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The former members of One Direction are on a bit of a spree when it comes to announcing new musical projects. After Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, it’s Zayn Malik’s turn and he’s embraced his South Asian roots for KONNAKOL.

The 15-song album, which releases on April 17, is named after a South Indian vocal technique of making percussion sounds with the mouth. Malik said the technique was used in some of the songs while answering questions during session on TalkShopLive.

Responding to a fan who asked how this album differed from the rest of his discography, the singer said, “There’s a lot more Indian influence, Pakistani influence and South Asian vibes going on… it was the basis for the production.” He told fans he found himself singing “qawwali-kinda sounding stuff and sufi-sounding things”.

Another fan asked if Malik had learned anything new about his heritage during the project, to which he replied that he hadn’t. The idea, he said, was to “employ more of my knowledge of my heritage and the things that have inspired me and put it into my music”.

The singer said whenever he put Indian influences in his music, it felt more like a “me song, y’know, it’s not just for anybody, it has to be me [singing]”.

The album cover, which features a shot of the singer fused with an image of a snow leopard. When quizzed about its meaning, he said, “The snow leopard is an animal that is native [to] South Asia, Pakistan, them kind of places. So, it just made sense to me that we use something that is symbolic in that sense on the cover.”

One user asked Malik if any Indian singers inspired him and he said he especially loved a song Sonu Nigam sang for the film Agneepath — he couldn’t remember the song’s name, but a fan later said it was ‘Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin’.

Cover photo: Zayn Malik/Instagram