Zayn Malik Says He’s Getting Iced Out By One Direction In ‘Billboard’ Cover Story

Carl Williott | January 7, 2016 11:34 am

Following his recent Fader cover story, Zayn Malik continues his full court press for solo promo with the latest Billboard cover. The interview understandably centered around his decision to leave One Direction, and it contains some truly interesting tidbits about Malik’s takeaways from the experience and his relationship with the guys in 1D since his departure. Basically, it sounds like some of them are icing him out.

He called them “friends for life” when he left the group, but now the realities are starting to set in. “I had every intention of remaining friends with everybody, but I guess certain phone numbers have changed and I haven’t received calls from a lot of people. I’ve reached out to a few of them and not got a reply. Certain people have pride issues, but it’s stuff you overcome in time.”

But two can play at that game, and Malik admitted he didn’t buy Made In The A.M. “I’ll be honest. I thought the first single was quite cool. I heard the second single and… yeah, I didn’t buy the album.” Still, he says there’s no rivalry with the 1D guys now that they’re collectively going solo for a bit. “There are no sides to pick,” he says. “We’re not going head-to-head.”

He also opened up about the limited artistic freedom afforded by being in 1D: “We weren’t allowed to say certain things, or word [lyrics] the way we would want to. I’d sit and wonder, ‘If the fans knew how it worked, what would they think?’ My argument was: People are more intelligent than that. They want to hear what’s real, so why don’t we write some stuff that we’re actually going through?”

And he prepared fans for why his solo material will sound like such a jarring change of pace from One Direction’s output: “I genuinely enjoyed [the band] and did whatever I could to be myself within that, but it’s just not where I sit as a musician. The other boys’ taste was generally indie rock. It’s good music, but I don’t f— with it. That was never cool where I was from.”

Read the whole thing right here.