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I’ve done my best to keep a schedule these days, which I expected to include work and a walk outside. A few surprises to my daily routine include making my bed (hey, no judgement!), journaling, and meditating with the Calm app. But the most delightful surprise of daily quarantine life has been Niall Horan’s Instagram Live broadcasts.
The former One Direction member released his latest album Heartbreak Weather on Friday, March 13th, and after spending the week leading up to the release doing performances and sketches on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he likely saw much of his press tour canceled and headed back to his place in London to hunker down, where he took matters into his own hands and his own phone.
More days than not, and often in the afternoon US time, evenings in London, Niall sits down and goes live on Instagram. He started by playing most of the selections from the new album on the piano in his apartment. But the Lives have taken a wonderfully boring turn, one I never expected to deeply appreciate the way I do. He’s been lounging on the couch, asking the ever-important, impossible to answer question: what should I watch on Netflix? He’ll tell viewers what he’s already seen (Peaky Blinders) and what he likes (true crime docs) as the comments continuously scroll by. Yesterday he took a seat at his kitchen table, repeatedly signing copies of his new album, estimating at one point he’s scribbled his signature on over 900 album booklets. And I was riveted.
I’ve been listening to Heartbreak Weather almost nonstop since its release — it’s a great album to have on in the background while working, and that string of “Everywhere”, “Cross Your Mind”, “New Angel”, “No Judgement” is the perfect excuse to take a break and sing real loud. But now, as Niall was signing away, he played the album in the background and I listened to it that way, as he sang along with himself (okay, I sang along too). There is something so endlessly comforting to see him in his Nike athleisure outfits and face scruff and unstyled hair feeling just as bored as the rest of us. Not to mention, how reassuring it is to see how one of the world’s biggest pop stars is just as boring as the rest of us — and he’s not afraid to show it! Though most of us don’t have hundreds of albums to sign to pass the time, it’s still strangely fun to watch him do so.
