The Chainsmokers Are Playing an Official Super Bowl Party, so We Interviewed Them About Football

While you still haven’t blown the dust off your oversized nacho bowl, the Super Bowl has already begun its own party with a four-day concert series. The roster includes Los Lobos, the 19th century ensemble famous for “La Bamba,” Eli Young Band, whose songs can be heard cutting into NPR when you drive too far upstate, and the Chainsmokers, recently anointed DJ superstars by way of their singles “#Selfie” and “Kanye.”

DJs haven’t had much of a presence at the Super Bowl thus far, but as EDM continues to mainstream, we’re seeing it show up where radio-friendly stars used to rule the roost. With a music video that’s been played almost 300 milion times, the Chainsmokers are dance music’s newest embodiment of pop success, so it adds up that they’re helping to pave the route.

I spoke with Alex Pall of the Chainsmokers to hear about their big moment and to get his thoughts on the big game, the future of halftime shows, DeflateGate, and how the New England Patriots are a bunch of jerks.

Noisey: How much of your time and eye health have you sacrificed for the NFL this past season?
Alex: It's kind of sad that we don't really get lot watch a lot of football anymore because we're constantly on the road and traveling on most Sunday. We're always on planes and shit. We catch some of the Monday night games.

Where do your geographic and colorway allegiances lie?
We're New York fans and we didn't exactly have the best year in football. We've had some really great years recently. Inevitably, your team gets older, players leave for bigger contracts, and you see yourself in that transitional phase. I don't think Eli Manning is any worse of a quarterback, and I still think we have some great players.

If only New York had another football team to carry the load…
Well, the Jets, on the other hand are a total disaster. But they made lots of personnel changes. I initially appreciated Rex Ryan's philosophy to winning, but I don't know if that's the right type of psychological coaching you need in football. You have your Pete Carrolls and Bill Belichicks who have a certain demeanor to them that is less "talk" and more "do."

Pete Carroll kind of seems like a hippie.
Yeah, totally. But, I mean, what the fuck do I know. I never played football.

Well, regardless, how do you feel about the Patriots?
I mean, they're really fucking good. They definitely had some luck in their win against Green Bay. The problem with teams like New England, or for example the San Antonio Spurs, is that they're fundamentally sound teams. They don't make mistakes like other teams do.

I think the problem is that they’re jerks.
Hey, they play strong games from start to finish. In the end, I think that always separates the next champion. The saying goes, "Offense wins games and defense wins championships," but that's not to say the defensive Patriots will win this, but they're just very sound.

Or they’re cheaters. How quickly can you make a “#DeflateGate” song?
I've been reading about it and a lot of players are saying that everyone does this. A lot of players are saying that the Patriots cheated, and some poor guy is going to take the fall who doesn't even make that much money. I don't know enough about it to be super pissed. But what bothers me is that cheating is a recurring theme with Belichick.

Who’s going to win the Super Bowl?
We'll say New England. If it was my money on the line, that's who I would put it on.

That bums me out. Let’s switch gears. How long before we see a DJ headlining the Super Bowl halftime show?
That would suck. I don't think it would be good. I think for Super Bowl type shows you need a live performance element. There have been acts that have played who are fantastic musicians. Last year it was Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruno Mars. I'm a huge RHCP fan, and they didn't even play their song live. They just sort of covered it. But then when you see Bruno Mars play, he's just incredible. That's the type of shit you need at the Super Bowl. You need the Michael Jackson, the dancer, singer, charismatic, family-safe personality. That's appealing. It doesn't matter if you're two or 99.

So no DJs, then?
I'm not saying that it wont happen. I'm sure someone will make that mistake and put a DJ in the halftime show. I just hope that, whoever it is, they really come out guns blazing.

If you booked the Super Bowl halftime show, who would you get?
Bruno Mars would have been high on that list… I'll say Childish Gambino. He'd be very tight. He's edgy, but not the wrong kind of edgy. He talks about interesting things, he's a singer, and he's a comedian. I've seen his show once and it blew me away. It was after we had played and I felt embarrassed for what we did compared to that.

I’m sure your performance was just as entertaining as Troy and Abed’s. Did you get hooked up with Super Bowl tickets?
We thought we were playing the day of the game and were like "Oh shit, we get to go to the game!" Our manager was like "Oh, you wanna go to the game?" We were like, "Hell yeah we wanna go!" Then he was like "OK, tickets are 5 grand." We said, "OK, fuck that, get us our tickets home."

Ah, bummer.
It certainly would have been an experience to be a part of, but watching it from your couch at home half-naked with a joint—it doesn't get better than that.

Critique Abdullah Saeed's selfies on Twitter.