Zayn Malik says his new album is “raw and honest”.
The former One Direction singer, 31, is putting out his fourth studio record ‘Room Under the Stairs’ on 17 May – his first since 2021’s ‘Nobody Is Listening’ – and added it marks a departure from his old sound.
He told the ‘Hot Ones’ online show: “The new album is a very different sound to anything I’ve ever put out before.
“It’s just really raw and honest and I hope people get that when they listen to it, I hope they get some insight into how I’m feeling and the things I’ve been going through over the last six or seven years while I’ve been writing this record, and that’s the most important thing for me, I just want people to feel that they get a connection with the record.”
Zayn has already released the artwork for ‘Room Under the Stairs’, which features a silhouette of his face and a blueprint of a house being built.
He added about the title: “I recorded most of it in a tiny little like shoe cabinet in my house, so I thought it was fitting to name it after that room so people can get even more sentiment into what the whole idea behind it was.”
Zayn also denied he pushes his tunes onto other people, adding: “I don’t like to just bump my music to people when they come over – ‘You have to listen to my music’– but if I’m having a moment to myself where I’m listening to things, I listen to my music quite a lot.”
Dad-of-one Zayn, who lives in Pennsylvania, and has daughter Khai, three, with model Gigi Hadid, 28, is set to release the first single from the album, ‘What I Am’ on 15 March and teased the album with a short video on Instagram.
He said in the clip: “I think the intention behind this album fully is for the listener to get more insight on me personally as a human being.
“My ambitions, my fears… and for them to have a connection with that. And that’s why it’s so raw, you know?
“There’s just me writing this. I didn’t want anyone else to be in between me and the music, and the music and the people listening to it.”