Zayn phoned in for an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio to chat about his debut solo album, Mind of Mine, and his latest single, Like I Would.
Calling in from Manchester, where he is currently shooting his latest music video, he dishes on the musical influence behind Like I Would. Calling the attitude of the track upbeat, Zayn goes on to say that the song has soul influences, and he wanted to showcase that.
“I am influenced by soulful R&B sort of music.”
Zayn surprised fans on Monday with the release of the track list for Mind of Mine. The titles of most songs on the list were spelled with alternating upper and lower case letters and garnered some confusion from the fans. He admits to receiving mixed responses to this style of writing.
“That’s just something that I used to do always, like, on my school sh*t and stuff…people are really confused by it. I think people are saying they used to write like that on Facebook in 2005.”
Lowe brings up the question that is on the minds of many fans: is Zayn going to tour? Zayn recently made his television debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where he performed It’s You for the first time. With fans itching for more, Zayn reveals the answer we’d all been hoping for.
“I got a couple of shows coming up. I think I’m just really saving it for when I start touring.”
Zayn explains the reasoning behind the delay in touring, saying that he wants it all to be as put together as it can be, and he just doesn’t have the time at the moment to rehearse the songs into perfection.
Pillowtalk, Zayn’s first single, was number one in over 60 countries. When asked about it, he admits to being amazed by the attention and success it received.
“It massively surprised me and I was just taken aback by people’s response to it. I guess I didn’t really know that peole were going to enjoy it as much as they did.”
With the success of his first single, Zayn explains that the response to the material he’s been putting out has given him confidence, and inspires him to do even more. Though he’s received offers to work with many different people, he mentions that his primary focus is on the album–at least for now.
“I’m obviously just concentrating on this for the time being. But once [Mind of Mine] is out, and I’ve got this done, then obviously there’s nothing that’s going to stop me from collaborating with other artists that I’m interested in.”
You can listen to the whole interview on Apple Music.
Zayn’s solo career has had an amazing start, and we have high hopes for the future! Zayn’s debut solo album, Mind of Mine will be released on March 25, 2016.
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