Charlie Puth is back at Genius to discuss his new song “Hero.” The deeply personal song is also produced by the singer-songwriter himself and is the lead single off his upcoming album. On today’s episode of Verified, Charlie deep dives into the inspirations behind the song, what advice fellow singer-songwriter Taylor Swift gave him, expressing his true feelings in his music and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00 I had already written this song maybe like a month prior to the Taylor shout out.
00:05 It made me really happy and gave me the assurance to put it out and sit here with you all today
00:10 because it sounded really different.
00:12 The record, I knew it was good, but it doesn't sound like attention.
00:16 It doesn't sound like we don't talk anymore.
00:18 Taylor basically reaffirmed the notion that I could say things in my music in a journal-like
00:24 way, like how she does in her music.
00:26 She reaffirmed to me that I can do that too.
00:28 I wrote this down especially for y'all.
00:38 This song is about when you see someone you love hurting themselves, ruining the things
00:42 in their life that are good, but you can't save them, which I guess is true for me.
00:47 The first verse is pretty literal.
01:09 It just takes me back to what actually happened that night.
01:12 I walked into their room.
01:14 There's like 20 people in there and immediately I thought, "Okay, we're not having any sort
01:18 of heart to heart right now.
01:21 There's too many people around."
01:22 It's kind of like when you would fail a test in middle school, but you'd go to an Arby's
01:27 or a Starbucks with your mom and be like, "By the way, I failed this test."
01:30 She'd be like, "You, don't yell.
01:33 There's a bunch of people around."
01:34 It takes a lot for me to call someone out on their bullshit.
01:49 I get grossed out by not genuine things and that's when I've had enough.
01:56 These are not your friends.
02:08 I wanted to do this, the listener to know that I'm doing this to them.
02:13 Didn't JT in Miami say period?
02:16 I'm sure there's other examples.
02:18 I'm definitely not the first to do it, but I just wanted to create the picture of me
02:22 saying, "These aren't your friends.
02:25 All these people, you're lying."
02:49 The most important thing for me with a chorus is I just want everybody to be able to sing
02:54 it comfortably.
02:56 If they're not singers, I want them to just be able to hit the notes.
02:59 I want to put the microphone out and have the audience sing.
03:02 Every night and day, I don't need a hero.
03:08 I love a call and response.
03:09 "You're doing shit that's keeping both of us awake."
03:22 I get a, "Oh God.
03:27 What?
03:28 So and so.
03:30 This happened.
03:31 I'm not going to sleep for the rest of the night now."
03:33 "Medicate" is pretty obvious, but I want to be obvious in these lyrics.
03:37 I don't want to do, "This word means this word."
03:40 If you flip this word inside out and reverse the whole song, I just want to be super straightforward.
03:47 I think that's me coming to the realization that I just can't fix this person.
04:02 I feel like people can relate to that, where they just want to remember the good times
04:06 when things were normal, and you always replay those when you're in the thick of it.
04:10 You're like, "If we just get past this, one more bad night, we'll possibly be back to
04:17 where we were."
04:18 It just never works.
04:20 "I was really inspired by Boy Genius."
04:44 I feel like the listener hears the message more when the vocals are stacked like that.
04:49 Total had a song called "Can't You See?"
04:51 I've listened to that record countless amount of times where I was like, "Oh wow, they're
04:54 doubling it more at this section, less at this section."
04:57 I would hope that my song "Hero" that people would go back and listen to and be like, "Oh,
05:04 there's some interesting things happening at certain parts here."
05:06 If the verse is this, I'm not making it this.
05:14 I'm fitting actual sentences I've thought in my mind and just putting them into the
05:18 melody, which is what Taylor does really, really well.
05:21 I think she's actually the best in the world at it.