Eight months after leaving One Direction, Zayn Malik is FADER’s new cover star and shared a teaser of the story out later today. In the two-minute clip, Malik is seen riding a motorbike on a country road, walking on a bucolic hillside, and smoking in his teepee in his North London home. In the background, you can hear a snippet of his first ever solo song, called “Befour.” (No chill, Zayn) Dubbed the “mysterious” one during his boy band days, Malik is soft-spoken and introspective in the clip. One Direction released their fifth album Made In The A.M. just last Friday, so this cover feature is certainly timely.
FADER also shared that all the tracks on his debut album were written by him. Channel Orange producer James “Malay” Ho worked on it.
I don’t feel like people really know what I’m going to give them, musically. And once they hear it, I feel like they will understand me a little bit more, and they’ll understand why I did what I did, and why I left the band, and why I had to write this shit down. Because for five—not even for five years, for ten years, this album has been in my brain, and it’s just been there, sat with me, needing to be out.
Watch the teaser above and stay tuned for the Fader cover story.