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Jay Shetty Podcast

SHAWN MENDES Reveals The Truth About His Two-Year Hiatus & Opens Up About His New Album

@shawnmendes opens up to Jay Shetty in this raw and revealing conversation about his journey over the past two years.

Shawn MendesguestJay ShettyhostJay Shettycameo

Sep 30, 20241h 36mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Inside the Clubhouse Studio
Jay Shetty opens by asking Shawn Mendes to describe the Rhinebeck, New York studio where the interview takes place. Shawn says he made all his albums in this room and expects to feel emotional there.
- •The studio is called The Clubhouse, in upstate Rhinebeck, New York
- •Shawn has made all of his albums in this room
- •He expects memories to bring up emotion during the conversation
- •Jay notes how rare it is to see the space where an artist creates
Canceling the Tour and Hitting a Breaking Point
Jay reads Shawn's Instagram announcement postponing tour dates and asks about the build-up to it. Shawn recalls texting Jay the night before and explains why he needed to diversify his life beyond music. He calls it the hardest and the greatest decision of his life.
- •Jay's loving reply the night before meant a lot to Shawn
- •Low moods make it hard to see the love around you
- •Since childhood his life had been about one thing, with no plan B
- •Shawn felt he was letting down a touring team of almost 100 people
Taking Responsibility for Your Own Decisions
Jay asks about the reflective process of becoming an adult who makes his own choices after succeeding as a teenager. Shawn explains that once you take responsibility you have to keep taking it, which is grueling but more rewarding.
- •Young successful people may wonder whether they are allowed to make their own decisions
- •Shawn says you can no longer deflect responsibility onto a manager or parents
- •Once you take responsibility, every later decision follows from it
- •It is grueling but more rewarding when things go well
Hardest Moments Paired with the Most Beautiful
Shawn says the hardest moments of his life come paired with the most beautiful, and that the collaborators on the album joked about it whenever he arrived anxious. He describes expressing emotion honestly, with or without a song, as his way of moving through life.
- •Anxiety or panic in the studio meant a good song was coming
- •Each song involved a healing crisis, with plain truth on the other side
- •In the West people are taught to hold back tears or anger
- •Crying in the gym counts as a better outcome for him
Making an Authentic Album: The First Brick of Truth
Jay says the album sounds effortless and true compared with when Shawn was searching for his voice. Shawn explains that the album took shape once he surrendered his ideas, and that starting with one true brick makes every later brick easier.
- •Shawn had to surrender his preconceived ideas of an honest album
- •The writers became attuned to anything that didn't sound true when he said it
- •Starting from truth is easier than switching to truth halfway through
- •Jay shares that he wants to experience life rather than constantly curate it
Returning to Himself and Learning to Receive Love
Discussing the lyric in Why Why Why, Shawn explains how a focus on perception made him lose track of himself, and that the album was the first time since age nine or ten that he felt like himself. He lists therapy, friends, reading and music as what carried him through, and describes the song Heavy and learning to lean on people.
- •The lyric is about lights, and the theme is constant focus on perception
- •He last felt this much himself around age nine or ten
- •Healing used everything: therapy, friends, reading and music
- •Heavy is about letting people who love you help you
- •He now asks for physical support when he feels bad instead of holding it in
- •He has a deeper acceptance of self rather than a deeper understanding of life
Finding Direction: The Coffee Shop and Men's Circles
Asked for the hardest question he faced, Shawn describes driving around telling himself he was where he was supposed to be. He describes meeting a man in an LA coffee shop, which grew into daily group conversations, and the men's groups where being witnessed in pain was healing.
- •He repeated to himself that he was exactly where he was meant to be
- •A stranger reading When Things Fall Apart led to a daily coffee group
- •Being witnessed in pain, without a response needed, is the most healing part
- •Holding space for others while being vulnerable is empowering
- •Jay says people need mutual holding rather than waiting to be strong enough
Running, Fame and Finding the Middle Ground
Discussing the song Heavy, Shawn says he ran constantly until a friend reminded him that wherever you go, there you are. He explains that what he wanted to escape was the effect of fame on his mind, and he talks about naming the album Shawn and learning to avoid extremes through therapy.
- •Having means to keep moving let him avoid the feeling
- •He wanted to feel comfortable in his own body, not constantly perceived
- •He named the album Shawn to reconnect with simply existing
- •He swings between extremes, and therapy helps him find a middle ground
- •He says the number one thing he tells his therapist is that two feelings can coexist
Heart of Gold: Grief and Guilt Over Diomi
Shawn explains the song Heart of Gold, written about a childhood friend who died of an overdose when Shawn was around 18. He had felt numb at the time, and the unprocessed grief hit him in the studio. Jay shares his own grief over a monk friend and over his sister's wedding.
- •Shawn felt numb when he heard of his friend's death while on tour
- •In the studio a collaborator's question brought the grief flooding back
- •The song felt like a letter to his friend and is healing to sing
- •He plans to play it for his friend's mother
- •Jay describes missing his monk friend's last weeks, and says grief also covers the loss of a former life
Playing the Album for Fans and Romantic Love
Shawn describes playing the album for 15 fans the night before and how the truthful songs make performing easier. The conversation turns to the song In Between, where Shawn says he put too much weight on romantic love and is learning to receive love from many places.
- •Fans at the listening said to take as much time as needed
- •The truth of the songs takes pressure off him as a performer
- •Overweighting romantic love suffocated love and closed him to other kinds
- •He wants to be open to the love in front of him instead of waiting for forever
- •Disney-style ideas make us ask where our forever is
Public Relationships and Protecting Love
Jay asks about having a romantic life played out in public, and Shawn calls it brutal. He says he and Camila protect their love through over-communication, respect as storytellers, and by avoiding social media.
- •Millions of comments make it hard not to be affected
- •Shawn no longer goes on social media because it is detrimental to relationships
- •Immense honesty and over-communication cut through assumptions
- •They respect that both of them are storytellers who write about the heart
- •He credits Camila as understanding and thoughtful
Where Does Love Go? Partnership, Uncertainty and Good Questions
Prompted by the Nobody Knows lyric, Shawn says love is a lot but partnership is more than love. He says it is okay to stay unsure, and that he is currently single. Jay praises his habit of asking wider questions instead of the obvious ones.
- •Partnership involves day-to-day support without one person bending entirely
- •We are still shaped by Westernized, romanticized versions of love
- •Therapy and practical honesty help him manage uncertainty
- •Once you have something to lose it's harder not to grip tightly
- •Shawn says love is love and the question is where the love goes
Loving the In-Betweens and Dreams of an Ex
Shawn explains the lyric about the in-betweens, saying that focusing only on highs turns life into anticipation and anxiety. He then discusses the lyric about choosing himself despite visions of a past partner, saying dreams after a breakup are common and asking what holding on is protecting him from.
- •Loving moments before and after a show takes pressure off the show
- •Living for highs means constant anticipation and anxiety
- •Breakup dreams are common and part of the process
- •Shawn asks what holding on to something is protecting him from
- •He says no one gets told afterward which decisions were right
Trusting Your Intuition Over Outside Noise
Jay asks about people who say Shawn and Camila should either make it work or let go. Shawn says no one can know what it is like to be in their bodies, and treats outside opinions as noise. He talks about following intuition and not rushing decisions.
- •Where he knows he is going can't be expressed to others
- •He sees listening to himself as the opposite of choosing torment
- •Intuition is hard to describe, but a hard decision is when you learn what it feels like
- •Some things need to play themselves out before you decide
- •Jay observes that Shawn can't compute surface-level conversation
Emotional Letter from Shawn's Sister and the Album as a Bonfire
Jay shows Shawn a note of love from Tony, and Shawn reflects on the room as his place of breakthrough. Jay reads him a letter from his sister Aaliyah praising his authenticity, and Shawn describes the album as a bonfire built by those around him.
- •Shawn calls the studio his version of Hogwarts, a place of breakthrough
- •Jay encourages people to find a place that holds them
- •Aaliyah's letter praises his vulnerability and authenticity
- •Shawn describes friends and team placing logs on the album's fire
- •Jay praises his courage in stepping back so young
Final Five
Jay runs through the closing fast five questions. Shawn answers on advice, purpose, a message to fans, why now was the right time to return, and the one law he would create.
- •Best advice is anything that creates more space
- •Worst advice he's received is to suck it up
- •His purpose is to be the most honest version of himself in every moment
- •His message to fans is to bring tissues
- •His law would be to say what you really feel without hurting people

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