Interviewer: I’m curious, as a record producer, what you make of the different directions the various members of One Direction have gone in musically. Who could you see yourself working with out of that group?
Ryan Tedder: I’ve already done a song with Liam [Payne] and I’m actually recording a second song with him next week. His stuff is spectacular. Another one of my writers, Noel Zancanella, who I did a lot of the Taylor Swift stuff with, and some of the Adele stuff that didn’t make the album, he has a huge record on the Liam album. It’s a dance record. I personally think it’s the biggest one on the album. I’ve heard about three records. I know what the first single is and there’s a lot of fame attached to the first single, I’ll say that.
Interviewer: How would you describe Liam’s solo material?
Ryan Tedder: If you took [One Direction song] “Story of My Life” and turned it into an album, that’s kind of Niall [Horan]’s direction, right? Zayn obviously went R&B and urban. Harry is classic Britpop; Mott the Hoople meets Robbie Williams—that lane. I like Louis [Tomlinson], but he’s the one I’ve talked to the least. Funnily enough of all the routes that people have taken, the one lane that was left wide open was straight pop. So Liam is pop, and doing it in a fantastic fashion. He has a killer voice. There’s elements of stuff I like from Usher, there’s stuff that’s edgy like The Weeknd…it’s all over the map—it’s pop. It’s really high quality. I’ve only done one song with him that I did with Stargate. I’m cutting another song with him next week. The other one that [Zancanella] did with J Kash, it’s my favorite record I’ve heard. If it’s not a hit I need to clear my ears out—it’s so good.