Zayn Malik, 'Free at Last,' Talks About Why he Quit One Direction

London: Singer Zayn Malik, who quit One Direction early last year, says he "knew it was his time" to exit the chart-topping boy band, he told .

The Pillowtalk hitmaker felt it was the right decision and now feels "free at last."

"I just knew it was my time. I knew I wanted to do something different and start expressing the way I felt about certain things," said Zayn.

"I know that musicians are seen as one-sided people a lot of the time. But we do have other elements to us as well. I didn't feel good. Do you know what I mean? And if you don't feel good, you need to be able to express what it is that you are. I'm free at last," he added.

The 23-year-old singer was a little nervous about how his young fans would react to his new music and expected them to "freak out."

Advertisement

"I didn't know what to expect. I wanted to make that statement, that this was something completely separate from whatever was out there before. I kind of expected the fans that followed me before to be a bit freaked out by it," he said.

"It was nerve-wracking for me but it worked out for the best, because people started listening to it in a more mature context," he added.

Advertisement