Charlie Puth is certainly not mincing words during the era of his third album, Charlie. Though it’s been four years since he released his last album, Voice Notes, Puth believes that putting in more time to create a body of work was essential. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Puth shared that he felt that his career as a pop star, after having worked behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer, felt rushed, beginning with his 2016 debut album, Nine Track Mind.
“I certainly don’t make music for critics,” he said “but I was agreeing with them when they curbed my first album and they were like, ‘This is the worst music ever.’ I wish I had time to make a better album. We had ‘See You Again,’ the biggest song since ‘Lose Yourself.’ And I was never supposed to sing that record. I wrote it specifically for another artist to sing, and then I suddenly had to figure out how to be an artist in front of millions of people.”
He continued, saying, “I was corny. I was 24 years old. I was figuring out, like, how to sing in front of a live audience. I had never done any of this stuff before because I thought I was just gonna be behind the scenes. So forgive me if I made some missteps, but I had millions of eyes on me.”
For much of the album, Puth shared parts of the songwriting and recording process with fans via several TikTok clips. While he hasn’t revealed whether or not he’s begun work on a follow-up to Charlie, he did say that he does plan to continue to share updates with fans as he works on new projects.
“I don’t think I’m ever gonna make an album where I’m hiding away from people,” he said. “and I’m in my little cocoon and then one day I’ll be ready to share it with everybody. It just doesn’t feel like me.”
Charlie is out now via Atlantic. Stream it here.
Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. .
