The Chainsmokers have collaborated on songs with a number of other musicians such as Halsey, Cold Play, and Daya. Most other acts in their genre, electronic dance music, stop there and let others sing and write their songs. The Chainsmokers, though, write quite a bit of their own songs and guide the rest. Due to this they reveal themselves through their music instead of hiding behind a DJ booth.
Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall are the duo who make up The Chainsmokers. In an interview Alex Pall said that he grew up DJing and it grew into his passion. He had been attending college and working at an art gallery when he decided he would pursue that as a full-time career instead. Through his manager he learned about Andrew Taggart and he says that once they met they knew they could grow The Chainsmokers into something special.
During the interview, Alex Pall was asked about how they have differentiated themselves by singing their own songs and including details about their real lives. His response was basically, “Why not?”. He said they usually sit in a room with songwriters and come up with their own material which is about both of them. Some they have written entirely on their own. This was especially important when they decided to do an album instead of just releasing singles because having an album with everything written by different songwriters wouldn’t work very well.
Alex Pall also said that they both think it is critical that they keep pushing themselves forward. They don’t want to keep doing the same things over and over and instead want to give fans something new. He said one big change is now having Drew go out singing songs during their live shows, such as “Closer”. He said the performance elements of their shows have ratcheted up and he expects that to get bigger as time goes on. He also said that he talks to their visualist all the time in order to introduce new things to their live performances and make them something unique to The Chainsmokers.