AppleIt's been a while since Zayn Malik left One Direction, but a wound like that doesn't heal overnight, so obviously, fans still have questions. And luckily, the ex boy band member is more than willing to give us the answers.
Again.
In a teaser for the celeb's sit-down interview for Apple Music's Beats 1 with Zane Lowe, which will unofficially be dubbed the Zayn and Zane show, Malik got candid about his still-talked-about decision to leave the famous band, and confessed that really never wanted to be a part of the group in the first place.
"I think I always wanted to go, from like the first year, really. I never really wanted to be there, like in the band," the young singer admitted. "I just gave it a go because it was there at the time, and when I realized the direction we were going in—mind the pun—with the music, I instantly realized it wasn't for me, because I realized I couldn't put any input in."
Malik continued, "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, that's when I had to be like I've got to start thinking about myself. So I was always just writing anyway, even when I was in the band. It wasn't something that I had to think about and process information. I just always knew."
His disappointment with the direction of the music is nothing new, and Zayn has expressed that he'd felt held back creatively. While reflecting on the process of writing songs back in the beginning, Malik explained, "In the early days it was crazy. There was like five of us sat in a room, trying to write a song. Now, how do you write a song from five people's perspectives?
"You don't know where you wanna take the music, what you wanna say. There's none of that, so you kinda just go with whatever's going on. And I just didn't wanna be the person to say I was right, because who am I?"
When Lowe asked the 23-year-old if any of the guys caught on to his unhappiness in the group, Malik simply stated, "I think the boys knew, in terms of the music, that wasn't my cup of tea. You know what I mean? They were aware of that. They were trying to facilitate certain things for me so that I could sing certain R&B ad libs here and there, and that was nice, but obviously, I think they always knew that. It wasn't something they had to figure out. It was always there."
He added the no one really tried to stop him from departing from 1D, saying "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 already made my mind up, so I just left."
You can catch the full interview when it broadcasts on Beats 1 tomorrow, Jan. 28, at 9 a.m. PST.