When Will Liam Payne Begin Recording His Music?

It's the moment One Direction fans should have seen coming. Following Zayn Malik's departure from One Direction in March 2015, the boy band continued to make music with the release of their 2015 album, Made In The A.M. However, hope that the band could actually stay together quickly began to dwindle when One Direction announced in early 2016 that they would be going on a break. And now, yet another member of the band is going his own way: On Thursday, Liam Payne announced his intentions to pursue a solo career, following his signing of a deal with Capitol Records. The former X-Factor contestant took to Twitter to share the news with his fans and even reassured Directioners' heartbreak by tweeting, "One direction will always be my home and family but I'm very excited to see what this chapter brings." And now, it's only a matter of time until Payne will hit the recording studio. So, when will Payne start recording his new music?

For the sake of the fans, I'm hoping that Payne waits a bit for the news to sink in before he goes on recording. However, with the contract already signed, Zayn's music already topping the charts, and Harry Styles taking on acting in Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, Dunkirk, there's no reason why the singer wouldn't immediately dive-in to his own solo endeavors as well. And, while no release date for new music has been set, that doesn't mean that planning hasn't already begun.

However, on the flip side of things, there is also a decent level of hope for mourning Directioners. Considering the fact that Payne announced the news by saying, "They have an amazing history of artists, I hope I can follow in their footsteps," it does sound as if the contract was just signed. And, if that's the case, writing the music, lyrics, and getting all of the kinks figured out prior to recording could still be a ways off. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up taking him an entire year — maybe even more — to put out his first album. I mean, Zayn released his music an exact year after he exited the band.

So now, all Directioners can do is wait. When the time is right, Payne is bound to tease some insight into his music on his personal Instagram account. And, in the meantime, you can play all of One Directions albums on repeat and dream about the day they all come together once again. Because, hey, as much as they're doing what makes them happy, a One Direction reunion is still a possibility.