Niall Horan releases solo single 'This Town' on One Direction hiatus

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Niall Horan is the latest One Direction member to go solo.

The 23-year-old Irish singer released his first solo single, "This Town," on Thursday after signing an album deal with Capitol Records.

"I'm excited to announce I have signed a record deal with Capitol Records USA," he said in a statement. "Thank you to all the One Direction fans for your love and support always. I'm looking forward to the next part of this journey together."

"This Town" is a slow-paced breakup song featuring Horan on acoustic guitar. He shared the track on Twitter, writing, "Been workin in the studio, wanted to share this song I just wrote with u guys. thank you for always being there."

One Direction last performed as a group in December and are on an indefinite hiatus. Harry Styles landed a solo deal with Columbia Records in June, while Liam Payne signed with Capitol Records U.K. in July.

"I would never say we'll never do anything again, but it's good for us to be exploring other things. Maybe at some point everyone will want to do something again, but it's better if it happens naturally," Styles said of the band's future in the Autumn/Winter issue of AnOther Man.

One Direction formed on The X Factor in 2010 and have since released five studio albums. The group's latest record, Made in the A.M., was released in November and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.