Austin Mahone loves his fans. In fact, his latest release is a mixtape called ForMe+You -- the "Me" being Austin and the "You" being all of his loyal and supportive #Mahomies. The eight track mixtape features a variety of collaborations with artists including Pitbull, 2 Chainz, and Juicy J. To help celebrate Austin's release, which follows is 2015 mixtape This Is Not The Album, Austin and his fans had a "House Party."
A few of Austin's biggest fans from all over the world were hand-picked to chat with the 20-year-old recording artist -- and even some of their parents got involved! Six Mahomies talked to Austin via the House Party app, which allows multiple people to video chat at the same time (think group FaceTime), and they chatted about ForMe+You, their favorite songs on the mixtape, and more.
One of the fans revealed that her father was actually a big Mahomie, who got involved and personally invited Austin to family dinner if he ever came to town. He told Austin, "Me and my wife are the best chefs in the world, anytime you want some good food, stop over."
Check it all out below:
After the Mahomie House Party was over, we chatted it up with Austin, during an exclusive interview, to ask him his favorite part of talking to his fans was, what his fans mean to him, all about his mixtape, and what his plans for his debut album are. Read on below:
What was your favorite part of this little chat that you had with your #Mahomies?
"My favorite part of the chat was first of all, knowing about the House Party app, because that's pretty cool. I've been waiting for something like that, so I can talk to all of my friends at the same time. It was cool getting to talk to all of my fans, and some of the parents jumped in. They were telling me stories and it was really cool."
Clearly you mean so much to your fans (and their parents). What do your fans mean to you?
"My fans, to me, mean everything. Because they're the support, they're the reason why I do what I do. And if it wasn't for them, then I wouldn't be able to travel, and share my music with the world."
Tell us about your new mixtape ForMe+You. What was that like putting that together?
"Putting ForMe+You together was amazing, because I spent six months in LA, and I recorded probably 90 songs. And, I just picked the best eight songs that I thought would do really well, and put them all together, and made a nice little EP type mixtape project, and put that out for everyone."
You have a bunch of awesome features on there, including 2 Chainz and Pitbull. How did you decide who you wanted to work with?
"Since 'Mmm Yeah' with Pitbull, I wanted to do another record with him. So I thought 'Lady' was the perfect song to do that. And with 'Shake It For Me,' that didn't come until the last minute. They were like, 'Oh, 2 Chainz wants to do a verse on Shake It, so let's make that happen before we put it out.' And so we made that happen. And then, Juicy J did the hook on 'Love at Night' and he killed that."
Do you have a favorite song on ForMe+You?
"My personal favorite is 'Double Up,' just because I like how soulful it is. Bbut I like 'Wait Around' too, because I like to bust out the guitar sometimes and play a little acoustic."
Why did you call it ForMe+You?
"I called it For Me + You, because it's a project for me, because I've been working really hard on it for a very long time, and it's for you, the fans, because you've been waiting on it for a very long time. So, it's a project for both of us."
Having just released this mixtape, what else can fans look forward to from you this year?
"I'm about to do a whole string of shows in March. So I'm going to announce that, and it's going to be a small, little tour that I'm going to do in the U.S. And they can expect me going overseas more, so I'm seeing all the overseas fans. And then I'm starting my first full-on debut album as we speak."
That's SO exciting! How’s that going so far?
"It’s going great, I’m just starting it, so I don’t have a name for it yet or a date, but it’s coming along really well."
Listen to Austin Mahone's "Lady" featuring Pitbull below.
Photos: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio