Zayn Malik is finally opening up. It's been nearly eight months since the British pop star left the vehicle that launched him, One Direction. Now, the 22-year-old singer is getting ready to release his debut solo album, seemingly under the simple name "Zayn," and he's given his first major interview.
Malik spoke to The Fader about everything, in a lenthy feature posted on Tuesday (Nov. 17). In addition to talking about his Muslim faith, his new music and palling around his "dream home," Malik also revealed some major news about One Direction, his broken engagement and what is to come.
1. Zayn Malik always knew he would leave One Direction.
Zayn, who like the rest of his former bandmates, auditioned for the U.K. X Factor as a solo artist before being given the chance to stay on the show in a group, which later became One Direction. Though he notched a few writing credits with the band, Zayn said that any time he tried to express his love of R&B, his vocals would be made more generically pop. The lack of creative flexibility got to him, and so he knew what he had to do.
"I guess I just wanted to go home from the beginning," he said. "I was always thinking it. I just didn't know when I was going to do it. Then by the time I decided to go, it just felt right on that day. I woke up on that morning, if I'm being completely honest with you, and was like, 'I need to go home. I just need to be me now, because I've had enough.' I was with my little cousin at the time-we were sat in the hotel room-and I was just, 'Should I go home?' And he was like, 'If you want to go home, let's go home.' So we left."
2. Sorry, Larry shippers - there are no "secret relationships" in One Direction.
Zayn, who is now clear of his One Direction management, would seemingly be able to speak freely about his bandmates and what does on behind the scenes in the biggest boy band in the world. And, because he is he can finally talk about how fan theories, such as the popular one that Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are dating or have dated, effects the boys. Of course, the "Larry" relationship is false and the rumors are harmful to the boys' friendship.
"There's no secret relationships going on with any of the band members," he said. "It's not funny, and it still continues to be quite hard for them. They won't naturally go put their arm around each other because they're conscious of this thing that's going on, which is not even true. They won't do that natural behavior. But it's just the way the fans are. They're so passionate, and once they get their head around an idea, that's the way it is regardless of anything."
3. He and Little Mix's Perrie Edwards did not end their engagement via text message.
A popular rumor sparked shortly after Zayn and Perrie Edwards broke off their engagement that he did so by text message. And, Zayn wanted to be very clear: that did not happen. He asked to be quoted directly about the incident and said: "I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message. I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that. She knows that, I know that, and the public should know that as well. I don't want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn't do that."
He didn't go much further into the breakup than that, however.
4. Zayn's new album will arrive in 2016, and he doesn't care how many people but it.
At 22 years old, Zayn has a reported net worth of $20 to $23 million, and he noted that he has enough to live "comfortably" for the rest of his life. For his new album, which is expected to be released in "early 2016," Zayn emphasized that he doesn't care about the number of concert tickets or albums sold, but rather how people can connect to him.
"I just want to make music now. If people want to listen to that, then I'm happy. If they don't want to listen to it, then don't fucking listen to it. I'm cool with that too. I've got enough. I don't need you to buy it on a mass scale for me to feel satisfied," he said.
And, the new music seems like it will be rooted deeper in Zayn's own roots.
5. A snippet of a new Zayn Malik song "Befour" arrived with the feature, and Zayn is pulling from his roots for the album.
Fans of the sugary brand of pop that One Direction has rolled out, be ready, because Zayn's music seems like it will be nothing like that. Not only did with the same producers as Frank Ocean, but Malik said that he's pulling from old school R&B and his Bollywood roots for the music on his yet-to-be titled debut album.
"My main influences in music came from my dad," Zayn said. "It was a lot of R&B, a lot of R. Kelly, a lot of Usher, a lot of Donell Jones, a lot of Prince. He used to play a lot of rap as well, 2Pac and Biggie. A lot of bop, a lot of reggae, Gregory Isaac and weird artists like Yellowman."
