With the release of his highly anticipated solo debut just around the corner, Rollacoaster is proud as punch to have Liam Payne cover its new issue. Shot by James White of Buzz White Studio, the 23 year-old spoke at length about love, his ex-band members, and the new US president. “Trump actually kicked us out of his hotel once,” he explains, “You wouldn’t believe it. It was about (meeting) his daughter. He phoned up our manager and we were asleep. He said ‘well, wake them up’ and I was like ‘no’ and then he wouldn’t let us use the underground garage. Obviously in New York we can’t really go outside. New York is ruthless for us. So he was like, ‘OK, then I don’t want you in my hotel.’ So we had to leave.”

Recalling the moment One Direction failed in the X Factor finals – coming third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle – we learn that when 1D lost, Liam turned to his dad with a ‘we made it this far’ face. His fellow band-mates, he says, were in pieces. He remembers first Harry, then Louis, Niall and Zayn bursting into tears. “A cameraman came over and said ‘can I get you boys for an interview?’ and I looked at all the boys crying, in their mum’s arms and I was like, ‘look, I’ll do the interview’ because I was the only one who was alright and so I went off to the side and did the after-camera interview for us. I just left them because I wanted them to have their moment and the cameras didn’t need to see them like that.”

Finally, on the subject of love, Payne opened up about his new ‘dream life’: “This is the thing,” he says, “In a non-cliché way, it’s weird waking up every day and literally living out your dream. You wake up in the most beautiful places. Obviously I have the most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world and she’s absolutely amazing. She’s been my dream girl since I was younger. She’s so ace. … She is a wonderful, wonderful person and it’s amazing to have someone who can relate to so much of things, someone who’s taken greater steps than me. Her solo career was amazing. She’s been in the industry for 14 years now. She fully supports me. We’re super happy. It’s a very personal, precious time for us. I’m still learning. I’m only 23.”