The Chainsmokers have had a great 2016 already, with their latest hit “Roses” reaching the highest position on the Billboard charts they’ve ever seen, as well as a #1 on the Dance charts. They’re looking to keep momentum going moving forward with a new remix from Dash Berlin, of their track “New York City” that came out in October last year. The trancier interpretation plays well off of the already carefully crafted melody in the original.
The Chainsmokers have also already been announced for Insomniac’s annual Crush Festival in February; they’ll headline the Dallas event, along with Lost Kings, NGHTMRE, and Slander. Before that happened, we wanted to catch up with them and check in, see how things are going in the new year.
I saw that you guys liked our recent coverage of your appearance on The Late Late Show. How was it performing live this time rather than off CDJs for an audience?
https://twitter.com/TheChainsmokers/status/672160154662604808
Yeah, not too often Your EDM says anything nice about us…[laughs] But we had been rehearsing a live show for “Roses” well before we even got the call for James Corden, so when the time came we were really excited about it. All in all, it was a rewarding experience.
“Roses” just recently hit #1 on Billboard’s charts too, and that must be exciting. How are you planning to follow it up?
With another great song we hope.
How important are vocalists to you in the music writing process?
Well it could be a couple different things. Do you mean how important is working with good writers? Or how important is it to have a well written song? Or how important is it to have a good singer on a track?
If you are writing music, we assume you mean vocals and not producing music… it’s very important because you’re gonna need someone to sing what you’re writing so the vocalists are super important. We have been doing the whole writing thing for a while and it’s always a growing process. You need confidence, you need to be in the right state of mind, and we have been lucky to work with people like Emily Warren, Liz (Rozes) and others that really make the process fun. We have a ton of respect for the writers/vocalists who can go out over and over and just make amazing music.
This event Crush, how do you feel about “rave baes”?
A hot girl is a hot girl, if she loves dance music, thats even better… haha
Is it possible for a couple to like different genres of music and still get along?
Haha 100% that just boils down to respect and not taking long road trips together…
Are you bringing your own crushes to the show?
We hope to, but more likely we will fly out early the next day and have something special planned for them elsewhere! Business is business, gotta keep it separate 🙂
Have you had any experience with hoverboards? Who’s more likely to fall over using one?
Yeah they are really cool, but then you see dudes cruising into restaurants with them and that is so lame… so we think they are cool and fun, but people using them all the time in public looks really lame….
Between the two of you, who is the bigger prankster? What’s your best practical joke that you’ve pulled on each other?
I think Alex is… but the thing is we really dont prank each other, it’s sorta like a written rule because it’s like the brother syndrome and that can get out of hand really quickly, so it’s basically us versus the world…
Get tickets to Crush Dallas here.