When he wasn’t flying around the world, selling out arenas and headlining music festivals, Post Malone had spent the past several years cooking up a stream of blockbuster hits from his tight-knit, dimly lit studio in the middle of Hollywood. Then, when the pandemic hit, claustrophobia—and a bad case of writer's block—set in. “I felt so cramped,” the singer-songwriter born Austin Post tells Apple Music. Restless and eager for a change of pace, he and his team moved into a house in Malibu right on the water. “It was just so freeing,” he says. “I was like, ‘I'm not scared to express myself or make music or write songs.’” It was during these laidback, free-form sessions—enhanced by magic mushrooms and fresh salt air—that the genre-defying artist wrote most of his fourth album Twelve Carat Toothache. The sombre, reflective project closes out what seems to have been a difficult chapter of Post’s life: Several songs reference his struggles with fame (“Reputation”), drugs (“Wasting Angels” featuring The Kid LAROI) and booze (“Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol” featuring Fleet Foxes), painting the portrait of an addict stuck in a dark cycle of destructive benders and frustrated apologies. “I’m 26,” he says. “There’s been some kick-ass times—and not in a good way. I was not normal. My brain was not operating at its normal frequency. I just wasn’t…Austin. I was so fucking lost. For a long time I didn’t know how to [cope with success].” But there’s light at the end of this tunnel. The album arrives as Post enters a new phase of his life, one less defined by partying and more defined by family (he’s expecting his first child). “I realised that there's real fucking true positivity and love out there,” he says. “Now, I’m the happiest dude in the universe. I’m so fucking excited. Ready to rock and roll.” As he shifts his focus to his new role as a father, more change—and potentially relocation—is on the horizon. The East Coast native, who grew up in Syracuse, New York, says it’s hard for him to imagine raising kids in Los Angeles. “Now I’m prepping to take care of my family... Move a little bit out, have a spot where I’m able to go,” he says. “I’m so ready to go home. It’s time to go home.”