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

Charlie Puth

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

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.54.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 that shape his songwriting.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Charlie Puth HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Pushkin.

0:10.8

Charlie Puth is a singer-songwriter whose knowledge of pop music runs deeper than your

0:16.0

average chart-topper. He studied music production and engineering at Berkeley College of

0:20.6

Music and first gained

0:22.1

widespread attention in 2015 with his ubiquitous single, See You Again, a collaboration with

0:27.5

Wiz Khalifa for the Furious Seven soundtrack. That song earned him his first Grammy nomination.

0:33.7

In fact, three of them. Since then, he's released hits like attention we don't talk anymore and one call away

0:39.8

we'll also writing and producing for other artists including co-writing and co-producing stay for the kiddleroy

0:45.6

and justin beber his fourth album his latest whatever's clever comes out next month and as he'll reveal

0:52.6

in this episode is his most honest and personal work

0:55.6

to date. On today's episode, I'll speak with Charlie about making whatever's clever in the process

1:01.0

of recording a song with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. He also discusses the sly way he

1:06.4

convinced Kenny G to appear on the album and sits down at the piano to demonstrate how gospel

1:11.1

chords always have found their way into pop music, revealing the harmonic foundations that shape

1:17.0

his songwriting.

1:20.5

This is Broken Record. Real musicians, real conversations.

1:28.2

This is an I-Heart podcast.

1:31.1

Guaranteed human.

1:34.2

Here's my interview with Charlie Poof.

1:36.2

Head over to YouTube.com slash broken record podcast if you want to see the video.

1:41.1

The new album is really, really good.

1:43.3

Well, thanks.

...

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