Less than a week since he announced his departure from One Direction, Zayn Malik’s first solo track is already online. It’s a three-minute demo called I Won’t Mind and was leaked by the track’s producer, Naughty Boy, following a Twitter spat with Malik’s former One Direction bandmate, Louis Tomlinson. “Let the music do the talking guys,” Naughty Boy wrote as he shared the track on Twitter earlier this morning.
The music is definitely promising. This isn’t Zayn Malik’s debut solo single and shouldn’t be judged on those terms – more of an understated and unpolished demo that sounds like the work of someone testing out his newfound creative freedom. “Cause we are who we are when no one’s watching,” Malik sings intriguingly over delicate acoustic guitar chords. “And right from the start, you know I got ya.” I Won’t Mind is nothing but vocals and guitar until its last 30 seconds, when Naughty Boy works in a simple drum beat.
It’s early days, of course, but Naughty Boy seems like a smart choice of collaborator for Malik. The Watford-born songwriter-producer makes music with a British urban edge, something Malik may have missed during his time in One Direction, but he also has a knack for crafting irresistibly catchy songs that get played on the radio. La La La, Naughty Boy’s collaboration with Sam Smith, topped the charts in 2013 and later won a MOBO. Naughty Boy has also worked with rappers like Tinie Tempah and Wiley, multi-platinum soul singer Emeli Sandé and even the mighty Rihanna. So if Malik’s looking to make pop music with a slightly cooler, more credible edge, he’s in very capable hands.
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Photography Javierosh