Shawn Mendes for Interview Magazine: “I Refuse to Let the Industry Consume Me”
Interview by John Mayer, ofc.
On returning to performing at arenas: "We’ll see, man. I’m having a fucking blast in the studio playing with the band. I guess my answer is, I’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case."
MAYER: Let’s say they put up 30 dates. What would you do differently in your day-to-day life that would protect you from being overwhelmed?
MENDES: Just being really honest with myself, like, “What is my actual capacity?”
On how Why Why Why was conceived: "It came completely in the moment. That song was the origin of the album. I come from Top 40 pop music, which is like Auto-Tune, hyper-compressed, hyper-in-the-box, and I had to relearn how to enjoy myself in a room with four people with a guitar in my hand. I know this sounds silly, but have you ever heard harmony with two other humans in the room with you singing? It’s just so-"
MAYER: In this all-consuming journey that you’re on, is there room for someone else right now?
MENDES: Absolutely. I refuse to let the industry consume me at this point. I finally realized that giving everything to music is not the best thing for my relationship with it. If I really want it to shine, I need to have other love in my life, and if I want that love to shine, I need to have music. [Laughs] I keep forgetting we’re doing an interview and I’m about to say things I probably shouldn’t, but dude, we-you know the vibes.
More photos and a snooze of an interview at the source.
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