Over the last few years, we’ve seen a number of EDM producers make the transition from underground movers and shakers to full fledged hit makers with a number of dance oriented singles hitting the pop charts and gaining steam.
In the post-“Lean On” world of dance infused pop, both The Chainsmokers and Flume have managed to drop some massive singles with songs like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Never Be Like You,” respectively. Both acts recently sat down with The New York Times to spill the details on how they created their hits, and it made for a pretty interesting read.
In the interview, Andrew Taggart, one half of the successful electronic duo The Chainsmokers, explained the creation of their recent single “Don’t Let Me Down” with Daya.
I actually made the drop of the song first, while we were on a flight. I just grabbed a little segment of one of the sounds in a friend’s sample pack and stretched it and reversed it, put it in a different key.
Taggart also reveals the crux of being a successful artist, explaining the difficulty in bringing a song to completion.
The easiest part of making a record is the first 90 percent of the song. The last 10 percent is when you sit there and you mix it and you add percussive fills and effects and make sure every piece enters and leaves perfectly. It takes forever.
To finalize “Don’t Let Me Down,” the duo enlisted teenage singer Daya, who they explain needed next to no guidance to finish up her vocal duties. However, Flume reveals that the creation of “Never Be Like You” with Kai wasn’t quite as seamless. He and the vocalist had sent tracks back and forth, but met for the first time in a New York studio.
Neither of us were very inspired, so we ended up going out and getting food. We walked past this tarot card reading place, and we were like, ‘Why not?’ When we got back, the ice had been broken.
We’re not sure what went down in the tarot reading, but clearly a hit was in the cards as Flume and Kai managed to gain momentum on the collaborative single and cement the finishing touches for the project.
In both cases, the producers relied on their collaborators to perfect the final product. Neither act shows any signs of slowing down either, as The Chainsmokers just released one of their biggest singles yet in the form of the Halsey driven collab “Closer,” while Flume has been busy pulling off a host of sold out performances with his new live show. Suffice it to say, both production outfits are shaping up to be unstoppable musical forces in both dance music and mainstream pop.
