Niall Horan has been inspired by his roots on his new album.

Niall Horan

Niall Horan

The 'Slow Hands' hitmaker - who hails from Mullingar in Ireland - is set to release his debut solo record later this year and revealed that there are definite Irish influences on the album.

He told Tmrw magazine: "I was recording a song a couple of weeks ago, and it's kind of got a Damien Rice feel to it.

"The producer said to me afterwards 'You have no idea how Irish you sound, when you hear this!'

"He played it back to me and I was like 'JESUS! I sound Irish there!' There's a lot of that stuff on it."

Niall, 23, also joked that fans will think he is an "emotional wreck" when they hear the record but he insisted it's not all inspired by personal experiences.

He said: "When you listen to it, you'll probably just think I was an emotional wreck.

"There's some really personal stuff on it. It sounds really stalker-ish, but the way I write is that I could be sitting on a train and see a couple talking to each other and I'd think of a concept around the way that they look at each other or whatever.

"I don't write all of the time from personal experience - sometimes I have concepts."

Meanwhile, Niall recently insisted that he would drop his solo career in a heartbeat to join his One Direction bandmates, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson, again.

He said: "I told my managers from the start: When One Direction comes knocking, fook what I'm doing. I don't give a s**t if I sold out arenas or won Grammys. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for that."