BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — In the modernist home here where Charlie Puth has lived since December, an Aston Martin sits in the garage, the ceilings are tropical-forest tall, the living room is sunken with leather couches, and the toilets raise their lids to greet you.

On a Sunday earlier this month, it was midafternoon and Mr. Puth hadn’t eaten yet, but he was in his modest home studio, with its racks of vintage synthesizers, working out some new ideas with the songwriter Johan Carlsson. He hopped on a keyboard with a distinct early-1990s vibe, gooey and a little cold, and began playing snippets of older songs: Toto’s “Africa,” Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money,” SWV’s “Weak.” He hit upon a sound that made him happy — “like mixing Jodeci with Tears for Fears,” he said.

It was a few days before the release of “Voicenotes,” his second album, and the first one not quickly microwaved to completion in the immediate aftermath of an out-of-nowhere megahit. In 2015, Mr. Puth was an up-and-coming songwriter when he rocketed into the pop troposphere with the Wiz Khalifa collaboration “See You Again,” a moist lump of treacle from the “Furious 7” soundtrack. Other big hits followed, but none felt quite right to him.

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“I was trying to figure out who I was musically in front of millions of people,” he said, seated by the pool in the back of his house. He wore a Puff Daddy T-shirt tattered with attitude, yellow Adidas sweatpants and chunky Alexander McQueen sneakers. His hair was flamboyantly shaggy, as if a clean swoop had hit a wind tunnel.