After canceling his Wonder tour in July 2022, Shawn Mendes is slowly re-emerging. In early March, Mendes announced he would headline Rock In Rio this September and slipped in, “I’ve also been working on a new album, and I can’t wait to play these new songs live for you.” Later that month, he teased a snippet of an unreleased song.
On Thursday, July 25, Mendes posted a full-blown behind-the-scenes teaser video to Instagram showing his process of making the album with collaborators Eddie Benjamin, Alex Pyle, Mike Sabath, and Scott Harris at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington.
At one point, Mendes is seemingly writing his forthcoming album’s tracklist on a whiteboard: “Honey,” “Just Wait,” “Isn’t That Enough,” “Hurt You,” “In Between,” “Heavy,” “That’s The Dream,” “The Mountain,” and “Why, Why, Why.”
Then, Mendes strums an acoustic guitar and records “Why, Why, Why.” The shirtless — Mendes is chronically shirtless on Instagram — Canadian pop star sings, “Opened up my journal to a page / Everything that hurts me’s still the same / Feels like there’s nothing new for me to say / Why, why, why / Why, why, why.”
Mendes has yet to officially announce anything album-related, but a release date seems likely to be sooner than later. Mendes’ last LP was Wonder in December 2020.
Watch Mendes’ video and read its accompanying caption below.
“Bear Creek Studio, Washington
“oh man this week in washington was magical. We were all living in this extremely special studio surrounded by these giant beautiful trees and i just have the most beautiful feelings when i think back to it
“i feel like this was when we really started to tap into the essence of the album and everything and it just started to flow…laughs, tears, truths, songs, whisky
“i wish i could show you every moment of making this album because it truly was so healing, but i’m glad you’re even getting a glimpse. This was to me some of the most memorable and enjoyable moments making music in my life
“i definitely learned so much about not taking myself too seriously in the studio those days & how that could actually often times lead me to exactly what i was searching for.”