Zayn Malik: We weren’t allowed to say certain things

Former One Direction member Zayn Malik tells Billboard this week that he didn't buy the group's album, and that he's not on speaking terms with his former bandmates.

"I've reached out to a few of them and not got a reply," Malik explained in Billboard's Predictions issue out this week. "I had every intention of remaining friends with everybody, but I guess certain phone numbers have changed and I haven't received calls from a lot of people."

On Zayn's former bandmates seemingly abandoning their friendships with him:
"The truth of it is," he says carefully, "you can think one thing about a -situation and the total opposite can happen. I had every intention of remaining friends with everybody, but I guess certain phone numbers have changed and I haven't received calls from a lot of people. I've reached out to a few of them and not got a reply. Certain people have pride issues, but it's stuff you overcome in time."

Regardless, Zayn takes the higher road:
"There are no sides to pick," he says. "We're not going head-to-head."

He hasn't listened to Made in the A.M. and did not like Perfect:
"I'll be honest. I thought the first single was quite cool. I heard the second single and" — he screws up his face — "yeah, I didn't buy the album."

RCA Chairman/CEO Peter Edge thinks Zayn is further along musically than Harry Styles:
"It [Malik's new music] doesn't feel like choreographed pop,...It's widely rumored that Harry is working on a record....But it feels like maybe Zayn's further along, musically."

On dismissing himself from his former band mates and the music they made:
"I genuinely enjoyed [the band] and did whatever I could to be myself within that, but it's just not where I sit as a -musician," he says. "The other boys' taste was generally indie rock. It's good music, but I don't f— with it. That was never cool where I was from."

On the restrictions he was under in One Direction:
"We weren't allowed to say certain things, or word [lyrics] the way we would" want to, says Malik. "I'd sit and wonder, 'If the fans knew how it worked, what would they think?' My argument was: People are more intelligent than that. They want to hear what's real, so why don't we write some stuff that we're actually going through?"

His ideal girl:
I like girls that are a bit chunky in certain areas — the nice areas. I like a fuller woman. I enjoy an intellectual conversation as well, where someone can construct a sentence beyond what hair and makeup they're wearing, and talk about -something political or about the world. I like an opinion."

He smokes marijuana:
Malik only burns sativa (the more energizing, cerebral strain of marijuana), because it's "creative weed."