There are many different ways for artists to connect with their fans – one being the sometimes controversial yet informative AMA (ask me anything). Recently, the talented duo, The Chainsmokers, became much ‘Closer‘ to their audience as they hosted one of their very own via Reddit. You’re going to want to read this one!
Some of the highlights from this awesome and occationally heated AMA touched on the producers sound, how they fit into the EDM industry, being hacked on Twitter, and much, much more!
“How do you feel about being called the Nickelback of EDM?”
“That was an interesting moment. I don’t know the guy that wrote that article and it was a pretty aggressive article. We were in the studio when we read it and were like ‘what do we do?’ We just decided to poke fun at ourselves and did a mashup with Paris. Horrible mashup but we’re self-deprecating and Nickelback rocks”
Were you guys really ‘hacked’ that time you called Halsey a bald bitch on twitter?”
“I was hacked. I don’t even use Twitter that much. We were at a dinner at Sexy Fish in London with our agent and I got a notification or a text and noticed people were freaking out and then I saw a screenshot. I didn’t know if I got hacked or if someone used a fake tweet generator but then I realized what had happened. My manager took my phone and deleted everything and got twitter to freeze my account. What sucked about it is that idk if they genuinely believed that I said all of that or if people just wanted to be nasty to someone but it fucked me up for a while. The comments didn’t stop for months. Lady Gaga saw the tweet and she wasn’t mad at us cuz she knew that we had been hacked but the things the hacker posted were still hurtful. It sucks that my account was involved in making someone feel that way. I get angry sometimes but I definitely don’t go on the internet when I do – DREW”
“If you could pick any vocalist to work with (that you haven’t already worked with) for a collab, who would it be?”
“Imogen Heap!”
“Any chance of EDM songs being released instead of generic pop? I really miss that older sound you guys had in songs such as Split, and your old remixes.”
“How we’ve developed over the past 5 years – we started being really enthusiastic about dance music and really wanted to be involved in it. At the time Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, etc all had their own unique sound. A lot of producers start off by making music that sounds like other people’s sounds and that’s how we started. We worked every day to try to find a sound that was inherently ours and not anybody’s elses. That’s where our remixes came from. The first time we really found our sound was with a remix we did of Anna the North’s “Sway”. That one did really well. After that we were really burnt out on making 128 music and we slowed it down and that’s when we made “Roses” and I think that paved the way for Artist’s to make slower music.
At the time Kygo, Diplo, Major Lazer, and we were the only ones really doing the slower songs I think. Flume’s always been amazing. The music we now make is typically heard on the radio but at the time it wasn’t.
Going forward we’re going to take some chances and hopefully can steer away from sounding like generic pop to you guys.”
“Do you have any stories/instances about parents getting mad at you that you’re not as squeaky clean in your shows as the radio edits to your songs?”
“hahaha that’s really funny. Our parents have been relatively cool about all the F bombs. I think a lot of it is my fault. I curse the most. My energy is best conveyed through the F word. My sister got her mouth cleaned with a bar of soap once. – ALEX I had to pay a fee like 50 cents when I cursed growing up – DREW”
“Do you think fame has changed you guys personally or your music style?”
“Fame has changed us personally but not in the way you’d think. It’s a weird thing to deal with. When you have people talking about the things you do, what you wear, what you say, etc you lose control of how you present your life. Everyone has something to say about one side of you and it may be right or it may not be right but it’s out of your control. Our families have to deal with it. We learn to deal with it and we’re lucky to have each other and we have a really dope team that help.”
