Niall Horan says he had “a lot of fun” making his new album after he got himself “into a bit of a pigeonhole” with his first record.
The singer told the BBC’s The One Show that he could understand why people talk about “the difficult second album” because it comes with pressure, which he said “could work as a positive or a negative”.
His album Heartbreak Weather is set for release on March 13.
Horan told the programme: “I just tried to write what I thought were good pop songs and didn’t worry about it because I think the last time, on my first album, it was acoustic-based and very chilled out and I kind of stuck myself in a bit of a pigeonhole for a bit.
“But I had a lot of fun with this album.”
He added that he is looking forward to going on an international tour after it is released because “it is the best part of what we do”.
“I love being in the studio and doing stuff like this is great,” he said.
“But there’s nothing better than stepping on a stage in front of 15,000 or 20,000 people every night.
“It is a pretty good feeling.”
He added that promoting his album around the globe has been made difficult because of the coronavirus outbreak and he has had to cancel some media appearances on the continent.
“Around an album launch, you are travelling around doing different TV promos and stuff like that and I was actually meant to be in Italy at the start of the week and Germany for the last couple of days,” he said.
He added: “I’ve got loads of stuff coming up in the States in the next couple of weeks.
“I’m not sure how far we are going to get with that.”
Horan, who rose to fame in One Direction alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik, released his debut solo album Flicker in 2017.