Shawn Mendes on how his new song came together in 24 hours

Shawn Mendes reveals his latest song — “What the Hell Are We Dying For?” — came together in just a day.

“It was really just an insane 24 hours,” he tells Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1. “I’ve been struggling to be in the studio for longer than four hours, but to be in there for 25 straight to write, produce, have the mixer on a live stream, mixing the song live. I think we had something like three minutes to hand the song in and we were mixing the final outro vocal with two minutes left. It was out of control.”

He explains he felt a sense of urgency to release it right after he recorded it. “I had … this feeling of, ‘This is me right now, this is how I feel right now,'” he says. “This feeling of frustration that I just wanted to express in music.”

“I think I am approaching 25 still feeling quite confused about a lot of things in my life,” he adds. “And I think that was expressing that feeling of frustration about what is happening, this feeling of swinging the pendulum back and forth.”

The song’s artwork was a picture of the Manhattan skyline engulfed in orange-toned smoke that was a result of the wildfires in Canada. While it caught some criticism from fans, Shawn shared he’d be donating to the Canadian Red Cross to help those affected.