Charlie Puth: When people hear this song, I want this song to be a three minute escape
from the reality. I was, 10 years ago in high school and I stayed home every night. I worked
on ProTools. I tried to practice my craft and piano and I thought to myself, "What if
I wasn't like that and I was a complete recluse and a fucking crazy person?” What would
that be like?
So the inspiration for this song, it came from this voice note here titled Benedict
Canyon Drive April 16th, 2019. The night prior, I had this dream of these bagpipes. You know
how bagpipes start off? And it was like…
I was in this wide open field in Scotland. This is just my dream and I think I've been
to like Scotland once and I've never been to an open field in there. So that was weird.
I woke up and I remembered this melody. I went over to Watt's house and played these
chords on the piano with the melody from my dream and this was the voice note.
I was like, "Uh!"
It was actually Billy, my former stylist, who now writes for Post Malone and has had a lot of
success in that area, who came up with the title because I was beatboxing it to him.
I was like...just trying to lay out what the production could sound like.
And then we started talking about Rahzel and Rahzel had a song called, "If Your Mother
Only Knew," where he actually spoke and beatboxed at the same time. Going like um…
And then we were just like, "Oh yeah. That's pretty cool." And then he was like, "What
if it was, if your mother knew all of the things." And we all just like stood up.
Oh! And now he’s here.
This is Andrew Watt, everybody. This is who I made the song with. He's very late. But
I love him so much.
Andrew Watt: I love you.
Charlie Puth: It doesn't matter.
Andrew Watt: Here we go! Okay.
Charlie Puth: How did we meet? Um. You had very long hair and you looked at me, you came
up to me at my studio in Hollywood and you were like, "We're going to be best friends."
So, we clicked right away. Because as I was saying before, he's so good at guitar and
I feel like I'm pretty good at piano and we're just-
Andrew Watt: The best.
Charlie Puth: Thank you. We bonded over our instruments.
Andrew Watt: You were like, “I want to do something that feels like a waltz.”
Charlie Puth: Oh yeah and then Lou was like, "No.”
Andrew Watt: And then we decided to start trying it with a shuffle and then it kind
of just happened. So, Charlie put the chords down, those chords. I was playing bass, the
bass made the record and then Charlie played it on this Mini Moog. It sounds like this.
Andrew Watt: You have this moment in the studio,
and then there's the, "Holy fuck!", moment. That was the, "Holy Fuck!" Moment,
when you heard the bass. From there, there’s tons of guitars.
Charlie Puth: Andrew recorded these guitars here.
It has that movement. So when you play it with the bass, it's a bunch of quarter notes and eighth notes.
Andrew Watt: So that's the bounce.
Charlie Puth: And you love that setting on-
Andrew Watt: Guitar Rig.
Charlie Puth: Guitar Rig, called Andy in a Bottle. It’s very simple after that. Then
we put a kickdrum.
Every rhythmic pocket is filled. So there's not a chance that you're not going to not move.
Seriously, one of my favorite things in songs is to have pre-choruses that
completely depart. It's just up in the air and you're like, "How in the hell are they
going to get back to the tonic?"
So we have the Juno, these chords. Just atmospheric and out of nowhere, kind of out of key.
And then you layer it with…
And then one more layer…
And then you’re right back in the chorus. I's like a quick departure, a quick chance
to catch your breath and then get right back to it.
Andrew Watt: The drums on this song were, we programmed a bunch of drums and we also
had Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers come in and play, who's one of my best friends.
And so I played him the song and he was like, “Let me play on this. I have a couple of
ideas.” So it was amazing. And then Charlie came over while he was finishing up doing
it, and he lost his mind.
Charlie Puth: That was fun.
Andrew Watt: My favorite element of the song beside the bass and the drums. Shocking, is
the guitar, the acoustic guitar that comes in.
That just makes everything…
The piano is in there.
Charlie Puth: You had the Steinway, and you had just gotten it too and it was all-
Andrew Watt: 1907.
Charlie Puth: 1907 Steinway Upright. Very weird.
Charlie Puth: I kind of messed up at the end there but it doesn’t even matter.
Every time I do a bed of vocals, I always double everything 16 times. It's kind of extra,
but it just adds an undeniable texture to it. So that's what this is right here.
See I grew up in church so I sang in choir. So other than piano being my primary instrument,
I've always wanted to know, like I always wanted to be a good singer.
I think I was like 18 when I first sang in front of
people. So I wanted that to be the secondary thing to go along with the piano.
There’s not a whole lot to this track, quite honestly.
Andrew Watt: Which is cool.
Charlie Puth: Which is what it's supposed to be. And when you play it all together,
it kind of sounds like this.
I've always wanted to get a group of people that I trust and like have the same
morals as I do when making a record, during the construction of a record. And that's like
where Watt and a couple other people came in too. It's like a very small group of people.
But it's supposed to be, music is supposed to be made with people. It's supposed to be
fun.
Andrew Watt: But Charlie is self-contained. He can record himself, he produce himself,
he can play all the instruments himself. It's really special that he wanted to make some
music with me. You know, he doesn't need anyone.
Charlie Puth: Usually I do produce everything myself. But this was kind of one of the first
ones that was completely collaborative.
Andrew Watt: That is my favorite microphone for vocals.
Charlie Puth: See that's why you're here. You're supposed to tell all the specifics
about the microphones and all that.
Andrew Watt: When are you going to get over the fact that I was late?
Charlie Puth: I’m...I don't give a fuck. What do you think ... You want to go to the
bungalows later?
Andrew Watt: Sure.
Charlie Puth: I'm so very down.