Just a few weeks after One Direction announced their impending hiatus, Liam Payne has gotten his first taste of the solo life with his own magazine cover and accompanying interview.

The 22-year-old was given the Attitude Award for Sexiest Man of the Year, and graces two different (but similarly smoldering) covers for the British lifestyle magazine’s October issue.

Inside, Liam covers the gamut of topics, including his girlfriend, Sophia Smith (“I love her to pieces”), Louis Tomlinson’s baby news (“He’s very happy about becoming a dad”) and gay marriage rights (“You can’t live in the past, you have to move with the times”).

And, yes, Directioners — he also addressed the looming topic on all of our minds: the uncertain future of One Direction.

“It’s been five years and it’s time to take a well-earned break,” Liam explained about the band’s decision to take a break staring in March 2016. “Of course we’ll work together again; we’re not splitting up. We’re just having some time out.

“I realize now is the time to start branching out and exploring,” he continued. “This won’t last forever and there will be a point when we will break off and do our own things, but it’s something that comes back around and we will work together again.

In the meantime, Liam sounds positively thrilled to explore and expand on his own talents, including his love of songwriting. 1D fans will also undoubtedly remember that he’s released several remixes as Big Payno, which is another thing he’s keen to continue.

“This is what I want to do. I want to target every part of the industry,” he revealed. “I have written country songs. I started out doing rap songs. That’s where my mind is set. A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, you’ll go solo,’ but I haven’t thought about that. If the right song comes along and I think I should sing it, then I will release it as a solo artist. Otherwise, I’m happy being behind the scenes.”

He even insisted that he’d love to collaborate with his bandmates outside the confines of 1D by helping them with their own solo material.

“When the other boys go solo I would love to write songs for them,” he said. “I want to make great music that people want to listen to.”

One artist who’s inspiring Liam with his jack-of-all-trades approach toward the music industry is Pharrell Williams, who has singing, songwriting, rapping AND producing credits to his name.

“I got talking to his producer recently and asked him what Pharrell was like when he was younger, and he said to me that when he was my age he couldn’t press a note on a keyboard,” Liam spilled. “And that was amazing to me because at 22 I thought I was too old to learn guitar. I have let that go now.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Liam discusses accusations made against him about his perceived homophobia, assuring fans he was “disappointed” by it because “it’s totally not true.”

“A lot of my friends are gay and I don’t think anything about it,” he said. “I actually find it funny that being gay is still something that’s talked about as though it’s not natural […] My mates are my mates, regardless of their sexuality.”

He also reminisced about being in the U.S. at the time of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage.

“When the law changed in the U.S., there were loads of rainbow flags flying at our shows, but I think that was mainly because people think of the Louis and Harry thing [that they’re secret lovers], which is absolutely nuts and drives me mad,” he confessed.

You heard it here first, Directioners: Liam Payne is NOT a Larry Stylinson shipper! In fact, he lamented that some fans still theorize that Louis getting Briana pregnant is a cover-up, saying “that’s the sort of sh-t that gets to me.”

“It’s like when you know the ins and outs of what is going on with people it’s just annoying when it’s so stupid,” he said. “It becomes like a conspiracy or like a cult, the people who watch them and think that every move they make is a gesture toward them being together, and I know it’s just not true and it makes me mad.”

Unfortunately, some One Direction fans apparently weren’t too happy with Liam’s anti-Larry comments, and vented their frustrations on Twitter. And, being the very candid guy we all know and love, Liam responded with his own series of tweets on Thursday afternoon (Sep. 10), saying he was just trying to be honest.

It's worth pointing out that Liam DID express his support for the band's LGBT fans -- and for the LGBT community in general -- during the interview, so it's unlikely that he meant any harm or ill will toward anyone. And FYI, no, Liam’s not “jealous” of the Larry craze or anything like that — although he does admit that he and Louis are the closest in the band.

“Louis is my best mate; he is the one who I have the strongest connection with. […] We’re the ones who get everything together when it comes to the album.”

And speaking of 1D’s fifth album… is it really, actually, possibly dropping way sooner than we expected?! Liam didn’t touch on that in his Attitude interview, but at least he DID give us plenty of revealing insight into who he is as a person, a bandmate and a friend. And those are all sides of him we’re sure to see more of once the band enjoys their break and we get to see each guy shine on their own.