Zayn Malik has been hailed as a "true artist".
Zayn Malik
The 23-year-old singer worked with producer Malay on his debut solo album 'Mind of Mine' and he was hugely impressed with Zayn's vision and creativity.
In an excerpt from the singer's autobiography, 'Zayn', obtained by Complex magazine, Malay said: "Zayn is a true artist. He's got vision and he's pretty clear about what he wants to do. It also helps that he's really creative - he's always drawing, painting or writing stuff; he's reading all the time, and it comes out in his lyrics. He's just forever exercising that part of his brain, and I'm excited to see where he ends up. This is just the beginning for him. Now that he's getting started, I can only imagine where he's going to be in a few years."
And while Zayn loved collaborating with Malay, he admitted he found him "weird" at first.
He said: "I remember the first time we went into the studio with him, I thought he was a bit of a weirdo. Not in a bad way, I have my fair share of weirdness at times. Malay was just such a strange, unique human being.
"I'm more of a beer or whisky guy, but Malay somehow got me into drinking wine. I still don't do the swirl it around in the glass thing though - I'll leave that one to him."
In another excerpt from his eponymous autobiography, Zayn claimed he felt relieved to sing about sex after leaving boyband One Direction in March 2015.
Despite many of One Direction's songs, including 'No Control', 'Live While We're Young', 'Change Your Ticket', 'Kiss You' and 'Temporary Fix', referencing sex, Zayn wrote: "Every lyric I've ever written has a story behind it. All the hard work that went into the creation of 'Pillowtalk' was worthwhile because, as soon as it was finished, I intuitively felt I was on the right path.
"It was a sick cut, nailing the exact sound I wanted to capture in my music. I was also able to sing about a subject that I hadn't really been able to go near while I was in One Direction: sex."
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