Harry Styles’ new album features a track named after a mysterious woman named Carla. Here’s the heartwarming true story of how a chance encounter with a Paul Simon fan inspired the song.
Harry Styles’ fourth album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, is officially out. With its arrival comes one very important question: Who, exactly, is Carla?
In a recent Apple Music interview, Styles revealed the 12th and final song on the record is dedicated to a woman he met through friends.
“We were waiting to go to this after-party,” he explained. “And she’d kind of mentioned in the room that she’d just discovered Paul Simon.”
As Carla told the former One Direction member, she’d been feeling down, and was listening to Norah Jones. Her playlist next served up Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and though she’d never heard the 1975 hit before, she soon became obsessed with it.
Paul Simon, the legendary singer-songwriter, has a dedicated profile on Entertainment Weekly.
“She was kind of asking everyone like, ‘Oh, have you heard Paul Simon?'” Styles said. “And we were like, ‘Yeah, he’s amazing.'”
Sensing an opportunity to further broaden his new friend’s musical horizons, he asked if she’d ever listened to Simon’s earlier work with Art Garfunkel. When Carla said she hadn’t, Styles played her the title track from the duo’s Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty for The Recording Academy
“Watching her listen to it [for the first time] felt like I was just watching someone see… in Technicolor or discover magic,” Styles said. “There was something in that moment that reminded me of, by making music, what you’re investing in, and it’s songs that go so beyond our lifetime.”
The three-time Grammy winner said that knowledge helps “remove a lot of the pressure” surrounding songwriting.
“I think it’s like people will be listening to this song, when those artists aren’t around anymore,” he added. “And I think acknowledging that making music is just adding something to this world of things that is waiting for people to discover is the point. That is what the joy is.”
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Along with “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Styles also played Simon & Garfunkel’s “Kathy’s Song” for Carla—which inspired him to name his own track after her.
“Maybe someone hears a song of yours and goes, ‘This song’s going to be in my life forever,'” he said. “That is kind of it. Like, that is enough. I don’t ask for any more than that, really.”
Styles continued, “I think the idea of, ‘I know what you like. You can hear it any time. And it’s all waiting there for you.’ This will be here after, like, when I’m not here. These songs will exist. I don’t think they can be played as much as ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ but the point is the same.”
Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is available to stream now. The full story behind the album’s creation, including additional insights from Styles, was originally reported by Entertainment Weekly.
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