How does it feel to put the album Mind Of Mine out? Has it been an emotional journey?

I didn’t really know what to expect venturing on a solo thing, doing my R&B kind of thing and experimenting with different types of music. I didn’t really know what to expect but the response has been good so far with the music that we’ve put out. So I am enjoying it, it’s a good time. I’ve mainly just been excited, if I’m being honest, just because I’ve wanted to get out my ideas and show people my thought process and what kind of music influenced me and made me want to be a musician. So that’s why the album is called Mind Of Mine. So yeah, there was a lot of other emotions in there, but mainly just excitement to see what people thought.

How do you sum up the sound of the album?

I wouldn’t necessarily say it sits anywhere in terms of a musical genre, I kind of think it is a mashup of different things. Like one song is not even one genre, it has different things from different places. I don’t really know where it sits, it’s just me, it’s my thought and it’s my vision. I guess that’s what it is.

Will you continue experimenting with your sound?

Yeah, I’m not even trying to put myself out there as any specific genre of artiste, like ‘I’m an R&B artiste, or this type of artiste’ etc. I’m just putting music out and if people like it, that’s cool. I just want to be able to experiment and that’s why I’m saying that, I just want the freedom to 
experiment.

Can you remember the moment that you decided to make a solo album?

Yeah, I think I made the decision to make a solo album a long time ago. When I was probably about 16. So yeah a long time ago, but it has been a fun process, to finally be able to do it and to get it all together and put all of my ideas down. That was a liberating feeling.

Did it take courage to go solo?

Yes, I think you always need a bit of confidence in yourself or courage to put yourself out there in any kind of art form or personal thing you’re trying to display to the public. There was definitely a little bit of that, but mostly the want and need to do it for myself and get that reaction, to see what people thought. So yeah, just having to get it out there. 

Is it a relief to have your debut album finished?

A little bit, yeah. When you are writing for an album, and get in the process of thinking of writing for a specific thing, you tend to write in a certain way. And when that is over and finished, you instantly start writing about things more freely and start expressing different things and thinking outside the box, thinking about writing for somebody else and you might say things differently, not necessarily say what you would say from your perspective. So the second I found out the album was finished, I was like ‘Cool, now I can go back to the studio and start writing again.’ It’s interesting, it kind of feels like the weight’s off, but you also feel the weight of the next thing you got to do as well. I’m always like that, I’m always thinking of the next thing.

How have you found the reaction to your solo material so far? Were you concerned that your new style may not appeal to everyone?

I guess you always worry about certain things. But the main thing you always think about is trying to reach the people you want to reach, by saying what you have to say. So if some people get offended, they aren’t the people you are trying to reach. You know what I’m saying? So you just got to focus on whatever you want to get out there and hopefully people will like it for what the message is. 
The reaction so far has been amazing. Obviously the fans have been behind everything and the support has been really cool. Obviously I didn’t expect the reaction to be as it has been, so it’s been really cool.

Had you been aware of the existing international fan base you have?

Yes, a little bit. When we put the first single out and it went number one in so many countries. I think it showed the scale of the worldwide fanbase. It really blew me away a little bit. I didn’t expect that at all. I thought a few people from before would like it, not the whole fan base from before. It was cool.

How did it feel to debut number one on the US Billboard Charts as a UK artiste?

That felt pretty insane. Obviously, the only other two people to do that were Adele and Elton John, so I was like ‘that’s crazy’, to be able to do that. Yeah, I just don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect it, but I am enjoying it, it’s fun... Haha (laughs).

What was it like working with (R&B singer) Kehlani? 

She is just somebody that I’ve been listening to for the past year and a half and I just really like the stuff that she does. I really like the way she writes her lyrics and the style she puts out. Yeah, she was just someone I was really interested in working with and I reached out to her and she said she wanted to have a meeting. So we sat down, played some music. She was just really cool. We got things finished in about a week on the songs really quickly and they came back really good, so I’m excited about that.

Explain the concept of the album sleeve...

 

Zayn: The album sleeve is an idea of mine… my ideas that have been with me for a long time. I always wanted to be where I am now, even from before. So I wanted to capture that with this picture. That picture just meant a lot to me as well. It was always in my living room, from the time it got taken. It was the most professional looking photo of me in the house and I just liked it and wanted to use it on the album.

 

 

 

 

What is the most experimental moment on Mind Of Mine?

Zayn: In terms of the most experimental song on the album, I would say it’s the intermission called Flower. That wasn’t necessarily me pushing myself, but it was just me doing something that people wouldn’t expect me to do. So that’s probably the most experimental song. 

 

T2 CHARTS THE RISE AND RISE OF ZAYN 

 

April 11, 2010: Zayn’s mother Trisha forces the 17-year-old out of bed to drive down for The X Factor auditions, about an hour from their Bradford home. Zayn clears Bootcamp round with a rendition of Mario’s Let Me Love You.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 23, 2010:After being eliminated as solo performers, Zayn and his future bandmates are brought together by Simon Cowell to form a band — One Direction obviously! — and continue in the competition in the ‘Groups’ category. When viewer voting eliminates the group during the semi-finals, Zayn announces: “We’re definitely going to stay together. This isn’t the last of One Direction.” 

 

 

 

 

November 18, 2011:One Direction’s album Up All Night debuts on Cowell’s label, Syco. All their subsequent albums — Take Me Home, Midnight Memories, Four and Made in the A.M. — find release dates in November. 1D becomes the biggest boy band after The Beatles. 

 

 

 

 

August 20, 2013:Zayn arrives at the London premiere of the group’s concert film This Is Us with a surprise — his fiancee! He had been dating Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards for more than a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 18-25, 2015:Delivers his final performance with the 1D boys at AsiaWorld Arena in Hong Kong on March 18. Exactly a week later, his exit from the band is made public with the statement: “I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.”

 

 

 

 

 

April 17, 2015:The former One Directioner appears at the Asian Awards in London to collect an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. “He has achieved in five years what some of us would achieve in a lifetime,” said “friend” (the two fell apart in July) and producer Naughty Boy (in picture left with Zayn and Shah Rukh Khan) while handing him the trophy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 29, 2015:Parting ways with Naughty Boy, Zayn tweets a picture that marks his rise as a solo performer. He signs an agreement with RCA Records, the label which was home to Elvis Presley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 4, 2015:The Zayn-Perrie world falls apart and three weeks later, he gets linked to Burberry’s first Indian model Neelam Gill. The “rumours” last only a month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 17, 2015:A shirtless Zayn appears on the cover of New York-based music magazine Fader, days after the four-member One Direction releases Made In The A.M. “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,” he said, about his frustrations at being a 1D member. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 29, 2016:Zayn drops the steamy video for his first solo single, Pillowtalk, featuring supermodel and rumoured girlfriend Gigi Hadid. The chemistry, on screen and off it, is umissable. 

 

 

 

 

March 25, 2016:Mind Of Mine, his debut solo album, drops. 

 

 

April 2, 2016:Mind Of Mine reaches the #1 spot on Billboard 200 Albums Chart. The next day, at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, Zayn performs live for the first time (at an award ceremony) since his exit from 1D and wows the crowd with the number, Like I Would. All rise for Zayn Malik!