Harry Styles will release his debut solo album by May

H. Styles — Singer with the band One Direction Harry Styles attends the British Fashion Awards in London December 2, 2013. Reuters/Neil Hall

There has been a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding Harry Styles’ solo music career, which has been riddled with questions ever since One Direction announced their hiatus. Whatever these questions and possible doubts may be, however, they will be answered soon enough -- perhaps sooner than anyone initially thought.

According to BBC Radio 1 (via The Sun), Styles’ album will be released “very soon,” particularly in “late April or early May.” This is great news as fans and music moguls have been in high anticipation of the music that the 23-year-old will bring on his own. And the timeline seems correct because Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer has gone on the record to pretty much say the same thing.

The music exec told Billboard that Styles’ album was “close” to being finished. He further teased the release by saying that it was “beautifully done” and that the musician’s vision was of “someone who’s authentic.” This uniqueness of Styles is sure to help push him out of the shadow of One Direction and his bandmembers.

Stringer also went on to explain that the reason why each of One Direction’s members -- former and current -- have been such successes is because they did not box themselves into one niche. Each member has instead found what was special about them and used their individual voices to share something that was unlike the boy beside them. Styles’ actual musical direction was not discussed, but a look at his collaborators do provide a bit of a hint.

For his debut solo album, Styles worked with Johnny McDaid from Snow Patrol, who also worked with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Biffy Clyro. McDaid also went on the record last year and said that he was excited about what they were both working on. “I think the world is going to be really shocked at what he comes up with,” he said.

Styles also received help from Gary Go, a songwriter and producer whose clientele include Rihanna, Take That and Robbie Williams. There is no doubt that Styles is working with some of the biggest and best names in the industry, but how he translates their influence will be entirely up to him. His sound, after all, has always been there, as he had already written a few songs even before One Direction announced their hiatus.