Shawn Mendes did a lot of growing and learning during his quarantine downtime this year. And while he poured much of that personal evolution into his upcoming album, Wonder, some other things he learned may surprise fans.
Speaking to PopCrush Nights host Kayla Thomas, Mendes revealed details about how he and girlfriend Camila Cabello spent their time in quarantine together, including how the young pop star couple finally learned some basic domestic skills after years spent touring the world.
"Everyone has had their version of an insane year and a really hard year," Mendes shared of how the pandemic impacted him. "For me, it's been a really difficult last few months, but it was [also] amazing … I was so lucky to be able to be with people that I love, in the most comforting house and around people that were really there for me. I came off tour [and] I wanted to write an album, then lock down happened."
Mendes explained how he "moved to Miami with my girlfriend, inside of her house with her parents for three or four months," where he was able to rest and get caught up on life.
"We were learning how to cook and do laundry, which sounds really stupid but when you've been touring the world since you were 15, it's something you'd never done before," he admitted, laughing.
"It was this moment of, 'Wow, this is actually really nice.' At the same time, the panic started setting in," he continued. "For so many reasons, the world was such a scary place. The collective feeling of fear and anxiety was setting in. I was also wanting to figure out how to help and at the same time, in my life, it was like, how am I going to make this album? How am I going to make this record?"
Thankfully, Mendes found a way to siphon his anxieties about the state of the world into his music.
"What started to happen as I just started to let go and surrender to what was going on more and focus on the things that are really important, it started to flow and the album started to come," the singer shared. "With all of that reflection came a lot of really dark and scary shadows and stuff I was dealing with. The amazing thing about it was I had the time and space to deal with it."
Listen to our full PopCrush Nights interview with Shawn Mendes, below.