[beatboxing] We were in a car. Someone from the label had called him and
said “We need you to write a song.” He says “You know, I really don’t have
any time.” He starts beatboxing, and he starts singing
it to me and I go ‘What are you doing?’ And he goes “I’m making a song right now.” [music playing] My life is just layers of music and me trying
to get around it. Growing up, my mom always said “Charlie,
oh, he’s different.” We’d be walking down an aisle at the grocery
store and Charlie would just hear a grocery drop on the floor and say “That’s a D
flat.” What I have is absolute pitch. You look at the color blue and you just instantly
know that it’s blue. I can hear a note and instantly know that
it’s E flat. Charlie’s a savant. I get very distracted easily. [hums] I’m hearing drones in the background. I’m hearing morning doves. [makes bird noise] The air conditioner’s
on. B. There’s so many notes and frequencies around
us all the time, so if you hear all of them, of course it’s gotta be annoying. I think 10% of it is a gift, the rest is just
a curse. I really had no application for it for so
long, but when I started producing music I found a good way to use it. He didn’t have much of a social life, but
everybody liked him because he beatboxed. And I used to always tell him in the back
seat when he was little, ‘You know, you gotta stop doing that. People are gonna think you’re a little weird.’ And he’d be “Ok,” and then he’d be
[beatboxes]. People definitely thought I was strange, but
I just loved being by myself and making music. I’d call up record labels and pretend to
be my own manager and take trains to New York City. And he would wait in peoples’ offices here
for 7 hours and they wouldn’t meet with him. I had no other plan, and I was surrounded
by other peoples’ doubt. Everyone making comments, saying “Oh, what
are you doing with your life? The success rate is less than 1%.” It was a difficult process to watch. I was really discouraged. He was getting bummed out, and then he just
said “I can’t do it here. I have to go to LA, because that’s where
it is.” I did not think that the artist thing was
gonna work out for me. I don’t know, I just didn’t think I was
good enough, but… ...I guess I was wrong. [music playing] I was very blindsided when ‘See You Again’
happened because it was literally the first song that I wrote in California. We checked the Hot 100 and saw that it was
#1. I kinda just froze. I think all the stars lined up that day. It doesn’t happen overnight. He’s very driven. I had proven myself with a song that did well,
but didn’t do much for my artistry. It wasn’t really me. What it really showed me is that we had a
lot of work to do. When you have someone else on a song it’s
great, but there’s something about being on your own song for the first time and showing
to the world, you know, “This is my debut as an artist.” I would say that when ‘Attention’ hit,
that’s when we started to see the shift of his career. He played me the sketch for ‘Attention,’
and I was like ‘Bro, what is this?’ [music playing] The first line of the verse, like, “You’ve
been running around throwing dirt on my name cuz you you knew I’d call you.” I just feel like everyone has experienced
that. It was a song that had a story behind it and
it was fully him. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I can
tell the stories of my life, and that’s where we’re at right now with Voicenotes. I’m really excited about Voicenotes coming
out because this honestly feels like my debut album. I’m scared for people to know me, like... Why? ...even moreso. Because it’s really personal. He played the whole album, and when he gets excited he starts standing on his toes and starts like [nods head]. He’s a masterpiece of beautiful songs. Charlie’s album, in 4 days of being out
it’s already gold. I truly am humbled by that. It’s really, really cool. Charlie’s about to go on the Honda Civic
Tour this summer. We’ve never had a partnership like this
before and it really takes us to the next level with his, you know, touring career. The Honda Civic Tour, I think it’s a huge
statement to be headlining a tour like that, especially at this stage in his career. You know, we’re hitting venues that we dreamt
of going to before. I want the element of surprise to be on tour. The whole show should feel like a rollercoaster. I’m really excited. [music playing]
