Clash Issue 104 Zayn

The fourth and final cover star for Issue 104 of Clash is solo superstar Zayn.

The redefinition of Zayn Malik began as he prepared to leave One Direction, choosing to step off the world-conquering juggernaut of a phenomenon to finally discover himself as an artist. One year after the sex-saturated solo debut, ‘Mind Of Mine’, which defiantly positioned the now-mono-monikered Zayn as a mature and assertive R&B force, he stands assertively more poised to live up to the expectations he’s raised with his second album.

“I was always going to over-analyse my record anyway - I’m that kinda person,” he informs Clash. “I wanted to be the person that was going to be the most negative and get in that frame of mind and be like, ‘If I’m going to hate me, what am I going to hate about me?’ and try and get rid of all that negative shit, so even the person that wants to hate me the most still has to like my record.”

Clash catches up with Zayn in New York, where he’s putting the finishing touches to album number two, to talk about learning to trust people, the intrusions into his private life and relationship, making babies, and his recent collaborations with Versace.

Also in the new issue are features with Shawn Mendes, Travis Scott, Jorja Smith, Sampha, Mac DeMarco, Mick Fleetwood, Maggie Rogers, Glen Matlock, J Hus, THEY., Alexandra Savior, Anne-Marie, Goldie and much more.