I'm Charlie Puth,

and this is the Wired: Autocomplete Interview.

[gentle upbeat music]

There's not many people I would see and cry on the spot.

If Britney walked in, I would, gosh.

[gentle upbeat music]

Styrofoam, reminds me of a Dunkin' cup.

Does Charlie Puth have perfect pitch?

No, I bet you don't hear it everywhere I go.

It's like become my personality.

Yes, I do.

It comes in handy with writing songs, I'd say,

other than it being a neat little parlor trick.

But I think what it does come in handy

for is hearing the song before it's made.

Especially when you're working with an artist

and you've written like a demo or an idea

and they're not rocking with the key,

you can kind of change the key in your head

and just get right to it.

It kind of speeds things up a little bit.

But you don't need it to make music, I'll say that.

Does Charlie Puth use autotune?

Yes, and so does everybody else.

And if they say they don't, they're lying.

Does Charlie Puth have a twin brother?

I do not have a twin brother.

Although my brother does look a lot like me,

he is actually twins with my sister, who is my manager.

Thanks.

Who is Charlie Puth to Taylor Swift?

I don't know,

you have to get her to sit down and do one of these.

But I really enjoyed that compliment

she gave me in that song,

that was very nice.

I heard a leak of it and I thought it was a computer.

I thought it was AI, which I thought was pretty funny.

I thought someone was playing a joke on me.

But then I heard it again and I thought,

It's just too clever to be a robot,

and then I just won that day. [chuckles]

Why is Charlie Puth so popular in Korea?

I don't know, but I feel very lucky

to be so popular in Korea.

I've collaborated with some Korean artists.

I love Korea.

It has the energy of New York

where it's a lot of hustle and bustle

and a lot of things getting done all at once,

but it's not in New York.

It's like on the complete other side of the planet.

Charlie Puth keyboard.

I'm assuming they're asking what keyboard I use a lot,

and that would be a keyboard called the Triton by Korg,

and I play a Steinway Baby Grand on tour.

I think a good keyboard can bring out any singer's voice,

especially a real one,

especially with some good chords under it too.

Can Charlie Puth dance?

No, just do a quick YouTube search

of me trying to move around on tour.

And they once got me a movement coach,

just horrible, horrible mistake,

because I think I'm pretty intellectual

and I tend to think things over many, many times,

which works when making a song,

'cause you're not dancing,

or at least I'm not dancing, but to dance,

you kind of have to be free with your body, I'm told,

and, I mean, look at me.

So, no, Charlie Puth cannot dance,

but I think that's a good thing.

When is Charlie Puth birthday?

Not grammatically correct, but that's okay.

My birthday is December 2nd, Sagittarius.

I share my birthday with the Queen, Britney Spears,

the reason why I make pop music.

There's not many people I would see and cry on the spot.

If Britney walked in, I would, gosh.

Is Charlie Puth still making music?

Yes.

I mean, well, I've finished filming a TV show.

Now I have a TV show,

because in 2020 when they said that live music was dead,

I thought I wasn't gonna be able to make music anymore,

so I made a TV show, I started writing a TV show.

And four years later, it's finally here.

It's called The Charlie Puth Show.

It's got my friends that I've known for 10 years,

and new friends like Will Ferrell and Courteney Cox.

It's basically about me being a multi-hyphenate

in the ever-changing music industry.

The constant pressure of remaining in the zeitgeist,

and I'm just making fun of myself the entire show.

If you don't like me, you should watch the show,

because I'm literally making fun of myself the entire time.

Charlie Puth duets.

I've had some duets.

My favorite duet is We Don't Talk Anymore

with Selena Gomez.

I remember where I was when I made the song.

We started it in Miami

and took it all the way to the Philippines.

So, sonically, it has a like innate,

like tropicalness in it,

I think, which was a thing in 2016.

But I love that song.

I just got back from Brazil last week,

and I don't even have to sing it on stage,

the audience sings it for me, which is a big pleasure.

And the last one, Charlie Puth 'Pitchfork.'

I think they just love me so much there

to speak so highly of me.

I think they have pictures of me

on their office walls there.

Such lovely, nice things to say about me and my music.

Oh my god, the compliments I get

about my music from Pitchfork.

It's funny because like I just, they're just so right.

I am the best.

What was Charlie Puth's, I'm nervous, first song?

My first song you will never hear.

It was uploaded to MySpace.

And if you know how to use an internet archive machine,

you can use it, but you won't be hearing it here.

[Producer] What was the first song of yours

that gained any traction?

The first song of mine that gained any traction

was See You Again, the biggest song.

Totally frightening for a brand new artist

to be just projected into the media at the time.

But I love that song,

and I'll play it for the rest of my life.

What songs has Charlie Puth

written for others?

Not too many songs for others.

I actually started out as a songwriter for other artists.

My first cut ever was a Pitbull song.

I think it was called Celebrate.

I don't know if it's the best of my work.

Stay by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber.

I wrote Slow Motion for Trey Songz.

I wrote Harleys in Hawaii by Katy Perry, fan favorite.

But it's all a blur, I don't really remember.

What is 'See You Again' by Charlie Puth about?

See You Again is actually about my friend Vale,

who passed in 2012.

When we both attended Berklee College of Music,

he always told me that I would write that song.

He would describe it, but not musically describe it.

He would just say that it was going to be a song

that a lot of people were going to hear,

and it was pretty surreal just two years later

writing his song that he said that I would always write.

What Charlie Puth, it's a long one,

song are you quiz?

I don't know if that's grammatically correct.

What does that mean?

What Charlie Puth song are you quiz?

[Producer] Have you ever seen, like, a BuzzFeed?

Which Charlie Puth song are you most personally like?

What of your songs do you feel like

you most personally resonate with?

I think all of my songs are obviously super personal.

There has to be some sort of innate personality

going into these songs with melody

for them to sound like me.

But I don't know if I'm as mean

as the song Attention or How Long

even though I wrote them.

But I guess all of the songs

just kind of thrown in a little bowl

and mixed up with some Betty Crocker mix.

Thank you.

What are Charlie Puth fans called?

Now I'm gonna get endless shit for this,

but I don't think there's a name for them.

I'd like everybody to express themselves

and their individuality separately,

but maybe Charlie Puth fans.

What songs does Charlie Puth sing on tour?

Well, we're actually going on tour later this year,

not in the US, but in Asia.

And I get to sing some songs

off my second record, Voicenotes,

which I haven't sung in quite some time,

along with the new stuff.

But I'm working on the next album now,

so next year you'll hear me sing all the songs

that I'm singing now, alone every day.

What's with Charlie Puth's eyebrow?

It's a scar, it's not shaved or anything.

I can't believe I'm still answering

that after all these years, but it's a scar.

What is Charlie Puth's phones number?

Obviously, not doing that,

but I've changed it a couple of times,

so I've gotten that question recently, not on a whiteboard.

Can Charlie Puth beatbox?

Yes, you know what's funny?

I was thinking about this the other day.

I didn't write this song,

I claim no responsibility for its production or anything.

But a good friend of mine, Johan,

produced Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande.

And a couple years after it came out,

he pointed out that he had taken,

like when I smack my lips together,

it makes a little pretend clap sound,

[smacks lips] kick drum. [smacks lips]

And he took that [smacks lips], and you can hear it,

it's very distinct, but you can hear it,

and very low in the mix,

you can hear it in the very beginning of Dangerous Woman.

So it's a pleasure spitting all over that song.

Is Charlie Puth in a relationship?

Yeah, I just got married.

I have a beautiful wife named Brooke,

who I've known my entire life.

And what's really cool is that our parents

have also known each other for all of their lives,

so it's two families coming together.

Final question, Charlie Puth playlist.

I have a secret playlist,

which I have no problem telling you about,

it's called 12:00 AM in the Back by the Kitchen.

It's on Spotify,

and it's a collection of all my favorite

New York-based hip-hop artists.

And the reason why it's called

12:00 AM in the Back by the Kitchen

is because I was on a date three years ago,

and they were playing not great music,

but the restaurant was so cool

and where we were sitting was so cool.

And I thought it would be so great

if they had this song, this song, this song.

I'll let you check it out.

Just Google that or search it,

I don't know how you do that.

I thought those were good questions.

I'm humbled that people still wanna know things about me,

but I don't mind answering those questions.

It's part of the gig, I guess.