With Taylor Swift’s new music leaving fans divided, one of her musical collaborators is stepping up to defend her amidst backlash over her latest single/video, “Look What You Made Me Do”.
In an interview with Fader, the former One Direction singer — who worked with Swift last year on “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” for the “Fifty Shades Darker” soundtrack — admits he doesn’t “pay too much attention” to that kind of “trivia,” and says that from his perspective Swift deserves her status as one of pop’s biggest stars.
“To be honest with you, Duncan, when it comes to anything that has to do with trivia about people’s personal lives or things that’s going on in their careers, I don’t necessarily pay too much attention,” Zayn tells Fader. “I don’t pay too much attention to what people even say about me. I just tend to take it for what it is when I meet them people in real life and have a conversation with them. If they’re cool with me, then I base my relationship on that.”
He adds: “In terms of relating to it, of course I relate to things being written about us all the time. But I don’t listen to it. I rate her as an artist, I think she’s cool, I think she’s successful, and I think she deserves her success because she’s worked hard. That’s just how I look at it. I did a song with her, it was fun, she was professional. She gets on with my girlfriend, they’re good friends. I don’t have a bad word to say about her. She’s cool.”
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During the wide-ranging interview, Zayn also addresses fan concern about his ongoing battle with anxiety, assuring that he’s healthy, happy and taking care of himself.
“I’m going to bed quite early at the minute,” he says. “I’ve been working in the studio throughout the day and going to bed at a reasonable time, getting up at reasonable times. Eating all my meals. I’ve got a gym at the house, so I’ve starting doing a bit of training. My fans can rest assured everything is under control, haha.”
In addition, Zayn offers an update on his upcoming album, revealing that it’s just about completed, but he’s continuing to tinker.
“This record, I’ve kind of finalized it,” he explains. “But there’s always ideas. Every day I find another song that I’m swapping out with another one. That’s why the album date hasn’t really come yet. Even though the album is pretty much there, and I have the material, I’m still changing things here and there. It’s not necessary in my head when I work on a song whether it’s for a new project or whether it’s for this.”
You can read the interview in its entirety right here.
