Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello has opened up about a number of things in an interview with Teen Vogue. In the exclusive interview, the 18 year old talks about 5H2, who inspired her duet ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ with Shawn Mendes, if she’ll work on solo music in the future, and more!
What it was like writing ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ with Shawn Mendes:
Writing the song was my favorite part of this entire experience. The whole point of music is being able to share your story. I’ve been songwriting for a long time, usually while on the road, as a way to get my feelings out. I like to know that when I’m 90 years old, I’m going to be able to look at a song or poem I wrote and say, “Wow! I remember I was so crazy about this person,” or “I remember what that day felt like.” I’ve always written songs for the sake of my own sanity and expression, but the fact that Shawn and I got to write this song, we clicked creatively, and people liked it enough for it to even be released is a really validating feeling. Looking back on recording is really cool because, at the moment, we didn’t even realize we were writing a song that was going to be put out. We went to the studio the day after we wrote it because we liked what we’d come up with and we worked on a demo for 11 straight hours, just coming up with harmonies and different parts – we felt like kids in a candy store. And when we heard it played back, we were like, “Hey, this could be something special.”
What Taylor Swift thought of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’:
Taylor and I were texting the other day and she told me she loved the song and was like, “Dude, I’m so proud of you.” My heart fell out of my butt. I told her how much it meant to me that she said that because she was one of the artists that inspired me to write songs in the first place and she is one of my biggest musical influences. She probably doesn’t even remember this but the first time we met at a VMA party, the first thing I asked her about was songwriting advice.
What does the story of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ mean to her:
The song is about cheating. Two days before we wrote this song I found out from a friend of mine that the boy that I was “talking to” was also talking to other girls. The line “can’t seem to let you go / can’t seem to hold you close” was about that weird period when you find out you’re being played but haven’t said anything to him yet and it’s awkward and distant. In the song, as the “cheater,” I put myself in that guy’s perspective. A few days after we wrote the song, I told him I couldn’t do it anymore.
What will the vibe of 5H2 be like and if there will be any similar songs:
It won’t be the same sound as Fifth Harmony. Fifth Harmony music is in a totally different lane than this song. 5H2 still has a similar vibe to our Reflection album, sonically and in terms of concepts and messages. You can dance to it and jam out. We have individual stories and individual forms of artistry. I’ve always written songs that were confessional, acoustic, wordy — my writing style matches my personality. The music always has to match the mouth it comes out of. Fifth Harmony as a group represents more confidence, more girl power, more unity. They’re anthems, as opposed to confessional songwriting about one person’s life when there are five individual women. I was lucky enough to do both with this, the Camila side of me that cried about this dude and is obsessed with love and the Fifth Harmony side of me that gets to go on stage and be invincible and shake it off.
If she has any plans to work on solo music in the future:
Right now, there’s so much going on with this duet with Shawn and being back in the studio with Fifth Harmony finishing up our second album. My plate is pretty full right now.
What it is like to have her relationships looked at so closely by the public:
I’ve learned that I don’t want to be as open or public about relationships anymore. In my first relationship, I thought I could hold on to the normalcy of just being like “Yeah, we’re dating,” just like if it were high school and I was telling my friends. But in high school, there aren’t articles written everywhere when you break up and you don’t have everyone in the school coming up to you and asking what happened or sharing their opinion with you. It didn’t feel like ours anymore, it felt like everybody else’s. I love that nobody knows who this song is about and I don’t have to get asked about this guy in interviews. After that, I dated other people that nobody even knows I ever hung out with, because I didn’t want there to be any tweets or selfies or pictures of us holding hands because I wanted it to be just mine and that person’s. If there were to be tweets or pictures of us, it would be because I was with that person for a while and the relationship was really special and strong enough.
You can watch the official music video for ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ below!
You can read more of Camila’s interview with Teen Vogue here. What was your favorite part of her interview? Leave a comment below or tweet us at @CelebMix!
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