After Zayn Malik left One Direction in the spring, it was only a matter of time until he would get candid about how he really felt about the music he was making with the UK boy band. So when he sat down with FADER for its December/January issue, he told the magazine what he really thought of the music he was making while in One Direction.

“There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band,” he said. “If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as fuck so they could use that version. Whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didn’t fit us. There was just a general conception that the management already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasn’t convinced with what we were selling. I wasn’t 100 percent behind the music. It wasn’t me. It was music that was already given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to these people. As much as we were the biggest, most famous boy band in the world, it felt weird. We were told to be happy about something that we weren’t happy about.”

While we applaud his honesty, it is a bit harsh, no? Well, Simon Cowell, who was the man behind the group, didn't appreciate Zayn's comments. 

“I think once he has had a chance to reflect on everything he will probably reconsider what he’s said because it was a very, very democratic process in the band,” he told the UK's The Mirror.

He also said, "It is a bit rude to the people who wrote all the hits with them."

Read his full FADER interview here.