Zayn Malik
On how his relationships with his bandmates have always been strained and since leaving the group, he didn’t like things that were said:
“We went from theatres, to arenas, to stadiums — there was never any sort of bridge between. Just boom, boom, boom,” Zayn said. “I guess that kind of progression to any mind — but especially when you’re 17, 18 — it kind of affects you a little bit. People take it different ways — especially when there are five different personalities. The relationships had broken apart. I ain’t spoke to any of them for a long time, to be honest with you. That’s just the way it is. There’s things that happen and things that were said after I left… Snide things. Small things that I would never have expected.”
On how he doesn’t really speak to any of his former bandmates:
“Our relationships have definitely changed since we were in a band together, but I think that’s just life. Everybody grows up; two of the guys have got kids now. But no, I don’t talk to any of them, really,” Zayn said to Billboard.
On how he never really wanted to be in 1D:
“I think I always kind of wanted to go. From like the first year really, I never really wanted to be there in the band. I just gave it a go because it was there at the time and then when I realized the direction we were going in with the music, I instantly realized it wasn’t for me because I realized I couldn’t put any input in. 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 frustrating for me, that’s when I had to be like, ‘I’ve got to start thinking about myself,'” Zayn said.”I think the boys kind of knew in terms of the music, that wasn’t my cup of tea. They knew that, they were aware of that, always. They would try to facilitate certain things for me so I could sing R & B ad-libs here or there and that was nice but obviously I think they always knew. When I was leaving the band, they obviously didn’t want me to leave, but they couldn’t talk me out of it at that point. I had already made up my mind so I just left,” he said.
On which member of 1D Zayn was the closest to after he left the band:
“I’m still probably the closest to Liam. We talk on the phone. He congratulated me on my single. Which was nice. I congratulated him on his Brit Award,” Zayn said. “It was a good chat. We hadn’t met in a long time so we want to meet up.”
On his lack of a friendship with Harry:
“To be honest, I never really spoke to Harry even when I was in the band. So I didn’t really expect that much of a relationship with him,” Zayn said to Us Weekly.
On his friendship with Louis:
“Yeah we spoke about that, we’re in touch, everything is on a civil level. It’s not the way it used to be, obviously we were a lot closer because we were together the entire time, spending 24 hours a day in the band and now we’re not so we’re living our own lives, we’re all growing as individual men and we still keep in touch and check in with each other not as much as we used to,” Zayn continued to Us Weekly.
On how Zayn felt being labeled the mysterious one in the band and what he really thinks of his five years as a member of One Direction:
“In terms of me being described as the mysterious one, that was put on me as a stigma because I didn’t get the chance to speak as much. The other boys’ personalities were much more forward. They would answer the questions. I would let that happen because, like I said, I didn’t have any creative input there. I didn’t feel like I was going to say anything about it anyway. Now I get to talk about what I’m passionate about—it’s nice to have the chance to speak,” Zayn said to Complex. “No one can ever say I was ungrateful, even though it sort of comes across that way when I mention that I was frustrated with the band. That’s not the case at all. That was just an experience that had to be dealt with at the time. With the music that I’m doing now, I get to express myself, and that creative tension is gone.”
This post was originally published on Oct. 23, 2017 and has since been updated.
