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We chat to The Chainsmokers about their debut album and what fans can expect

Cape Town - Grammy Award-winning artist/producer duo, The Chainsmokers, will be releasing their much-anticipated debut album on Friday.

The Chainsmokers, comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, have evolved into a dominating musical force with a diverse repertoire of songs that have led them to become today’s hottest young artist/producer duo. 

With a signature sound that deftly reaches across indie, progressive and pop realms, their original tracks and remixes have topped the charts throughout the world. Their evolution as producers and as songwriters has seen them dial up some of the biggest breakthrough songs of the year. 

We chat to them about the making of their new album and what fans can expect.

Check it out here:

You will be releasing your debut album Memories…Do Not Open on Friday, first of all, what inspired the title of the album?

The box of Memories...Do Not Open to us perfectly symbolises the message of our album. We all have childhood bedrooms, filled with objects that symbolise special moments, but eventually we all grow up and leave that room. Eventually, that room and its objects are boxed up as we grow up and move out but a few of the very important items remain in a box that is saved...memories. For us and many of you, these items are usually very precious and private. The box’s memories collected is displayed in all of our past cover art, the text box. Humbled by this journey, we are opening up our box to you. We have been put in this box of who we are supposed to be and what people think of us, and now we are literally taking that box and showing you what is really inside us.

You guys have previously stated that you don’t have plans to release a debut album, what changed your minds?

Over the last two years we started to become a lot more assertive in our songwriting and we began to see common themes. We felt like we were beginning to have a story to tell. It was very important to us to have a cohesive idea that tied all the songs together but more importantly, to ourselves personally. Writing our previous songs, began to feel like we were revealing truths and things that would make us vulnerable, things that even might vilify us, but we knew that was the goal of honest songwriting for us. 

What can fans expect from your debut album?

They can expect a real look into our lives... for better or for worse, this album is honest and it’s real... we worked super hard at telling stories about our experiences and things we go through, but also things everyone does as well. Lucky for us we are also producers so being able to write, sing and produce the album allowed us a lot of control, and we think that really helps make this album special.

Can you describe the album sound in one sentence?

This album is about outing ourselves to connect with people, always for the better but sometimes you have to talk about really ugly truths in order to truly connect. 

What was the most challenging part of making the album?

Finishing 12 songs is hard, we have our tricks to finish a single or two at a time but to come up with 12 songs that all felt unique and original and full was really hard but it taught us a lot about ourselves and our song making in the process.

Which song did you guys fight about (or had artistic differences about) on the album?

Songs would come on and then come off and then come on all the time, we were under the gun and it was a lot of pressure because we are perfectionists. 

Was there a song that didn’t make it onto the album, and why?

Hahaha no telling, but nice try. It was a really good one too, but we just ran out of time.

You guys have won so many awards and you’ve topped so many charts… did you ever for one second think that you would be where you are today, be as successful as you are? Did it ever cross your minds?

You can never imagine or prepare for this, at least we feel that way now... it never suddenly felt like hey we are successful now either, it’s been a real journey of lots of amazing small moments, some good and some bad that have gotten us here... we always wanted to be great musicians and make music that connected with people but saying we saw this coming, that’s impossible, but we never bet against ourselves either.

What’s the one thing no one knows about you?

We are both excellent cooks.

Click here to buy their debut album on iTunes.

(Photo: Supplied)

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