Shawn Mendes joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss his new song “What The Hell Are We Dying For?”, how uncertainty in his life fueled the release of the song, breaking through a bad case of writer’s block, the process of releasing the song immediately after writing and recording it, and how he’s feeling now.
Shawn Mendes Tells Apple Music About New Song “What The Hell Are We Dying For?”…
I feel like over the last year and a bit, I've just been really struggling in the studio to find my voice and to find myself musically and to even have the courage just to be in the room with writers or step into the booth and sing. And I was upstate New York and just on the back end of feeling a lot of things about relationships, about my career, about environment. And I was in the studio and this moment of just deep frustration came over me and I finally started to feel this inspiration come. And honestly, in that moment, it felt like it was the first time I felt that in a year and a half in the studio. And I just think singing along to this organ and this Juno loop we created, and the words came out of me just like, what am I dying for? And I think it's the most abstract I've been in a long time writing about multiple things at the same time.
And I think to go back to the question of why was it so important to release, I think I had this feeling of urgency, this feeling of honestly excitement, this feeling of connection, this feeling of this is me right now, this is how I feel right now. This feeling of frustration that I just wanted to express in music. And I think we were up there in New York, the sky was orange, the air was thick and the words were flowing. And this happened. And in hindsight, it was scary. I woke up in the morning and I was like, "Wow, what did I do?" And I think it was a good thing for me to do for myself. I had to dive into the deep end. Otherwise, I would've sat there for years questioning myself… and I think it wraps around to just, what is it that we care about in life? Who do we care about? What's worth it? Why do we show up the way we do?
Shawn Mendes Tells Apple Music How Uncertainty Fueled The Release of the Song…
I think I am approaching 25 still feeling quite confused about a lot of things in my life. And I think that was expressing that feeling of frustration about what is happening, this feeling of swinging the pendulum back and forth… I think I still am in a very confused place, but I know that there are some people in my life who I deeply love, and I know that music is something I deeply love, and I know that this planet is something I deeply love. And all of those three things are something worth fighting for and worth dying for. And I think that was where that energy was coming from.
Shawn Mendes Tells Apple Music About The Process of Releasing The Song Immediately After Finishing Recording It…
And it was crazy, dude. It was really just an insane 24 hours I've never... I've been struggling to be in the studio for longer than four hours, but to be in there for 25 straight to write, produce, have the mixer on a live stream, mixing the song live. I think we had something like three minutes to hand the song in and we were mixing the final outro vocal with two minutes left. It was out of control. Getting in the booth and just singing like that, I don't think I've been to a place like that since I was 18. There's just this feeling that came back and my body, this adrenaline, this electricity, this excitement, this love for it that I hadn't felt in so long. And I was up at 05:00 AM cutting that vocal. It was fun.It was so fun.
Shawn Mendes on Breaking Through Writer’s Block and How He’s Feeling Now…
If I'm being completely honest, I feel a little confused about everything still. I think a little bit, just all over the place. I feel aware of how people are receiving the song. I feel aware of the fact that I did it on a whim and I'm proud of it. But most of all, honestly, if I'm being real, I'm just happy that I broke through that horrible wall of writer's block and I'm creating again. I'm just happy about that. And I'm just going to keep going, keep making some songs because I really think that there's something in here.
