Shawn Mendes is candid about the confusion in his life and not having everything figured out.
Shawn Mendes may almost have 25 years under his belt, but the singer still has a lot to figure out.
It's been a quiet year for the three-time GRAMMY nominee since he canceled the remainder of his Wonder world tour last July to prioritize his health. Then, just days ago, Mendes, who released his most recent album in December 2020, reemerged with a new song amid the Canadian wildfires -- the effects of which were visible in the orange smog blanketing New York City and other parts of the east coast of the United States.
Titled "What the Hell Are We Dying For?," Mendes co-created the song in practically 24 hours and revealed he would also be donating to the Canadian Red Cross.
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the performer explained what spurred him to release the track. "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…," he said. "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."
Mendes also shed light on how his uncertainty has extended to the recording studio. "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," he explained. "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."
Now, it sounds like the star's impromptu release has paved the way for more new music. "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," he told Lowe. "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."
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