Inside “Mind of Mine”

Luz Gomez, Reporter

Zayn Malik drops his microphone and walks away from One Direction, and picks it up a year later to start his solo career.

Zayn Malik is a 23 years old just starting his solo career. He had been in the well known-boy band, One Direction, for 5 years until he decided that it was not something he would like to continue doing.

“I never really wanted to be there, like in the band. I just gave it a go because it was there at the time and when I realized the direction that we were going in with the music, I instantly realized it wasn’t for me because I couldn’t put any input in,” he said in an interview with Beats 1. “I couldn’t give my opinion on this or that because it didn’t fit the grain of what we were as a band or what we represented.”
He wanted to be a “normal 22 year old” at that time, but as time passed he began experimenting and he found what he really wanted to do, make his own music.
He went from a upbeat pop sound in the boy band, to a more rhythmic R&B sound with his new album.

“I think the songs are pretty good and I feel like it's finally him,” said freshman Melody Larios. In the interview with Beats 1, he mentioned feeling restricted while in the band because he didn’t have the freedom to write the type of music that he really enjoyed.

“He’s had experience making albums with the boys, so I thought it was going to be good,” said freshman Leslie Galvan. “He has the vocal ability.”
Zayn is from a town called Bradford in the UK. As he continues with his music career he makes sure to not forget about where he is from and who is with him. Bradford is one of his biggest inspirations because it made him who he is today. His family is another big part of it.

“I’m really close with my family, so they’re like a drive for what I’m doing with music,” he said.

He hopes to do a gig in Bradford in the near future, to show how far he has come and to just be in the place that has influenced him the most.

The song “Flower” also has a special meaning to it. This song is very spiritual, Urdu-language track. This song is specifically dedicated to his father and his Pakistani culture.

One thing that Zayn really likes about this album is that he was able to record songs in different places. He made a big recording process with songwriter, Malay. The first song that he recorded was, “Befour” in Las Vegas. Zayn and Malay got an inspiration while they were in Vegas so they decided to record there.

Zayn has collaborated with several people on this album. The two main ones were Malay and Kehlani. Malay was an influence for Zayn when it came to choosing what type of music he liked and what type of sound he wanted to produce.

“He doesn’t really look at music the way that a normal producer does,” he said about Malay, “He looks into every instrument in high detail and he understands how to break it down, like you could get a screwdriver out and unscrew a microphone and he'll tell you what every single piece is inside of it.”

He reached out to Kehlani and sent her a few of his songs. She contacted him later when she got her new studio and sent him back one of the songs that they would soon collaborate on.  

This album has mixed feelings to it overall, the reason for this is that the album is a little bit too explicit for some people. His fans are mainly fans of One Direction, causing a bit of conflict between the both. Some believe that he is trying too hard to give off a new image.

He joked about how his grandmother used to tease him about the songs.
“I think the songs might have been a bit provocative for her and she would say ‘maybe you could take out some bad words and use some nicer words.’”

“There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there's so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on.” he once said. We are expecting more albums from him in the future.

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