A year after he quit One Direction, Zayn Malik has come up with a fabulous debunking of the boy band, saying he never wanted to be part of it and that he was frustrated with the 'direction' of the band right from the word go.
Ahead of the release of his first solo single, "Pillowtalk," the former One Direction star has taken pains to explain why he exited the band he created along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson.
"I think I always kind of wanted to go, from the first year, really," Malik told Beats 1 Radio's Zane Lowe in an interview.
"I never really wanted to be there in the band, I just gave it a go because it was there at the time, and when I realised the direction we were going in - mind the pun - with the music, I instantly realised it wasn't for me, because I realised I couldn't put any input in," he added.
He said the other members of the band had an inkling of his plans to leave.
"I think the boys kind of knew – in terms of the music – that wasn't my cup of tea ... They obviously didn't want me to leave, but they couldn't talk me out of it at that point. I'd already made my mind up," he said.
He said he was frustrated with the nusic at the band and that he couldn not crate his kond of music.
"I had to start thinking about myself ... I was always writing anyway even when I was in the band... I always knew."
So did the 23-year-old try to change things at One Direction?
"I couldn't give my opinion on this or that because it didn't fit the grain of what we were as a band or what we represented. So that's when it became straight for me ...."
Pillowtalk, Malik's first track as a solo artist, is to be released on Friday, 29 January.
