Kiss Concert star Charlie Puth has nothing but praise for BTS member Jungkook.
Charlie and Jungkook collaborated on the song "Left and Right," released June 24.
"Left and Right" marked Jungkook's first solo venture since the band announced their hiatus and the song instantly garnered international attention. The music video amassed over 35 million views in the first few days.
"The highest South Korean male debut ever," Charlie confirms.
"It's a song that I actually wrote pretty recently in February and in my usual fashion teased on TikTok."
Photo: Richard Knowles for Kiss 108
"I really wanted people to listen to it — if they didn't have headphones — to listen to it horizontally on their phones."
"A lot of people don't know their phones... ha[ve] two speakers: a left and a right speaker. So I thought to myself, 'This will be great! If they don't have headphones, they can hear... and it turned into a full fledged song."
When it came to finding a collaborator, Charlie instantly knew with whom he wanted to work.
"I thought to myself, 'I haven't done a duet in a really long time. Who's somebody that I have some musical chemistry with, that I've performed with before, have, you know, something going on, some musical vibe... Jungkook.'"
"And it just all happened really naturally."
"He sung the vocals in his home in Korea and sent them back to me and here we are."
Photo: Richard Knowles for Kiss 108
Charlie's chemistry with Jungkook is something the "Light Switch" singer has felt for years.
"It's been there for years. We've always been exchanging musical handshakes on the Internet."
"I believe he has perfect pitch, too," Charlie remarks, "so... we didn't have to fumble a lot while putting the song together."
"I was like singing—" Charlie vocalizes. "He sang—" Charlie repeats vocalization. "Just exactly right back to me. A very talented guy."
Check out the full interview below!