Niall Horan performs ‘This Town’ + teases One Direction’s reunion

Niall Horan still lights up our life like nobody else.

After spending One Direction’s hiatus backpacking around eastern Asia and writing new music, the Irish heartthrob is back with his single, This Town — which he performed during an intimate Hits 1 event with 20 fans hosted by Mikey Piff.

First thing’s first: No, 1D is not broken up; they’re on a break.

“How many interviews do I have to do before that finishes?” Niall Horan joked.

“Listen, you’ll know because we’ll be playing the heck out of them,” Piff said. “Because that’s what we do here!”

Horan did hint about the boys eventually hitting the road for their 2015 record when a Facebook Live viewer asked which of the band’s singles he’d want to cover on his own.

“The newer album, Made in the AM, I’m really looking forward to touring that one, because there’s some of my favourite One Direction songs in that one,” he said.

Back to his solo career: After remaining off the grid during his travels, Niall Horan returned to London and started hanging with his songwriter friends.

“It could have been for anyone, the songs that I was writing. But I just kind of fell into a place where I knew — I didn’t have to think too much about if I was going to do something, what it would sound like. And it kind of just fell in front of me,” he explained. “This Town was like, I think it might have even been one of the first two songs, I don’t know if it was first or second, that I wrote. So then when I heard that it was like, ‘We’re on a bit of a roll.’ And the next day I wrote my possible next single. So I wrote two singles in two days. It was like, ‘Ooh, this could be all right,’ and then I went into a phase of writing absolute crap. It happens. Probably like 30 songs that are actually terrible.”

“But I’ll put out the good ones, I promise,” he added with a laugh. “I just got the itch for it then, and then I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I should try and release some of these,’ and my management agreed, and here we are.”

Over at the Morning Mash Up, Horan played a game of “Niall or DeNiall,” vetting Internet rumours about himself.

“Niall or DeNiall: You actually have a girlfriend right now?” Nicole Ryan asked, earning a quick denial.

Even juicier? “Last one here: Ellie Goulding is your favourite ex?” Ryan Sampson said.

“My favourite ex? What sort of a question is that?” Horan said, cracking up. “For the purpose of the game, Niall.”

The Morning Mashup airs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET on SiriusXM Hits 1 (Ch. 2).