The Chainsmokers Hint For A Summer Album on the SPOUT Podcast

The Chainsmokers Hint for a Summer Album, Reveal a New Film Project and Confess their Latest Obsession and More, all on the Latest SPOUT Podcast
Listen to the Full Interview HERE

Grammy Award-winning artist and producer duo, The Chainsmokers, are the latest guests on the Spout Podcast.  During the 24 minute interview, the EDM duo opened up to host Nick Major about their two-year hiatus, plans for their new music, plus revealed a new EDM film project and admitted they are obsessed with investing in people with their venture capital firm, Mantis.

The Chainsmokers, comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, admitted refraining from releasing new music during their two-year hiatus was a struggle as they felt they were “in the shadows.”

When asked about what the break was like and how they started the writing process, Pall explained, “We started writing the album in like the first two weeks of January 2020. So, that was before the pandemic and, you know, that was like kind of set the foundation for our entire album. And then yeah, we had like two years to kind of build off of that and go back and redo things.

“The pandemic was not a great thing for anybody but, you know, I think it did force us to work on the album longer than we probably would have. I think we would have put it out a little bit sooner and I don’t think it would have been as good if we, you know…just the way things lined up, I think it really worked in our favor.”

“High,” co-written and co-produced by Pall and Taggart, is the first new music from the duo in more than three years and is the lead track from the duo’s upcoming fourth studio album.  Majors asked why they picked “High” as the first single.

“We’ve been working on the songs on the album for, you know, two years and this was one of the last songs that we made,” explains Pall. “This one is like, very in your face. It feels like there are all these like elements, production elements, that we have a lot of fun putting in and have this alternative vibe, this pop-punk vibe, it has, like, some trap drums, it has a dance break. The song is very fast-paced and, you know, we played all of these songs for all of our friends for, you know, since we’ve made them and you start to like get a consensus over a while. I feel like this one is like the best, you know, connective tissue to the rest of the album and so, we kind of like let our homies decide.”

Another “connective tissue” that will be found on the album is Drew Taggart’s voice as he steps up on his lead vocal for all the upcoming tracks.  Although he warns how he may sound a little different to fans, as he’s taken the time to hone in on his true voice.

Taggart clarifies, “’Closer’ was the first song I ever sang on. I finally had the time to just experiment with a lot of different techniques and plugins that I like to use that made my voice sound different and changed the way that I had to sing. You know, I sing a lot softer now, which I think really helped me and these are like, you know, they’re kind of like novice realizations that I came to later in my career. My voice does sound very different on this album, but it sounds the most like me I think, which is really exciting. So, I’m stoked for people to hear, you know, that kind of like new character per se.”

As to when fans will get to hear the new album, Taggart quips, ”If you’re asking about the end date for the album, that’s kind of like a moving date, but I mean, it’s done. I can tell you that much and we’re really happy with it and we want to get it out as quickly as possible and have fans have more to like nibble on than just like a single or two or three. So, it’s a moving target but yeah, it’d be great. I mean, I really hope that this summer is kind of the summer that really feels normal again, I feel like it will. So, it’d be great to have it out by then.”

“We got a lot of surprises on the way,” adds Pall “ Like, there’s a lot of things you can get done in two years. And, you know, I think what we’re really excited about is just showing our fans the depth that we went to for them to give them a really awesome summer and hear musically from us. So hopefully, we can start getting really aggressive with it in the next few months.”

Another surprise the duo revealed on the Spout Podcast was a film concept born out of Emo Nite LA’s three-year anniversary event from 2017 when the duo was an unannounced special guest. “We’re actually developing…I don’t know how much I can say about this, but developing a film around Emo night,” reveals Taggert.

As if the duo didn’t have enough projects on their plate, they are working on supporting startups with their venture capital firm, Mantis.

“We find it really inspiring to kind of align with these founders that have these huge, you know, ideas to disrupt kind of the world in different ways,” says Pall. “ Some of it is like climate tech, some of it is like nuclear fusion stuff and, you know, some of it is obviously a little bit further out and more challenging than other things, but it’s amazing to be involved with them. And we find it really inspiring for our own careers in music to kind of like work alongside these people and watch them, you know, manifest their dreams. And, you know, we’ve been really fortunate to have the career we’ve had and it’s awesome to be able to pay it forward to this next generation of incredible inventors, essentially, and we just find it really great.

“I think that we’re fortunate to be in a position to be able to do this and it also is a really nice balance between the music stuff, which we do basically during the night, and then the daytime we’re like business guys in some respects. So, it’s been cool and then hopefully, like, if Drew and I look absolutely terrible in leather pants when we’re like in our 50s and 60s, you know, and no one has any interest in seeing that, we’ll be able to, you know, fall back on this a little bit more.”