Niall Horan says he felt the need to apologise to Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes after his recent promotional tour was filled with questions about the pair writing music together.
The 23-year-old Mullingar singer admits he felt terrible for the "poor fella" after he was bombarded with questions from fans and press about the pair teaming-up, instead of the focus being on Shawn's world tour.
"I've had to apologise to poor Shawn because he's trying to promote his unbelievable tour and song and then he's got people asking him about writing with me. The poor fella!"
"We haven't even met yet properly," Horan told 2fm's Eoghan McDermott. "We've been trying to meet up and jam but we haven't had the chance to do that yet because we keep on missing each other on our excursions," he added.
Horan, who recently made chart history in the US by becoming the first artist to debut at number one on the Social 50 countdown with his solo single This Town, says he always wanted to shock fans by unexpectedly dropping the track.
"What I found over the years with the band is that the more people that have the song.....the higher the chance of it leaking is.
"I think we succeeded in bringing the shock factor. I played it to some of my friends and kept it between management and the executives at the label," he said.
The One Direction star admits he had no real plans to release music after the band went their separate ways last year and revealed the process of writing solo material happened organically.
"There were no real plans at all. I just wanted to chill out for a while as I'd been busy for a long time. I just wanted to go to the things that I'd been missing out on for the last five years like sporting events and festivals.
"I just thought to myself when I got back from travelling Asia that I hadn't written a song or been in the studio in a while.
"I had made all of these relationships with writers over the years so I just said I'm going to go into the studio and write and it could be for anyone.
"The songs that I start writing were catered more to what I would listen to in general and what I grew up on -like Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan - but with my twist on it.
"I start writing that kind of stuff and then I sent a couple of them to my manager. It kind of went from there really," he added.
Horan's new single also became the highest debut on the mainstream Billboard Hot 100 chart on Monday, entering the countdown at 63.
