One Direction Alum Zayn Malik Says He's Still In Touch With Liam Payne

(Photo : Getty Images/Stuart C. Wilson) One Direction alum Zayn Malik revealed that he and former bandmate Liam Payne talk to each other over the phone and want to meet up.

Despite leaving One Direction in March 2015, Zayn Malik remains pretty close with former bandmate Liam Payne.

In the new issue of NME, Malik, 23, revealed that he and Payne catch up with each other over the phone.

"I'm still probably the closest to Liam," Malik said. "We talk on the phone."

The "Pillowtalk" hitmaker added that Payne, 22, has been happy for his achievements as a solo artist.

"He congratulated me on my single, which was nice," Malik said. "I congratulated him on his Brit Award. It was a good chat. We haven't met up in a long time so we want to meet up."

In Malik's The Fader cover story last November, Malik recalled the first time he spoke with Payne since leaving the group.

"I spoke to Liam about two weeks ago," Malik told the New York-based music magazine at the time. "It was the first time I'd spoken to him since I left the band, and I rung him, and he wanted to talk. He said that he didn't understand it at the time, but he now fully gets why I had to do what I did. He understands that it's my thing ... that I had to do that."

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Malik added that Payne "wants to meet up and sit down and have a good chat [with him] in person, and ... wants to do some music and work on some stuff aside from being in the band."

Last August, Payne expressed his excitement about Malik's solo career -- just a few days after the ex-1D member announced that he had signed a recording deal with RCA Records.

"I'm dead excited to hear some of his stuff," Payne told Magic Radio (via U.K.'s The Mirror). "He's got a great voice, and he's a very talented young man."

Meanwhile, things remain distant between Malik and the rest of the band -- Louis Tomlinson, 24, Harry Styles, 22, and Niall Horan, 22.

"I tried to have contact but nobody's reached out. So ... whatever," Malik told NME.

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