Pop

Charlie Puth Explains How Hall & Oates Inspired His Song 'How Long'

2/6/2018

As fans wait for Charlie Puth’s sophomore studio album Voicenotes to be released in May, the Billboard cover star discussed the process of creating his song "How Long," which will appear on the forthcoming LP, as part of the "How It Went Down" video series.

“It was summer,” Puth recalls. “I was just about to go on tour with my buddy Shawn Mendes, and I put on Hall & Oates…and I was like, 'Okay, I wanna make a record like that.’”

So he called up one of his A&R buddies, telling him, “Wouldn’t it be cool, like if there was a song called ‘How Long Has This Been Going On?’ and each kick drum would be on the lyric?”

Artist Mentioned

Charlie Puth

“I had one broken Rokit speaker to produce this record on,” he continues. “Every night after I would get off stage, I’d just kind of build the track out even more and I still wanted it to be like, thematically with a bass. My bass player Dmitry came in and he had this sick preamp and he plugged it in and it sounded bouncy … like me walking with a big cup of coffee down the street. Like Fat Albert or Mickey Mouse when he drops the piano.”

Basically having the whole song done in his head, Puth says putting it together was "just a matter of dissecting what was in my mind" and making it become a reality on Pro Tools.

Watch Puth detail how “How Long” came to life above, and listen to the song in full below.

By Rebecca Schiller

2/6/2018

Charlie Puth Explains How Hall & Oates Inspired His Song 'How Long'

The Daily