<\/p>\n
\n\tIf you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n
\n\tPeel back Charlie Puth<\/a>\u2018s perfect pitch, nine multi-platinum singles and 35 billion+ career streams, and you\u2019ve got a guy who wholeheartedly lives and breathes music<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe singer, songwriter and producer catches up with The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> about what he\u2019s been working on, life on the go (he travels back and forth between Los Angeles and New York) and his very fitting partnership with Bic pens<\/a> (he handwrites all his lyrics). He also breaks down his creative process, backstage must-haves and what he\u2019s most looking forward to in the coming months (hint: it involves new music).<\/p>\n \n\tLet\u2019s jump right in. Tell me about your songwriting process. Is it always the same or different based on where you are in life or what you\u2019re writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI mean, it\u2019s different everywhere because life is different every day. I\u2019ll write different sounding music based on the location. I remember writing \u201cWe Don\u2019t Talk Anymore\u201d in the Philippines, and it was a very hot day. It was probably 100 degrees\u2026 Fahrenheit, not Celsius (Laughs<\/em>). I saw palm trees, and I thought to myself very simply, \u201cI\u2019m going to make a song that feels like vacation, sounds like vacation.\u201d This is before the lyrics were written, of course.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd then, \u201cLight Switch,\u201d the song I put out in 2022, was a result of me just being locked in the studio because of post-COVID times, and I wanted something upbeat and fast to kind of get me going because nothing at that point in time was. I wanted to make something that excited me.<\/p>\n \n\tCan you elaborate on your physical writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI handwrite lyrics. I never type lyrics on my phone or a computer. It just feels like the song isn\u2019t a song if I type it in \u2014 it needs my personality. It\u2019s just something mental. Bic<\/a> produces a product that I literally use every day of my life to make music: the 4-Color Pen<\/a>. The different colors will trigger different parts of my musical mind. So I take it on tour. I take it on airplanes. I take it everywhere I go. If I don\u2019t like a lyric, I\u2019m going to use the color red to scratch it out. Red\u2019s bad. Green\u2019s my favorite color. Green means go. That\u2019s usually a good lyric.<\/p>\n \n\tOther than your pen, what are your must-have travel items?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m a really basic traveler. Bose headphones<\/a>. I have my iPad<\/a>. I have my neck pillow<\/a>. And there\u2019s this little pocket synthesizer by Teenage Engineering<\/a> that I use. I\u2019ve never recorded with it, but it\u2019s just like little blips and bleeps\u2026 I draft what could be ideas on it.<\/p>\n \n\tSide note: I just noticed that your Zoom name is \u201cMusicRocks1991.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYeah, you can write that in the article too because music does rock.<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m fully writing that in the article. OK, so we did travel, but do you have any backstage essentials?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSeveral notebooks and pens. I have to have a little keyboard backstage as well because I feel like sometimes I can\u2019t talk. And if I have to meet a couple of people before I go on stage, I\u2019ll just sit behind the little keyboard and play stuff as I\u2019m talking and I feel like the words will come out easier. It actually helps me converse better. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong with me.<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s such a creative person thing to say.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYes. I\u2019ve heard people describe me as creative. (Laughs<\/em>.)<\/p>\n \n\tWhat would you say is the best piece of advice you\u2019ve ever received that you would give to an aspiring artist?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tBest piece of advice I ever received was to not overthink things. Don\u2019t re-sing the vocal a bunch of times. Don\u2019t rewrite the script. Just whatever your gut is, do it. Multiple people that I\u2019ve looked up to have told me that, and that\u2019s what I would continue to spread.<\/p>\n \n\tHow do you know when you\u2019re done with a song?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s a good question. When there\u2019s nothing left to add to the song, or when you try to add things and it doesn\u2019t change it at all. There\u2019s a song I wrote called \u201cThat\u2019s Hilarious\u201d in 2022, and it\u2019s a very simple production, and I was listening back to it thinking to myself, \u201cthis is too simple; it needs a guitar.\u201d I add it. It feels out of place. \u201cOkay, well, it doesn\u2019t need a guitar. Maybe it needs another hi-hat.\u201d I add it. It feels weird. It feels awkward now. When I take it out, it felt much better. I guess, when you start to add things in and it feels like the cup\u2019s been filled, that\u2019s how you know when you\u2019re done with the song.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat else are you working on right now? What are you excited about in the coming months?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m excited about music in general. I can\u2019t share when, but I do plan on putting music out soon. And when it does come out, I feel like a lot of question marks are going to be answered. [There will be] a lot of things that I haven\u2019t sung about. Life for me is much different than it was 10 years ago when \u201cOne Call Away\u201d or \u201cSee You Again\u201d came out, so there\u2019s some things to say.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd I am constantly inspired by my surroundings, both musically and otherworldly, and I just, I hope I get to do this for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission. Peel back Charlie Puth\u2018s perfect pitch, nine multi-platinum singles and 35 billion+ career streams, and you\u2019ve got a guy who wholeheartedly lives and breathes music. The singer, songwriter and producer catches up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[3005,176,24,3004,3003],"class_list":{"0":"post-2853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"tag-bic","9":"tag-campaign","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-process","12":"tag-songwriting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2855,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions\/2855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}