Why Charlie Puth Doesn't Have a 'Dream Collab' in Mind Ahead of His Next Album (Exclusive)

08/08/2024 07:50 PM

The singer-songwriter released his song "Hero" in May after Taylor Swift name-dropped him on 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Though Charlie Puth's previous collaborations have resulted in songs like "See You Again," "We Don't Talk Anymore" and "Marvin Gaye," the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter says there isn't a big name on his mind for the next hit partnership. 

"There's no dream collab," he tells PEOPLE when asked if he has a could-be collaborator on his bucket list.  "But the dream — one of the dreams — is to collaborate with somebody who is really talented but just hasn't gotten a shot yet, and their dreams all the way come true or start to come true as a result of us collaborating."

"That to me is better than any collaboration with a big time artist or someone who I just selfishly want to collaborate with," he continued.  "Helping someone else and making them realize that they were capable of it all along."

In the spirit of lending a hand, Puth has recently teamed up with BIC ahead of back-to-school season and hosted a Creativity Camp with the brand in New York City on Wednesday, Aug. 7 for students and teachers. Inspired by the brand's 4-Color Ballpoint Pen, Puth led four activities: journal writing, beat-making, album cover drawing as well as a live performance.

Thinking back on his own early days as a songwriter, Puth can still remember writing his first song. 

"I remember it was in G minor and I was 7 years old when I wrote it," he recalls.  "And it was just a melody, no lyric attached to it or anything. And I still have it in my head nowadays. I still haven't used it. Maybe one day I will, but for me it's always just kind of started with melody. It was never really a lyric thing, but that's obviously changed over the maybe 20 years that I've been doing this."

Related: Charlie Puth Teases New Album and What Taylor Swift 'Nudged' Him to Do on It (Exclusive)

In May, Puth released "Hero" after some encouragement from Taylor Swift on her recent song "The Tortured Poets Department." 

"My new song HERO is about when you see someone you love hurting themselves, ruining the things in their life that are good, but you just can't save them," Puth wrote in a caption on Instagram announcing the song. "It's one of the hardest songs I've ever had to write, but I wrote it in hopes that you've gone through something similar in your life, and that it can fill in the BLANK for you like it did for me."

"I'm very excited to share my next album with you, especially this song because it's a great representation of what's to come. I've never put out a song like this before- it's very different for me, but I want to thank @taylorswift for letting me know musically that I just couldn't keep this on my hard drive any longer," he added of the "Cruel Summer" singer, who name dropped Puth on her latest album.

However, Puth tells PEOPLE that the latest song won't appear on his next album — he is currently working on a project that will "probably" drop in 2025.

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Read the original article on People.