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"Imagine being one fifth of monumental boyband One Direction. Also known as one of the biggest, most successful boy bands of all time. Having sold over 50 million records in the space of five years and smashing world records continent to continent \u2013 and all by the time you\u2019ve reached your early twenties. With devoted superfans (affectionately known as Directioners) predicting, following and critiquing your every move. It\u2019s hard to imagine how it would feel to step away from that glittering limelight at the tender age of 22, at the height of your career. But that\u2019s exactly what Zayn Malik did. In a somewhat cryptic press release Zayn stated, &amp;quot;I\u2019m 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&amp;quot;. It\u2019s been less than a year since he exited the band and with a new album in the pipeline, it\u2019s hard to believe the last year has been anything close. &amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Now that I can really be myself and make music that feels honest to me, it doesn\u2019t feel like work. It really is relaxing to me&amp;quot;. Explains Zayn &amp;quot;When I decided to leave, it wasn\u2019t a big build up, it had always been underlying. I never felt like I belonged in the group, I was just doing it because at the time, I felt like it was the right place for me to be&amp;quot;. Given that boybands are created with a tried-and-tested formula, and handed a carefully constructed archetype to play up to (there\u2019s the babyface one, the heartthrob, the boy next door, the joker and then there\u2019s the broo- ding bad boy). Zayn has been called mysterious, a dark horse and a bad boy from press and fans alike. When I ask him about whether this mysterious persona was intentional, he laughs: &amp;quot;To be honest, I mentally and physically distanced myself from what I was doing creatively because I didn\u2019t want any part of it really. It didn\u2019t feel like I was really being me&amp;quot;. It\u2019s this dichotomy that often causes ex-boyband members to \u201Cfall off the rails\u201D or \u201Cself destruct\u201D upon leaving their perspective bands. And it\u2019s unsurprising that the \u201Cbad boy\u201D will quite often tear off the mask eventually and carve out a path of their own as they enter adulthood. &amp;nbsp; In Hai Niedzviecki\u2019s book Hello I\u2019m special: How In- dividuality Became the New Conformity he says in reference to boybands. &amp;quot;The paradox of \u201Cacting natural\u201D is the paradox of having to follow a communal and well-travelled path in order to arrive at individuality&amp;quot;, meaning a male\u2019s juvenility performs an important role in his eventual sexualisation, since he is man enough to be desired and desiring but boy enough to be unthreatening. Now with the mask well and truly off, and living authentically on the agenda, we sit and listen to Zayn\u2019s new album and it confirmed something immediately; the sound is distinctively more adult, the beat is more nuanced, the production is slicker and the lyrics take a confessional turn. After signing a record deal with RCA in the summer, Zayn hit the studio to work on his new album, several tracks on the album were produced by Malay, the mastermind behind Frank Ocean\u2019s Grammy award winning album Channel Orange. The duo pushed aside the almost\u00A0military-like production of his past in favour of spontaneity, taking a DIY recording rig on the road, tracks were recorded everywhere from a suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel, to a tent in the woods. &amp;nbsp; I ask Zayn if he\u2019s still in touch with the boys, he replies somewhat disappointed &amp;quot;the truth is I haven\u2019t spoken to any of the boys at all really, I spoke to Liam a bit and that\u2019s just the way it is. I did try to reach out to a couple of people and they didn\u2019t get back to me, but then publicly, when they were asked questions about it, said that they\u2019d spoken to me and that we were friends. But that\u2019s not the case, I tried to reach out and be their friend but they haven\u2019t even replied to any of my calls or texts&amp;quot;. Although there\u2019s an air of sadness, he\u2019s quick to reassure me that there\u2019s &amp;quot;no competition between me and the boys, I didn\u2019t leave for any reasons of animosity, I just wanted to do me&amp;quot;. I ask if we can expect any collaborations in the future, Zayn responds confidently &amp;quot;I just want this album to be about me and me standing on my own two feet. I\u2019ve sung with four other voices for over four years now so I want to hear myself, alone for once&amp;quot;. &amp;nbsp; Photo by Ellen Von Unwerth Fashion editor Rushka Bergman \u00A0 Fashion assistant Anna Knott Hair stylist Joe Mills@Joeandco.net using Davines Makeup artist Sarah Exley using Dermalogica \u00A0 Props stylist Beatrice Hurst Producer Lucy Watson Productions &amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.vogue.it/en/l-uomo-vogue/cover-story/2016/01/12/zayn-malik/>