On his retooled third album and his delightfully weird TikTok Charlie Puth is letting it all hang out.

Something is very wrong with Barney.

After that comes a close-up of a bread pudding from Magnolia Bakery.

Charlie Puth in a white flower motive set of a button-up and pants posing in a field

Then a blurry shot of a turtle.

Welcome to Charlie Puths dating profile.

Were sitting in the atrium of his TriBeCa hotel, which he entered clutching an espresso martini.

Charlie Puth in a denim Bally shirt and sneakers. and Tommy Hilfiger jeans

At 30, Puths not interested in presenting himself as anything hes not.

That wasnt always the case.

Artistic compromises were made, he explains.

Charlie Puth in a denim Bally shirt and sneakers. and Tommy Hilfiger jeans

EvenElton John told himthe tracks sucked.

Trying to keep up was eating at him.

Some find healing in therapy, others in their place of worship.

Charlie Puth in a waistcoat, mesh shirt and black pants all by AMI Paris

The internet saved my life in 2003, and it saved my life in 2020, he says.

Today, 16.5 million followers can watch as heAuto-Tunes users burpsor shares videos ofbutterflies having sex.

His sense of humor is so weird, which is why we get along so well.

Charlie Puth in a waistcoat, mesh shirt and black pants all by AMI Paris

He just has so much access to so much music and will approach it in a road-less-traveled way.

His TikTok bits also inviteplentyofgood-naturedmockery, which Puth doesnt mind.

What works really well for The Weeknd, only works for him and like two other artists.

Black and white photo of Charlie Puth in a EYTYS tank and jeans jumping around in a field

Me, I need to really show my personality off, Puth says.

it’s crucial that you go away and work on your art for a while.

The pandemic made me realize that I have to not onlynotdo that, but the opposite of that.

Black and white photo of Charlie Puth in a EYTYS tank and jeans jumping around in a field

I need to show every step of the process.

Puth is wearing a hoodie and a trucker hat from the Lower East Side bar Rays.

(Im so used to hotels, he says.)

Charlie smiling with a small sunflower in his teeth wearing a white flower shirt by Erdem

So he knows hes not for everyone.

But Puth would rather you laugh at him or even give him the finger than simply not see him.

I want them to be either very angry about it or in love with it.

Black and white photo of Charlie Puth in a EYTYS tank and jeans laying on a trampoline

If theres one thingPuth might like talking about more than music, its sex.

For him, the two are intertwined.

Ironically, Puth himself cant listen to music while having sex.

Charlie Puth in a denim Bally shirt and sneakers. and Tommy Hilfiger jeans

(Theyre not quite.)

Now Im good friends with Adam Levine.

[I told him] and he was like, Thats really weird.

The actor sliding through sand and brings the dust up in a shirt, pants and shoes by Saint Laurent a…

This girl came up to me and was like, Can you sign my chest?

I was like,I feel like a rock star, he says.

I never saw her again.

The actor sliding through sand and brings the dust up in a shirt, pants and shoes by Saint Laurent a…

His TikTok account is full of flagrant displays of thirstiness.

Perhaps because his early hits were so earnest, this all came as a surprise to some observers.

When I read the tweet back to him, Puth doubles over laughing.

I think to be a creative, you have to be a little bit.

You keep just churning them out, he says.

Theres a lot of competition, but I think its for the better.

(Its purportedly about Puths rumored ex, fellow musician Charlotte Lawrence, though he never identifies her.)

For a while, Puth didnt know how to finish the song.

He worried the lyrics were too finger-point-y, too vengeful.

Today, Puth says he has no idea what the real story is.

Puth still isnt totally convinced.

I can’t help but think that theres… he says, his voice trailing off.

He says it’s a joke, but maybe I’m just overthinking in conversations with myself.

(Blanco declined to comment for this story.)

Puth talks to himselfa lot.

Often, he finds himself replaying old scenarios and imagining what could have gone differently.

Every song onCharliestarted as one of these moments.

(He almost called the album that Conversations With Myself.)

Now hes content to let the world in.

I got that information in real time.

It wasnt, Oh, well, I have 16 million followers so Im great no matter what.

Something horny, he says.