The Weeknd wants to "kill The Weeknd" and revert back to his real name.

The 33-year-old singer is on "a cathartic path right now" and though he may move to switching between his alter ego and his birth moniker Abel Tesfaye, he ultimately thinks his next album will be the last under the name fans know him best as.

He told W magazine: "I'm going through a cathartic path right now.

"It's getting to a place and a time where I'm getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I'll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill the Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I'm definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.

"The album I'm working on now is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd… This is something that I have to do. As the Weeknd, I've said everything I can say."

The 'Can't Feel My Face' hitmaker admitted he never wanted to be famous when he started his career.

He said: “I’ve always been the antihero. In the beginning of my career, I didn’t show myself at all. I didn’t want to be famous. For the first two years, no one knew what I looked like.”

But when he finally appeared as The Weeknd, the star's desire to lead a low-key life hit an "obstacle" in the form of his distinctive big hair.

He said: “The hair became an obstacle for me!

"I went from ‘No one knows who I am’ to ‘Nobody has that hair except The Weeknd.’ I was always trying to hide it.

"When I finally decided to cut it, everybody said, ‘Don’t do it!’ That gave me more reasons to do it. I was so identified with that hair that I had to cut it. I didn’t want to be known for just this or just that.”