Dudes Of The Dance

Meet pop’s hottest duo, the Chainsmokers – two ordinary guys with a sick plan for world domination.

- Jonah Weiner

ALEX PALL had a date planned with his girlfriend the other night, but he got stuck in the studio jamming with Chris Martin, so he had to stand her up. It’s not the kind of thing Pall does often, he says, because he likes to make music in the daylight hours, clocking out before sundown. “I treat it like a job,” he says. “I’ve had rappers be like, ‘Let’s meet up at 10 p.m.’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, no!’ I can’t understand that way of working.” But on this one night, hunkered down with Martin in Malibu, “like, a $300 UberX ride from my place in Hollywood,” Pall made an exception, because the Coldplay frontman “wanted to start after he put his kids to bed” – and, well, because it was Martin and Coldplay are “the fucking greatest, dude.”

So the Chainsmokers cooked up what Pall says was “one of the dopest songs we’ve ever written” – and he even managed to smooth things over with his girlfriend, thanks to Martin, who serenaded her on Pall’s smartphone, blaming himself for the scheduling mishap. “When Alex and I got into the car afterward,” says Pall’s partner, Drew Taggart, “we were freaking out, like, ‘Whaaaa?!’ ”

The Chainsmokers have had lots of “Whaaaa?!” moments recently. They are the country’s hottest pop duo, scoring three singles in the Top 10 this year; their biggest hit – currently perched at Number One for six weeks and counting – is the lovelorn “Closer,” a duet between Taggart and Halsey. This summer, performing with Halsey at the MTV Video Music Awards, they looked out and “there was Kanye, right there watching,” says Taggart. Not only have they beaten Calvin Harris’ record for the most Number Ones notched on