Mullingar man Niall Horan has revealed that to conquer isolation he speaks with his family and has even taught his 89-year-old grandmother how to keep in touch by using FaceTime.
Speaking to Apple Music's Beats 1 with Zane Lowe, the Slow Hands singer said: "I'm fine on my own, obviously calling people and just seeing how everyone is, people that I haven’t spoken to in a while, checking in at home."
Asked who was on his call list, he said: "The family, the parents, my grandmother, have got my 89-year-old grandmother using Face Time which is impressive. I have been keeping in touch with Louis [Tomlinson] a bit. I spoke to Shawn Mendes a couple of times, he is madly in love, that's for sure."
.@NiallOfficial shares music with @zanelowe and talks about staying connected with artists like @LewisCapaldi, @ShawnMendes and @edsheeran while at home. Listen on @AppleMusic. https://t.co/D6LopWRsQL pic.twitter.com/srryZSKkBB
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) April 8, 2020
Discussing the worst part of dealing with Covid-19, Horan said that the bad timing of his new album, Heartbreak Weather, which was released on the day borders were closing in the US, meant that he had to cancel his tour.
"The hardest part was sending an email to the crew of 100 people who work with me, my band, they didnt expect to be out of a job," he said. "They live tour by tour and travel around the world to support their families.
"I’m ok, I can get in the studio, I am ok to just be sitting in writing music. It was the hardest email I have ever written in my career."
Horan also discussed the positive side of the coronavirus: "I think there will be a lot of great songs on the back of this anyway.
"You have so much time with your thoughts, you have nothing else to do but, go to the store, go for a run for half an hour, apart from that you are there with your thoughts when you lay in bed, or are sitting on the sofa, there is a lot more deep thinking and a lot more to write about."
Horan added that when he has finished writing a song, he plays it for music producers. He said that: "Producers have a way of hearing about what you have to say."
Niall Horan will be playing live on 2FM and Instagram on Thursday evening at 7.00pm in aid of the ISPCC.
