Thanks to an anon, I watched this interview from Back to You promo in 2017.
Louis’ statement that he lives with Oli in LA starts at 7:52. This does makes fiscal sense for Oli, since LA isn’t his home and he may not be able to afford his own place in Louis’ neighborhood (it also takes forever to drive anywhere in LA). In London, it doesn’t make as much sense to me, but who knows, it’s possible that Oli lives with Louis.
A few more interesting things from the interview. Louis talks about working on BTY in March 2017, and how he, management, and label all heard it as a “single,” rather than merely a “chart track.” BTY was a sound that he hadn’t known very well. He states that “someone at the label” sent the track to Bebe (managed by First Access, Sarah Stennett’s company). He talks about the music video, and how he hadn’t walked down Doncaster town center in years, and was excited to introduce it to his fans. He speaks about possibly performing or being on TXF last year. He talks about feeling more “free” writing for himself than for One Direction, but was happy and proud of the boys. He speaks about the cleverness of Digital Farm Animals in not overproducing BTY. He talks about how his album as a whole has a “pop sound” but is more “honest” than most pop albums, avoiding “sexy cool metaphors.”
So the album was finished, at least in one form, in July 2017. It might be reasonable to conclude that he had been approached about TXF in 2017, and also that as of July 2017, his label had heard most of his album.
If the album has been delayed, it’s possible that there will be major changes before it is released, and the snippets he released on IG may never appear as full songs— including Always You. It was not included in the purported set list that we saw.
The delay also isn’t explained by the sudden change from May to June of 2018— from being in the studio and purportedly rehearsing with the band, to announcing that he will be on TXF.
