Charlie Puth on his latest music: “I’ll be telling the truth from here on out”

Charlie Puth was simply 23 when he co-wrote and co-performed with rapper Wiz Khalifia the 2015 tune “See You Once more.” It turned one of many largest pop hits of the last decade, spending 12 weeks at #1, and getting almost six billion views on YouTube, launching Puth as a bona fide star. He adopted it up with two large solo albums, full of big hits, like “We Do not Speak Anymore,” “Consideration,” “How Lengthy” and “The Approach I Am.”

“See You Once more,” carried out by Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth:

However in early 2020, Puth introduced that his much-anticipated third album could be scrapped as a result of, as he put it, “not one of the music felt actual.”

“CBS Morning” co-host Tony Dokoupil requested Puth, “You had been a bankable star, multi-Grammy-nominated, billion stream songs, you had been touring, you had been promoting out stadiums. So, it is a large deal to say, truly, ‘Cease.’ What was that second like the place you stated, ‘No, we’re not doing this’?”

“I will always remember it,” stated Puth. “I went to a restaurant in West Hollywood proper once I had determined that I used to be going to start out over. And the maître d’ came to visit to me and stated, ‘Elton John wish to meet you.'”

By a pal, the pop legend had heard an early model of the album. “He stated, ‘That music you simply put out was not excellent.’ And I used to be, like, a bit stunned by that, as a result of it is not like I disagreed with him, nevertheless it’s not on daily basis you get to run into Elton John at a restaurant and have him inform you precisely what you had been simply pondering 10 minutes prior.”

“Gotta think about that harm a bit bit?” requested Dokoupil.

“It did, nevertheless it did not,” Puth replied. “It stung for about two minutes, after which I walked again over to the desk and I simply pointed upward and was like, ‘That confirms every little thing.'”

It was a second that made Puth assume again to falling in love with music, rising up within the New Jersey shore city of Rumson. His dad was a builder; his mother a music instructor.

In a 2018 interview Puth informed Dokoupil, “I’d get up together with her taking part in piano on daily basis. That was the alarm clock, her taking part in. I feel my mind could be musically awake earlier than I even had breakfast.”

Fairly quickly, Puth’s mother and father realized their son had a singular present for recognizing songs: “I discovered it means simpler to hearken to The Beatles. … My ten-year-old mind thought, I might simply hearken to the file and play it again simply by listening to it. And I assumed that was a ‘regular’ factor!”

By 10, the musical prodigy was performing at college and in church, beginning with the day the organist did not present up. “I had heard the mass, the music, so many instances. I simply performed the whole mass.”

Dokoupil stated, “It is virtually like that factor on a airplane the place it is like, ‘Is there a physician on the airplane?’ Nevertheless it was like, ‘Is there an organist within the church?'”

“I raised my little hand, and my ft did not even attain the pedals!”

“What gave you the braveness to do this in a room stuffed with adults, in God’s home?”

“I’ve at all times simply needed to save lots of the day!” Puth replied.

And it wasn’t simply adults who took observe; his classmates did, too. “I used to be shy, however on the identical time I wasn’t. After I was in my musical aspect, I wasn’t shy. After I was doing a science challenge, I used to be very shy.”

“However you’ll be able to stroll proper on the stage at church and play the organ, or a faculty meeting?”

“Yeah, as a result of I knew I bought it. I knew that nobody else was gonna have the ability to try this that day. In essentially the most humble means attainable, I might say that.”

“I do not assume it’s a must to be that humble.”

“I simply preferred making folks glad.”

That led Puth to main music colleges in Boston and New York Metropolis.  All of the whereas, he was performing his songs, first on YouTube, then on an precise stage, beginning on the Bitter Finish in Manhattan. He recalled, “I used to be so nervous. And I performed an hour set, and I had 200 folks.”

The crowds grew, and whereas on tour again in 2018 Puth appeared to like each second of it. However later that 12 months, at his dwelling in Los Angeles, the musician had begun a reasonably critical self-review, even after the breakaway success of “See You Once more.” He stated then, “We had the largest tune on the planet. I needed to put an album out. It was rushed. And we had songwriters who did not know me and even speak to me half the time, put data collectively for me. It sounded positive, however the message on these songs meant nothing to me.”

Not lengthy after, he determined to pause and rebuild, although the pandemic hit. On the lookout for a brand new outlet, he turned to TikTok. “I assumed I used to be gonna train folks and simply produce music for different artists,” he stated.

He did, co-writing the #1 hit “Keep” with the Child LAROI and Justin Bieber.

“I used to be like, ‘Okay, that is what I am gonna do to any extent further. I am gonna make different folks’s goals come true,'” he stated. “However I used to be sort of mendacity to myself.”

As an alternative, he began writing for Charlie Puth as soon as once more. Now, three years later, Puth the pop star is again, with a wildly widespread collaboration with Jung Kook of BTS.

“Left And Proper” carried out by Charlie Puth, feat. Jung Kook of BTS:

And whereas “Charlie” is formally Puth’s third album, the now 31-year-old artist says it feels, in some methods, like his first. “I will be telling the reality from right here on out,” he stated. “You may’t lie and write a tune. I will be telling the reality from right here on out. Typically to my detriment, however not less than it’s going to be the reality.”

You may stream Charlie Puth’s new album “Charlie” by clicking on the embed beneath (Free Spotify registration required to listen to the tracks in full):

     
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Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Carol Ross.