Harry Styles covers the latest issue of W Magazine. He’s not promoting anything but his already-successful Together, Together tour. And vibes, he’s always promoting good vibes. He’s very old-school, and I mean that in a nice way. It’s great to see a pop star with a primarily female fanbase consistently tell his fans to basically put down their phones and actually be present in their lives and experience things first-hand. It might sound like an obvious thing but he’s one of the few guys who talks like this. Some highlights from his interview:

Re-engaging with his fans after a hiatus: “The fans have always been so emotionally generous toward me. I feel it now more than ever after taking a break from the road. When you’re around something all the time, it numbs you to it—like eating your favorite food all the time. The break recontextualized it. Black is most shocking on white.

He has a life away from touring now: “In the time that I took away from touring, I watered a side of my life I hadn’t paid much attention to previously. Because I started so young, touring became so much of who I was. I would feel quite uncomfortable with stretches at home. I didn’t know what to do with myself sometimes. Now I feel really fortunate to have this incredible job and creative environment, but also this life away from it that I’m excited to spend time in. I don’t know that I had that before. The idea of not touring is less frightening to me. It feels quite special to be in it, bathe in it, and be aware it’s not forever. It doesn’t come with this existentialism that it used to, when I was like, Who am I if I don’t do this?

He’s big on water and fish imagery: “It has always been a joke that when we do a shoot or a video, if I’m not wet and/or cold, we haven’t done anything. When I come offstage, the first thing I do is shower, because it’s better for me to feel like I washed it off. There’s a version where you come offstage and feel like, Oh, I’m the guy right now. I remember that from the really early days, the “How do I stay in this feeling—this is amazing!” Over the years, I’ve tried to acknowledge that is that, and I can wash it off. You do the show, you go backstage, you shower, and all of a sudden you’re naked in this most vulnerable, almost infant-like state of yourself. It couldn’t be more different from what you were doing 10 minutes ago.

His thoughts on New York City: “New York operates at a higher frequency than I do. At times, I find it quite a lot. But for that reason, I’ve always loved performing there so much. You really feel the city during the show, this swelling of energy. I’m not going to do this forever. It feels very singular, and that’s allowing me to really be in it. During the shows, there’s a lot more moments where I’m standing there taking it in, when I’m in the room with the crowd, seeing this energy they’ve made. I feel so aware that it exists past the shows, the songs, the tour—everything. It’s like, “You did this more than I did,” in a lot of ways. I can show up and play as many times as people buy tickets for. Doing this many shows in New York is solely because of them.

It’s about the real-life experience: “Post-Covid, and now in this AI time, there’s something about standing next to a sweaty stranger and exchanging energy that you can’t really replace with anything. The desire is for the more tangible, the little bits of magic that just happen.

An ode to being unproductive: “Everything in our world now is about being productive—how do we grow this and optimize everything. Almost exclusively, my favorite things have come in moments of being incredibly unproductive.

[From W Magazine]

He’s an Aquarius, btw. I wondered about his sign because of the “fish and water” comments. Aquarius is not a water sign, but sometimes, people are just into water and it’s not related to their astrology. I loved his comment about being unproductive. Yes! It’s so important to just be… unproductive. To let your mind rest for a bit. To not be filled to the brim with productivity constantly. Boredom is good! Daydreaming is fun!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of W Magazine.