Charlie Puth

Charlie Puth

From Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond by Pushkin Industries

March 24, 2026 · 56 min · Season 6 · Episode 202

About this episode

Charlie Puth discusses his songwriting process and his upcoming album, Whatever's Clever!, in this episode.

Charlie Puth is a meticulous songwriter whose knowledge of pop music runs deeper than your average chart topper. Charlie, who studied music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music, first gained widespread attention in 2015 with "See You Again," his collaboration with Wiz Khalifa for the Furious 7 soundtrack. The song earned him his first three Grammy nominations. Since then, he's released hits like "Attention," "We Don't Talk Anymore," and "One Call Away," while also writing and producing for other artists, including co-writing and co-producing "Stay" for The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber. His fourth album, Whatever's Clever!, comes out next month. It's his most honest work to date, and as he'll reveal on this episode, the songwriting is far more personal than anything he's released in the past. On today's episode, Justin Richmond talks to Charlie Puth about making Whatever's Clever! and the process of recording a song with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. He discusses the clever way he convinced Kenny G to appear on the album. And he sits down at the piano to demonstrate how gospel chords always find their way into pop music, revealing the harmonic foundations…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Richmond

Guest: Charlie Puth

Topics covered

  • songwriting
  • pop music
  • music production

Keywords

  • Berklee College of Music
  • Grammy nominations
  • collaboration
  • gospel chords

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Whatever's Clever!

Books & works: See You Again, Furious 7, Grammy, Attention, We Don't Talk Anymore, One Call Away, Stay, Whatever's Clever

More episodes of Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond podcast page.