The Chainsmokers are an American DJ/production duo consisting of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall. The EDM-pop duo achieved a breakthrough with their 2014 song "#Selfie", which was a top twenty single in several countries. Their debut EP, Bouquet was released in October 2015 and featured the single "Roses", which reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Let Me Down" became their first top 5 single there and won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 59th awards ceremony, while "Closer" became their first number-one single on the chart. They have also won an American Music Award and five iHeartRadio Music Awards. The duo's second EP Collage was released in November 2016, succeeded by the release of their debut studio album, Memories...Do Not Open, in April 2017.
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History
2012: Beginnings
The Chainsmokers were initially made up of Pall and former DJ Rhett Bixler. The Chainsmokers were re-formed as an EDM DJ duo in 2012 under the management of Adam Alpert in New York City. Pall, who had grown up DJing, was introduced to Taggart by Alpert, and had been working at an art gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan at the time. Pall attended New York University for art history and music business. Taggart had been attending Syracuse University and was interning at Interscope Records before the two met. He had taken an interest in DJing and released some original songs on the website SoundCloud. Taggart was informed by someone working for Alpert that a duo that was being managed by him had an open spot after Bixler left, which prompted Taggart to leave Maine in order to go to New York City. They started out by making remixes of indie bands. In 2012, they collaborated with Indian actress and recording artist Priyanka Chopra on the single "Erase" which was followed by "The Rookie" in early 2013.
During an October 2016 television interview, ABC News Nightline reporter Nick Watt asked Pall and Taggart "What's with the (duo's) name?" Alex Pall replied "At the time of conception it was, it was totally just like I was in college. You know I enjoyed smoking weed and you know it was just like such a yeah the domains open. I don't have to have any like underscores." Drew Taggart added "Uh it's just a name."
2013-2014: First live performance and breakthrough
The duo's first live performance was opening for Timeflies at Terminal 5 in September 2014. Their single "#Selfie", released for free in December 2013, was picked up by Dim Mak Records who re-released it in January 2014 and eventually streamed it to Republic Records. The duo achieved breakthrough success as the single charted internationally and peaked on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Pall has described the song as "life-changing" for the pair. On August 5, 2014, the Chainsmokers released "Kanye" featuring sirenXX, the follow-up to "#Selfie". Seven months later, they released "Let You Go", featuring the American synthpop group, Great Good Fine Ok. They signed with Disruptor Records, a joint venture label with Sony Music Entertainment by their manager Adam Alpert, in April 2015.
2015-2016: Bouquet and Collage
The Chainsmokers released their first EP titled Bouquet on Disruptor Records, featuring "New York City", "Until You Were Gone", "Waterbed", "Good Intentions", and "Roses". Their follow-up single "Don't Let Me Down", was released on February 5, 2016, featuring the singer Daya. Two months later, they released the single, "Inside Out", featuring the Swedish singer Charlee.
On March 19, 2016, the group played at Ultra Music Festival, where they publicly denounced presidential candidate Donald Trump. On July 29, 2016, they released "Closer" featuring singer Halsey, which peaked at number one in the United States and United Kingdom, in addition to charts in eleven other countries. The track was also performed at the 2016 MTV VMAs. The performance was met with mostly negative reception. The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Us Weekly referred to the performance as the worst of the night. Taggart himself stated in an interview with Billboard that "It sounded like shit." "All We Know" featuring Phoebe Ryan was released on September 29, 2016. In October 2016, the Chainsmokers were ranked 18th in DJ Magazine's annual list of the "Top 100 DJs" after debuting on the list at 97th in 2014. The two initially stated that they had no plans to release a debut studio album. They released their second extended play Collage on November 4, 2016.
2017-present: Memories...Do Not Open and Las Vegas XS residency
The duo released "Paris" as their next international single on January 13, 2017. On January 30, the song was certified gold in Canada. It also went gold in the US and has received over 270 million streams on Spotify alone as of March 2017. On the same day, despite previous statements, the duo announced that they were working on their debut studio album, scheduled for release in April. The Memories Do Not Open Tour tour was also announced on the same day, it features 40 North American cities beginning in April alongside support from Kiiara and Emily Warren. They announced on Instagram that they would be taking a fan, Tony Ann who is a Berklee College of Music student, with them on the tour because they were impressed with his piano cover of their song "Paris". The official video for "Paris" directed by Mister Whitmore and starring American fashion model Martha Hunt reached more than 50 million views on YouTube to date. The official lyric video directed by Rory Kramer has received over 200 million views on YouTube alone as of March 2017. On January 3, 2017, they announced an exclusive three-year residency deal with Wynn Nightlife. Per the agreement, they will only perform in Wynn-owned nightclubs XS Las Vegas and Encore Beach Club until the year 2019. Pall described the deal to be the "best of what Las Vegas has to offer", saying they were "thrilled" with the agreement.
On February 14, 2017, the duo announced during an on-screen Grammy red carpet interview that their debut album would be titled Memories...Do Not Open and would be released on April 7, 2017, via Disruptor/Sony. The Chainsmokers' collaborative single with Coldplay "Something Just Like This" was released in February 2017. The single was released simultaneously to The Chainsmokers performance with Chris Martin at the 2017 Brit Awards. "Something Just Like This" broke the record for most views of a lyric video in one day with 9 million plays. They released "The One" as a promotional single from their debut studio album on March 27, 2017. Memories...Do Not Open was released on April 7, 2017 via Disruptor Records/Columbia Records. Memories...Do Not Open debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 221,000 album-equivalent units, of which 166,000 were pure album sales.
Musical style
Taggart has described the duo's music as "blurring the lines between indie, pop music, dance music, and hip-hop." The pair have cited Pharrell Williams and deadmau5 as musical influences. Acts who have inspired the Chainsmokers' songs include Blink-182, Taking Back Sunday, Taylor Swift, Max Martin, The xx and Explosions in the Sky.
Members
Alex Pall
Alexander "Alex" Pall born on (1985-05-16) May 16, 1985 was raised in Westchester County, New York. His mother is a housewife and his father is an art dealer.
Andrew Taggart
Andrew "Drew" Taggart born on (1989-12-31) December 31, 1989 was raised in Freeport, Maine. His mother is a teacher and his father sold prosthetics. He was turned onto EDM at the age of 15 while abroad in Argentina, where he was introduced to the music of David Guetta, Daft Punk and Trentemøller.
Discography
- Memories...Do Not Open (2017)
Tours
- Memories Do Not Open Tour (2017)
Awards and nominations
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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