- 2 hours ago
Zayn gets real and personal as he creates a sculpture of himself. From the first time he realized he wanted to be a musician to how much he's changed since he first joined the industry, hear Zayn break down all the things that make him who he is today. How does he like to relax? What does fame feel like? How has becoming a father changed his self-image?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I think that's a human flaw in general, even if it's in regards to fame or anything.
00:05I think a lot of people tend to think, you know, once I get this,
00:09everything else will be perfect and just slot into place miraculously.
00:13And it doesn't quite work like that.
00:17Yo, what's going on? I'm Zane and I'm going to be sculpting my self-portrait.
00:22I'm going for a bit of a creative approach, so I'm going to mix it up.
00:25I think I'm going to do like a zombie version of myself.
00:32I remember very vividly drawing Casper a lot.
00:36I was obsessed with Casper the Friendly Ghost as a kid.
00:39And I used to just draw him on repeat.
00:41And I remember the day that like it actually really looked like him.
00:44And my mum and dad were like super impressed.
00:46And I was like, yeah, I'm going to stick at this. I'm pretty good at this.
00:54I don't know if it was a performance I seen that made me want to be a musician.
00:58I think I was just into R&B music a lot when I was younger.
01:03My dad used to play some really good songs.
01:05And because of that, I was inspired to, you know, try and sing myself a little bit.
01:09I think I actually remember playing Mario Let Me Love You to my dad and being like,
01:14oh, I'm going to try singing this song.
01:16And he was like, son, if you could sing like this, all of our problems would be solved.
01:21So I was like, all right, cool. I'll try and figure that out. Yeah.
01:25My dad played a lot of good music.
01:27I always appreciated when he put Tupac on.
01:29Anything Tupac really, always was a good day in our house.
01:32I didn't really sing to my dad too much.
01:34I was kind of like very shy when I was younger.
01:37I got into theatre studies around high school and really started like going in on the music,
01:44I guess you could say at that point, like taking it seriously.
01:46So I was probably about 13, 14, up to about 15, 16.
01:51And yeah, I just remember really enjoying it and getting into it.
01:54And people, you know, saying to me, oh, like, you're pretty good at this.
01:57Like, you should try, you know, pursue it.
01:59My music teacher, Miss Hallowell, actually was saying to me a lot of the time,
02:04like she gave me like the inspiration to audition for X Factor.
02:10She was like, you should audition.
02:11So she actually like got me some singing lessons and stuff like that.
02:14And it was a good way to get out of double math.
02:16I could go do a singing lesson in school.
02:19So that was fun.
02:20Yeah.
02:21So I guess when I really started thinking I was good was when like my music teacher said,
02:25oh, you've got ability, like you could do something with this.
02:27I actually sent her flowers not too long ago just to say thanks,
02:30because she came up and thought and I was like, oh, I want to say thanks to her.
02:34The head of theatre was also a big influence in my life.
02:38Miss Galloway plays.
02:39She was a big support.
02:41She would always tell me that I had ability and stuff from a young age.
02:43Yeah.
02:43I'm just doing the eyes right now.
02:45I think things that are, you know, like recognizable that you're used to seeing me with,
02:50like maybe the beard and things like that can make it really look like me.
02:53So, yeah, just looking for them recognizable traits, you know.
03:02I don't know if I used them consciously to do that in my mind.
03:05I've always just been into art and, you know, expression of art.
03:09That obviously gives me a place to basically like experiment with that on my body.
03:15And yeah, I feel like, you know, a picture's worth a thousand words.
03:18It's just a way of like expressing myself, I guess, as an artist.
03:22My first tattoo was my grandfather's name.
03:24And I got it in Arabic and he has the most English name ever.
03:28His name's Walter and I tattooed it in Arabic.
03:32And I think I did that because I knew my mom wasn't super cool with me getting tattoos.
03:36So I got her dad's name so that she'd be cool with it.
03:39But also it was, it was a memento to my granddad and, you know, in honor of him.
03:43But I knew I'd get away with it because it was my mom's dad's name.
03:48I don't really hide any of my ink just in general.
03:51Like obviously the certain clothes that you might wear will show them more.
03:54But I don't really think about trying to hide any of them at this point.
03:57I think each tattoo has, you know, a memory of like where you got it and where you were at
04:01that time.
04:02And who the artist was.
04:03And that experience of, you know, sitting there and going through that is always in my mind.
04:07But in terms of like what it says about my life, I feel like that's a difficult question to answer.
04:14I don't know.
04:15I feel like it shows, you know, some interesting art and creative expression.
04:19But beyond that, yeah, I don't really think too deeply about the meaning of things either with my tats.
04:24I just, sometimes I just got them because I like the way they look.
04:26I've got a lot of tattoos since, you know, I left the band in order to the music that I've
04:32done, you know, since I've been solo.
04:34I've still got Time tattooed on me.
04:36I've got Icarus Falls tattooed on me.
04:37I don't have Mind of Mind tattooed on me.
04:39I was thinking about a lot of people like, so why did you tattoo that on you and not the
04:42other ones?
04:43Honestly, again, it wasn't that deep of a thought.
04:45I just got the idea at that point and I was like, I'm going to tattoo that on me.
04:54It's something I've always explored since I first started doing solo music.
04:58I wanted something that felt like it was, you know, truly just mine.
05:02So I really honed in on what made me, me.
05:05And I felt like that was definitely a big, you know, part of my identity is my heritage and culture.
05:11So I wanted to put that in there and, you know, hopefully open people's eyes to things that they might
05:16not necessarily be familiar with.
05:18So it wasn't anything new that I had to like, you know, think about for this record.
05:23It was just a development of something I've always been doing, I guess.
05:26Yeah.
05:26I'm working on my beard right now.
05:29So I'm using the black because it's it's a good, nice contrast to the skin piece by piece.
05:34Yeah. So it looks like hair. Yeah.
05:36I'm just breaking off a bit at a time and then just layering it.
05:38And then I'm going to like put shape into it afterwards using one of these tools.
05:42I'll put some lines and stuff over the top of it.
05:45Zombie version of me right now.
05:47Yeah, that's that's what I'm doing.
05:54I was 17 when I started, so it's been a long time.
05:58I was just a young kid, basically, and I just come out of school and auditioned on this TV show
06:03that,
06:04you know, projected my life and career in a crazy fast paced lifestyle that I wasn't used to at that
06:12point. And I've been doing it now for nearly 12, 13 years, you know, so I'm a bit more experienced.
06:17I feel like I'm a bit more calm and content in this environment.
06:21It doesn't feel as as jarring as it used to feel for me.
06:24And yeah, I'm just enjoying myself.
06:26I'm taking things a little bit less serious and just having fun.
06:29When I was growing up, I grew up in Bradford.
06:31And when I was doing certain things, whether it be, you know, performing arts or singing or whatever,
06:36obviously my family would support me and, you know, they always cared about me.
06:40But people didn't really give a you know what I was doing so I could do kind of what I
06:44wanted.
06:44And then obviously all this attention comes into play and people, you know,
06:48care about what you're doing and what you're saying and things like that.
06:51It can be a bit of a different, you know, adjustment period to getting used to people caring.
06:58I remember there was like a lot of buzz when we were on the show even.
07:02And there was, you know, a lot of girls like coming outside the studio and people were telling us
07:06constantly like, look, this doesn't happen for everybody that's on the show.
07:10This is like unusual. So we kind of got a vibe at that point that something was kind of happening,
07:15I guess, but I could have never expected it to be the way it was.
07:18You know, I was just a young kid.
07:19Just I would have got excited about anything.
07:21So to the magnitude it's at now, you could have never predicted that.
07:25I'm doing the side of my beard right now.
07:28And then I'm going to build an ear here on this side.
07:31So that can be my sideburn there.
07:38It's not a movie, but I love The Walking Dead.
07:40I love the comic books and TV show.
07:43It's probably one of the best zombie things to ever be created.
07:46Robert Kirkman, The Beast.
07:48Yeah. I love comic books.
07:50Yeah.
07:50Right now, my favorite series is Skin Breaker.
07:53It's a new one from Robert Kirkman.
07:55All time anything Batman, you know, like they're my favorite comics.
08:00I like Red Hood a lot too.
08:01They've done some offshoots of Red Hood.
08:03I'm really into that.
08:04I love cartoons, man.
08:05Like I've always been into cartoons since I was a kid.
08:08And they just seem to be getting better and better as I'm getting older.
08:11So I've held on to that.
08:13It's something that speaks to my inner child a little bit.
08:16I never feel more like content than when I'm just sitting on the couch,
08:19like reading my comic and fire's on some weather outside.
08:23You know, it feels like my childhood.
08:26Favorite cartoon of all time is probably Boondocks.
08:30I love the Boondocks.
08:31And then favorite cartoon right now has got to be Invincible.
08:34Yeah. I've been watching it.
08:35And it's like at a similar point where I'm at in the comic.
08:38So it's fun to watch.
08:40Yeah.
08:40But yeah, the thing I like about cartoons, I think is, you know,
08:43anybody can see themselves in it.
08:45It doesn't have to be specific to a certain place.
08:48You can just see the characters for what the writers intentions were.
08:53It's a fun way to look at things.
08:55It doesn't feel as direct.
08:57You know, it feels like there's this other space that you can look at things from.
09:05For me, music's always been kind of cathartic.
09:08You know, it's a place to just express your feelings.
09:11And I think we kind of touched on it earlier when you were saying,
09:13you know, how does somebody who's so private choose to do this as an art form?
09:16That's exactly why I picked it as an art form.
09:18Because I don't want to talk too much on a day to day basis.
09:22I'd rather let my art speak for itself, you know?
09:25And that's why I did it.
09:26Because I'm like, this is where I can connect with people to this, you know?
09:29It's hard.
09:30You know, every song's got a different kind of emotion, different kind of feeling.
09:33I don't want to sit here and like be like that bougie guy who's like, come on, you know?
09:38But like, that's kind of how I feel about it.
09:40Like it just, it depends what mood I'm in.
09:42You know what I mean?
09:43Like emotions in the day you go through like a hundred different emotions.
09:46It depends what you want to listen to at that moment, I guess.
09:53I don't think everybody's answer would be the same.
09:55But for me, it's not, it doesn't really come into my psyche.
10:00Like there are a lot of people ask me all the time, like,
10:02what does it feel like to be famous?
10:04I just kind of feel the same, you know, as I did before I was famous.
10:07Like, like I said earlier, people just give more of a shit about what I'm doing.
10:10I mean, that's all.
10:12And that's how it works, you know, and in that you've got to then take into account,
10:16you know, the type of people that you're influencing and, you know, people that you're a role model to
10:21and take that into account and try to be a good role model if you can for them people.
10:24Yeah.
10:24I think that's a, that's a human flaw in general, even if it's in regards to fame or anything.
10:29I think a lot of people tend to think, you know, once I get this,
10:33everything else will be perfect and just slot into place miraculously.
10:37And it doesn't quite work like that. You know what I mean?
10:40I think anybody who's lived a little bit of life knows that it takes time and you've got to work
10:45on things and, and, you know, really put graft in for you to see a progression or a difference.
10:49It's not just going to change because you achieved this thing and now you're there.
10:52So everything's going to, you know, just be perfect.
11:00Don't know if it's changed my self image too much, but it has definitely made me take things a bit
11:07more, you know, with a pinch of salt and just enjoy the time I have with my daughter.
11:11I have this amazing child that is super smart and real funny. I love hanging out with her.
11:17I don't know if it's changed the image of myself. I guess I just don't go out as much anymore.
11:21You know, I spend a lot of time with her. Yeah. We do a lot of things together.
11:26She's really taking an interest in like extracurricular activities at the minute.
11:30So she changes her mind quite a bit as five-year-olds do.
11:34She's really into gymnastics. And then she's like come to me and she's like real stressed out
11:38by like a old 30 year old woman. She's like, I don't think I want to do this.
11:42Like, I think I want to take dance instead. I'm really into dance. Made me super happy when she
11:47said to me, I want to play soccer. But I told her obviously it's called football, you know?
11:53But yeah, she wants to play soccer. So she's going to start doing that. I got to get her
11:57cleats and stuff and that was really cool. We kicked the ball around a bit together. Yeah,
12:02she told me she was super excited because she played at school. She was like, we played at school
12:06today and we played boys versus girls. And I said, oh, did you? That's cool. I said, what was the
12:13score?
12:14She was like, it was like 21 to the boys and she still loved it. And I was like, okay.
12:21So me as a
12:22competitive father was like, I'm going to teach you how to kick that ball properly.
12:25So that score is a bit different next time. You know what I mean?
12:33First time I performed at MSG was quite an experience. To live that again would be cool.
12:39I think I'd enjoy doing that just for the performance. And then I'd like to skip back to
12:43being this edge. It just felt amazing. You know, it's got this prestigious history attached to it.
12:48All the best artists that I've ever been in history have performed there. So yeah,
12:53it just felt like an honor to be able to do it. You know, being a kid from Bradford,
12:56they let me on the stage to sing it. It's kind of crazy.
13:04I'm going to leave it there. I wanted to make it more zombified, but I just think it's going to
13:07look
13:08weird. I was going to put green on it, but it is what it is. I think I'm just going
13:11to leave it there.
13:12I was going to put some scary teeth on it too, but I think it's cool.
13:20I said I was going to do the zombie. And I guess the only thing that looks zombie is the
13:25fact that I've
13:25got red eyes. The rest of it just pretty much looks like me. I wish I had a bit more
13:29time.
13:29I could have done the full head of hair, but right now I just have like this hair piece at
13:33the front.
13:33And yeah, it's a look. I was going to go for the real scary demonic look,
13:37and then I just didn't know what to do after that.
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