If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked singer-songwriter Charlie Puth — who’s partnering with BIC — about the nostalgic candle, no-nonsense headphones, and summertime cologne he can’t live without.
A lot of these items are nostalgia driven for me. Back in 2015, I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I went to my buddy Johan Carlsson’s house. He’d just had a couple of hit songs that year, and I was really inspired by his work ethic. He had this candle burning, and I took a picture of it thinking, Well, if I want to be successful in this industry, I have got to have my room smell like this. It sounds ridiculous now, but it reminds me of my first album, making those songs and not sleeping, making music on airplanes and being jet-lagged. It reminds me of where it kind of came from.
I was sent to a really nice hotel once in Greenwich Village in New York. I was not paying to be there, but it’s my favorite hotel. I walked downstairs to use one of the treadmills, and they were burning this. I was like, What is that? It smells like Christmas and inspiration. That should be the scent of every room I ever write a song in. Now, it is. I take these on tour, too. When I’m a little homesick, it’s nice to have the room smelling like your own.
This is one of my first bougie items I’ve splurged on. Although, I get the small size. I saw the packaging one day, I think when I was in France. I was pretty enthralled with the packaging, so I tried it and ended up really liking it. It’s a nice summertime scent. It’s light but lasts all day. I like that I don’t have to douse myself in it.
Courteney’s a good friend of mine. I actually didn’t know she had a line of products. I thought she was joking when she first told me. She was like, “No, I have the best hand soaps out there.” I really care about smells, apparently. This one’s my favorite. It just smells so good and reminds me of Courteney.
Shani Darden is another pretty good friend of mine. She put me on this moisturizer and her other products maybe four years ago. I have really sensitive skin, and this doesn’t break me out. It works well for me, and I love having a clear face. I use it every day.
The first place that I ever went when I got my driver’s permit was McDonald’s. I got a coffee to feel like a grown-up. I’ve loved McDonald’s coffee since, and Keurig makes McDonald’s pods, so I don’t have to go through the drive-through every time. There’s something about a Keurig that’s comforting. I have one on my tour bus. Just the sound of it sounds like morning.
This is a good drafting microphone. I sometimes like to have the speakers on when I’m kind of mouthing out a record, meaning the beat’s done, but I’m figuring out the melody. I’ll put the reverb up on the microphone and just do a stream-of-consciousness thing into that microphone. It’s a dynamic microphone, so there’s no feedback with the speakers. It also sounds really good when you’re actually recording vocals. I think it’s what Michael Jackson used to record most of his music just by laying down in Westlake Studios with the speakers facing him and singing into that microphone. It’s a very special microphone.
I think my parents got these for me right before I went to college about ten years ago. I’ve stuck with them since and still think they’re the best mixing headphones. When I’m in a hotel room where it’s not specifically designed to be a mixing studio, I’ll use these as a flat balance headphone to mix records with. They’re not really exciting headphones like the Dr. Dre Beats or anything. There’s no EQ on them. Instead, it’s flat and boring and allows me to really focus on specific sonics.
I’ve had this for about five years. I first saw a producer friend use it, and it caught my attention because of how small it is. It’s smaller than a wallet, or the size of an iPod. Before this, I was using a big clunky old hard drive. It’s also fast. I have a lot of audio files in these ProTool sessions, and it can take a while to load if you’re using other types of hard drives. I hate having to sit and think too much while I’m writing, and there’s nothing more frustrating when something won’t load. With this, I just plug it in, and my song is up on the computer ready for me to work on it in an instant.
I’ve been using this damn pen for probably 15 or 20 years. When I would make little albums on cassette in sixth grade, and I would use these to draw album art and the fake parental-advisory sticker to make it look like a rap album. It’s come pretty full circle. I still use these to write out songs, because it feels more solidified. I like the four-color pen because I see colors when I’m playing chords. I have a method of mapping them out, and my thoughts are a little more organized when there are different colors attached to each one.
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