One Direction - One Direction - Where We Are - Our Band, Our Story

The BRITs is always a great night as well. We were so excited to go to our first one in 2012, and when we won the award for British Single we were stunned. Then we performed in 2013 and we absolutely loved it. It was great getting to sing ‘One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)’, because Comic Relief is such an important charity.

At the moment my house is being renovated and I’m staying between two friends’ houses, so the awards we’ve been given are all over the place. Two are on a friend’s windowsill, some others are in my other friend’s bedroom and one of my other mates has got another one. One of the EMAs has been swiped by my friend’s sister, so I need to try to get that back. The others are in storage, and I’ll be getting them out when I move back home.

I can still remember the feeling we used to get when we went into the X Factor studios right back at the beginning. When there were fans outside we used to be so excited, and I still get the same feeling now.

When there are a lot of people outside a venue it shocks me. Sometimes I think people won’t turn up to a TV studio if it’s in the middle of nowhere, but they do and it’s so nice.

When we did The Today Show in New York we didn’t know what the reaction would be like. It was our first proper show in America and we were nervous. We knew from Twitter and Facebook that we had a bit of a fanbase there, but an amazing number of fans turned up to welcome us, and to see things on that scale was ridiculous. There were so many people there.

A lot of people try to make it in America, and I think we’ve been incredibly lucky timing-wise, because there hasn’t been a boy band out there for a while. I think it’s a great time for British music in America at the moment generally, with the likes of Adele and Ed Sheeran; they’re doing unbelievably well. And it’s down to the fans spreading the word about UK music.

We’ve known some of the fans for three years, and they still come and make the effort to see us. For us, that’s been one of the nicest parts of the whole thing, because we know their names and we can ask them about their lives. It’s great seeing some of the old faces – and also lots of new faces.

The fans have been incredible to us. They don’t vary much around the world – they’re universally amazing. Sometimes there’s no time to do much more than have a picture taken with them if things are hectic, but it’s nice when there aren’t many fans in one place, because then you get a chance to sit down and chat to them. I was talking to some fans the other night who are at uni, and it’s crazy to think that if I weren’t in the band I would probably be in the same position as them. Or even at uni with them.

We love performing and seeing the fans, so touring is probably my favourite thing to do. When it comes to travelling, I think what we all enjoy most is being on the tour bus. You can chill out, have some food and go to sleep when you want to. I try not to do too much. I’ll watch a film and chat to the boys, but it’s nice to have proper downtime to catch up with friends and family.

We do have a really good laugh if we’re in a stupid mood. I remember once we decided to jokingly attack Paul, our tour manager. I was naked and I thought it would be a really quick fight, but it took forever, so I was stuck in a naked headlock for about ten minutes...

The crew is like one big tour family, and I think if you didn’t have that community feel you would go crazy. You’re away from your family and friends, so you need that support network of people who are there for you. I can always talk to the boys, but I know I can talk to the crew too. Everyone needs everyone, and we’re all on each other’s side.

Even though you’re away from home and you’re working long hours when you’re touring, you do get a chance to recharge your batteries a bit. You can have a lie-in and you can get into a good routine. You know that you can go to the gym, have some lunch and then head to the venue at a set time.

The beds on the tour bus are pretty comfortable, and the American buses are always massive, so you get bigger beds and DVD players in the bunks. I always take a scented candle with me when I travel because it reminds me of home, and I also light them in the dressing room before a gig sometimes. It’s nice to have a touch of home.

I think the thing that people like about our shows is that you get something different all the time. We always mess around onstage and there are always little jokes going on, which I think is nice for the crowd.

The last night of the tour is the one that I’d want to go and see, because pretty much everything falls apart. The crew come on and throw things at us when we’re performing, and you can do everything you’ve always wanted to do onstage because it’s the last one. It’s the fun show, and I think if you came and saw it you’d have a laugh. It’s always a longer show too, because we’re doing so much stupid stuff. I’d love to watch one back. It’s probably awful, but great fun!

The world tour is huge for us, so we took our time making sure every single detail of it was right. We came up with ideas for the lighting, the screens and all the things that previously we hadn’t had time to get so involved in. It’s our show at the end of the day, so we want it to reflect who we are. Our ultimate goal was to make a show that we would enjoy watching ourselves.

The tour is going to many different countries and we want everyone to come and have an incredible time with us. We feel so proud of it. I’m loving every second of it. If I could go back and start it all again tomorrow, I would.

We were both nervous and excited about making the 1D movie. There’s so much that we do that people don’t see, so it’s nice to let fans get an insight into who we really are. We put everything out there – nothing was hidden.

We do mess around a lot, so it was great fun making it, and you definitely get to see the ridiculous side of us. Well, the even more ridiculous side.

It was a really natural process and nothing was set up – a lot of the time we forgot the cameras were there. It wasn’t like we decided to go water-skiing or anything just to make the film more interesting. If the cameras missed something, the producers didn’t ask us to set it up again so they could film it, because that wouldn’t have worked. We were just us.