We get it. Now is Zayn’s time and quite honestly, we’re looking forward to it. We’ve always loved his voice and can’t wait to embrace his music. Why? Because we’re a fan and when you are a true fan – it doesn’t change. So he’s not in One Direction anymore… we mean if we’re being honest that affects us, but it also makes us realize something.
We’ll support these boys together or apart. If Niall wanted to take up playing on the PGA tour, we’ll learn to love golf (or drinking while watching golf cause that shit is boring). If Harry wants to cut off his hair, we’ll learn to love the short hair (and we’ll rejoice that finally we have better hair than he does). You get the point.
So knowing that Zayn is on his own – yes, we’ve fought it. But we’ve also learned to embrace it. Because if there is one thing that we can see – he’s happy with it. It’s almost been a year since he left One Direction – Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 6:30 a.m. ET – a day that will forever live in fandom infamy.
And if you truly love someone that’s all you want.
The singer is covering Billboard and here’s what we’ve learned –
On not hearing from One Direction after leaving the band: “The truth of it is you can think one thing about a -situation and the total opposite can happen. 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.”
On the truth behind One Direction: “[The band and I] 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?”
On what he did after leaving the band: “I went home. I seen my mum, who cooked me some great food. I ate for three weeks because I’d lost so much weight in the band. I seen my sisters and put my dad’s sheepskin on — I walked around and everyone thought I was him. Nobody bothered me. It was good for my soul to be back in Bradford.”
On his new music: “I’ll come down here and record maybe seven songs a night….That’s because I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’m not censoring myself anymore, so I’m not tired. I love it.”
On his house: “I like to graffiti my house. The garden goes up three stories into the mountain. There are these walls that look white from one side, but when you walk up the stairs, the inside is all graffiti. I painted ‘Fresh Prince’ on one.”
On learning from the women who admire him: “I was raised by a lot of women, so there’s nothing any fan girl could’ve ever taught me about any woman. I fully understood every person who’d come and see the band, because I have crazy aunties and crazy sisters who would fan-girl over actors. If people can’t have something, they want it.”
On what he’s learned from going solo: “I’m incredibly disciplined. I realized I can push myself through situations I might not necessarily want to do, but can overcome by being in the moment. No matter what, I can smile and do whatever I got to do.”
