[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he Chainsmokers are in a hotel room in Amsterdam
balancing Macbooks on their laps, and they are most definitely smoking
something. Made up of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, The Chainsmokers are a DJ
and producer duo from New York City—and they are excited about doing an
interview with CULTURE. “Maybe they
can hook us up with some free weed!” says Pall. “We are literally smoking right
now. Good thing you got us before we took the mushrooms.”

These
two gents are easygoing dudes who can hang while sharing the same wickedly
inappropriate sense of humor, which serves them well on their SiriusXM radio
shows. You really never know what they are going to say. Sometimes it’s a diss,
sometimes it’s a childhood story. Sometimes they go completely off the rails.
But before they were popular, planet-wide EDM festival performers and radio
personalities, they were two bootleg remixers living in New York City.

How did The Chainsmokers begin?

Taggart: We met in New York. Alex was
DJing, I was producing. We met through a mutual friend, and we were like yo, we
can probably do better shit together than individually, and the rest is
history.

What was the very first bootleg
remix you did? Do you remember?

Taggart: Yeah, we made a bootleg remix of
Jónsi from Sigur Ros (“Around Us”). He had a
song that we really liked so we made a bootleg remix of it, and it went to
number one on Hype Machine, and that
was kind of, like, our first realization that  people were kinda into this new sound that we
were creating.

Where was your “studio” back
then?

Taggart: My old apartment. It was funny
too because during that whole process of doing remixes they did really well for
us but people kept saying to us, “can’t wait to hear the original material.” Like
“yeah this is great—but speak to me when you guys start making original music.”
And it’s funny because now that’s all we are doing for the most part, and now
people are like, “Yo what happened to the remixes? Gimme a remix.”

Do you remember the first
original song you wrote together?

Taggart: There’s like three answers we can
give you.

I’d like the most interesting
version.

Taggart: Actually, it was “Let You Go.”
That was the first full song we had finished that we were really excited to
release and then we made “#Selfie.” We thought we’d put it out as a joke song
and “Let You Go” would be our first release but “#Selfie” kind of took off and
it took us a year to put out “Let You Go.” It’s doing really good on Sirius
right now. It’s funny because we always loved that song but I feel like it’s
the kid in our family that’s doing really well but we never ask any questions
about it at dinner.

You were in Paris last week. Was
that your first vacation?

Taggart: We’ve actually been taking a lot
of vacations. I can’t tell if we vacation more than other people but it seems
like everyone we know vacations quite a bit.

You have a very relaxed group of
friends. Let’s talk about the future. What are you working on now?

Taggart: Well “Roses” just came out, and
our song “Waterbed” just came out, and they’re both doing very well. “Roses” is
probably our most successful release since “#Selfie.” We also have a song with
Tiesto that’s coming out August 18.

That’s pretty big.

Taggart: Tice [Tiesto’s real name] has been
a good friend of ours and was an early supporter of ours. And he hit us up and
said it’s about time we collaborated. We hung out, went through a bunch of
ideas that we had—landed on one of them—got together and finished it. We’ve
been playing it out for a decent amount of time, and a lot of people have been
asking about it. It’s like our first big EDM track since “#Selfie.”

Selfie
was the song that put you on the map. You said it was kind of a joke song, but
I guess the joke was on us.

Taggart: Damn good joke.

That must have been a helluva
rocket ride.

Taggart: That was wild. The shows didn’t
really start to get bigger for a while after “#Selfie” but it was the first
time having something happen. Traveling all over the world—all of the sudden.
Playing all these shows. People wanting to “do” you . . . The kind of attention
you don’t get until you have something unique as a hit song. It was dope and
crazy.

You probably wanted your first
hit song to be something really special and poignant . . . but it ended up
being a song that you were planning to release for free.

Taggart: It’s definitely inherently who we
are. It’s our personality. We wrote those words for a reason. But we didn’t
think that would be our first big track. But I think a lot of people feel like
that. There’s a ton of artists . . . and the thing they got famous for wasn’t exactly
what they were trying to do. It’s something that they just did that was great, and
somehow it made it out there and everyone connected with it. We don’t feel bad
about it, but it definitely was unexpected.

It’s been a year since “#Selfie”
detonated. Do you still play it?

Pall: Depending on where you tour. Like
we don’t play it in the U.S.; no one really wants to hear “#Selfie” anymore.

I like “Roses” because it’s a really
good song and also because it doesn’t sound like anything else you’ve ever
made.

Pall: We’ve sold more records in the
first couple weeks than we have since “#Selfie.” The song is really personal to
us because we wrote the whole song from start to finish in a day. I’m getting Snapchats
and tweets about it all day no matter what other significant event we have half
of our feed is like “Oh I love ‘Roses.’” I think it could be a really big tune
for us especially since it’s such a far turn from what people know us for. Like
“Kanye” and “#Selfie,” which have pop culture references and are definitely
more pop formatted tracks. We’re stoked. And “Waterbed”came out yesterday, but
it’s doing great too. We’re starting to build a sound and people are noticing.

Do you have a master plan or are
you just throwing stuff out and seeing what sticks?

Pall: Oh there’s definitely a plan. You
have to have some kind of release schedule for your music to get everything
organized.

What are you doing in Amsterdam
besides smoking cannabis?

Pall: Honestly, we’re really just
smoking weed. We don’t even have a show. There’s good food here. We’re just going
to do a bunch of mushrooms and go to the red light district. Maybe buy some
t-shirts. I’m out of t-shirts.

Taggart: Me too!

You flew to Amsterdam to smoke cannabis
and grab some clean shirts? I like it. So let’s talk about the herb. Did cannabis
have any role in your meeting each other?

Pall: Not really. We can’t lie to you
about it. I don’t think we were even smoking back then. Maybe a little bit. We
were really on our grind, honestly, when we first met. Not that you can’t do it
high, but we decided when we met to not. When we would go to places like Colorado
or Amsterdam it always super chill. It’s part of the culture there. It’s fun to
get involved.

What do you think about medical cannabis
and legalization efforts in America?

Pall: It’s so crazy. When we were
kids, if you got arrested for smoking weed, it could mean the end of your life.
It’s crazy. We all did it, but there were a lot of consequences tied to what it
meant. In going to Amsterdam—you waited your whole life to come here and just
do nothing but smoke weed, legally. It’s really cool, for that fact alone. But,
obviously for the medical purposes, it’s great as well.

I never asked you about your name
because it’s such a cliché band interview question but does it have anything to
do with actual smoking?

Pall: It used to, but it was more about
cigarettes than weed. But, I feel like the next time I name something I’m going
to put more thought into it. [Both laugh.] I will think more about naming my
child.

Your touring show has changed a lot. How is it going out there on the road?

Pall: We still DJ. Drew sometimes sings. And the live show we are doing, we are working up some really cool things. Our shows have been awesome. Europe is a whole new world. We have a really good following at home with awesome fans but out here it’s different. Guys who are huge in the U.S. really have to work to get a following out here. It’s been a lot of fun doing that for the past couple weeks. We have a great following here, but it’s just different. You can play f*cking “Seven Nation Army” for 45 minutes and people will still be around at the end.