Since catapulting on to the music scene over a decade ago, Charlie Puth has released three studio albums, racked up four Grammy nominations and collaborated with Elton John and James Taylor, among others.
Still, the New Jersey-born pop musician says he wasn’t prepared for the amount of attention he received after Taylor Swift name-dropped him on the title track of “The Tortured Poets Department,” her latest album, and said he “should be a bigger artist.”
“The Tortured Poets Department” has been perched at the top of the Billboard charts since its release in April, meaning that legions of listeners have since taken note of Swift’s endorsement and, in turn, sought out Puth’s music.
Nearly four months later, Puth says Swift’s words of encouragement continue to boost his confidence, both in and out of the studio. In May, he dropped a tender ballad, “Hero,” which he’d recorded some time ago but had been hesitant to share with fans.
“I have a fear of being vulnerable sometimes, which is maybe why my music hasn’t hit a certain point in my goal-oriented mind,” Puth told HuffPost. “I think I’m going to hit that with this next record. There’s an album I’m making right now that I’m approaching in a way that Taylor approaches her music, where it feels like a diary entry with melody. It’s about a lot of things that I’ve felt afraid to sing about.”
Fans may have to wait a bit longer to hear Puth’s next album, which he says is about “halfway” done. In the meantime, he’s hoping to pay it forward by partnering with Bic and the Save the Music Foundation for a back-to-school “creativity camp” for students and teachers.
The campaign’s kickoff event, held in New York last week, found Puth encouraging groups of teens and young adults to try their hand at writing, beat-making, album cover design and live performance.
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“I’m very passionate about arts education and what it can do for other areas of your life,” he said. “Everyone makes fun of the band kids, but nobody realizes how important music is. In my scholastic days, I remember math, science and everything else being improved by starting with something artsy, something that utilized the right side of my brain. Yet it’s the last thing to be funded in a lot of schools.”
What would Puth tell aspiring young artists these days? “Never feel discouraged,” he said. “Don’t overthink things. You may not write a full song today, but what you do write might be the groundwork for a song written in the future.”
In addition to Swift, Puth finds himself inspired by Los Angeles-based musician The Dare, as well as a number of female pop artists, including Charli XCX and Chappell Roan.
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“I was listening to The Dare two years ago and I was like, ‘I’ll do anything to work with this guy.’ And now people are just finding out how talented he is,” he said. “I’ve known Charli XCX for a long time, and I have such profound respect for the way she writes music. She’s a proper superstar.”
As to whom he’d most like to work with on his new album or otherwise, Puth has his eye set on musicians who may not yet be household names.
“There’s no dream artist who comes to mind, because what I do is such a dream already,” he said. “Even kids [at the creativity camp] today, you don’t know what they’re going to be doing in two years. They could invent a completely new style of music. I want to collaborate with that.”
Listen to Charlie Puth’s new single, “Hero,” below.