Shawn Mendes was inspired to write ‘In My Blood’ by "staring at the ocean" in silence.
The 19-year-old musician released his new single – which tackles feelings of anxiety – last month, and has now revealed that during the writing process, he would often spend time staring out to sea in complete silence until something inspired him.
He said: "We went to this amazing studio in Malibu, it’s called the Woodshed. It’s basically up on a cliff and there’s this incredible view of the ocean. So whenever I got stuck on lyrics I would walk outside with the writers and we would stare at the ocean and kind of not say anything for like five minutes, until something kind of came to us. And for some weird, magical reason, something always did."
The ‘Lost in Japan’ singer was nervous to show people the vulnerable track when he first finished piecing it together, but felt at ease once his management team were "blown away" by it.
He said: "Everybody in the room was kind of just like emotionally blown away by the song and the concept and the feel, and after that it was kind of let’s roll, we got this thing."
Tackling the subject of anxiety in his new track was a different move for the ‘Mercy’ hitmaker, and he has also admitted that his upcoming self-titled third album – which is set to be released on May 25 – was written differently to his previous material.
Speaking in a video for Billboard magazine’s ‘How It Went Down’ series, Shawn said: "What we kind of started doing for this entire album was we would just spend time talking about what it was I wanted to talk about instead of just diving in and trying to find what to talk about."
Previously, Shawn had said he intended for ‘In My Blood’ to be more "serious" than his other tracks.
He said: "I love all of my other songs, but … it was all kind of more vague topics about a relationship. This is my first time breaking into something that’s more serious and more about me."
Shawn Mendes inspired by the sea
