Charlie Puth recently shared with Filipino reporters how life has been as a father and husband.
The American pop hitmaker, who is returning to Manila this October for his “Whatever’s Clever! World Tour,” welcomed his son Jude with wife Brooke Sansone Puth earlier this year.
“It’s amazing,” Charlie said during a recent virtual roundtable interview with The Philippine STAR and two other press outlets.
“I’m very fortunate to say that it’s not that nothing has changed. There are some times where babies cry, and I’m like, I can’t record right away, but baby takes precedence.
“Other than that, I think life got so much better because it’s not like I care about myself less, but I have to kind of direct my care to someone that needs it, and that’s this little baby.”
Asked if he has been working on new music based on his family life, Charlie said yes, explaining that his songwriting has to come from what he is actually experiencing.
“I’m always writing songs and there might be some new songs in the batch,” he said. “Any time I write, I have to write the truth.”
That same approach also applies to his latest record, “Whatever’s Clever!”
Album cover of Charlie’s fourth studio album ‘Whatever’s Clever!,’ his most personal work yet that gives fans the chance to know the artist more deeply.
Charlie said the sound of the album was influenced by his surroundings and by the headspace he was in while making it.
“I think what inspired the sound, just like everything — like when I made ‘Voice Notes,’ like when I made my first album, my ‘Charlie’ album — the surroundings inspire the sound. That’s always been the case for me,” he said.
“I was really happy and inspired and I knew I was going to become a dad for the first time, so I was really looking forward to that. I was just in a good mood,” he added.
Asked how fatherhood had influenced his songwriting process, Charlie said he handled it with the same goal: to make music that felt real to him.
“When I made a song like Cheating on You, that’s what I was going through at the time. It’s a bit sad to find a sad song kind of fun now, but that’s what I was going through at the time,” he continued.
“So now that I have a son named Jude, I’m very happy, so I’m going to write a song about being happy maybe, or perform in that kind of way.”
Does he write better when he’s heartbroken or happy?
“I write better when I’m tapping into exactly what I’m going through,” he stressed.
“So if I’m heartbroken at the time, which I have been, I believe I write great music. If I’m happy, I write great music.
Asked if he has been working on new music based on his new family life, Charlie says yes, adding that his songwriting has to come from what he is actually experiencing.
“But if I’m sad about something, and I’m pretending to write a happy song, it’s going to be the worst song ever and you will never hear it. I have to write about what exactly is going on in my life.”
His upcoming world tour, which also marks his return to the Philippines after a decade, is in support of his fourth studio album, “Whatever’s Clever!,” via Atlantic Records.
As he previously said in interviews, he wanted “a rich, warm, and big-sounding record,” drawing from classic influences such as Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Philip Bailey, while working with co-producer BloodPop.
Among the tracks are Sideways featuring Coco Jones, Love in Exile featuring Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, Until It Happens to You featuring Jeff Goldblum and Hey Brother, which directly addresses his younger brother Stephen.
He summed up the album as his most personal yet, allowing audiences to know him more intimately.
He said, “These are real songs. They’re about my brother, my dad, my wife, and people who aren’t in my life anymore that I thought I needed. This is finally me.”
(The artist behind massive global hits like See You Again, We Don’t Talk Anymore and Attention, will perform at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Oct. 14, as part of his “Whatever’s Clever! World Tour,” to be presented by Live Nation Philippines. You can purchase tickets online via SM Tickets or at any SM Tickets outlet nationwide.)
