Zayn Malik gave a very revealing interview to Fader magazine, essentially saying he left One Direction because he wasn’t into the music they were making as a band.
Along with the cover story, Malik previewed his first single from his untitled solo album, “Befour.”
As part of One Direction, which was formed by Simon Cowell on X Factor UK, Malik told The Fader he was never “100 percent behind the music” and not “convinced with what we were selling.”
“There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band,” he said. “If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as f--k, so they could use that version.”
Malik went on to say the band was more about selling albums than about expressing each individual member. He also said they were basically controlled by a marketing machine bigger than themselves.
“It was music that was already given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to these people,” he continued. “As much as we were the biggest, most famous boy band in the world, it felt weird. We were told to be happy about something that we weren’t happy about.”
Malik quit the band in March, but he admitted in the interview that he’s always wanted to quit and quite frankly, doesn't like the band's sound as a whole.
“I guess I just wanted to go home from the beginning,” he said. “I was always thinking it. I just didn’t know when I was going to do it. Then by the time I decided to go, it just felt right on that day.”
He also said of the band, who released their first album without him, Made In the AM, on Nov. 13, "That's not music I would listen to."