The creative elements behind the Chainsmokers’ current 42-date tour are emblematic of the band’s evolution from electronic DJ duo to multi-discipline musicians and performers. For one, there’s no DJ booth on their stage this time around. The circus-like spectacle is packed with design-focused moments (some featuring pyrotechnics) that contribute to the show’s dichotomous theme: World War Joy.
The Chainsmokers (Alex Pall and Drew Taggart) recruited creative director and production designer Miguel Risueño and the band’s drummer, Matt McGuire (he also serves as their music director and show director), to design the awe-inspiring event. (Risueño’s other clients have included Deadmau5 and Skrillex, and he also contributed to the Chainsmokers’ Memories: Do Not Open Tour in 2017.)
Pall describes the show as “this great juxtaposition of destruction and chaos and death on a mass scale with this overwhelming sense of positivity and joy and happiness.” Then, Taggart: “We wanted it to look like the beauty after the apocalypse.”
Risueño and McGuire’s first mission was to design a three-dimensional icon that would be one of the main focal points, resonating with the show’s theme. This resulted in the descending X-like structure with three 60-foot limbs—which is encased in dichroic glass to produce a multicolored finish. “I love logos and the band had never had one,” shares McGuire. “It comes from me being obsessed with simple things that have a massive impact. I loved the logos for AC/DC and the Rolling Stones, and now that the band is moving in this direction I thought that this was super essential for us.”
“It’s perfect for our album theme, for sure. I like the symbolism of it being three pieces when there’s a three-piece band with Alex [Pall], Matt [McGuire], and me. It’s beautiful and it’s intimidating at the same time,” says Taggart. “The triad represents war, but we have this 3-M material that makes it this beautiful and geometric shape. People want to see a spectacle,” adds Pall.
The creative process started with a collaged “script” for the show that progressed from war-like images to joyful images, including shots of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden and the 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road. “For visual references, we love movies, we love robots, we love video games—we love design that has to do with the world we live in,” shares Risueño. “We are more subtractive with color at the start of the show and more additive with color at the end of the show. It evolves with the songs.”
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The show’s most thrilling moments arguably take place in the “Globe of Death.” First, Taggart performs suspended in the 5,000-pound sphere. Then motorcycle riders from the Urias family, a multi-generational crew of professional daredevils, speed in for a breathtaking series of stunts. (Pall and Taggart were inspired by the flying Ferrari featured in rapper Drake’s Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour and the roller coaster in rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Tour.) “It’s aggressive, but at the same time it’s beautiful because it’s an art,” shares Risueño. “There’s this fear of death and it’s metallic and rusty, but with the 360 degrees and the colors you see the beauty and the joy.”
For Taggart, the stunt is also symbolic. “I go into the ‘Globe of Death’ for ‘Sick Boy,’ which is awesome for me because that’s a song that helped me deal with my own depression issues. To be able to perform it in what is essentially a metal cage above the crowd is very euphoric for me. I feel like I’m really showing people how I felt at that time,” he says. “The Urias family is amazing. They’re super sweet, total bad asses, and down for the cause.”
For the tracks with guest artists (like “Call You Mine” featuring Bebe Rexha), a computer-animated face materializes on the main screen. “It’s like a character from this world that we created. It’s kind of trippy; you don’t know if it’s a robot or if it’s real, but it sings the song perfectly,” says Pall.
From start to finish, the World War Joy show is dramatic and memorable, thanks to the creative elements that enhance the music’s impact. And though it certainly shows their evolution as artists, it is all still highly Instagrammable, which is only fitting for a band that first found success with a song called “#Selfie.”
