Highlights from Zayn Malik’s first interview since leaving 1D

In his first interview since leaving One Direction after five years last March, Zayn Malik revealed details of his upcoming debut solo record and said he knew he wanted to leave the group in the first year.

“I think I kind of always wanted to [leave the group] from the first year,” Malik told Beats 1 Radio’s Zane Lowe yesterday. “I never really wanted to be there, like in the band. I just gave it a go because it was there at the time.”

Lowe conducted the interview with Malik at England’s Bradford City Stadium on the eve of the release of his debut single, Pillow Talk.Malik revealed his debut solo album – which he began working on “a couple of months” after he left One Direction – is titled Mind of Mine. The album is out March 25 through RCA and Sony Music in Australia.

While Malik said the album doesn’t feature any collaborations with artists, he did reveal he’s written “46, 47 songs”. Malik revealed last July that he called on the producer behind Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, Malay.

“He don’t [sic] really look at music the way a normal producer does,” Malik told Lowe yesterday. “So he looked at every instrument in high detail and he understands how to break it down – like he can get a screw driver and like unscrew a microphone and tell you what every single piece is inside of it.”

Malik said it was his partialness to R&B that eventually lead to his exit from One Direction: “When I realised the direction we were going with the music I instantly realised it wasn’t for me, because I couldn’t put any input in.”

Three tracks from Mind of Mine have been officially revealed thus far: a song called Before, “party tune” She, and of course first single Pillow Talk. Malik’s cover of Rae Sremmurd’s No Type was reportedly leaked by producer and musician Naughty Boy last June. Malik avoided commenting on the track’s leak in the Beats 1 Radio interview.

One Direction have broken global chart records, had four out of their last five albums hit #1 in Australia and the US (their last record Made in the A.M peaked at #2 on both charts), and have an estimated personal combined wealth of US$41.2m. However, according to Malik, the mania of being a chart-topping stadium act only prevented him from pursuing his passion.

“I think the real thing that got me through it was not actually realising what was going on, if you know what I’m saying? So it kind of just happened so fast that it kind of just took off by itself. We were just catching up with it, that’s what it felt like.

“There was no time to sit down and think ‘Is this what I really want to do’ – that’s the real underlying issue […] I just needed time to breathe.”

Watch the clip forMalik’s new singlebelow, featuring reported girlfriend Gigi Hadid: