It can take a singer years to find their voice—both literally and figuratively. "When I started, I didn't have the voice I have now," singer/songwriter Daya tells GRAMMY.com over the phone. "It was really breathy and falsetto-y and didn't really have a tone to it." Now, at 22, she's a full-fledged pop singer without a hint of greenness or tentativeness.

What about the latter form of the word? During a pandemic year, the artist born Grace Tandon realized she didn't need to please anybody but herself with her work. "I just wanted to take a step back and focus on writing songs that felt really authentic and honest to me," Daya states. "That's been so crucial to my development as a songwriter—putting all those expectations aside."

This intertwining of vocal and creative development has resulted in The Difference, which was released in May. While "First Time," "Bad Girl," "Tokyo Drifting," "The Difference" and "Montana" comprise Daya's first body of work since her debut album five years ago, there isn't a hint of rust therein. Rather, the release represents her vision in full bloom.

And while she's stepping out as a singer/songwriter again, there's another dimension of Daya's career to consider—her work for other artists, including the world-dominating Chainsmokers, with whom she recorded "Don't Let Me Down"—and won a GRAMMY for Best Dance Recording in 2017.

GRAMMY.com caught up with Daya to discuss her earliest days as a singer/songwriter, how she came to work with the Chainsmokers and how she experienced a creative growth spurt on The Difference.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me about your background in combining words and melodies.

I started playing piano when I was three. I don't even remember—my mom just put me in lessons. I took to it really well and considered doing that for a long time. All around, I was really interested in music and instruments. I picked up the guitar and ukulele and started playing the saxophone in band. 

It was my thing. My family was super academic, or whatever, and I took to music. Every day after school, I'd play instruments. I only started really singing to accompany myself on the instruments and do covers in that way. I [played] shows around the area where I grew up in Pittsburgh and was [introduced] to this voice teacher and sort of took lessons not too seriously. When I started, I didn't have the voice I have now. It was really breathy and falsetto-y and didn't really have a tone to it. I think she was [instrumental] in helping me adopt the tone I have now with my voice. I did theater for a long time and then transitioned to doing more straight-up pop covers. 

Eventually, I started writing my music around 13 or 14—the first s***ty songs I wrote. I kept doing that for a while. When I was 16, I got connected to the writers I wrote "Hide Away" with in LA. Everything just kind of went from there.

Which tunes did you cover early on?

I was into alternative rock and pop singer/songwriters, badass female songwriters. So, my favorite artists were Alanis Morrissette, Amy Winehouse, I played a lot of Dido—I would play "Thank You" over and over again—I played Sarah McLachlan, too. I did a lot of piano covers growing up. My dad was super into that type of music as well. I loved Coldplay. I think they were one of the first concerts I ever went to.

At the first show I ever played, I think I played "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette, "Clocks" by Coldplay and "Time of Your Life" by Green Day. I remember those were the three songs because I was in this little band we had formed for this thing called Rock U University for this guitar store in town. I think I was nine.

When did you start not only writing for yourself, but for others?

Actually, the first time I was asked to go out to L.A. was by the songwriter I met through my voice teacher—they had gone to college together at the University of Pittsburgh—we had met a few times before and he would come and do camps with all her students, me included. He really liked my voice and I was interested in the writing world and wanted to see if that was a possibility. I was 16 and a junior in high school, so I was kind of figuring out what I wanted to do.

I flew out to L.A. to have this trial weekend with him and we wrote a few songs, "Hide Away" being the first one that we wrote, actually, which is crazy. "Back to Me" was this other song that I released on my first EP. We wrote those two songs and it was more for me to get introduced to the writing world. I worked with a few other writers he'd been working with to see if that was something of interest to me, and not necessarily for me to own these songs as an artist. Once I recorded the songs, they felt like my songs and they fit. I really love them a lot, and that was kind of a no-brainer at that point.

He introduced me to this manager I linked up with to release "Hide Away," and then my EP and debut album, [2016's] Sit Still, Look Pretty. It was a whirlwind of things. It basically went from me sussing out if I wanted to write for other people to exclusively writing for my own project. Now, I write for other people. I like being in sessions writing for other people and pitching songs to a few different people. I think for a while, when I first got here, it was just for me for a long time.

How do you tailor songs to specific artists?

I haven't learned how to do that yet! I feel like I've just written songs that don't necessarily fully feel like me while writing it. I feel like I usually have a pretty clear sense of whether or not it's really a song I love and want to own and put out or if it's a song that feels like—well, parts of me are still in it, but it still feels slightly off from who I want to be as an artist. At that point, we'll just pitch it to whoever.

I've never specifically written a song for anybody. I think that would be really hard, but I would definitely be down to try that soon.

How did you come to work with the Chainsmokers?

Yeah, we won the GRAMMY! They reached out to me when "Hide Away," my first single, was going up on the radio charts. They had their first single, I think, that went to radio, "Roses." They were just entering the mainstream consciousness, I feel like. They heard "Hide Away" at the same time and just liked my voice. They already had the song written, "Don't Let Me Down," and they decided to reach out and pitch it to me. I absolutely loved it.

How do you feel like your craft has developed over, say, the last year?

I definitely feel like I've come into myself a lot more. I feel like all the things I was pushing off—or was kind of skating the surface of—have really come to light this year. I guess it's a product of me spending a lot of time by myself and thinking about things, and also not touring all the time or having immediate busy work to do. 

I've definitely learned about myself as a writer and artist and homed into what I want to be right now. I think it's taken me a while to get here, but I'm really confident in all the music I'm making and the people I'm writing with. 

I feel really lucky to be at a point in my career where I feel supported and that there's been a lot of creative freedom with this new deal I'm with, which I signed back in August. So, it's almost been a year. Everything has kind of changed for me in this past year in really good ways, I think.

It seems like you've been reaching for something as a writer. What is that something?

I was, early on, introduced to the pop world—specifically, the radio pop world. I feel like with that comes a lot of expectations and parameters. 

I just wanted to take a step back and focus on writing songs that felt really authentic and honest to me and weren't necessarily concerned with pleasing other people or pleasing a mainstream or radio audience. That's been so crucial to my development as a songwriter—putting all those expectations aside and just writing what feels really honest, authentic and intimate. 

I've been lyrically coming into the stories I want to tell and not being so concerned with having it please a certain group of people or adhere to a certain formula, because I think that can be really toxic and not creatively stimulating.

Annika Wells On Writing For BTS, Her Advice For Singer/Songwriters & The Secret Value Of Making People Mad

The Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing and Songwriters & Composers Wing are joining forces to host “A Celebration of Craft.” Taking place Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the GRAMMY Museum in Downtown Los Angeles, the inaugural event, the first-ever joint GRAMMY Week event for the Academy’s craft Wings, will honor seven-time GRAMMY winner Leslie Ann Jones for her prolific work as a recording and mixing engineer and record producer. The event will also salute the year-round work of the Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings and shine a light on the people working behind the scenes to create the year’s best musical works, including this year’s Songwriter Of The Year nominees. The premiere celebration kicks off the official start of GRAMMY Week 2024, the Recording Academy’s weeklong celebration comprising official GRAMMY Week events honoring the music community in the lead-up to the 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards.

“A Celebration of Craft” also debuts during a major development for the production and songwriting fields at the annual GRAMMY Awards. For the first time ever, the Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical categories will be awarded in the General Field of the GRAMMY Awards at the 2024 GRAMMYs next month. The Recording Academy announced these significant additions last June after they were voted on and passed by the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees last May; relocating these categories allows all GRAMMY voters to participate in the voting process for these non-genre-specific categories and recognize excellence in the important fields of producing and songwriting.

“Songwriting and producing are some of the fundamental building blocks of our industry — in addition to, of course, performing and recording,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. told GRAMMY.com about the GRAMMY category changes." “We feel this change is an opportunity to allow our full voting membership to participate … We are excited that our entire voting body will be able to contribute to such important categories like Songwriter Of The Year and Producer Of The Year. Again, these are such important parts of our Awards process. But bigger than that, they're an important part of the music ecosystem. Since these categories are not genre-specific, and they are across many different genres, we felt it was responsible to put them in the General Field so everyone could vote for these important awards.”

A recording and mixing engineer and record producer for more than 40 years, Leslie Ann Jones has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, and Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Now at Skywalker Sound, she continues her career recording and mixing music for records, films, video games, and television, and producing records primarily in the classical genre. Over the course of her career, she has worked with artists from Herbie Hancock, the Kronos Quartet, Holly Near, and Michael Feinstein to Santana, Bobby McFerrin, Charlie Haden, BeBe & CeCe Winans, ConFunkShun, and many more.

The first woman Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees (1999-2001), Jones is the recipient of seven GRAMMY Awards, including four for Best Engineered Album, Classical and one for Best Immersive Audio Album. She serves on the Advisory Board of Institute for the Musical Arts, the Board of Directors of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), and she is an Artistic Advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Jones was also inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019 and is a Heyser lecturer. She was also the recipient of the 2022 G.A.N.G. Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Jones chaired the committee that wrote “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production,” published by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, and is also a member of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.

“I’m so excited for our Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings to come together for ‘A Celebration of Craft’ later this month,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said in a statement. “Both Wings are a critical part of our mission at the Recording Academy to create spaces for music creators to thrive, and I look forward to joining with music people from both of these communities to kick off our GRAMMY Week celebrations.”

“From her decades-spanning recording career to her work as former Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees, a co-chair of the P&E Wing, and much more, Leslie Ann Jones has always been committed to the music community and to excellence in recording,” said Maureen Droney, Vice President of the Producers & Engineers Wing, in a statement. “It’s a privilege to convene our national network of creatives and technicians to salute her at ‘A Celebration of Craft’ with the Songwriters & Composers Wing, an essential collaborator in our effort to recognize the people behind the music.”

“‘A Celebration of Craft’ will mark the first GRAMMY Week event for the Songwriters & Composers Wing since our Wing was founded in 2021, and we could not be more enthusiastic to come together with our community for an evening dedicated to celebrating their creativity,” said Susan Stewart, Managing Director of the Songwriters & Composers Wing. “We’re thrilled to co-host this event with our friends in the Producers & Engineers Wing and pay tribute to the diverse creative professions in our industry together.”

The 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards, will air live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 4 (8 -11:30 p.m. LIVE ET/5-8:30 p.m. LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network and will stream on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

How To Watch The 2024 GRAMMYs Live: GRAMMY Nominations Announcement, Air Date, Red Carpet, Streaming Channel & More

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

10 Essential Facts To Know About GRAMMY-Winning Rapper J. Cole

From the moment the Chainsmokers took off in 2016 with "Roses," they never slowed down. The duo of Drew Taggart and Alex Pall delivered three albums between 2017 and 2019, in addition to a rigorous global touring schedule that included a three-year Las Vegas residency. They had the career artists dream of, but they were burnt out. So what did they do? Well, slow down.

Even before the world shut down in March 2020, the Chainsmokers planned to take the year off — for their own sakes, but mostly for the band's sake. Shortly after their 2019 tour ended, they took a two-week trip to Hawaii in hopes of a reset. 

"What we were making before was great, but we felt like it didn't have a thesis, [and it] kind of lost its soul a little bit," Taggart admits. "We wanted to rediscover what made us most excited about being in this band."

That trip ignited the process for their fourth studio album, So Far So Good, a 16-track display of a rejuvenated, mature Chainsmokers. Its wide array of production techniques showed the duo's growth as well as their true talent — something that they're highly aware has been mocked. They even made that clear in their album announcement, a video titled, "Sorry, the Chainsmokers are back." 

Though the album wasn't their most commercially successful, So Far So Good received glowing reviews from fans upon its May 2022 release. ("I saw comments that were like, 'This is my favorite album' and 'This is the most complete album you guys have put out,'" Pall recalls.) But after hearing them talk about the album for even just a few minutes, it's clear that the Chainsmokers didn't really care about how their music was received — they're just happy to still be making it.

The Chainsmokers sat down with GRAMMY.com to reflect on what their return meant to them, their place in today's dance scene, and that crazy announcement about performing in space.

Earlier this year, you did a cover story for Billboard, which touched on the fact that you guys had an unfair reputation in the beginning of your career. Regardless of what has been said, how do you two feel about your place in the dance world?

Pall: I think we've done a lot of growing up. It's such a wild ride. No one can truly prepare you for what we went through. We definitely made some mistakes and missteps and things, but I'd like to think we owned the moments and made ourselves better afterwards. 

And as far as the dance music community, this is what brought us together. There's nothing more important to us than staying connected to the electronic scene. And there's a lot of great artists like that right now, like Fred again.. and other people that are doing some really awesome, inspiring things. We hope we continue to be a big part of that world and find ways to bring the pieces of it that made us so excited about it back [in the beginning] — reinventing and innovating and creating new sounds and styles of music that people are fond of. 

That's the challenge right now for us — finding that balance of making things that we want to keep coming back to that sound fresh and exciting, but also unique to what makes the Chainsmokers' music special. 

I think every artist kind of endures this moment where you become successful for a sound or style, and then you try to prove to yourself that you're more than that sound and style. You go on this, like, tangential journey that isn't not important because it's like leaving home — you have to just discover yourself again. 

Ultimately, we learned a lot. We certainly improved a lot of our production and songwriting and everything. And now, it's like, going back to those important principles that got us here in the first place and innovating them. And I think So Far So Good did a really good job of that — finding some of those pieces and making them more interesting and exciting. We weren't scared about taking songs in really experimental directions.

It is interesting thinking about the complex of being an artist who has a hit song. That has to be so tricky, especially when you are eager to show that you are more than your big hit.

Taggart: Now more than ever, a lot of the artists that we look up to — that are some of the most popular in the world — they aren't ones that are living and dying by hit songs. They're obviously some amazing, massive artists that can consistently deliver big songs, but they don't have the highest streaming numbers. But, they still do arenas and massive festivals because they're really good at playing to their fan base and really focusing on that. I think that's the most important thing that any artist can do.

Pall: Yeah, if you want that longevity, it's [about] building worlds that people can live in with you. And that is why we hang out on our Discord and different channels so much — we want to keep connecting with those people, let them be a part of the process, listen to them, even. And hopefully, we'll figure out where we want to go next. 

It's a cool time in music, with everything that's happening from the technology side to the GRAMMYs adding a songwriter category. It's certainly been an interesting year.

I watched your interview with Zane Lowe, and you were talking about the time that you were coming up with all of these other dance artists. You're just name-dropping all these people, and I was like, "Holy crap, I don't think I realized just how monumental dance was in the early 2010s!" And it does feel like it's coming back around now.

Pall: Back then, it was this really interesting time where you had bands like MGMT and Passion Pit and Phoenix, but then you had like Mastercraft, Boys Noize and Daft Punk — these kind of electro acts that were making really exciting and interesting music. And then it evolved into this Skrillex, Zedd, Avicii, Calvin Harris era, which was just like, the golden age of dance music, when we were getting into the scene.

Taggart: It does kind of feel like that now. Hard house is like, so big in Europe right now. It doesn't really have much presence in the U.S., but that could be the kind of the Boys Noize electro scene, and then you have techno and deep house that's really popping off. Where all this leads, I'm not sure, but it's really an exciting time that feels like the beginning of how it started before. 

Pall: And you need producers. We have so much respect for artists like Flume and ODESZA and countless other acts [who are] experimenting. Experimenting and remixes ultimately led us to discovering our sound with "Roses." And I think that's why So Far So Good was so important to us, because it was that process of removing any sort of limitations and expectations that allowed us to dive into all these genre-bending songs. And then you kind of come out the other side with clarity on the things that really feel like you were honing in on something special.

You guys have already been in the scene for 10 years, and I feel like dance has completely changed in that time, in a cool way. Where do you think dance is at now?

Taggart: I haven't seen this many people excited about dance music in quite some time. I'm seeing so many more underground techno DJs build really massive followings that compete with more EDM [acts] and their followings on Instagram [and such]. They [post] videos of them playing shows, and the engagement is super high. And then you have new artists like Fred again.. that everyone is just rallying around right now. He's built this really unique, genuine, awesome, energetic show. 

And then, of course, you have Beyoncé and Drake dropping albums that have a lot of dance-influenced [tracks] on there too. It feels like the world's kind of coming back to it, so I'm hoping that this leads to some innovation and we have another golden age of dance music. 

I think people really just want to have fun right now, coming out of the pandemic. We've been in a hip-hop wave for about seven years now — which has been awesome, and there's been so much amazing, interesting music. I just think things are gonna change again now. And whether dance music becomes a leading genre, I hope that people get excited about it again, these festivals pop off again, and it leads to more innovation in the space.

You've both mentioned Fred again.., but are there any other dance acts — or maybe even people who aren't quite in the dance space, but are dabbling in it — that is really awesome and might even be kind of changing the game for dance?

Pall: There are a lot of cool artists — I love this group Ship Wrek, they have a really interesting sound. Tale Of Us, a deep house group, has been making really euphoric, cinematic, Hans Zimmer-type deep house records that are really cool. Rüfüs Du Sol obviously tapping into this really unique — I don't even know how you describe it — it's like, deep house, but it's from the perspective of a band. 

Taggart: ARTBAT is these two Ukrainian DJs that are amazing. They have this massive sound that is just an experience that you can get lost in.

There's a ton out outside of dance music that we're super into too. I feel like our take on dance music has always been kind of combining indie/alternative stuff with traditional EDM energy.

I'm obsessed with this kid called Versace right now. And I don't know how that makes its way into our music, but his stuff sounds so fresh. It feels like I'm discovering Post Malone for the first time.

Is there anyone you're looking to collaborate with?

Pall: We've been super inspired by the Latin scene, from our friends like Sebastian Yatra and Bad Bunny and Maluma and Bizzarap. That's probably when we're at our strongest, when we do those really interesting types of collaborations that maybe people didn't expect. We're for sure gonna go further down that road in the future.

Have you guys done a Latin collaboration yet?

Taggart: Never.

Pall: We've worked on a ton of different things. And it's got to feel right. It's got to have the DNA of Chainsmokers. You gotta find that right moment, right song, right collaboration. [We're] definitely exploring it, but it's just a matter of feeling really confident about the song itself.

Well, and you don't want to come off as like, "Hey, Latin music is really popular. We want to get in on that."

Pall: 100 percent. Now, if you hung out with us, I feel like 85 percent of the music we listen to is exclusively Latin music. So it'd be coming from a real genuine place now if it happened.

I mean, there's a lot of awesome beats in that world! I don't know how more dance artists aren't tapping into that.

Taggart: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of songs that are great reggaeton songs, but a lot of artists that we love in that scene are multi-genre. I feel more comfortable about us fitting into the world than I did probably five years ago, when it was strictly something that wasn't anything we had traditionally come up in. Now it's more genre-bending.

Pall: For me, listening to Bad Bunny's amazing melodies and these incredible voices, it feels reminiscent of getting into dance music. It's a feeling that you get.

So aside from a Latin collaboration, are there things that you feel like you haven't achieved yet, whether musically or something that you want to do in your career?

Taggart: I just have been enjoying where we're at right now. We're having more fun writing music than ever before, and I feel very open-minded about trying new things. I just want to be around and be able to work with great new talent that comes out, and have fun, and kind of expand my artistic palette. 

It's crazy to have a 10-year career in music. Going forward, I just want to be very embracing of everything that's new, [but] stick to our core, and remain authentic, and just lean into all that.

Pall: I don't know if we could ever recreate the amazing run we had for ourselves again, but if we ever found ourselves [with] a song that the world was embracing [again], [I'd want to] do things right, and enjoy that process more. Because, again, it was like us playing catch-up. [We were] just young and trying to figure it out. I would love to have the opportunity to live through an exciting moment like that again, and do it the way that we know we could now.

But if it doesn't come, that's totally fine, too, to Drew's point. We're having a blast, we have so many exciting things that we're working on and a part of. We're just grateful to be here, and we want to continue to feel like this into the future.

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Did you ever think you'd add performing in space to your resume?

Taggart: [Laughs] Umm…we'll see how that goes.

Pall: It's such a Chainsmoker headline. It was funny, actually — obviously, we knew about this for a while, and there's still a lot of things that need to be figured out, whether this is a reality or not. But hopefully it works out. So much has been happening that we forgot about it. And we woke up that morning to like, 25 messages from friends being like, "You're going to space?" And we were like, "Oh s—, this is real now."

Better get your spacesuits on and train!

Pall: Daft Punk might have been a more suitable option to send into space, but we'll try our best.

I mean, you have until 2024. You've got time to figure things out.

Pall: I had a conversation with my girlfriend that morning. She's like, "You're doing what?" And I was like, "Don't worry about this yet." [Laughs]

That's definitely the kind of thing where no one will think you're serious until you're actually doing it. But I do feel like that's kind of like the way the music is going, though. I don't think it's that out of left field for an artist to perform in space.

Pall: It's always funny to me, the things we set our sights on as a human race. Like, "How cool would that be to say that you were the first artist to play in space?" But also, it's like, "Why are we playing music in space?"

In the meantime, I'm glad to hear that you feel like you are in the best place you've ever been as artists. I saw that you're already working on the next album — it must be nice knowing that you're going into this next phase of making music feeling so good.

Pall: Yeah, and not be so protective over it. Before, it was like, we'd make a song and we were basically in a bubble — we weren't allowed to play a song that we just made and dance with your friends and see how they feel [about it.] Now, it's the complete opposite. It's like nothing is sacred. We could go upstairs and post a video on our story of a song we're working on and everyone can say, "Holy s—, we want this!" It's definitely exciting times in that regard. 

We're here for our fans that have supported us from the get go. We want to keep pushing ourselves to be bold as we write and produce, and continue to tap into those things that not only made us fall in love with music, but hopefully made people fall in love with the sounds that we create.

Since you're feeling so good about where you're at, how do you hope that this chapter of the Chainsmokers and what's to come is perceived?

Taggart: I've kind of given up on hoping for that. We just make stuff that we think is awesome and just keep doing that. It's all you can control.

A Guide To Modern Funk For The Dance Floor: L'Imperatrice, Shiro Schwarz, Franc Moody, Say She She & Moniquea

It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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