Eight months after his departure from One Direction, Zayn Malik has given his first major interview as a solo artist.

The 22-year-old star has spoken to The Fader for a cover feature consisting of an interview, photoshoot and accompanying video that gives an exclusive preview of Malik’s solo sound.

The Fader reports their interview with Zayn was conducted over bottles of beer, cigarettes and a spliff.

An aspect of his time in One Diretion Zayn’s discusses in his interview is the trend for Directioners to “ship” – short for “relationshipping” – various members of the band in the belief they are in covert romantic relationships.

Speaking about the various fan theories, Malik stated: “There’s no secret relationships going on with any of the band members. It’s not funny, and it still continues to be quite hard for them. They won’t naturally go put their arm around each other because they’re conscious of this thing that’s going on, which is not even true. They won’t do that natural behaviour.”

On One Direction’s enthusiastic fans, he explained: “They’re so passionate, and once they get their head around an idea, that’s the way it is regardless of anything. If it wasn’t for that passion, like, almost obsession, then we wouldn’t have the success that we had.”

Zayn’s former band mates are on course to top the UK album chart later this week with ‘Made In The A.M.’ – their first LP as a quartet.

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Watch behind-the-scenes footage from Zayn’s Fader shoot below: