The boy band assures ET about their hiatus that 'it's important for us to take the break.'
One Direction has certainly earned a bit of R&R.
After releasing and supporting five albums in five years -- their most recent, Made in the A.M., was released on Friday, Nov. 13 -- the boys of 1D have revealed that it's time for them to take a break. And while fans worry that this is the end for the boy band, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson are setting the record straight.
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"I think it's important for us to take the break and have it as a break," Styles told ET's Samantha Harris in an exclusive interview amid their tour in Belfast, Ireland, explaining that the pace of putting out a new album and touring every year is unsustainable. "Obviously it would be naive of us to think that people aren't going to read into that in a ton of different ways, but we're just gonna take a little break next year."
Horan put it a bit more bluntly: "We're not breaking up. We're literally taking time out to see our friends and see our family and reflect on what we've done over the last few years."
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Styles also said he hopes to travel in his time off.
"We've been, of course, incredibly fortunate to travel a lot of the world, and I think one of the cool things about that is we haven't necessarily spent a lot of time in each place," he said. "You see places you want to go back to, and think 'I want to come back here for two weeks instead of two days and experience some more of it.' So I'm sure there will be a bunch of traveling."
But for now, amid rumors that he may be cast in the Absolutely Fabulous movie as Joanna Lumley's love interest, Styles laughed off the casting reports.
"I don't know anything about it, no," he said. "If I am, I haven't got the script!"
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While their former bandmate Zayn Malik is kicking his new solo career into high gear, Styles said the remaining band members "haven't thought much" about their own solo prospects.
"No pressure, just enjoy life like not having plans and not having responsibility," Tomlinson chimed in.
Tune in to ET all week for more from our exclusive interview with 1D.