The Urdu song " Intermission: Flower" was influenced by his upbringing as a British-Pakistani Muslim. Referencing the recording, producer Malay stated that Zayn "knows how to sing like that, and he’s always been able to do it, but he just never took it that seriously" until one day he said Zayn "just picked up the mic and tracked that whole thing basically live, in one take." Malay said he “was just blown away" and "didn’t know he could sing like that," and that "he told me he was in a super spiritual place, and that the saying is something one of his family members had told him that had always stuck to him." Malay said the session was more like jazz music "where a singer will have a concept or a melody and then the rest of it is just improvised." The album includes 18 songs, though Zayn wrote a total of 46 tracks. The sole vocal feature on the album comes from R&B singer Kehlani on the duet " Wrong". For 10 years, this album has been in my brain, and it's just been there, sat with me, needing to be out." In his first solo on-camera interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music's Beats 1, Zayn revealed Mind of Mine as the album's title. Zayn told Billboard Magazine, "Once they hear it, I feel like they will understand me a little bit more. Kelly, Usher, Donell Jones, and Prince, as well as Bollywood music. I’m kind of just showing what my influences are." The album was influenced by the music that he grew up with, primarily his father's urban music records from R&B artists like R. He stated, "I don't really know what my style is yet.
As the band developed a distinctly pop-rock sound, Zayn felt the music was ultimately too different from the style he preferred to sing and write in. He stated "Life experiences have been the influences for the album.stuff that I've been through, especially in the last five years, being with the band and everything".įurthermore, he explained his reasons for leaving One Direction: "There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band." He originally auditioned to be a solo singer with Mario's "Let Me Love You" in 2010, before being briefly eliminated then ultimately placed in the spontaneously formed boy band.
From November 2015 onwards, Zayn gave several interviews with various music magazines where he talked about the recording process, his musical influences and what the album would be about. He would regularly post photos of himself in the recording studio throughout the year, while his producers uploaded preview videos of his songs to their own social media accounts.
On July 29, 2015, Zayn tweeted a photo of himself signing a recording contract with his new label RCA Records.