Photo Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Getty, Joe McKendry
If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday items famous people put in their shopping carts – like Hairspray or a electric toothbrushWe asked singer-songwriter Charlie Puth – who works with BIC – about the nostalgic Candleno nonsense headphonesand summer time Cologne he can’t live without it.
A lot of these items are nostalgic for me. In 2015, I had just moved to Los Angeles and was visiting my buddy Johan Carlsson. He had just had a couple of hits that year and I was really inspired by his work ethic. He had this candle burning and I took a picture of it and thought: If I want to be successful in this business, my room has to smell like this. It sounds ridiculous now, but it reminds me of my first album, of making those songs without sleeping, of making music on a plane and being jetlagged. It reminds me of where it came from.
I was once sent to a really nice hotel in Greenwich Village in New York. I didn’t pay to be there, but it’s my favorite hotel. I went downstairs to use one of the treadmills, and they burned this one. I thought: What is this? It smells like Christmas and inspiration. This should be the scent of every room I ever write a song in. Now it is. I also take it with me on tour. When I’m a little homesick, it’s nice when the room smells like my own.
This is one of the first bougie items I’ve spent money on. I do get the small size though. I saw the packaging one day, I think when I was in France. I was pretty excited by the packaging so I tried it and ended up really liking it. It’s a nice summer scent. It’s light but lasts all day. I like that I don’t have to cover myself in it.
Courteney is a good friend of mine. I didn’t know she had a line. When she told me, I thought she was joking. She said, “No, I have the best hand soaps there are.” Apparently I’m a big fan of scents. This is my favorite. It just smells so good and reminds me of Courteney.
Shani Darden is another pretty good friend of mine. She recommended this moisturizer and her other products to me maybe four years ago. I have very sensitive skin and it doesn’t break out. It works well for me and I love having a clean face. I use it every day.
The first place I went after I got my license was McDonald’s. I got a coffee to feel like an adult. I’ve loved McDonald’s coffee ever since, and Keurig makes McDonald’s pods so I don’t have to go through the drive-thru every time. There’s something soothing about a Keurig coffee maker. I have one in my tour bus. Just the sound of it sounds like morning.
This is a good recording microphone. Sometimes I like to turn the speakers on when I’m singing along to a record, so I’ve got the beat down but I’m still working on the melody. I put the reverb on the mic and just kind of do a stream of consciousness into the mic. It’s a dynamic mic, so there’s no feedback with the speakers. It also sounds really good when you’re actually recording vocals. I think Michael Jackson recorded most of his music with it, lying down at Westlake Studios with the speakers facing him and singing into this mic. It’s a very special mic.
I think my parents bought me these headphones just before I left for college about ten years ago. I’ve used them ever since and still find them to be the best headphones for mixing. When I’m in a hotel room that isn’t specifically designed as a mixing studio, I use these as flat-balanced headphones for mixing records. They’re not really exciting headphones like the Dr. Dre Beats or anything. They don’t have EQ. Instead, they’re flat and boring and allow me to really focus on specific sounds.
I’ve had this for about five years. I first saw a producer friend of mine using it and it caught my attention because it’s so small. It’s smaller than a wallet or the size of an iPod. Before that I was using a big, clunky old hard drive. It’s fast too. I have a lot of audio files in these ProTool sessions and they can take a while to load if you’re using other types of hard drives. I hate having to sit and think too much when I’m writing and there’s nothing more frustrating than when something won’t load. With this one I just plug it in and my song is on the computer and I can work on it right away.
I’ve been using that damn pen for probably 15 or 20 years. When I was making little albums on cassettes in sixth grade, I used it to draw the album cover and the fake parental warning to make it look like a rap album. That’s pretty much brought me full circle. I still use them to write down songs because it feels more solid. I like the four-color pen because I see colors when I play chords. I have a way of mapping them and my thoughts are a little more organized when each one is assigned a different color.
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