Charlie Puth is, objectively, busy these days. In October, he released the Phil Collins-indebted “Changes,” the delectable first taste of his fourth album “Whatever’s Clever!,” out today. He chased it with a pair of eight-show residencies at the Blue Note in Los Angeles and New York, followed by a milestone performance of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl last month. Amid it all, he released a handful of follow-up singles including “Cry” with Kenny G and “Home” featuring Hikaru Utada. It feels poetic, somehow, in the grand scheme of things, that he announced the birth of his first child with wife Brooke just three days before “Whatever’s Clever!” arrived.
And it’s why Puth, 34, takes any chance he can get to sneak in his steps. In early March, he logged onto Zoom to discuss the album with his camera propped on top of a walking treadmill. “I saw my friend who used to run this label had a slow treadmill,” he tells Variety. “It was like at a stand-up desk. I was always very jealous of that.”
As he chats about the record, his head bopping up and down with each step, it becomes clear that free time is an increasing rarity these days. When he last had the luxury of taking his time, it was while making “Whatever’s Clever!,” a project that he describes as “yacht rock 2026” but has a wingspan that stretches across sultry R&B, city pop and gospel. Before that, he estimates, it was in 2006.
“I didn’t have the luxury of time on the last three albums,” says Puth. “We always had a song out for the masses that was ‘doing well,’ and then I had to play catch-up. Almost do reverse artistry. I was happy with the results, and I’ll play those songs for the rest of my life. But this is the first time that I have had just a few months to sit and tell the truth.”
For “Whatever’s Clever!,” the singer — an artisan who’s carved a space in pop music as its resident scholar (on social media, he hosts a “Professor Puth” series breaking down music theory) — settled into a more mature niche, embracing the sounds of the past while infusing them with the chamelonic chord shifts and song structures that have come to define him. It’s Puth at his most visionary, creating an album as smart as it is digestible, boosted by executive producer BloodPop (Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga) and featuring a diverse array of musicians including Coco Jones, Ravyn Lenae, Jeff Goldblum, Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins.
Puth will have to make even more adjustments to his schedule as he readies for his upcoming arena tour, kicking off on April 22 in San Diego before making stops at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. Still, he says, he’s trying to savor every moment as it comes.
There’s a very specific sound to “Whatever’s Clever!,” and like always, you clearly put a lot of care into the music. What was the process of writing and recording this album?
I think what was at times most challenging for me and interesting for me in a way to go about writing this album was just how unmusical it started. We knew we wanted to make 12 songs, me and BloodPop, but we didn’t start with the chords, we didn’t start with sounds. We started with the topic of what we wanted to talk about. It’s not the easiest thing for me to do to talk about what I’m going through. Even with my closest friends, there always has to be a little bit of sound playing in the background. So it’s easier for me to get the emotion out if I have a piano or a drum beat playing in the background.
But I believe that’s why these songs ended up the way they ended up, because it’s hard to write a song called “I Used to Be Cringe” and just talk about growing up in this music industry and making wrong decisions at the time and dying my hair blonde and just acting silly, but it’s just a part of growing up. It’s hard to do that, but it was worth it because this happens to be my favorite album I’ve ever made.
You collaborated with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins on “Love in Exile,” and their sound really inspires this album. What made you want to subsume yourself in those sounds?
I’ll never know why I reach for things musically. I just happen to be here in this time of my life. I’m not gonna write records like “Attention.” I’m gonna perform them and I’m very happy I get to perform them, but that’s not where I am right now. And I feel like I’d be doing my fans a disservice if I just did what I did a couple years ago. I don’t think I’d grow as an artist and that’s quite boring.
What inspired you to write an ode to your home state of New Jersey as a kiss-off?
When you read the title before even hearing the song, it was very important for me for people to see the title and wonder why there is a song called “New Jersey.” And they hear it and it’s a West Coast, “Chronic,” “Doggystyle,” Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre era, Eazy-E sounding beat, like G funk kind of song. But it’s about pretending that you don’t love your home state just because you had a breakup there five years ago. It’s a song about being in denial and it’s a little absurd, too. It’s like what, you’re gonna ignore the entire state of New Jersey just because you can’t drive by somebody’s house anymore? It’s the slap in the face, get over it kind of song. It’s meant to be a little kitschy.
You brought up “I Used to Be Cringe,” and it’s a self-reflective note to end the record on. It made me think of songs like “LA Girls” and “Boy,” which capture you at a very particular moment. How has your relationship evolved or changed with those songs in particular?
I think I’ve definitely changed as a person. I love “Boy.” That might be one of my favorite songs I ever wrote. It’s one of those songs that everything started as an accident, but then became a happy accident musically, just by accidentally dragging over the main synth line and having it weirdly syncopate with the 16th note hi-hats, whatever. I love that song.
But that’s a song that I wrote when I was 26 and I felt at the time that I wasn’t being taken seriously by somebody. As a young man, I was hot-headed and I wanted to prove them wrong. I should be taken seriously. I’m pretty cool, is what I would tell myself. But I’m thankful for those songs because I don’t think there would be “I Used to Be Cringe.” I don’t believe I would have ended up singing in that way and about that topic had it not been for those songs that preceded it.
You’re talking about really personal stuff on “Whatever’s Clever!,” opening up in ways that may be new for your audience and maybe even yourself. How do you push yourself creatively to allow yourself to open up to people in this way?
I needed someone to push me because in all honesty, I like making songs by myself, but I always feel that the best work comes from me when there’s a different brain in the room. And to pay compliments to BloodPop, he really pushed me to make an album like this. I believe I haven’t opened up to my fans like this. Maybe there’s a couple songs on “Voicenotes,” but the main concern on “Voicenotes” was still to make pristine-sounding pop, which was what we accomplished on that record. And I wanted things not to be so pristine on this fourth album. I appreciate you saying that they’re detail-oriented songs. I believe they are too. And I like the way that they’re mixed, but you listen to a song like “Changes,” in production terms, it’s slammed. The waveform is one giant waveform. It’s not the most dynamic song, but it’s meant to be a little rough around the edges mix-wise because that’s the emotion. I didn’t want to remove the emotion.
You’re coming off a run of huge milestones. The Super Bowl was obviously huge. There was a moment when you put your hands on your head. You look like you just can’t even believe that this is happening. What’s running through your mind as the jets are going over your head and you’re finishing the song?
Why I had that reaction was, I was just so stunned by how perfectly musically it was executed on behalf of the Oakland Choir and the orchestra that was on the field with me. The planes flew over right as we all hit the D major chord. In all honesty, I was like, wow, I cannot believe that synced up so perfect musically because not to get too symbolic, I feel like the music is perfectly lined up in my life right now. This album is my life. And call me crazy, but when I heard that plane fly over and it hit the D major chord, it just reassured me that everything is musically perfect right now.
It was one of those performances that people watched, and it reinforced for them that Charlie is really that dude. What did you see as the reaction to how people received it?
My father-in-law called me and was like, everybody is talking about you at the Stop & Shop. That’s how I knew that the band and I, my team and I, everybody, we’ve graduated to a new level, which is what I aspire to do for the rest of my musical career because if more people hear my voice and more people hear my music, it’s just gonna inspire them to pick up an instrument and wanna perform themselves. Yes, it’s nice to be recognized, but I don’t do it for that. I do it to reach out to the future musician in hopes that they’ll wanna do what I do.
A lot of big moments, as you well know. Super Bowl, Blue Note shows, new album, having a kid, going on an arena tour. That’s a lot. So how are you coping with all this change and these milestones at once?
Honestly, it’s hard at times. My goal is to never lie. And I would be lying if I said that everything was perfect. Nothing’s ever perfect. It’s definitely gonna be a challenge to embark on a tour as a new father. There’s gonna be times when I don’t get to see the baby, which is gonna be tough on me. Believe me, I already have songs written about it, but I’m so grateful for the strong bond that I have with my family and now extended family. I’m very lucky because I know that’s not a common thing. And I believe that’s what’s gonna get me through this tour. And on a lighter note, we bought the big headphones for the baby. And maybe I’ll see the baby from the stage. I look forward to it.
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