July 19, 2017 • 24 mins
For the newest episode, Elvis Duran gets real with Charlie Puth who reveals discovering his voice, showing vulnerability, and how his mom keeps him on track.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I think they labeled me as a boy pop tart
who was just singing songs that were written for me.
My mom she told me people are gonna forget about
your music if you keep doing what you're doing. Kind
of like how we don't talk anymore made you cry
in Miami, but made you dance at the same time
with five cigars in your hands. Sure. This is I
(00:28):
Heart Radio's Labeled Fires with Zico Coconut Water, where we
rip off labels to reveal the sides of your favorite
artists and celebrities you didn't know. We get to know
the real them. Label to Fires was created with our
friends at Zico Coconut Water, who encourage you to read
the label to see what's inside. Zico, what's inside is everything. Hi,
this is Elvis Duran. Welcome to another episode of I
(00:50):
Heart Radio's Labeled Fires. We're meeting up with our favorite
artist to talk about what they're passionate about. You know,
sometimes because of the press, because of the gossip column,
as we assume our favorite artists are a certain way
and they were into certain things. Well it's not always true.
It's always written by someone else, and we need to
get to the bottom of what our friends in the
(01:10):
music industry are all about. That's why we do this.
It's something I love to do. We've had some great
artists on and today it's getting even better with a
good friend of ours, Charlie Pooth. Hi, Charlie. How's it going.
Charlie's here. Yeah, I feel good about that. I feel
about so. Charlie is in his house in Los Angeles.
I'm in my house here in New York. So what's
going on tonight in l A? Another concert, another night
(01:32):
at the office, another night at the office. I'm playing
show with Shawn Mendez. I'm starting it off, and uh,
I'm very very excited. It's been going very well so far.
You know, Charlie, not only have you written some amazing
music for you and for other artists, you've collaborated with
some great artists. I know you're getting ready to release
an album that's really going to sort of redefine who
(01:55):
you are and what your music is about. And you're
actually taking a right turn on this for a reason.
I hear your new album is going to be redefining
your sound. What's it all about. I'm going to call
the album voice Notes. I was working on it just
an hour ago in that room over there. It's a
record that's completely written and produced by me. It's music
that I wanted to put out a very long time,
(02:15):
but not necessarily I could just come out of the
gate with. But what's really exciting is that music sonically
is taking a interesting turn, you know, with everything that
Calvin has been putting out and obviously Bruno, so the
superstars have made it easier for guys like me to
put music like this out. So I'm very, very excited.
But you talk about the music you've already put out
(02:36):
you've had great success with. You're not saying that you
don't like what you put out or it really wasn't
what you wanted to put out, But it sounds like
you're sort of saying it wasn't exactly what you wanted
to put out, It wasn't exactly me per se. I mean,
I'm super happy with the success of my debut album,
and my debut albums sold over a million copies. It's
(02:57):
a dream. It's really really incredible. But it was really
just a musical process of me trying to figure out
who I was. I guess two artists getting into the
circle of things have to do it that way. I mean,
is it sort of a collaboration with a lot of
people telling you what they think you should do so
you can get your foot in the door. Then when
you get success, you can do what you want to do.
It's sort of the natural progression of things. Yeah, I
(03:19):
think that's the natural progression of things. When I'm producing
hit records for other artists as well and myself, it's
it kind of speeds up the process a little bit
because people are more convinced the record labels a very
powerful thing, and I, you know, obviously want them to
be by my side, which they are, and uh I
feel involved, which they are as well. Everyone's very very
(03:39):
excited about this stuff. Attention is going to be kind
of like the blueprint of the album. It's not going
to be like cousins of all the songs are gonna
be cousins of attention, but different vibes, kind of nodding
to a very interesting time period of night when R
and V was like at its best in my opinion,
even though I wasn't alive. Love you of the feel
(04:00):
of great, historically important R and B music. It means
a lot to you hear it in your sound and
you emulate some of the great artists will know their
vibe but not their sounds yourself. I mean, how important
is that to you? It's very important to me and
the reason why I gravitates it to such music brilliant
minds like baby Face and even in the early two
(04:23):
thousand's with Farrell, both good friends of mine. They're huge
inspirations to me. The chord changes where everything like the
chord changes for a while in pop music, we're getting
dumbed down. And I really never understood why, and I
that really wasn't me. So that's I think why I
couldn't have come out with like a record like Attention
in two thousand and ten because we were so knee
(04:44):
deep into you know, drops and new edd M influence
based pop music. We'll explain something to me. I mean,
I'm just an idiot that just you know, whether interviewed
the Superstars dumbing down? You said the hordes and music
we're dumb down. What does that mean? Is it? Can
it be explained? Yeah? I mean C minor a flat major,
(05:06):
E flat major, B flat major, C minor a flat major.
It's like it was like everything was the same thing.
And I mean that's fine for like five songs, but
simple pop music is always gonna reach the most amount
of people, which is a good thing. But there's records
like you know that Max Martin produced like I can't
(05:26):
feel my face by the weekend. You know, G major
F major, A minor that kind of poke you, and
they mix it up, they mix it up in just
in a different way. That's that's the easiest, I guess,
amateur way to describe it. You know this is also
simple for you, but for us, we're just trying to
figure it out. I know you have a great explanation
how there's sort of a science to hit music, writing music.
(05:49):
I mean, there is a recipe to putting a song together.
Can you explain that Idiots like me? It's you're self deprecating.
You're not nitty, You're a very smartel deficating self deficating.
I've been listening to us for a long time too,
so you must be doing something right. My whole thing
is each chorus has to sound different, So I hate
to cite my own song like I'm like this brilliant. No,
(06:11):
that's a good example. I not. I'm just following the
greats attention. First chorus is just the very simple, very
easy to sing along to. The melody is actually quite complicated,
but everything below it is so simple that it's easy
to sing along. So it gets a past. So that's
the first course, and then the second chorus has the
(06:33):
snare in it and these like kind of michael Le
kind of you know, So you have that as the
second course. And the third course you have the long
you know, Max Martin like drone the songs and e
flat minor, so you have the e flat held out
the entire time, like as a synth or something, and
it fills in all the spectrum of sound and just
(06:54):
sounds the biggest teenage dream, Katy Perry. First chorus sounds big,
second chorus sounds bigger, third chorus sounds the biggest. So build. Yeah,
if a record builds and you never get bored the
entire time that you listen to it, it's a hit record,
Isn't that weird? I mean to us, it's just a
great song that we love to listen to. But there
is some sort of and that's all you need to
(07:15):
worry about, though I have to worry about, like keeping
you entertained. That's it, all right, We'll let you take
care of all the heavy lifting. We'll just listen to it. Hey,
you know what, let's talk about this note and attention.
Every time I hear you sing this note, and I'm
assuming you can hear this when I play it, hold on,
can you hear that? Yeah? Come and thinking right there?
(07:41):
Be flat. The way your voice hits this very vulnerable sound,
it's almost like a guttural cry. A lot of artists
would have gone back and re recorded that because they, oh,
my voice gave out. It wasn't perfect for them. But
for me, that was just a beautiful way of us
(08:02):
looking into your heart and seeing what you were seeing
right there. I thought it was just a brilliant move.
I mean, do you think about things like that? At first,
I was gonna be very typical artists and perfectionists and
try and change that note. But it was like two
o'clock in the morning when I was recording it, and
I may or may not have been thinking of the
person who this whole thing is written about. I guess
(08:23):
Sunday at two am brings the emotions out of you.
So I just kept it in there because it just
felt right. And even after that note, I kind of
let out a sigh of what am I doing kind
of thing, and that actually inspired the lyric of the
bridge what are you doing to me? What are you doing?
The more emotional, the more real and untuned it is,
(08:44):
because there's old records by like the Cranberries and Aerosmith
which weren't auto tuned at all. Not that auto tune
was the worst thing in the world. I use that
every artist uses it. If they say they don't, they're lying.
I always found it, like in Bruce Springsteen records, and
like before that stuff was likely used. The audience would
sing along to the flat notes and kind of they
(09:04):
would gravitate towards the flat notes because it just felt
the realist. It didn't feel so perfect. So I'm trying
to push my music in a way that doesn't have
to be and not every note has to be so
pristine and one take no mistake kind of thing. And
it can mess up sometimes and still be fine, but
it's more real. I mean, it's from your heart. We
all have our BS detectors on. We know if you're
(09:24):
singing something like a computer, or you're singing something from
an experience you had, I mean that note or anything
that you wrote about something that was emotionally charging in
your life. When you sing these things and performances, let's
say you're seeing them hundreds of times, do you still
go to that place where you were when you wrote it?
When you're performing it? Does it get mechanical? Sometimes? How
do you make it stay real or do you have
(09:46):
to force it at all? I hope it never gets mechanical.
For Else told me about this great book where if
you're feeling anxious, you make this circle and you step
into it, and in that circle are the great sounds
that you've experienced, great smells you've experienced, and great feelings
you've experienced that you make that circle your favorite color,
(10:07):
and I made it green. Whenever I get nervous before
I go on the show, I just step into my
little circle. I know this sounds crazy, but it actually works.
And then I'm in this relaxed mode and then I'm
able to think of all these great things that inspired
me to write the song that I'm performing. If I'm
a seventeen thousand people now, rather than thinking, oh my god,
I'm freaking out, I'm gonna, you know, crap my pants
because like I'm performing in its thousand people, Well, you
(10:30):
didn't choose the color brown. That's for crapping your pants.
But I know, but I don't think that sounds crazy
at all. That's something we could all apply to our lives,
no matter what we're doing, if we're in radio or
artist or an accountant or whatever. We all have these
vulnerable times in our life where we need to find
these triggers that will make us feel good about us.
And you've done it, and I put melody to them,
and hopefully people can listen to records like we Don't
(10:53):
Talk Anymore and in one call away and put their
own spin to These records. Aren't about me. This album
isn't about me being an art This is not about me.
It's about writing records for other people to experience, like
to make the song that you listen to on these
earbuds when you walk from your house in Sribeca to work.
Did I just give away your address? Are there going
to be not at all? I gotta move. I'll take
(11:17):
your house. It's nice, I'm sure thanks to you. No, No,
it's it's because I'm taking advantage of you know, artists
like you. It's perfect. Paying the bills pay But wait
a minute, go back to the days where you were
doing covers of other people's songs on YouTube. That wasn't
that long ago. It was how many years ago I
stopped doing YouTube covers, Probably two thousand fourteen, right when
I wrote See You Again. That was like the first
(11:39):
song that I wrote as a serious song. I guess
it's my first song that I wrote, which just happened
to be pretty large. Look at the road between then
and now, and of course the road that's in front
of you where you're going next with a new album
that's coming out later this year. I mean, any thoughts
like what does your heart feel? What does your gut
tell you when you think about where you were where
you are now? Doesn't make you feel It's all in
(12:01):
the music to answer your question. And the fact that
See You Again is the biggest song ever uploaded to YouTube,
the biggest video I ever uploaded to YouTube, and my
song Attention sits at like number two or number three
on iTunes right now. Just the progression of the music
both records I produced too, but very very different. It's
(12:22):
only been a couple of years, so things have changed.
But you know, I still love playing to you against
my favorite thing to play live and you say that
the most watched video on YouTube. Ever, how many billion views?
I believe it's approaching three billion hits, which sounds like
a made up thing. It's like something that used to
like tell your friends, like my video has billions of hits.
(12:44):
It actually does, which is cool. And I almost wasn't.
I really almost wasn't going to be in the video. Yeah,
I'm very glad. I was. They wanted someone else to
sing it, and then I was like, no, I'm must
sing it. I must take a refreshing I'm gonna take
a fresh and break two. Our friends a Zico Coconut
Water sent us some of these ice coold drinks for
(13:04):
the session today. Have a sip. So I created this game.
It's called What's Inside Game. It's a rapid fire question.
You answer thing the first thing that pops into your head,
but you can't stop and think about anything or that's cheating. Okay, okay.
When I asked the question, you got to just answer it.
If you pause, points off, okay, points okay. Cool. I
feel like you don't know the answer to say. If
(13:26):
you don't know the answer to say, next, all right,
the last thing you googled myself really We're off to
a great start. The last thing you ate pizza for breakfast? Oh?
Oh yeah, I lied um oltmeal. Okay. Favorite person to
follow on social media and why Kendall Jenner? It should
(13:48):
be self explanatory. Favorite thing you can cook? Are you
for a dish? Can you cook anything? I can microwave something. Next,
I can microwave a cheese bagel. Do you have a
weird hobby that we don't know about, like something you
love to do in your spare time when no one's watching.
I researched cars. I know everything about cars. Yeah, everything,
Like I know that the Saturn View from two thousand
(14:10):
and four borrowed a back door handle from the Chevrolet Suburban.
I really love cars. That's gonna come in handy one day. Yeah,
your hardest habit to break? Do you have any weird habits?
Do you bite your fingernails or anything? No, but I
forget to get pedicures. Do you have a guilty pleasure? Go?
I've watched a lot of stupid YouTube videos. Who's your
(14:30):
go to person for advice? My mom? Yeah, Yeah, she's
good at advice, She's very She also your role model, yes,
and my dad. They don't sugar quote things. By the way,
every time we do this, everyone says their mom, I
think that's really cool. They're just trying to be cute.
I really mean it. What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of how my musical career has progressed,
(14:54):
because I remember wanting to get a publishing deal in
two thousand thirteen and being discouraged. When it didn't. You
happened right away, and now from two thousand and fourteen
and on, my career is just gone up. So I'm very,
very happy with the work ethic. I guess how many
people know the real the real Charlie Probably one, two, three, four,
(15:15):
four other people in this world. That's my brother, my sister,
and my mom and my dad, and that's all you need. Yeah, really,
nobody really knows me. This became like a Charlie Rose
interview thanks to Zico Coconut Water, who believe what's inside
is everything. So the collaboration with Khalifa, with Megan Trainer,
(15:37):
I guess another label you've defied is well, you don't
have to be collaborating, but you seem to really really
get your lawn watered when you're collaborating with other people.
You know, the new album collaborations there are you gonna
do more just you stuff? There might be a collaboration
here there, but it's really kind of going to be
all about the music, my music. There. You are sitting
in your house in California, world's away from growing up
(16:00):
in Rumson, New Jersey. Yeah, I know you and your
family are really tight, you and your sister, and you
don't seem like the l A type, always out and
have to be at the party type. I almost became
that guy. And I think that's what this album is about,
my travels from the East Coast to the West Coast
and how I almost got caught up in that that
nonsense and kind of got pulled back into my roots. So, well,
(16:23):
what woke you up? Was it a person who said
something that shook you up a little bit? Yeah? What
woke you up? And said? This isn't me. Yeah. My
mom watches Access Hollywood and all these TV shows, and
there was one point where I was on every single
show at the same time, and she told me people
are gonna forget about your music if you keep doing
what you're doing. She didn't say it as calmly as that,
(16:46):
but I'm glad she didn't, because I really got the
point when she said it. So when's the album coming out?
When's Voice Notes coming out? Voice Notes will come out
later this year, I think the fall time. So am
I gonna keep the lights low? A lot of ballads
on this thing? No, you're gonna there's actually only are
you giving up on ballads? No? No, no no, I'll never
give up on ballads. Of the world will love ballads
(17:08):
for as long as we're around. It's just a more
up tempo album, but sometimes ballad lyrical sentiment where you
wouldn't expect it to be on top of a particular production.
It's like a groovy kind of backbeat with a very
melancholic kind of story behind it. Sad music I can
dance to. Yeah, I don't know, kind of like how
(17:30):
we don't talk anymore. It made you cry in Miami,
but it made you dance at the same time with
five cigars in your hand. I cried that night. Oh no,
it was video. It was a really good night. It
was a major party. Parties are fun, you know there
you were going to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston. Yeah,
not knowing that you'd be sitting here doing this today,
or have another second album coming out in the fall,
(17:53):
or did you know this was gonna happen? For Never Never,
I really never thought it was gonna happen. I wrote
See You Again for Sam Smith, for Adele. Numerous people
auditioned to sing it, and it was like a couple
of weeks before it was supposed to come out, and
I was like, why don't I just sing it? And
that's how I became an artist. So I really never
intended to be an artist, but I always wanted to
(18:13):
talk to you about being an artist. So I think
in the back of my mind, I always you were
the goal because I grew up listening to you. I
always listen to the phone taps. I mean since literally
the early two thousands, like two thousand, I think I've
been listening to you. So the goal was to always
get to you. And now the fact that I can
just go to parties with you, it's pretty cool. Well
it's kind of creepy, but I like it. It's creepy, right.
(18:35):
The goal was to finally get to you. Yeah, But
you gotta understand to have an artist connect not only
in an interview like this, but in the interviews we've done,
but to connect with our audience like you do, from
your heart directly to their hearts. I mean, it is
quite the gift you're dropping. I don't even know if
you understand that. I'm sure as an artist, you hear
(18:55):
your fans always saying, oh my god, your music has
inspired me to do this and that. I mean there's
pressure on there, you know, and they're looking to you
as an example of someone that they want to be,
or it was describing their life in soundtrack form or whatever.
But you are giving the gift every time you give
us a song, and I hope that you never take
that for granted. That's all. Thank you for checking up
on me. I never take it for granted. There are
(19:17):
times where I get really tired, I don't get a
lot of sleep, and I might forget it sometimes, but
that's when social media is good and I get to
see all the inspirational quotes that my fans are dropping
on me constantly, So that really picks me up. So
my fans are incredible people. What fuels you the most
is it response from fans? Is it a check that
(19:37):
comes in, Is it a note that you hit that
makes your hair on your arm stand up? What is
it really really fuels you have any you know, I
really don't have a lot of hair on my arms,
But where do you have hair? Don't don't tell, don't
show us your hairy part. But what is it? What
is it you do that fuels you, that makes you
just want to get up every day and do it,
(19:57):
producing music, producing the record, making the drum pattern, kind
of just being in the studio knowing that I can
go to my studio at any time and work on
a record for Maroon five or Liam Payne or anyone else,
and it excites me to like work on my artist project,
working on other people. If that makes sense, it doesn't
make sense. And what's even more interesting is you went
(20:18):
to school for this. I mean, yeah, this was your major.
I have an engineering degree. I can build you a
speaker for your Tribeckian apartment if you want. I can
basically do just that, but I really haven't done it
since I don't know. Maybe building a speaker for me
when you get tired of singing music, just build a speaker.
How do you think people see you? What labels have
(20:40):
been put on you that you want to erase. I
think they labeled me as a boy pop Tart who
was just singing songs that were written for me. There
were actually people who thought I didn't play piano, that
I was miming every time I played Seawe again live.
So hopefully they know that there's a bit more abstance
to me. I'm not trying to shove it down their
(21:02):
throats or anything, but you know, well, how do you
want people to see you like in the future? I mean,
from this point forward, how do you want them to
I want people to describe their thoughts of you. I
want people to see me as the fixer of music,
someone who's handed a B plus song and turns it
around and makes it an A plus song. I love
(21:22):
doing that. I think I love doing that even more
than writing music from the ground up, taking a song
that's like okay and then switching the key, lowering and
raising it. Well. I want to be like the baby
Face of the generation, even though he's classic and still
continues to make hits, and even though there are only
four people in the world that know the real you,
(21:43):
and that's it's members of your family. What three words,
in your opinion describe the real you? Genuine, goofy and musical,
even though we're talking about music the entire time. I
literally hear music all day in my head, and the
only way I can actually get it out of my
head is if I can play it on a piano.
(22:04):
That way, if I'm doing an interview with you, I
don't keep humming like the same Nelly for Tado record
in my head. I just like, there is there a
song in your head right now? There, there's It's It
started that I was listening to Tony Braxton before and uh,
and I should I, I should I talking last night,
(22:24):
should have been with me, should have staid? But Musha
the stay back, Musha the c the Ce Sauce, which
is also written by baby Face l A read that
was in my head as I was just talking to
and I now it's completely in my head and I'm stuttering.
I don't know what I'm talking to. Weird songs in
your head, you just wish they would get out of
your head. I mean earworms, yeah, but sometimes, but sometimes
(22:48):
they turned into melodies, like when I was in the Philippines,
I couldn't get no no no no no no no
no no no no no na, and then then na
na out of my head. No no, no no no no
no no no no no no no no no Nonna.
And that turned into run around, run around, run around,
throwing that dirt all on my name, which people think
is throwing that turtle on my knee. But now I
want to make tahirt. It's not turtle, no, it's it's
(23:11):
not like. It's just like a Starbucks lover situation, long
list of its lovers. Starbucks lovers, turtle on my knee,
durt al on my name, weird, excellent, Charlie, Thank you
very much. I appreciate it. Music. I'm dying to hear
some music, so whenever you want to share it, let
me know I'd love to hear it. I'll text you
some new things. Thank you, buddy. Have a great day.
(23:34):
Tell Sean we said hi tonight. Okay, of course if
you like what you've heard, joined the conversation on Twitter
with hashtag label Defiers. Thanks to our friends at Zico
Coconut Water for supporting this amazing new fund podcast. If
you haven't tried Zico yet, grab one today. Audition
I think they labeled me as a boy pop tart
who was just singing songs that were written for me.
My mom she told me people are gonna forget about
your music if you keep doing what you're doing. Kind
of like how we don't talk anymore made you cry
in Miami, but made you dance at the same time
with five cigars in your hands. Sure. This is I
(00:28):
Heart Radio's Labeled Fires with Zico Coconut Water, where we
rip off labels to reveal the sides of your favorite
artists and celebrities you didn't know. We get to know
the real them. Label to Fires was created with our
friends at Zico Coconut Water, who encourage you to read
the label to see what's inside. Zico, what's inside is everything. Hi,
this is Elvis Duran. Welcome to another episode of I
(00:50):
Heart Radio's Labeled Fires. We're meeting up with our favorite
artist to talk about what they're passionate about. You know,
sometimes because of the press, because of the gossip column,
as we assume our favorite artists are a certain way
and they were into certain things. Well it's not always true.
It's always written by someone else, and we need to
get to the bottom of what our friends in the
(01:10):
music industry are all about. That's why we do this.
It's something I love to do. We've had some great
artists on and today it's getting even better with a
good friend of ours, Charlie Pooth. Hi, Charlie. How's it going.
Charlie's here. Yeah, I feel good about that. I feel
about so. Charlie is in his house in Los Angeles.
I'm in my house here in New York. So what's
going on tonight in l A? Another concert, another night
(01:32):
at the office, another night at the office. I'm playing
show with Shawn Mendez. I'm starting it off, and uh,
I'm very very excited. It's been going very well so far.
You know, Charlie, not only have you written some amazing
music for you and for other artists, you've collaborated with
some great artists. I know you're getting ready to release
an album that's really going to sort of redefine who
(01:55):
you are and what your music is about. And you're
actually taking a right turn on this for a reason.
I hear your new album is going to be redefining
your sound. What's it all about. I'm going to call
the album voice Notes. I was working on it just
an hour ago in that room over there. It's a
record that's completely written and produced by me. It's music
that I wanted to put out a very long time,
(02:15):
but not necessarily I could just come out of the
gate with. But what's really exciting is that music sonically
is taking a interesting turn, you know, with everything that
Calvin has been putting out and obviously Bruno, so the
superstars have made it easier for guys like me to
put music like this out. So I'm very, very excited.
But you talk about the music you've already put out
(02:36):
you've had great success with. You're not saying that you
don't like what you put out or it really wasn't
what you wanted to put out, But it sounds like
you're sort of saying it wasn't exactly what you wanted
to put out, It wasn't exactly me per se. I mean,
I'm super happy with the success of my debut album,
and my debut albums sold over a million copies. It's
(02:57):
a dream. It's really really incredible. But it was really
just a musical process of me trying to figure out
who I was. I guess two artists getting into the
circle of things have to do it that way. I mean,
is it sort of a collaboration with a lot of
people telling you what they think you should do so
you can get your foot in the door. Then when
you get success, you can do what you want to do.
It's sort of the natural progression of things. Yeah, I
(03:19):
think that's the natural progression of things. When I'm producing
hit records for other artists as well and myself, it's
it kind of speeds up the process a little bit
because people are more convinced the record labels a very
powerful thing, and I, you know, obviously want them to
be by my side, which they are, and uh I
feel involved, which they are as well. Everyone's very very
(03:39):
excited about this stuff. Attention is going to be kind
of like the blueprint of the album. It's not going
to be like cousins of all the songs are gonna
be cousins of attention, but different vibes, kind of nodding
to a very interesting time period of night when R
and V was like at its best in my opinion,
even though I wasn't alive. Love you of the feel
(04:00):
of great, historically important R and B music. It means
a lot to you hear it in your sound and
you emulate some of the great artists will know their
vibe but not their sounds yourself. I mean, how important
is that to you? It's very important to me and
the reason why I gravitates it to such music brilliant
minds like baby Face and even in the early two
(04:23):
thousand's with Farrell, both good friends of mine. They're huge
inspirations to me. The chord changes where everything like the
chord changes for a while in pop music, we're getting
dumbed down. And I really never understood why, and I
that really wasn't me. So that's I think why I
couldn't have come out with like a record like Attention
in two thousand and ten because we were so knee
(04:44):
deep into you know, drops and new edd M influence
based pop music. We'll explain something to me. I mean,
I'm just an idiot that just you know, whether interviewed
the Superstars dumbing down? You said the hordes and music
we're dumb down. What does that mean? Is it? Can
it be explained? Yeah? I mean C minor a flat major,
(05:06):
E flat major, B flat major, C minor a flat major.
It's like it was like everything was the same thing.
And I mean that's fine for like five songs, but
simple pop music is always gonna reach the most amount
of people, which is a good thing. But there's records
like you know that Max Martin produced like I can't
(05:26):
feel my face by the weekend. You know, G major
F major, A minor that kind of poke you, and
they mix it up, they mix it up in just
in a different way. That's that's the easiest, I guess,
amateur way to describe it. You know this is also
simple for you, but for us, we're just trying to
figure it out. I know you have a great explanation
how there's sort of a science to hit music, writing music.
(05:49):
I mean, there is a recipe to putting a song together.
Can you explain that Idiots like me? It's you're self deprecating.
You're not nitty, You're a very smartel deficating self deficating.
I've been listening to us for a long time too,
so you must be doing something right. My whole thing
is each chorus has to sound different, So I hate
to cite my own song like I'm like this brilliant. No,
(06:11):
that's a good example. I not. I'm just following the
greats attention. First chorus is just the very simple, very
easy to sing along to. The melody is actually quite complicated,
but everything below it is so simple that it's easy
to sing along. So it gets a past. So that's
the first course, and then the second chorus has the
(06:33):
snare in it and these like kind of michael Le
kind of you know, So you have that as the
second course. And the third course you have the long
you know, Max Martin like drone the songs and e
flat minor, so you have the e flat held out
the entire time, like as a synth or something, and
it fills in all the spectrum of sound and just
(06:54):
sounds the biggest teenage dream, Katy Perry. First chorus sounds big,
second chorus sounds bigger, third chorus sounds the biggest. So build. Yeah,
if a record builds and you never get bored the
entire time that you listen to it, it's a hit record,
Isn't that weird? I mean to us, it's just a
great song that we love to listen to. But there
is some sort of and that's all you need to
(07:15):
worry about, though I have to worry about, like keeping
you entertained. That's it, all right, We'll let you take
care of all the heavy lifting. We'll just listen to it. Hey,
you know what, let's talk about this note and attention.
Every time I hear you sing this note, and I'm
assuming you can hear this when I play it, hold on,
can you hear that? Yeah? Come and thinking right there?
(07:41):
Be flat. The way your voice hits this very vulnerable sound,
it's almost like a guttural cry. A lot of artists
would have gone back and re recorded that because they, oh,
my voice gave out. It wasn't perfect for them. But
for me, that was just a beautiful way of us
(08:02):
looking into your heart and seeing what you were seeing
right there. I thought it was just a brilliant move.
I mean, do you think about things like that? At first,
I was gonna be very typical artists and perfectionists and
try and change that note. But it was like two
o'clock in the morning when I was recording it, and
I may or may not have been thinking of the
person who this whole thing is written about. I guess
(08:23):
Sunday at two am brings the emotions out of you.
So I just kept it in there because it just
felt right. And even after that note, I kind of
let out a sigh of what am I doing kind
of thing, and that actually inspired the lyric of the
bridge what are you doing to me? What are you doing?
The more emotional, the more real and untuned it is,
(08:44):
because there's old records by like the Cranberries and Aerosmith
which weren't auto tuned at all. Not that auto tune
was the worst thing in the world. I use that
every artist uses it. If they say they don't, they're lying.
I always found it, like in Bruce Springsteen records, and
like before that stuff was likely used. The audience would
sing along to the flat notes and kind of they
(09:04):
would gravitate towards the flat notes because it just felt
the realist. It didn't feel so perfect. So I'm trying
to push my music in a way that doesn't have
to be and not every note has to be so
pristine and one take no mistake kind of thing. And
it can mess up sometimes and still be fine, but
it's more real. I mean, it's from your heart. We
all have our BS detectors on. We know if you're
(09:24):
singing something like a computer, or you're singing something from
an experience you had, I mean that note or anything
that you wrote about something that was emotionally charging in
your life. When you sing these things and performances, let's
say you're seeing them hundreds of times, do you still
go to that place where you were when you wrote it?
When you're performing it? Does it get mechanical? Sometimes? How
do you make it stay real or do you have
(09:46):
to force it at all? I hope it never gets mechanical.
For Else told me about this great book where if
you're feeling anxious, you make this circle and you step
into it, and in that circle are the great sounds
that you've experienced, great smells you've experienced, and great feelings
you've experienced that you make that circle your favorite color,
(10:07):
and I made it green. Whenever I get nervous before
I go on the show, I just step into my
little circle. I know this sounds crazy, but it actually works.
And then I'm in this relaxed mode and then I'm
able to think of all these great things that inspired
me to write the song that I'm performing. If I'm
a seventeen thousand people now, rather than thinking, oh my god,
I'm freaking out, I'm gonna, you know, crap my pants
because like I'm performing in its thousand people, Well, you
(10:30):
didn't choose the color brown. That's for crapping your pants.
But I know, but I don't think that sounds crazy
at all. That's something we could all apply to our lives,
no matter what we're doing, if we're in radio or
artist or an accountant or whatever. We all have these
vulnerable times in our life where we need to find
these triggers that will make us feel good about us.
And you've done it, and I put melody to them,
and hopefully people can listen to records like we Don't
(10:53):
Talk Anymore and in one call away and put their
own spin to These records. Aren't about me. This album
isn't about me being an art This is not about me.
It's about writing records for other people to experience, like
to make the song that you listen to on these
earbuds when you walk from your house in Sribeca to work.
Did I just give away your address? Are there going
to be not at all? I gotta move. I'll take
(11:17):
your house. It's nice, I'm sure thanks to you. No, No,
it's it's because I'm taking advantage of you know, artists
like you. It's perfect. Paying the bills pay But wait
a minute, go back to the days where you were
doing covers of other people's songs on YouTube. That wasn't
that long ago. It was how many years ago I
stopped doing YouTube covers, Probably two thousand fourteen, right when
I wrote See You Again. That was like the first
(11:39):
song that I wrote as a serious song. I guess
it's my first song that I wrote, which just happened
to be pretty large. Look at the road between then
and now, and of course the road that's in front
of you where you're going next with a new album
that's coming out later this year. I mean, any thoughts
like what does your heart feel? What does your gut
tell you when you think about where you were where
you are now? Doesn't make you feel It's all in
(12:01):
the music to answer your question. And the fact that
See You Again is the biggest song ever uploaded to YouTube,
the biggest video I ever uploaded to YouTube, and my
song Attention sits at like number two or number three
on iTunes right now. Just the progression of the music
both records I produced too, but very very different. It's
(12:22):
only been a couple of years, so things have changed.
But you know, I still love playing to you against
my favorite thing to play live and you say that
the most watched video on YouTube. Ever, how many billion views?
I believe it's approaching three billion hits, which sounds like
a made up thing. It's like something that used to
like tell your friends, like my video has billions of hits.
(12:44):
It actually does, which is cool. And I almost wasn't.
I really almost wasn't going to be in the video. Yeah,
I'm very glad. I was. They wanted someone else to
sing it, and then I was like, no, I'm must
sing it. I must take a refreshing I'm gonna take
a fresh and break two. Our friends a Zico Coconut
Water sent us some of these ice coold drinks for
(13:04):
the session today. Have a sip. So I created this game.
It's called What's Inside Game. It's a rapid fire question.
You answer thing the first thing that pops into your head,
but you can't stop and think about anything or that's cheating. Okay, okay.
When I asked the question, you got to just answer it.
If you pause, points off, okay, points okay. Cool. I
feel like you don't know the answer to say. If
(13:26):
you don't know the answer to say, next, all right,
the last thing you googled myself really We're off to
a great start. The last thing you ate pizza for breakfast? Oh?
Oh yeah, I lied um oltmeal. Okay. Favorite person to
follow on social media and why Kendall Jenner? It should
(13:48):
be self explanatory. Favorite thing you can cook? Are you
for a dish? Can you cook anything? I can microwave something. Next,
I can microwave a cheese bagel. Do you have a
weird hobby that we don't know about, like something you
love to do in your spare time when no one's watching.
I researched cars. I know everything about cars. Yeah, everything,
Like I know that the Saturn View from two thousand
(14:10):
and four borrowed a back door handle from the Chevrolet Suburban.
I really love cars. That's gonna come in handy one day. Yeah,
your hardest habit to break? Do you have any weird habits?
Do you bite your fingernails or anything? No, but I
forget to get pedicures. Do you have a guilty pleasure? Go?
I've watched a lot of stupid YouTube videos. Who's your
(14:30):
go to person for advice? My mom? Yeah, Yeah, she's
good at advice, She's very She also your role model, yes,
and my dad. They don't sugar quote things. By the way,
every time we do this, everyone says their mom, I
think that's really cool. They're just trying to be cute.
I really mean it. What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of how my musical career has progressed,
(14:54):
because I remember wanting to get a publishing deal in
two thousand thirteen and being discouraged. When it didn't. You
happened right away, and now from two thousand and fourteen
and on, my career is just gone up. So I'm very,
very happy with the work ethic. I guess how many
people know the real the real Charlie Probably one, two, three, four,
(15:15):
four other people in this world. That's my brother, my sister,
and my mom and my dad, and that's all you need. Yeah, really,
nobody really knows me. This became like a Charlie Rose
interview thanks to Zico Coconut Water, who believe what's inside
is everything. So the collaboration with Khalifa, with Megan Trainer,
(15:37):
I guess another label you've defied is well, you don't
have to be collaborating, but you seem to really really
get your lawn watered when you're collaborating with other people.
You know, the new album collaborations there are you gonna
do more just you stuff? There might be a collaboration
here there, but it's really kind of going to be
all about the music, my music. There. You are sitting
in your house in California, world's away from growing up
(16:00):
in Rumson, New Jersey. Yeah, I know you and your
family are really tight, you and your sister, and you
don't seem like the l A type, always out and
have to be at the party type. I almost became
that guy. And I think that's what this album is about,
my travels from the East Coast to the West Coast
and how I almost got caught up in that that
nonsense and kind of got pulled back into my roots. So, well,
(16:23):
what woke you up? Was it a person who said
something that shook you up a little bit? Yeah? What
woke you up? And said? This isn't me. Yeah. My
mom watches Access Hollywood and all these TV shows, and
there was one point where I was on every single
show at the same time, and she told me people
are gonna forget about your music if you keep doing
what you're doing. She didn't say it as calmly as that,
(16:46):
but I'm glad she didn't, because I really got the
point when she said it. So when's the album coming out?
When's Voice Notes coming out? Voice Notes will come out
later this year, I think the fall time. So am
I gonna keep the lights low? A lot of ballads
on this thing? No, you're gonna there's actually only are
you giving up on ballads? No? No, no no, I'll never
give up on ballads. Of the world will love ballads
(17:08):
for as long as we're around. It's just a more
up tempo album, but sometimes ballad lyrical sentiment where you
wouldn't expect it to be on top of a particular production.
It's like a groovy kind of backbeat with a very
melancholic kind of story behind it. Sad music I can
dance to. Yeah, I don't know, kind of like how
(17:30):
we don't talk anymore. It made you cry in Miami,
but it made you dance at the same time with
five cigars in your hand. I cried that night. Oh no,
it was video. It was a really good night. It
was a major party. Parties are fun, you know there
you were going to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston. Yeah,
not knowing that you'd be sitting here doing this today,
or have another second album coming out in the fall,
(17:53):
or did you know this was gonna happen? For Never Never,
I really never thought it was gonna happen. I wrote
See You Again for Sam Smith, for Adele. Numerous people
auditioned to sing it, and it was like a couple
of weeks before it was supposed to come out, and
I was like, why don't I just sing it? And
that's how I became an artist. So I really never
intended to be an artist, but I always wanted to
(18:13):
talk to you about being an artist. So I think
in the back of my mind, I always you were
the goal because I grew up listening to you. I
always listen to the phone taps. I mean since literally
the early two thousands, like two thousand, I think I've
been listening to you. So the goal was to always
get to you. And now the fact that I can
just go to parties with you, it's pretty cool. Well
it's kind of creepy, but I like it. It's creepy, right.
(18:35):
The goal was to finally get to you. Yeah, But
you gotta understand to have an artist connect not only
in an interview like this, but in the interviews we've done,
but to connect with our audience like you do, from
your heart directly to their hearts. I mean, it is
quite the gift you're dropping. I don't even know if
you understand that. I'm sure as an artist, you hear
(18:55):
your fans always saying, oh my god, your music has
inspired me to do this and that. I mean there's
pressure on there, you know, and they're looking to you
as an example of someone that they want to be,
or it was describing their life in soundtrack form or whatever.
But you are giving the gift every time you give
us a song, and I hope that you never take
that for granted. That's all. Thank you for checking up
on me. I never take it for granted. There are
(19:17):
times where I get really tired, I don't get a
lot of sleep, and I might forget it sometimes, but
that's when social media is good and I get to
see all the inspirational quotes that my fans are dropping
on me constantly, So that really picks me up. So
my fans are incredible people. What fuels you the most
is it response from fans? Is it a check that
(19:37):
comes in, Is it a note that you hit that
makes your hair on your arm stand up? What is
it really really fuels you have any you know, I
really don't have a lot of hair on my arms,
But where do you have hair? Don't don't tell, don't
show us your hairy part. But what is it? What
is it you do that fuels you, that makes you
just want to get up every day and do it,
(19:57):
producing music, producing the record, making the drum pattern, kind
of just being in the studio knowing that I can
go to my studio at any time and work on
a record for Maroon five or Liam Payne or anyone else,
and it excites me to like work on my artist project,
working on other people. If that makes sense, it doesn't
make sense. And what's even more interesting is you went
(20:18):
to school for this. I mean, yeah, this was your major.
I have an engineering degree. I can build you a
speaker for your Tribeckian apartment if you want. I can
basically do just that, but I really haven't done it
since I don't know. Maybe building a speaker for me
when you get tired of singing music, just build a speaker.
How do you think people see you? What labels have
(20:40):
been put on you that you want to erase. I
think they labeled me as a boy pop Tart who
was just singing songs that were written for me. There
were actually people who thought I didn't play piano, that
I was miming every time I played Seawe again live.
So hopefully they know that there's a bit more abstance
to me. I'm not trying to shove it down their
(21:02):
throats or anything, but you know, well, how do you
want people to see you like in the future? I mean,
from this point forward, how do you want them to
I want people to describe their thoughts of you. I
want people to see me as the fixer of music,
someone who's handed a B plus song and turns it
around and makes it an A plus song. I love
(21:22):
doing that. I think I love doing that even more
than writing music from the ground up, taking a song
that's like okay and then switching the key, lowering and
raising it. Well. I want to be like the baby
Face of the generation, even though he's classic and still
continues to make hits, and even though there are only
four people in the world that know the real you,
(21:43):
and that's it's members of your family. What three words,
in your opinion describe the real you? Genuine, goofy and musical,
even though we're talking about music the entire time. I
literally hear music all day in my head, and the
only way I can actually get it out of my
head is if I can play it on a piano.
(22:04):
That way, if I'm doing an interview with you, I
don't keep humming like the same Nelly for Tado record
in my head. I just like, there is there a
song in your head right now? There, there's It's It
started that I was listening to Tony Braxton before and uh,
and I should I, I should I talking last night,
(22:24):
should have been with me, should have staid? But Musha
the stay back, Musha the c the Ce Sauce, which
is also written by baby Face l A read that
was in my head as I was just talking to
and I now it's completely in my head and I'm stuttering.
I don't know what I'm talking to. Weird songs in
your head, you just wish they would get out of
your head. I mean earworms, yeah, but sometimes, but sometimes
(22:48):
they turned into melodies, like when I was in the Philippines,
I couldn't get no no no no no no no
no no no no no na, and then then na
na out of my head. No no, no no no no
no no no no no no no no no Nonna.
And that turned into run around, run around, run around,
throwing that dirt all on my name, which people think
is throwing that turtle on my knee. But now I
want to make tahirt. It's not turtle, no, it's it's
(23:11):
not like. It's just like a Starbucks lover situation, long
list of its lovers. Starbucks lovers, turtle on my knee,
durt al on my name, weird, excellent, Charlie, Thank you
very much. I appreciate it. Music. I'm dying to hear
some music, so whenever you want to share it, let
me know I'd love to hear it. I'll text you
some new things. Thank you, buddy. Have a great day.
(23:34):
Tell Sean we said hi tonight. Okay, of course if
you like what you've heard, joined the conversation on Twitter
with hashtag label Defiers. Thanks to our friends at Zico
Coconut Water for supporting this amazing new fund podcast. If
you haven't tried Zico yet, grab one today. Audition
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com