Shawn Mendes’ manager has said fans won’t have to wait too long for the Canadian singer’s next album.
“It will probably come out at some point next year,” Andrew Gertler told Billboard. “We don’t know when yet.
“He’s been writing songs all year. He has this huge amount of rough demos and songs that he’s been writing for the past year while he’s been on the road.”
It will be the 19-year-old's third studio album since 2015.
Gertler said Mendes wants the follow-up to Illuminate to be reflective of the artist he’s worked hard to become.
“He wants this album to be what allows him to be accepted as an artist and a songwriter and to be a household name in that sense,” he explained.
“Shawn, as he’s grown, has more and more figured out his lane and has been able to develop ‘this is who Shawn Mendes is.’ It’s very hard as a young artist to be able to define that and for people to accept that. He’s just started to define that.”
Gertler said Illuminate was “the jumping off point” and the next album will be “the one that helps cement that.”
Mendes, he added, has been listening to a lot of Kings of Leon. “[He] is developing into a rock frontman,” Gertler said. “He put a great band together of a bunch of guys from Toronto and he very much sees himself and his future path as being a great frontman and being an amazing vocalist.”
The man who signed Mendes after seeing his Vine videos told Billboard that the Ontario-born star has put in the effort and deserves to be taken seriously.
“He has worked tirelessly to become an amazing vocalist. He has put so much work into his musicianship over the years,” said Gertler. “He’s putting so much time and effort into it and actually getting the experience under his belt that he needs to become that amazing artist that he wants to be.”
And what if Mendes wants to record a heavy metal album?
“I would tell him, ‘maybe wait a few more albums.’”