One Direction was never Zayn Malik's ''kind of bag''.

The 22-year-old singer quit the group in March and his former bandmates can understand why he chose to leave as his own music tastes were so different.

Liam Payne said: ''One Direction was never really Zayn's kind of bag, if you know what I mean. His taste in music was a bit different, and I guess that's kind of what drove him to do what he did in the end, which is not necessarily a bad thing.''

Despite Liam admitting it was a ''disaster'' when Zayn left the group, he thinks things have worked out for the best.

He added in an interview on UK TV show 'Good Morning Britain': ''Everyone's come out fine from it, thanks to our beautiful fans. And he's off doing what he loves as well, so both parties are winners in the end of a disaster of a situation. It's all good.' ''

Meanwhile, the remaining members of One Direction - Liam, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Niall Horan - are preparing to go on hiatus, but taking a break doesn't mean they won't be seeing one another as the quartet are already planning a holiday together.

Louis said: ''There's no doubt we'll see plenty of each other, we're gonna plan to go on a little lads' holiday. Actually it's just the day to day things, we are like a family now, so it's the company that you're used to, it's like leaving school and leaving your friends behind.''

And the 'Little Things' hitmakers haven't set a date to get back together.

Asked if they know how long the break is going to be, Louis said: ''We don't yet, no. We don't really want to put a time on it because then that puts pressure on us, and we're just going to enjoy this time to do what we want to do.''