Back in the day – okay, so it maybe wasn’t that long ago, but it’s been a while — Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez’s duet “We Don’t Talk Anymore” hit the airwaves. Sadly, the “Attention” singer revealed in a previous interview that the song’s words have become a reality since they’ve lost contact, but Charlie still has fond memories of how that song eventually came to be.
In a new interview with Billboard, the “How Long” singer reveals that Taylor Swift introduced the two at a VMA afterparty and the recording process happened inside a closet. Yup, in a closet.
Charlie said, “Taylor Swift introduced [me to Selena] at this VMA afterparty a while back. I think I even was like, 'We should do something sometime.' I say that to every artist I meet, because I just can’t believe I'm in this position where people want to work with me. But I didn’t actually think it was gonna happen. I think four months went by, and it happened — but in a very strange way."
"I had sent the demo of 'We Don’t Talk Anymore,' where it was originally all me, and I played it for [Selena] over FaceTime — I was in the Philippines," he continued. "She was like, 'I love this,' and it hit me. I was like, 'This could be a duet.' Everybody has experience with the sentiment of the song meaning, I think. I certainly have, she has, so it just felt very real when she performed it.”
“Selena was in Vegas. She flew herself to my house I was renting at the time in the Hollywood Hills. She came over at like 2 o’clock in the morning and recorded this part in a makeshift recording booth in the closet. It was very, very not glamorous. I had to go to London the next day — I was kind of [exhausted], I just came from a party. But I had to get the vocals all done. So it was quite challenging to just push through it at 5 o’clock in the morning. But when I listened to it when I woke up the next day, it was all worth it, 'cause she sounded great,” he continued to say. We couldn’t agree more either, tbh.
Another collaboration that turned out amazing was the track Charlie and Liam Payne worked on together, “Bedroom Floor.” The song is a total bop, and writing the track was just as fun. The “Attention” singer revealed that he worked alongside songwriters Little Aaron, Noell Zancanella, J Kash, and Ammar Malik.
He said, “I just pictured what a leprechaun would sing, because I think there were Lucky Charms in the room or I had had them for breakfast. Like, what would a leprechaun melody be?”
The rest is history. When it came to bringing the song to Liam, all the unusual things the former One Direction member does before laying down some vocals is what stood out about that day. He has a very intense ritual beforehand.
“I played it for Liam when he was in the studio. And fun fact, he has no air conditioning in the studio. He keeps it at about 80 degrees. He drinks warm milk, I think…and sings the song perfectly. I don’t really understand how that’s possible. I mean, it works for him. I don’t know if I would be able to pull that off — I go to bed at like, 9 p.m. every night,” he said.
Warm milk and no air conditioning? Sounds a little unconventional, but who are we to judge? Obviously, those tactics work for Liam and singing in closets secretly works for Selena. It just goes to show that even some of the biggest stars have strange habits to ensure their work emerges in the best way possible.
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