 After being formed and finishing third in the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010 , One Direction were signed by Simon Cowell to a £ 2 million Syco Records record contract . Recording for their debut album began in January 2011 , as they flew to Los Angeles to work with Moroccan @-@ Swedish producer RedOne . In February 2011 , One Direction and nine other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour . After the tour concluded in April 2011 , the group continued working on their debut album . Recording took place in Sweden , the United States , and the United Kingdom , as One Direction worked with producers Carl Falk , Savan Kotecha , Steve Mac , RedOne , Toby Gad and Rami Yacoub , among others . The album also features songs written by Ed Sheeran , Kelly Clarkson , and Tom Fletcher . In May 2011 , Kotecha spoke to Digital Spy , and he elaborated that One Direction were " experimenting " with sounds on their debut album . Kotecha said that he was involved in the " early stages " of producing the record . " The stuff I 've heard has been really catchy and everyone loves the guys , so it 's just about capturing that in the music , which I think is what they 're going to be doing . " Sonny Takhar , the chief executive officer of Syco Records , in an August 2011 issue of Music Week , described the recording process as a " very intensive period " for the group . Takhar added the resulting album was one of the best pop records made by Syco Records in the past few years , and that he was confident it would be successful . In November 2011 , they signed a record deal with Columbia Records in North America . Steve Barnett , the co @-@ chairman of Columbia Records , said it was not a difficult decision to sign with One Direction . " Other artists in that category had gotten a little older , " he said . " I just thought there was a void , and maybe they could seize and hold it . " 
