December 4, 2024 • 16 mins
Celebrating their latest #1 on the dance charts, Drew from The Chainsmokers joined us on America’s Dance 30! He shared how “Don’t Lie” was born w Kim Petras, how long ago they started working on it, what the song was originally called, and how many different Vs there were of the song before its release.
Drew also talked the insanely hectic schedule for him & Alex, and how they deal with it.
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Drew also talked the insanely hectic schedule for him & Alex, and how they deal with it.
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Man? Oh my man, I haven't seen you in so long.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Dog, I feel like it's been ten years.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know, I miss you. I feel like I used
to see you at like festival. I don't know what's happening,
but I have not seen this face and way too long.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
We're broken up, That's what happened. I'm sorry to have
to break the news to you on here.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, I was reading the signs. I've been good.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I mean it's been hectic, dude, just touring everywhere and
trying to do life and have a life and yeah,
it's good though. Counting down the biggest dance songs in
(00:52):
the country, This is America's Dance thirty Drew.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
From The Chainsmokers. Welcome back to America Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's been a minute. Huh. America is Dan's thirty. Baby,
I'm back. I'm still relevant after all these years.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, we'll talk about that later.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Congratulations on another number one for you guys with Don't
Lie with Kim Petris.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, thank you. Awesome to see this week.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, before we talk about how this song was born,
speaking of things to be thankful for, how was your
Thanksgiving outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
My whole My my sister and my nephew are here,
and it's like I'm getting to that. You know, I'm
about to be thirty five. I'm like thinking about kids.
My sister's got a kid. This madman is like kind
of make I mean, I love him to death, so
I'm not thinking twice. But like every room he goes into,
he inspects every single item there, rips it up, throws
it on the ground. It's like I have a Rottweiler
(01:49):
and I thought that was a lot, but this is
I learned a lot this holiday.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, that's why I've got a cat. That's all I need.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There, you go, I understand cat people.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Now, but you know, it's just as much pain in
the ass like a toddler, Like Tucker chews up everything
and just leaves it for me to clean up.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
At least they're cute, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Absolutely, not that we're saying that he's not cute.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
All toddler's are cute.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well, total side note, but just thinking about the holidays
and thinking about traveling. I saw your post back in
October about having six shows in one week, three in China,
three in the US.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I mean, I'm sure you get asked this a lot,
but how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Honestly, it's getting a lot harder.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And I think Alex and I when we started Chainsmokers,
you know, we remember playing in every you know, hole
in the wall club and whatever town would have us,
and you know, we like didn't ever want to not
play for fans that wanted to see us, and so
that mentality has kind of pushed us through now a.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Twelve year career of just absolutely ripping it.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I think, you know, we're you know, we're in
our mid thirties now, and it's like, holy like it's
just getting way harder, and you know, we're just kind
of signing up for whatever was like logistically possible without
any respect to maybe this will kill us. And so
we're trying to be a little bit more mindful of
that going forward. But you know, we don't you know,
(03:20):
we don't want to over commit it and let anyone down.
So it's all we're a recalibration. But damn, this last
year was hectic.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well the reason that I asked the question is just
recently I took my first ever European trip. I went
to Amsterdam, and it nearly killed me. Like the jet
lag was insane. I couldn't sleep, my stomach was messed
up the entire time. Then when I got back, I
was sick for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So but you you've always been pretty soft, so I'm wow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Shots fired early in the chat.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
What advice would you have for me for my next
international trip to kind of make it go a little better?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Honestly, if I had an answer, i'd be practicing it.
But just keep doing it, you know, it's like all
of those things you endurance is the thing that pushes
through all of everything.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It's like we didn't have a second when we started
touring like crazy to just even think twice about how
we felt because it was like there was so much
a drilling around it. And its like if you can
find meaningful things to go keep doing, like you'll build
up the endurance, you'll figure out the jet lag thing.
The jet lag thing like is always there by the way,
Like it's like you just know you're just can expect it,
anticipate it and plan around it. That's kind of that's
(04:30):
kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Where we're at. Yeah, and then you have to drink tequila.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
For that also, that's the solution. I mean, the trip
was amazing, but yeah, it was horrible.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Did you go for AID?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I went free AD.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah when it was my first time ever, and I
mean I was born in Canada, so that's technically my
first international trip, but this was Yeah, that doesn't count.
So this was incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I'm such a cool city. It has
so much to offer. I mean, yeah, I'm sure when
you go for AD it's an e on the party side.
But the architect the way that that the architecture in
that city, the way the city has laid out, the food,
the paste, the desserts in that city are and saying
the art is so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It really has a lot to offer.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
And that's the ironic thing is you mentioned the partying,
Like I'm done with partying, so it wasn't really necessarily
partying for me. I was all about walking everywhere, going
to the museums, taking everything in. It was so beautiful. Yeah,
speaking of beautiful things, let's talk about this number one.
Look at that seg talk about being.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Soft nice, don't lie also pooth.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Okay, let's talk about don't lie with Kim Petris. You know,
I saw a kind of cryptic post that you guys
posted where you talked about how it kind of changed
the way you producing music.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What did you mean by that?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, Yeah, I guess I didn't really like leave a
lot out there for people to read into. I just
kind of like said that, And honestly, there were supposed
to be more songs that came after Don't Lie Quick Quicker.
They're supposed to be like another couple songs that were
out now, But through like the process of making that song,
(06:15):
I feel like I unlocked that. We also did like
a remix for Benson Boone, the Beautiful Things thing that
we just kind of threw up on SoundCloud. We've been
actually been throwing up a lot of stuff on SoundCloud recently.
Quietly we have an announced day. We haven't posted on Instagram,
but for people listening to this, if you remember the
Chain Smoker SoundCloud days back in like twenty twelve or thirteen,
we're kind of suddenly like bringing them back, just throwing
(06:36):
stuff out there, stuff that like would not make it
anywhere else, like just kind of sits on a hard drive,
which is sad to us. But I think like through
the process of like doing those remixes, making Don't Lie.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The way that I produced that record.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Kind of gave me just a bunch of new inspiration
and ideas of where I can take the sound of,
you know, for twenty four or twenty twenty five Chainsmokers,
and then I didn't like put out anything after that
to actually like follow up that statement.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But uh, that's like classic of what happens.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I like get all excited, I say something, and then
I don't follow it up because it's just not like,
all right.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
This is a bigger idea.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
No, I actually need time to do this.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So anyway, well, sorry for bringing it to attention.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I need to be addressed. I guess by the way.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I know we're chatting all about Don't Lie, But I
would love to sometime chat with you, and it doesn't
have to be today. Maybe next time we're hanging out
with each other, I would love to talk to you
about older music.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Brian. I don't know any music before nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's an embarrassing thing about me.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
But like I'm I was a massive music fan as
a kid, and I know like a little bit of
like the Eagles and like James Taylor, and I think
like that's that's it. And then obviously, like when I
got into like playing the drums, I studied drump bob'm
a Zeppelinson. But like, I've never, like as a fan,
gravitated to old music. I've always been obsessed with like
what was sonically new, and I think that's like why,
(08:01):
I mean, I remember, I don't know, I felt like
The Postal Service was a huge influence on me because
that was the beginning of like indie electronic for me
that I really like resonated with because they were like
full songs with lyrics that I really resonated with. And
then these new sounds that I hadn't heard in previous
the previous bands that I listened to, and that went
(08:21):
up to like through like the two thousand and eight
like Passion Pit, Mike Snow Phoenix like that was that
was like like blew my mind and then eventually we
got to em But like I've always been into like
the new sonically newest sounding thing ever, and it's kept
me from like really embracing old music. And every year
I try to go back and find like some old
(08:44):
thing that I wrote. I mean I recently got into Abba,
which yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like that. It's it's
really bad and it turns out they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I love them.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It's kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And uh, but yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I'm always at, always been focused on like the future
sound and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I knew we got along for a reason because you
like James Taylor. James Taylor is one of my favorite
artists of all time. I mean, he's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
My middle name is James, after James Taylor. Apparently that's
what my dad told me.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Who would have thought that I would have woken up
this morning and learned that about you?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
So I saw that Emily Warren and and Kada Handen
helping write this.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
How was this smash born?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I mean, they're my writing besties and I adore both
of them so much. I started the song with Emily
I mainly I mainly wrote the song with Emily. Inc
is just like comes in and just drops a couple
of saucy She's just the best at that. Ink is
just like the radest. She just got so much flavor.
But the primarily Emily and I wrote the song, and uh,
(10:00):
we were in you just in my studio and we're
having kind of a dud of a day and I
hadn't prepared. I was like I was a short on
time touring. A bunch came in. It was like, I
don't have any music for us to work on today.
Let me just like tinkerr around. And so her and
Alex were behind me talking about whatever the and I
ended up like two hours into the session of like
doing nothing, came up with the bassline. We nodded each
(10:22):
other like, Okay, let's try to build the track around this.
We wrote probably a completely different song over like the
beginning of the instrumental of Don't Lie, and we're just
kind of we're in a competitive mood that day, and
we're just like this just isn't it, But like let's
just like get right to the point. And I think
we were just Emily and I like are like sitting
next to each other and we'll both go back on
(10:42):
freestyle and I think Emily just did the dad da
dada da, and we were like, let's write a story around,
let's fill in the blanks for that thin.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And that's like kind of how it started.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And like Emily and I write a ton of songs
together but I think this one we just felt like
had something really special to it. It just felt like
sounded very expensive, and so we just came back and
we actually rewrote the whole hook to have more sophisticated lyrics.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Then picture you and me alone, Da da da da.
That's a feeling that I want.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I ended up like scratching the next two versions
because I wanted like really simple, obvious things at that
part of the song. And so it's kind of funny,
you know, like sometimes you do too much, you know,
and you got to like dial it back and just
be like, what was what were the first things we said?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And why do we say them? And maybe those that's
what it should be.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And it's so funny you mentioned that because chatting with
a less so we kind of talk about the same
thing where you get so far into versions that you
normally just go back because you get away from the
idea that you pretty much started with.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, that happens all the time, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I in my process now, I'm that's like the main
thing I'm trying to solve for. And you know what
kind of gets sad is like if I make a
beat that I really love, like I like I'm trying
to be really prepare when I like go into sessions
and like actually bring other people into our process and
like give them like come with like something that I
feel like really stronger with like three or four options
(12:08):
of some stuff that I feel really strongly about. And
what sometimes is like you just beat that. You'll have
this piece of music that I love and we just
beat it to death and we never get it right
and it taints the whole thing. And that just happens sometimes,
and like sometimes you get in and you like hit
it and it's gold. And I think the key there
is to just protect what happened, like what you get
out of that one moment, and not try to complicate it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No one ever thinking.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Don't be like, well this line could be better if
it's hitting once, it's gonna always hit now.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
How did Kim Petris come into it?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
So Emily was working with Kim and was like, do
you think she would like to She's like the perfect person,
like her whole vibe, just her whole vibe aesthetic personality
just really fit with how we saw sonically where this
song was at. And she hit her up and sent
her the song was like do you like this song,
she's like a hunt Oh my.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
God, like I love this, Let's get in and let's
do it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I think she's working on her own project right now,
and this is she was willing to like take time
to work on this with us, which was which was awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That is so awesome. Now I saw that you would
teased it early in August. Did you change it after
teasing it and before releasing it?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Probably not, because I think we Oh maybe, I don't know.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
We were very loose with like playing stuff live. We
didn't used to be. You know, it's funny like back
in the day, like we used to we played Don't
Let Me, Don't Let Me Down before it came out.
We play it at the end of every single set,
and we knew we had something special with that song
before it came out, and then after that we just
stopped doing that. I don't really know why. I think,
(13:43):
like around the cold there's something just like this Coldplay era,
we just like we just I don't know, we just
like everything felt like like too big of a deal
and we just stopped doing it. But like we started
doing it again, and you get so much information by
playing these records in front of people, like in the reaction,
but also like you hear it in context that you
(14:04):
just can't get in a rum like I'm in right now,
and it's just really like mix wise, I'm like, damn,
that mix is just way too thick, Like I thought
it was gonna be amazing, and now I'm hearing it
in context and it doesn't work. So anyway we've been
it could have that. That means that, like then you go,
it's subject to change after that. So if you're listening
to our live sets, then don't get your heart if
(14:25):
you like, yes, sorry, come for me in the comments.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Well, something I always love finding out is how many
different versions there are of a song from when you
start working on it, all the tweaking that goes on
when you finally put it out.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Do you remember what the final V was of? Don't
lie like what version?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Oh, I'm curious, but you know what I do, and
it's hard to I don't go like one title. I'm like,
my engineer hates this because I'm like literally like him
looking for a file on my on my US topics
like you're possible be gus, I'll name it one thing,
and I'm like, ah, it should actually be, and I'll
go V through eight of that one thing and then
(15:05):
I'll be like, you know what, the song should be
called this? And I switched the name and I'm like, ah,
I should go back to this thing, and then I
do like the first name. But like Brent Knew this
time or Final, Final, Final, I feel like I probably
average around like thirty virgins.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But that's just like being smart and saving as. So
I don't know, I'm trying to get that number down.
You know. It means you're like doing less.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Now with you mentioning that was there another name to
don't Lie before it was don't Lie?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
It was picture because we didn't because the don't lie
comes from the verse and the beginning of the when
we when Emily and I first wrote the song, we
just had the picture of you and me alone Da
da da We only had that hook and we didn't have.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
That don'tna don't lie. I know you see me when
he goes. That all came later, So yeah, it was picture.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You should have named it Da da dah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
At the point, like there's been so many da da das, like.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It felt like like I haven't of your search dot
I die on Spotify What's Gonna Happen?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Though, totally screwing with you. It's good that you didn't
name it that. How long ago did you and Emily
start working on it?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I think pretty like we've got this whole thing done
fairly quickly. I think you wrote it in like June gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, it's such a smash.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Congratulations on another number one for the Chainsmokers.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's so awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Thanks Brian Drew.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It is always great seeing you and catching up. Thank
you so much for your time with us on America's
Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Likewise, thanks for having us back, and thanks for your
help with the song and getting the word out there.
It's it's always a grind, you know, but glad this
one is doing something. America's Dance thirty counting down the
biggest dance songs in the country. America's Dance thirty
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Man? Oh my man, I haven't seen you in so long.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Dog, I feel like it's been ten years.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know, I miss you. I feel like I used
to see you at like festival. I don't know what's happening,
but I have not seen this face and way too long.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
We're broken up, That's what happened. I'm sorry to have
to break the news to you on here.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, I was reading the signs. I've been good.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I mean it's been hectic, dude, just touring everywhere and
trying to do life and have a life and yeah,
it's good though. Counting down the biggest dance songs in
(00:52):
the country, This is America's Dance thirty Drew.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
From The Chainsmokers. Welcome back to America Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's been a minute. Huh. America is Dan's thirty. Baby,
I'm back. I'm still relevant after all these years.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, we'll talk about that later.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Congratulations on another number one for you guys with Don't
Lie with Kim Petris.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, thank you. Awesome to see this week.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, before we talk about how this song was born,
speaking of things to be thankful for, how was your
Thanksgiving outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
My whole My my sister and my nephew are here,
and it's like I'm getting to that. You know, I'm
about to be thirty five. I'm like thinking about kids.
My sister's got a kid. This madman is like kind
of make I mean, I love him to death, so
I'm not thinking twice. But like every room he goes into,
he inspects every single item there, rips it up, throws
it on the ground. It's like I have a Rottweiler
(01:49):
and I thought that was a lot, but this is
I learned a lot this holiday.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, that's why I've got a cat. That's all I need.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There, you go, I understand cat people.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Now, but you know, it's just as much pain in
the ass like a toddler, Like Tucker chews up everything
and just leaves it for me to clean up.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So it's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
At least they're cute, you know.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Absolutely, not that we're saying that he's not cute.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
All toddler's are cute.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well, total side note, but just thinking about the holidays
and thinking about traveling. I saw your post back in
October about having six shows in one week, three in China,
three in the US.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I mean, I'm sure you get asked this a lot,
but how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Honestly, it's getting a lot harder.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And I think Alex and I when we started Chainsmokers,
you know, we remember playing in every you know, hole
in the wall club and whatever town would have us,
and you know, we like didn't ever want to not
play for fans that wanted to see us, and so
that mentality has kind of pushed us through now a.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Twelve year career of just absolutely ripping it.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I think, you know, we're you know, we're in
our mid thirties now, and it's like, holy like it's
just getting way harder, and you know, we're just kind
of signing up for whatever was like logistically possible without
any respect to maybe this will kill us. And so
we're trying to be a little bit more mindful of
that going forward. But you know, we don't you know,
(03:20):
we don't want to over commit it and let anyone down.
So it's all we're a recalibration. But damn, this last
year was hectic.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well the reason that I asked the question is just
recently I took my first ever European trip. I went
to Amsterdam, and it nearly killed me. Like the jet
lag was insane. I couldn't sleep, my stomach was messed
up the entire time. Then when I got back, I
was sick for two weeks.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So but you you've always been pretty soft, so I'm wow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Shots fired early in the chat.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
What advice would you have for me for my next
international trip to kind of make it go a little better?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Honestly, if I had an answer, i'd be practicing it.
But just keep doing it, you know, it's like all
of those things you endurance is the thing that pushes
through all of everything.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It's like we didn't have a second when we started
touring like crazy to just even think twice about how
we felt because it was like there was so much
a drilling around it. And its like if you can
find meaningful things to go keep doing, like you'll build
up the endurance, you'll figure out the jet lag thing.
The jet lag thing like is always there by the way,
Like it's like you just know you're just can expect it,
anticipate it and plan around it. That's kind of that's
(04:30):
kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Where we're at. Yeah, and then you have to drink tequila.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
For that also, that's the solution. I mean, the trip
was amazing, but yeah, it was horrible.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Did you go for AID?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I went free AD.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah when it was my first time ever, and I
mean I was born in Canada, so that's technically my
first international trip, but this was Yeah, that doesn't count.
So this was incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I'm such a cool city. It has
so much to offer. I mean, yeah, I'm sure when
you go for AD it's an e on the party side.
But the architect the way that that the architecture in
that city, the way the city has laid out, the food,
the paste, the desserts in that city are and saying
the art is so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It really has a lot to offer.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
And that's the ironic thing is you mentioned the partying,
Like I'm done with partying, so it wasn't really necessarily
partying for me. I was all about walking everywhere, going
to the museums, taking everything in. It was so beautiful. Yeah,
speaking of beautiful things, let's talk about this number one.
Look at that seg talk about being.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Soft nice, don't lie also pooth.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Okay, let's talk about don't lie with Kim Petris. You know,
I saw a kind of cryptic post that you guys
posted where you talked about how it kind of changed
the way you producing music.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What did you mean by that?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, Yeah, I guess I didn't really like leave a
lot out there for people to read into. I just
kind of like said that, And honestly, there were supposed
to be more songs that came after Don't Lie Quick Quicker.
They're supposed to be like another couple songs that were
out now, But through like the process of making that song,
(06:15):
I feel like I unlocked that. We also did like
a remix for Benson Boone, the Beautiful Things thing that
we just kind of threw up on SoundCloud. We've been
actually been throwing up a lot of stuff on SoundCloud recently.
Quietly we have an announced day. We haven't posted on Instagram,
but for people listening to this, if you remember the
Chain Smoker SoundCloud days back in like twenty twelve or thirteen,
we're kind of suddenly like bringing them back, just throwing
(06:36):
stuff out there, stuff that like would not make it
anywhere else, like just kind of sits on a hard drive,
which is sad to us. But I think like through
the process of like doing those remixes, making Don't Lie.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The way that I produced that record.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Kind of gave me just a bunch of new inspiration
and ideas of where I can take the sound of,
you know, for twenty four or twenty twenty five Chainsmokers,
and then I didn't like put out anything after that
to actually like follow up that statement.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But uh, that's like classic of what happens.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I like get all excited, I say something, and then
I don't follow it up because it's just not like,
all right.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
This is a bigger idea.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
No, I actually need time to do this.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So anyway, well, sorry for bringing it to attention.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I need to be addressed. I guess by the way.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I know we're chatting all about Don't Lie, But I
would love to sometime chat with you, and it doesn't
have to be today. Maybe next time we're hanging out
with each other, I would love to talk to you
about older music.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Brian. I don't know any music before nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's an embarrassing thing about me.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
But like I'm I was a massive music fan as
a kid, and I know like a little bit of
like the Eagles and like James Taylor, and I think
like that's that's it. And then obviously, like when I
got into like playing the drums, I studied drump bob'm
a Zeppelinson. But like, I've never, like as a fan,
gravitated to old music. I've always been obsessed with like
what was sonically new, and I think that's like why,
(08:01):
I mean, I remember, I don't know, I felt like
The Postal Service was a huge influence on me because
that was the beginning of like indie electronic for me
that I really like resonated with because they were like
full songs with lyrics that I really resonated with. And
then these new sounds that I hadn't heard in previous
the previous bands that I listened to, and that went
(08:21):
up to like through like the two thousand and eight
like Passion Pit, Mike Snow Phoenix like that was that
was like like blew my mind and then eventually we
got to em But like I've always been into like
the new sonically newest sounding thing ever, and it's kept
me from like really embracing old music. And every year
I try to go back and find like some old
(08:44):
thing that I wrote. I mean I recently got into Abba,
which yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like that. It's it's
really bad and it turns out they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I love them.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It's kind of.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And uh, but yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I'm always at, always been focused on like the future
sound and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I knew we got along for a reason because you
like James Taylor. James Taylor is one of my favorite
artists of all time. I mean, he's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
My middle name is James, after James Taylor. Apparently that's
what my dad told me.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Who would have thought that I would have woken up
this morning and learned that about you?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
So I saw that Emily Warren and and Kada Handen
helping write this.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
How was this smash born?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I mean, they're my writing besties and I adore both
of them so much. I started the song with Emily
I mainly I mainly wrote the song with Emily. Inc
is just like comes in and just drops a couple
of saucy She's just the best at that. Ink is
just like the radest. She just got so much flavor.
But the primarily Emily and I wrote the song, and uh,
(10:00):
we were in you just in my studio and we're
having kind of a dud of a day and I
hadn't prepared. I was like I was a short on
time touring. A bunch came in. It was like, I
don't have any music for us to work on today.
Let me just like tinkerr around. And so her and
Alex were behind me talking about whatever the and I
ended up like two hours into the session of like
doing nothing, came up with the bassline. We nodded each
(10:22):
other like, Okay, let's try to build the track around this.
We wrote probably a completely different song over like the
beginning of the instrumental of Don't Lie, and we're just
kind of we're in a competitive mood that day, and
we're just like this just isn't it, But like let's
just like get right to the point. And I think
we were just Emily and I like are like sitting
next to each other and we'll both go back on
(10:42):
freestyle and I think Emily just did the dad da
dada da, and we were like, let's write a story around,
let's fill in the blanks for that thin.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And that's like kind of how it started.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And like Emily and I write a ton of songs
together but I think this one we just felt like
had something really special to it. It just felt like
sounded very expensive, and so we just came back and
we actually rewrote the whole hook to have more sophisticated lyrics.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Then picture you and me alone, Da da da da.
That's a feeling that I want.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I ended up like scratching the next two versions
because I wanted like really simple, obvious things at that
part of the song. And so it's kind of funny,
you know, like sometimes you do too much, you know,
and you got to like dial it back and just
be like, what was what were the first things we said?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And why do we say them? And maybe those that's
what it should be.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And it's so funny you mentioned that because chatting with
a less so we kind of talk about the same
thing where you get so far into versions that you
normally just go back because you get away from the
idea that you pretty much started with.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, that happens all the time, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I in my process now, I'm that's like the main
thing I'm trying to solve for. And you know what
kind of gets sad is like if I make a
beat that I really love, like I like I'm trying
to be really prepare when I like go into sessions
and like actually bring other people into our process and
like give them like come with like something that I
feel like really stronger with like three or four options
(12:08):
of some stuff that I feel really strongly about. And
what sometimes is like you just beat that. You'll have
this piece of music that I love and we just
beat it to death and we never get it right
and it taints the whole thing. And that just happens sometimes,
and like sometimes you get in and you like hit
it and it's gold. And I think the key there
is to just protect what happened, like what you get
out of that one moment, and not try to complicate it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
No one ever thinking.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Don't be like, well this line could be better if
it's hitting once, it's gonna always hit now.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
How did Kim Petris come into it?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
So Emily was working with Kim and was like, do
you think she would like to She's like the perfect person,
like her whole vibe, just her whole vibe aesthetic personality
just really fit with how we saw sonically where this
song was at. And she hit her up and sent
her the song was like do you like this song,
she's like a hunt Oh my.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
God, like I love this, Let's get in and let's
do it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I think she's working on her own project right now,
and this is she was willing to like take time
to work on this with us, which was which was awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That is so awesome. Now I saw that you would
teased it early in August. Did you change it after
teasing it and before releasing it?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Probably not, because I think we Oh maybe, I don't know.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
We were very loose with like playing stuff live. We
didn't used to be. You know, it's funny like back
in the day, like we used to we played Don't
Let Me, Don't Let Me Down before it came out.
We play it at the end of every single set,
and we knew we had something special with that song
before it came out, and then after that we just
stopped doing that. I don't really know why. I think,
(13:43):
like around the cold there's something just like this Coldplay era,
we just like we just I don't know, we just
like everything felt like like too big of a deal
and we just stopped doing it. But like we started
doing it again, and you get so much information by
playing these records in front of people, like in the reaction,
but also like you hear it in context that you
(14:04):
just can't get in a rum like I'm in right now,
and it's just really like mix wise, I'm like, damn,
that mix is just way too thick, Like I thought
it was gonna be amazing, and now I'm hearing it
in context and it doesn't work. So anyway we've been
it could have that. That means that, like then you go,
it's subject to change after that. So if you're listening
to our live sets, then don't get your heart if
(14:25):
you like, yes, sorry, come for me in the comments.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Well, something I always love finding out is how many
different versions there are of a song from when you
start working on it, all the tweaking that goes on
when you finally put it out.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Do you remember what the final V was of? Don't
lie like what version?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Oh, I'm curious, but you know what I do, and
it's hard to I don't go like one title. I'm like,
my engineer hates this because I'm like literally like him
looking for a file on my on my US topics
like you're possible be gus, I'll name it one thing,
and I'm like, ah, it should actually be, and I'll
go V through eight of that one thing and then
(15:05):
I'll be like, you know what, the song should be
called this? And I switched the name and I'm like, ah,
I should go back to this thing, and then I
do like the first name. But like Brent Knew this
time or Final, Final, Final, I feel like I probably
average around like thirty virgins.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But that's just like being smart and saving as. So
I don't know, I'm trying to get that number down.
You know. It means you're like doing less.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Now with you mentioning that was there another name to
don't Lie before it was don't Lie?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
It was picture because we didn't because the don't lie
comes from the verse and the beginning of the when
we when Emily and I first wrote the song, we
just had the picture of you and me alone Da
da da We only had that hook and we didn't have.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
That don'tna don't lie. I know you see me when
he goes. That all came later, So yeah, it was picture.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You should have named it Da da dah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
At the point, like there's been so many da da das, like.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It felt like like I haven't of your search dot
I die on Spotify What's Gonna Happen?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Though, totally screwing with you. It's good that you didn't
name it that. How long ago did you and Emily
start working on it?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I think pretty like we've got this whole thing done
fairly quickly. I think you wrote it in like June gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, it's such a smash.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Congratulations on another number one for the Chainsmokers.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
That's so awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Thanks Brian Drew.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It is always great seeing you and catching up. Thank
you so much for your time with us on America's
Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Likewise, thanks for having us back, and thanks for your
help with the song and getting the word out there.
It's it's always a grind, you know, but glad this
one is doing something. America's Dance thirty counting down the
biggest dance songs in the country. America's Dance thirty
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