When Harry Styles’ massive Love On Tour wrapped in 2023 after nearly two years, the singer found himself suddenly existential. He’d released three wildly successful solo albums in five years, the latest of which (2022’s Harry’s House) had won Album of the Year at both the Grammys and the BRIT Awards. Still, on the cusp of turning 30, he felt the urge to reassess his relationship with his career. “It was just a time for me to look at the way that I’d done everything,” Styles tells Apple Music. “I think it’s a good thing to have moments, where you’ve done something for a long time, to kind of stop and check in with yourself: Do I do this because this is what I’ve been doing for a long time, or do I do this because I really love it?” Rather than speeding straight into a new record, the singer decamped to Italy, where he cooked lavish meals, lingered at coffee shops, and took up long-distance running. Later he spent time in Berlin, where he ran his first marathon, often listening to his new demos as he trained. Those demos would evolve into the 12 tracks of Styles’ fourth solo album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally., inspired by his slower, more spontaneous way of living, which included concerts, new friends, and lots of dancing. “What music do I have to make for me to be onstage feeling like I’m in the middle of the dance floor?” he asked himself, which explains the funky basslines and subtle four-on-the-floor beats. Laying down the tracks at Berlin’s Hansa Studios, Styles fell in love with making music all over again. “The key thing was, while I was away from it all, I missed it,” he says. “I missed it because I love it, and I still love it.” Below, Styles shares the stories behind some of Kiss All The Time’s key tracks. “Aperture” “‘Aperture’ felt like a perfect start to me, because it was about the moment of realizing, like, no, I was in the wrong for something. You can move forward when you acknowledge the things that you don’t know, and therefore give yourself the space to let light come in. I think it ended up being kind of the freest song on the record. It’s long and playful. When we had that song, I think it was like the last thing I felt like I hadn’t quite said yet.” “Coming Up Roses” “It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. I wrote it in December, and it started because I was trying to write a Christmas song. So that lasted two lines: ‘Tell me your fears/I’ve turned back the clocks, it’s that time of the year.’ And then it kind of just wrote itself, and I was like, oh, this has nothing to do with Christmas. For me, it is a love song about how special something can be, and not everything has to last forever in order for it to be special. I think some of the greatest relationships in your life that teach you some things don’t last forever. The definition that we have of the success of a relationship is longevity and lasting for eternity, and I think it just negates all of the beauty and positivity that can come from a relationship where you learn something about yourself.” “Dance No More” “I remember going out for the first time in Berlin and standing in the middle of the dance floor and feeling so unbelievably free and safe that I just had my hands in the air and my eyes closed and I just felt these tears streaming down my face. And it was this moment of, like, ‘I feel so alive right now.’” “Carla’s Song” “Carla is a friend of mine. We were at a friend’s house, and we were waiting to go to this after-party. She’d mentioned that she’d just discovered Paul Simon. When I lived in a pub a little bit when I was younger, there was a four-CD changer that I think the Bridge over Troubled Water record was in the whole time I lived there. I think it’s why I like harmonies, listening to them so much. I played her ‘Bridge over Troubled Water,’ and watching her listen to it, having never heard that song, felt like I was watching someone discover magic. There was something in that moment that reminded me of what, by making music, you’re investing in. Maybe someone hears a song of yours and goes, ‘This song’s going to be in my life forever.’ That is enough. And I don’t ask for any more than that, really.”