It’s a cycle that happens every time he hits the road, Mendes explains.
“It’s become a little bit of a problem when I go home,” he jokes.
I wanted to check that we released something going into the tour and summer.
Credit: James Minchin
I’m really pumped for it.
I think it’s a big step.
Is this the first time you’ve gone into the studio sinceIlluminatecame out?Yeah.
I mean, I’ve been recording stuff and doing stuff in my bedroom.
I’m writing all the time, really.
It’s become a little bit of a problem when I go home.
Whether it becomes a song or not, I just need to get it out of me.
Are you deep into planning for album No.
3?Deep, deep, deep, deep into planning!
There’s a rougher, grittier quality to your voice on this song.
That day I had no voice.
It took a hundred tries to get a take because my voice was so gone.
I was basically singing on nothing.
So a day when I had no voice ended up working out in my favor.
We wrote the song, cut it, and then the next day I was listening back.
I ordered this guitalele, which is like a baby guitar with nylon strings that sounds like a ukelele.
I went over to my buddy and was like, “I’m just going to play this.”
It ended up sounding so badass.
It sounds like something you’d hear on an old Justin Timberlake record, right?
The track is also probably the danciest song you’ve ever put out.Definitely.
That was the point.
I wanted to make something that could play in the clubs.
I wanted something people could dance to at parties.
I realized I never had that [in my catalog].
And even though we created something like that, it’s still very singer-songwriter-y.
It was only a few months ago that you were touring your last album.
What’s the biggest difference between this tour and the previous one?We’re doing arenas, man.
It’s a big deal.
It’s a big difference.
You have so many more crew members.
It’s a bigger stage, a bigger setup, more buses.
I’ll be ready five or 10 shows into the tour.
Everything is way more extreme but in a good way, it’s not overbearing.
Some songs onIlluminatehad a really intimate feel.
How do you preserve that when you’re in these giant venues playing to thousands of people?
Is it even possible?It’s not impossible at all.
You have to be present.
You take your in-ears out and you’re present with the crowd, you’re not just performing.
And that’s my job.
Arena shows have their own opportunities as well.
What was on your tour wish list?
I wanted something that told a story and wasn’t just flashing lights.
I wanted it to enhance the music without overshadowing it.
Wait, doves on screen?
Or real doves?Doves on screen!
I don’t think we’d be able to control actual doves in the arena.
You begin this tour in Europe before coming to North America in the summer.
How pumped are you to tour with Charlie Puth?Soexcited!
He’s such a professional and a really cool guy.
And an incredible writer-producer.
He’ll be really cool to work with.
Headliners and their openers can sometimes interact like ships passing in the night.
Will you guys get time to actually hang out?Absolutely.
There’s a ton of off-days for that reason.
Last year I went everywhere but saw nothing, and I don’t want that to happen again.
It seems like you’re always either touring or working on new music.
I see that my musical world has gotten so much bigger.
The fact that I’m on an arena tour is insane to me.
With touring, you get to feel what you’ve done, you get to see those numbers.
That’s when everything comes into perspective, those moments.
