Photo: Screenshot
Zayn Malik has opened up about his decision to leave his "generic as fuck" former band One Direction in a new interview, before discussing his new solo album, love of tattoos and the musical influences of his mother and father. He also revealed a snippet of a new song, which you can listen to below.
Malik quit his job as one fifth of the biggest boyband in the world back in March - but, he revealed in an interview with The Fader, he'd been gearing up to leave since the band formed on The X Factor in 2010.
"I was always thinking it," he explained. "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."
Listen to a snippet of Malik's new song, 'Befour', below
Elaborating on his unhappiness with the band's music, he explained, "There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band. If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as fuck, so they could use that version."
He continued, "Whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didn’t fit us. There was just a general conception that the management already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasn’t convinced with what we were selling. I wasn’t 100 percent behind the music. It wasn’t me.
"It was music that was already given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to these people. As much as we were the biggest, most famous boy band in the world, it felt weird. We were told to be happy about something that we weren’t happy about."
Malik signed as a solo artist to RCA in July. His currently untitled debut solo album is due for release in early 2016.
