot the video during the lockdown? You didn’t have a team that was there.
In that respect it was really cool. You could act yourself out and see how you wanted to perform, instead of the people you are usually surrounded by who are talking to you. So from the stress level it was really great. The crew was small. The video is much more natural than anything else because we had no choice but to do what we normally do. Fortunately I had a great place in the fresh air where we could shoot. I hope that this will help people escape the lockdown.
- Source: instagram.com
Can we expect you to release a lot of new music soon?
Hopefully. I write for myself as well as a lot for other artists. I go through them and decide what I want everyone to keep, but yes, hopefully.
Is there anything you can do now because you have more time?
I have a lot of time to paint. I started with it a few years ago and then neglected it for quite a while. Now I have more time to do so and I really enjoy living out artistically. It’s nice to do something for me that doesn’t have to be a possible career. I enjoy it because I only do it for myself.
What plans did you have to give up because of the restrictions?
We had to give up the actual music video for “Midnight”. We were just about to fly to America, where many of my concerts were scheduled to take place in the summer and were postponed or canceled. Hopefully I can go there again soon. There were definitely a lot of cancellations, which was not expected at the beginning. Nobody really knew how bad it was going to be.
- Source: instagram.com
What are you most looking forward to after the whole thing is over?
Apart from seeing my son, I am really looking forward to the moment when we are all told that we can get out. I think it’s going to be a blatant moment after we’ve been in it for so long. I don’t think a lot of people will go out right now, but I hope there will be parties on the streets when it’s all over.
Is there anything positive you can cheer yourself up with?
Yes, the sense of community is there. We’re all in the same boat, and something that keeps us apart actually brings us closer together. All of our differences and differences do not matter because we recognize that we are not that different.
There are not many other problems in the world, it is mainly this virus. Everyone is going through the same thing. We realize that sometimes we are not that bad. We shouldn’t take that much for granted.
You recently donated a few hundred meals to the needy. How did the idea come about?
That was right at the beginning of this quarantine period and hamstering was really bad here in Britain. Then came the thought: what do people do who don’t even have more computers and can report that they need help? You have to help quickly and easily. I just tried to help at least somewhere.
Did you also hammer?
No not true. The only company that could deliver could only bring 25 items at a time, which actually makes it impossible to hamster anything. I just got a couple of cans just in case. Really funny because we buy more just because other hamsters and don’t buy it for the real reason we need it. So I got five to ten cans of stuff to secure myself while everyone was going nuts. It was hard because everyone had this group dynamic, running around and buying.
Do you have enough pasta and toilet paper in the house?
To be honest, we have exactly one pack of pasta and one pack of toilet paper and we have had no problems so far. It’s really not that bad so far. I think that the media is always a problem and I think there should be rules against how the fear triggers the masses. At the end of the day, the can of beans I got because so many people panic buying would have meant a lot more to someone else. The people just went crazy and ran into the shops. That was absolutely unnecessary. We didn’t touch the noodle pack all the time and I saved it especially if we needed it.
I heard that you had planned something very special with One Direction for the 10th anniversary …
There is something in the works, but I would tell people not to be too happy. At least as far as a reunion is concerned. We are still involved in our own music. I think if we do come back to One Direction one day there won’t be any solo projects alongside. We’ll talk to each other and remember old times. We were busy with our own things for a while that we didn’t get to exchange. That will bring us closer again. Hopefully we will be able to do facetimes together. I can’t say more.
- Source: instagram.com
Which one direction song would be your favorite right now?
For me personally, “Once in a Lifetime” was always special. It was never a single, but the way this song was written was always special to me.
What was the weirdest fan moment?
The weirdest situation was when a girl jumped out of a garbage can where she had been waiting for hours just to meet us. Then there was another experience: A girl jumped on my balcony and tried to get into my room. That was on the second floor. We also had girls who sneaked into the backstage area with towels that they used as crew members and then went into all of our cabins. So hats that they have come this far. These were definitely my strangest encounters.
What is the last picture that you shot with your cell phone?
I have to check it out. It was definitely a selfie or something. Yeah, I posted a selfie yesterday. That was the last picture I took.
