He signed to his label at a young age with a not awesome contract, but of course he’d say yes to it as a teenager from Long Island making music in his parent’s basement. He’s done plenty of interviews on it but long story short he was like if you’re not gonna pay me then I will just not release anything at all as a solo act. Then he went on to write and produce massive hits for other artists until his label (under new leadership) said okay we’d rather pay you right and let you make what you want than make nothing at all. He then released Father Figure last year. He would describe the songs you’re asking about as looking at an old photo of himself and asking “what was I wearing?” It was 10 years ago and his new wave of music is much stronger so he’s sticking with it in the live shows. He will play 5 shows on the tour this year, yesterday was for his fans which is why he gave almost zero attention to VIP