Charlie Puth Shares Music Writing Essentials and Thoughts on Taylor Swift's Shoutout to 'The Tortured Poets Department'

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Sitting on a plush white couch with a paper cup of bone broth coffee in hand, Charlie Puth is buzzing with energy as he prepares for a day of helping shape the young minds of aspiring musicians. Through his continued collaboration with BIC and Save The Music Foundationthe 32-year-old played teacher while hosting a Camp Creativity for teachers and students on August 7.

Before helping attendees with stations including journal writing, beat making, album cover design and a live performance, the Grammy-nominated artist had the opportunity to share ShopBillboard He must have music writing tools, favorite back-to-school supplies, and thoughts on Taylor Swift's name-dropping track “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“I'm still the person who writes the lyrics by hand,” says Puth. “I feel like it's more stable when you write it in your own handwriting instead of typing it on the phone.”

The choice of graphic utensil? BIC's 4-color foldable pen, which the “Attention” singer finds makes it easy to erase his mistakes and quickly write his standout lyrics on paper.

Similar to Taylor Swift, Puth likes to incorporate different pen colors into his songwriting process, but instead of basing the shade on the type of song he's writing, the color determines the quality of the verse he's created.

“Red is the color I use the most,” he says. “Lately, I've started with the verse before the melody, and if the verse comes out of my head too quickly, it's urgent, I have to write it in red.”

If he thinks a verse is just okay, he'll mark it in blue ink.

A steady pen isn't the only thing that helps Puth have a successful music writing session, the “See You Again” singer also enjoys clearing his mind while cycling — especially on an electric bike.

“I can never sit in the studio and force a song out of me,” he says. “I have to go out and I just ride my bike around my neighborhood and then I hear the song in my head and I come back to a notebook full of red scribbles.”

With eager students waiting to meet the singer, the conversation easily turned to the back-to-school season and what he was looking forward to getting.

As Puth looks to motivate aspiring artists, he got a boost this year from Swift after she put him on her chart-topping album. Looking to the future, he uses it as confirmation while making new music.

“My goal as an artist now is to inspire other people to become artists,” he says. “So if that means I have to become an even bigger artist than I am now, maybe it means reaching out to more people to inspire them to be bigger artists. So I'm very good with that idea.”

He also takes notes on how the 'Fotnight' singer makes music and looks for ways to infuse it into his own writing process.

“I always liked how her songs were journal entries,” notes Puth. “I don't think I've ever approached my music like this before. I was already starting it, but when she sang my name, I guess it confirmed that I was doing a good job. Doing what I'm already doing. So that's it [the new music] it will be like.”

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