- (FBE) We wanted to show you some videos from early on
in his career when he would actually upload acoustic covers
to his YouTube channel. - Ugh, this is gonna be rough.
Ugh!
- (Sheila) He reminds me of a young Justin Timberlake.
- That's the day-making comment right there!
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
♪ I warned myself ♪ - (Jeannie) I don't know this person.
Or wait, the voice sounds so familiar!
- (Elise) Oh, is that Charlie Puth? - Mm-hmm.
- (Austin) Oh, I love Charlie Puth. - Nice!
- (Sheila) He looks so different.
- ♪ That I'll do it one more time ♪ I do look different.
♪ Don't trust in myself ♪
- (Brandon) So far, I'm really liking this.
- (Austin) Is this just you showing me his music videos,
'cause that's gonna be a great day. - Yes!
- (Austin) Yo, I'm gonna say this like 20 times,
but he is so [bleep] good and underrated.
- (laughs) The first time I ever saw myself on this show,
it was for "See You Again", and Wiz Khalifa,
and everybody, of course, knew Wiz, but I was like brand new,
and nobody knew me,
and everybody was like "Oh, I know Wiz,
but I have no idea who that kid is, who's that kid?"
And now every single, it's kinda wild
to see that everybody has something to say about me now.
- (Kostas) He always has the gnarliest like guitar riffs,
or like just melodies in the back.
- Mm-hmm, it's a little bass synth that I downloaded on the internet
for like five dollars. It's the bom, bom, bom,
and I put some like distortion on it,
and apparently people like that. That's so nice of them.
♪ First to put my hands ♪ ♪ Around your (gags) ♪
- (Dominic) Oh my God. (Charlie laughs)
- I'm like, I knew everybody was gonna have that reaction when I,
like, that throat choke was like the first thing
that I sang into the song at that second verse,
and I knew that everybody was gonna be like either
weirded out by it, or in love with it.
Nothing in between.
♪ Why is no one supposed to know ♪ ♪ I shoulda known that was a lie ♪
- (Mikaela) I'm into the visuals of this video.
- (Dominic) This is such a crazy video.
- That was so much fun to shoot.
I love everybody's reaction that it looks different.
We wanted to really kinda shock people with this song.
It sounds completely different than "Attention".
It sounds completely different than anything that I've ever done,
and it's kind of like a jolting reintroduction to the world.
So this is exactly what I planned.
♪ Warned myself ♪ ♪ That I shouldn't play with fire ♪
- (Sheila) Mmm, he reminds me of a young Justin Timberlake!
- That's the day-making comment right there.
- (Sheila) I like Charlie Puth, I like his lyrics.
He's very good at writing, he's very good at describing
like everything relationships, he's very good at it.
- It's interesting, somebody asked me the other day
"can you just like make something up and put it into a song?"
And the answer is no.
That's why my lyrics are like really literal, maybe sometimes too literal,
because I've gone through everything that you hear
in every single one of my songs. I don't really know how to hide it.
- (Chelsea) I like that he's coming out with more music, too.
Like, you know, 'cause he started just,
at least for me, just hearing him on other people's tracks,
and then to hear him get his own music
and his own style, he's just, he's really talented.
- Yeah, we're about to overload people with music.
Not overload, but we're about to put the most music
I've ever put out after this song,
we're gonna put out another song, and then after that song,
we're gonna put out another song, and then the fans
are literally gonna decide what the single is gonna be.
- (FBE) Charlie's actually been one of the more requested artists
for us to cover for a while now, so we're gonna show you
a medley of some of his past hits now. - (Kostas) Love it.
- Ugh, mm-mm. I hate this song.
Ugh, I mean, I, no.
- (Elise) Here it goes!
(sings along) ♪ I'm only one ♪ (Charlie laughs)
♪ Call away ♪ - ♪ Only one call away ♪
You know, it's crazy, because when I play this live,
like I'm about to, I'll play it in Brazil
for like hundreds and thousands of people,
it's so different, and I make it,
I've adjusted the arrangement, but like just looking at ugh.
You know, I guess you have to start somewhere.
- (Brandon) The style's a little different
from the first track we listened to.
- ♪ We don't talk any more ♪ I like this song.
- (Sheila) Ooh, this my song!
- ♪ We don't talk any more ♪ - (Mikaela) Oh.
- So this is the first song where I started to get
in my own way, my own element.
This is the first song that I felt comfortable showing people.
♪ Used to do ♪
- (Austin) Yo, I stan him so [bleep] hard.
- (laughs) I wanna meet him.
♪ We don't talk any more ♪
- (Jeannie) His songs are really relatable.
- Yeah, I literally take a sentence that people say,
like "we don't talk any more," and then you put melody on top of it,
and then bam, there's a song.
I literally, when I make a song, think about people reacting to it
before the song is even written, so this is super fun for me to watch.
I was just telling my mom on our way over here,
that I remember when you guys were just starting out,
'cause I was like a YouTuber. Like a real YouTuber in 2008.
I remember seeing these videos from like the early days.
It's really nice to see how much its grown.
♪ You just want attention ♪ I like this song.
- (Chelsea) Yes, ah, I love this song too.
- (Austin) I [bleep] love this video so much!
- This was the hardest video I ever filmed in my life.
I was propelled mid-air at 6 AM,
right when rush hour's starting to happen in Downtown L.A.
with a harness around my private area. (laughs)
Record label was very afraid of this video,
and they were very happy that it was well received.
- (Sheila) He's like a young Justin Timberlake.
Justin Timberlake does those same kind of moves.
(Charlie laughs) - Look at, what am I doing?
It's so okay, keep going.
♪ Is it real or just for show ♪
Ugh! - (Dominic) Wow.
- He said wow.
- (Dominic) Suave. - Suave! (laughs)
♪ I will fall to the ground ♪
- (Austin) (sings along) ♪ On my knees ♪
- I love that melody.
- (Austin) I love his yellow shoes.
- (Mikaela) I love this video!
- I look so different with hair. - (Sheila) The queen!
- That's so crazy.
- (Brandon) You can see like there's been an evolution
to his music from the beginning. - Yes.
Every song is so different because for about four years,
I've really been trying to get to the point where I am now.
Like "I Warned Myself", and all the music
that's about to follow that now, there's gonna be
like super consistency like what I've always wanted
in myself as an artist.
I never really got a chance to do that,
because I was traveling around the world.
I had to find my sound, it took some time.
So when I look at all these videos, I see such a different
phase of my life in every single one.
- (Jeannie) (screams) I love this! I love his music.
- She just did a little screech! (screeches)
She hit a E flat. (screeches)
- (Austin) He's very much a solid musican,
and a solid artist, and I would, I don't know this for a fact,
but I would bet that he plays
a large role in producing his own music,
and you can tell, because it feels
very much like his hand is the biggest hand in the pot.
- He's very intuitive. He's right.
I put the whole record together.
I guess that's why it doesn't sound like everything else,
'cause it's truly my personality in all of these songs.
So I'm really happy that he had that assessment.
- (FBE) Wanted to show you some videos from early on in his career
when he would actually upload acoustic covers to his YouTube channel
- Ugh, this is gonna be rough.
- (Mikaela) I didn't know that!
- And we're gonna get through it though,
we're gonna do it. Yeah.
Ugh, I'm just not gonna listen. - (Sheila) Ooh, he's a baby!
- (Jeannie) Oh my God, he's wearing a beanie!
- Ugh, that was in my apartment in Boston.
Eesh, I, why did I, why did I wear that beanie?
Ugh! - (Dominic) Wow.
- Ugh! - (Austin) He's good.
- I like his voice, he has a good voice.
♪ I'm gonna fly like a bird ♪ - (Austin) ♪ In the night ♪
So good. - Oh my goodness.
Why couldn't I have just dropped the key?
- (Elise) Go off, Charlie!
- ♪ From the chandelier ♪ ♪ From the chandelier ♪
- (Sheila) That just sounds so good. - Thank you.
I appreciate all the nice comments.
I had just finished college. I was living at home.
I was making periodic trips to New York, to L.A.
I was waiting outside of record labels,
sometimes I would wait outside for like six hours,
and they wouldn't even see me.
I had no idea that record labels
just wanted to hear original music of mine,
so I started writing more original music
after this video, after I shot this video myself,
and that's, I mean it didn't nearly get as many hits,
but it got a lot more attention from like the music insiders.
So it was right after this video is when I went out
to L.A. for the first time, and then I wrote "See You Again"
and all the songs, so it's pretty, as much as I cringe
watching this in my torn off shirt, it's pretty significant point in time.
- (FBE) When did you first hear about Charlie Puth?
- (Dominic) I feel like, if I'm correct,
it was like a Wiz Khalifa song.
- (Elise) "See You Again" with the Fast and Furious movie.
Then I got into "Attention", then I got into "Voicenotes",
and then now I'm like a pretty big fan of Charlie.
- (laughs) That great!
- (Sheila) That collab with Selena, and they put you know,
"We don't talk any more." I started to look him up,
and I started listening to his music, and I just really yeah,
he became one of my favorite artists. I love him.
- (FBE) As a college kid, he grew up mostly during this digital age.
How important is being YouTube and social media savvy
to getting ahead in this industry?
- (Dominic) Oh, it's super important.
I mean, first of all, if you have the talent,
let alone, like you're gonna get discovered regardless.
- (Brandon) Previously, there'd be bands or artists
that would have to perform at like solo shows
and get popularity by word of mouth.
- These are really smart kids.
They have great intuition. They're real, all of them.
I'm like really listening to everything they're saying.
- (Kostas) When you go to these big record labels,
they're looking at your numbers.
There's a million people with an amazing voice,
like what's separating you is like oh, you already have
a built-in fan base?
Like, you understand how to interact with people
and how to separate yourself from like quote-unquote "the competition".
That's what they're looking for.
- Wow, I feel like I'm learning.
(laughs) They're so, they're all so well-spoken.
- (FBE) Do you think that it's important
that an artist is the songwriter as well as the performer
of a song, or it less about
that authentic voice, and more just about how good the music is?
- (Chelsea) Yeah, I think it just depends what
you're looking for in music.
It is really beautiful to think oh, an artist can write this themselves
and it's coming from them, and it means that to them,
and I think if you want a more personal connection it's better.
But if you just want to listen to music,
then it doesn't matter.
- (Mikaela) All I care about is like oh, if this music is good,
but I know a lot of people are like "oh, well they're
a better artist, because they wrote it."
- Sometimes it's just about the artist being there.
Like with Katy for example, she wrote the title, "Small Talk".
She came in and said
"I wanna write a song called Small Talk."
And we basically worked around that.
Their being, their presence, their energy
actually adds a lot to the making of the record,
if that makes any sense.
- (FBE) Charlie Puth announced that the single,
the first one that you heard today, is the first of three to come.
So after listening to that first one, are you excited about the next two?
- (Chelsea) Yes, I'm super excited. I have to download all of them.
- (Dominic) Yeah. - (Kostas) Yeah.
I'm excited to see what the other ones sound like.
- (Elise) Yeah, I look forward to the other two, definitely.
- (Mikaela) Very excited, 'cause what does he do?
He makes bops! - (Sheila) Yes.
I'm like ready, I'm excited.
- When did people start coining the term bop?
- (Brandon) I'm gonna like check him out.
- Wow!
And he's, I can tell, he was kind of on the fence a little bit.
He was thinking about it, but awesome.
- (Austin) I'm gonna probably go home and listen to
the one I just heard again.
Just so I can really absorb it.
- (Jeannie) Yeah, he's just got such like a distinct vibe,
that I haven't heard in another male artist
from like this generation, so it's, yeah, I love new music,
and I'm excited. - Wow.
That's the greatest compliment I can recieve.
That's really awesome.
- (FBE) Alright, so first of all, tell us what it's like
to see people who are very close in age to you
react to you and your music.
- It's really exciting to know that people my age like my music,
and I made, I think I had concocted some of these ideas,
these song ideas while I was in college too,
so it's kinda cool to see college kids reacting to me.
I remember when you guys had just started your channel.
I think it was around 2007, 2008?
So I've been with you guys for the very beginning.
I never thought that I would be behind this white table,
talking about myself.
- (FBE) So can you tell us
who some of your favorite YouTubers
and biggest influences on the platform were,
when you were growing up?
- Oh my gosh.
Um, well you guys, Fine Brothers.
There was Dave Days, What The Buck Show,
there was Nigahiga.
The way that they showcased themselves as a brand, I learned how to do
by watching them.
So I learned a lot from them.
- (FBE) Alright, so in addition to you mentioning
that "I Warned Myself" will be the first of three singles
to be released from your upcoming third studio album...
- Yeah.
- (FBE) Is there anything else you're able to share
about what you're working on right now?
- I will say that the two songs that were gonna come out
after "Warned Myself" are different,
but they're all once again, married to each other,
like every song I put out, there's a common theme.
No one will ever have heard music from me like this.
- (FBE) So finally, you've had quite an amazing story,
and we'd like to know how it feels
when you reflect back on being a kid who would make jingles
for YouTube channels you enjoyed watching,
to where you are now, on top of the music world?
Is that kind of wild when you stop and think about it?
- It is wild, because I do remember the type of chair,
the texture of the chair that I was sitting in
at X, Y and Z record label.
And now I'm signed to one of those record labels too.
So I mean, it was just a matter of proving myself
but I was having fun, most importantly along the ride,
and that's what I would say to everybody who wants to pursue
music, or being an artist as a career.
Just don't worry about being successful right away,
and just enjoy the ride.
I'm happy that they helped me to get where I am right now.
Hey, it's Charlie Puth here.
Thank you so much to FBE for having me here.
It was really awesome to see all of your reactions,
and kind of reassures me that I'm doing a good job.
I'm really excited for you to hear what's coming next.
Make sure you go listen to "I Warned Myself".
It's out right now, go watch the video,
and then look out for the next songs that come out after that.