Earlier this month, Zayn Malik, also simply known as ZAYN, released a very personal memoir.
In the book, he goes into detail about his upbringing, family, his time in One Direction, why he ultimately left 1D, his anxiety, and a whole lot more.
For example, did you know he's a fan of Canada’s Shania Twain? That he loves chicken wings? That he played Danny Zuko in his school's production of Grease?
Reading Zayn's book, we learned a lot about the 23-year-old singer/songwriter from Bradford, England -- including the fact that he's already working on his second album.
He left One Direction because the style of music he wanted to create was not in line with the rest of the group. "One Direction made great pop, there's no denying that. But it's no secret that that kind of pop music really isn't my thing and towards the end of my time with the band, I was becoming more and more desperate to express my own style and write lyrics about stuff that I really believed in, rather than the melodies and beats that were being made for us in One Direction. I wanted to be in the studio singing lyrics that resonated with me, not just repeating someone else's lines."
He's still really proud of his 1D days. "I can honestly say I'm proud of a lot of stuff from the One Direction days. I'm not sure people realize that, but I am. I've got the memorabilia - the platinum discs we received with every album all over my house. I have a wall dedicated to displaying them. One Direction was an incredible experience in its own right, and it's a part of me, and integral part of my history, and I'm never going to deny that aspect of my life."
He built a DIY bar in his backyard, and it's a tribute to his grandparents, who ran a pub called The Bradford Arms. "I've built a boozer in my own back garden in London. I like to hang out there and have friends over. It doesn't look that special from the outside: basically, I just bought the biggest shed I could find from the local DIY superstore. It's sick. I've filled the place with all this memorabilia. I've got the same velvet curtains and Chesterfield sofa as my grandparents had back in the Bradford Arms. They even gave me the original sign from the pub."
Growing up, he was a little bit of a troublemaker in school, and even got in trouble for having a BB gun in class once. "I was constantly getting into trouble. Once, when I was at Tong High School, I was collared for having a BB gun in class. It wasn't loaded or anything, but me waving it around didn't go down too well."
He's a boxer. "Boxing didn't just change me physically. It shifted my mental attitude as well, and there were some lessons learned along the way. Ironically, I think the most important lesson of all was that I was taught how not to fight."
He played the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease. "When I was twelve or thirteen, I started doing theatre studies, and I found a lot of peace in acting - it was amazing and I loved it. I got so into it that I landed the role of Danny Zuko in the school production of Grease."
Somewhere out there are a few songs that Zayn wrote and recorded for a girl he had a crush on in school. And no, she didn't return his affection. "One time I wrote and sang a couple of songs for a girl I quite fancied. I recorded them and left the tape in her locker at lunchtime. I prayed and prayed she would like them. No comment. Looking back, I guess they were pretty f***ing embarrassing. I hope she's thrown that tape in the bin rather than kept hold of the songs. I'm not sure I'd like to see them pop up online."
He learned to shoot a bow and arrow while out camping in the woods, recording parts of his album. "I had never fired an arrow from a bow before, and one day I decided to give it a go. I really got into it, and it became the thing I did to keep myself entertained. I'd go out into the woods, using the trees as a target and fire. Within two weeks, I swear my arms had bulked up from pulling back the bowstring so much. My aim was pretty sharp, too, if I do say so myself."
He suffered from an eating disorder. "When I look back at images of myself from around November 2014, before the final tour, I can see how ill I was. Something I've never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder. It wasn't as though I had any concerns about my weight or anything like that, I'd just go for days - sometimes two or three days straight - without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at at the time I didn't recognize it for what it was. I think it was about control. I didn't feel like I had control over anything else in my life, but food was something I could control, so I did."
He's a Shania Twain fan. "I'm into everything, and my tastes aren't that specific - in fact, they've got broader and broader as I've got older. I like Mariah Carey and Shania Twain; I like Johnny Cash and a lot of other country artists. My influences come from many places. As long as it's a good tune, I'm into it."
He broke through his anxiety only 30 minutes before his iHeartAwards performance. "Probably one of the worst experiences of anxiety I had pre-Wembley was in the lead-up to the iHeartRadio Music Awards in LA, not long after the album was released. I'd got myself into this headspace where I was just like, 'No way. I can't do it. I'm not doing it.' Out of nowhere, I felt totally paralyzed. My whole team came around to the house. They were trying to shake me out of it, but, for the longest time, I just couldn't see how I was going to do it. Then something clicked, and about thirty minutes before the show I managed to break through that wall, or whatever it was, and I did it. I felt sick. I was vomiting backstage before the performance, but I remember coming off after singing feeling so elated. It was so awesome playing that gig, the crowd was so supportive and it was like a huge victory for me: I hadn't let my anxiety get the better of me; I'd done it. That was probably one of the best nights I've had in LA.”
He almost pulled out of his iHeartRadio Album Release Party (which was one of his first solo performances), but his fans who camped out overnight motivated him to perform. "So far, I'd always managed to pull myself out of my anxiety attacks. I'd find the strength to psych myself up. Sometimes, something random would get me through it, like the time when I felt so sick with nerves I nearly pulled out of iHeart in New York on the day Mind of Mine was being released. A member of my team showed me a picture of the fans camped outside, the same fans I had sent doughnuts and coffee to the night before, and I just knew I had to do it, for them, if not for me. I had to convince myself to be a performer."
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio