Austin Mahone Has a Special Message For All the "Mahomies" Out There

Austin Mahone may be a pretty fresh face on the music scene, but he's already making waves left and right. He's got tens of millions of followers across his various social platforms, multiple EPs under his belt, an album on the way, and even a new book on the horizon — and did we mention he's only 18? We recently spoke to Austin about all the exciting things he has going on, and he got candid about his music, his "Mahomies," and more. Keep reading to see what he had to say.

POPSUGAR: Let's start by talking about your latest album and the creative process that went into it.

Austin Mahone: I worked with [famed music producer] RedOne on it, and it took us about a year and a half to finish. So, yeah, that was pretty cool. We recorded it in Miami and, you know, working with RedOne is a lot of fun because they're very talented.

PS: Where'd you get most of your inspiration for it? What kind of things did you draw from?

AM: We were just trying to make something that girls in my demographic would relate to. We'd just come up with stories and just use our imagination, basically. Actually one of the singles we picked off of it, we had a bunch of fans in the studio and we had them sing the chorus, and that was pretty cool.

PS: Were you shooting for a more mature sound, or were you trying to stay a little consistent?

AM: We were just trying something, you know, kind of like that *NSYNC sound. I knew that the older girls would like it, so we thought it'd kind of be like a cool idea.

PS: Let's talk about some collaborations.

AM: I haven't done any recent collaborations on this album yet, but I mean that's just because it's still early in the process. I'm trying, I'm still working on getting Drake on one of my songs.

PS: Yeah? What kind of song do you think you guys would make together?

AM: Probably like maybe slow-vibey-type music.

PS: So obviously you care about your fans, and you have a pretty awesome fan base. If there was a personal message you could send to them, what would you say?

AM: I would just tell them that I appreciate everything that they do for me. I wouldn't be able to do all this stuff without them. So, you know, I just appreciate all their hard work, and I think they're going to be really excited with this album. It's going to be great.

PS: So that's kind of what this whole Pop-Tarts Crazy Good Summer sweepstakes is about, right? Do you want to talk about that a little bit, and where it came from, and why you're excited about it?

AM: Yeah! We did a contest and basically two lucky fans got to win a chance for me to come perform at their high school, it's East Paulding High School in Georgia, so, that's where I'm going to be going and I'm pretty excited. I've been doing this Pop-Tarts thing for a couple of years now. Every time I do it, it's always been a good time and if anyone wants to check anything more about Pop-Tarts, they can do it at poptartscrazygood.com.

PS: So obviously it's a really exciting time for you. What do you think that you're bringing to the table that not a lot of artists are bringing right now?

AM: That's a good question. It just comes down to what the music sounds like, you know? I'm working with a bunch of different people, so for my album I don't want it to just be just one certain sound. I grew up listening to a bunch of different types of music, so I want the album to kind of have a lot of different tastes in there.