Zayn Malik was simply ready to live while he was still young. In fact, as the One Direction alum – who formed the group with bandmates Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson in 2010 – recently revealed, he knew the exact moment he needed to step away from the band five years after their debut. "There was a lot of politics going on," he said during an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. "Certain people were doing certain things, certain people didn't want to sign contracts, so I knew something was happening, so I just got ahead of the curve. I was like, ‘I'm just going to get out of here. I think this is done.'" As he explained, he was more than ready to take charge of his own career. "I completely selfishly wanted to be the first person to go and make my own record, if I'm being completely honest with you." And though he would usually describe himself as "passive," the Pillowtalk singer said he's the opposite when it comes to his music.