On the morning of November 24, Chris Comstock — the producer known to most as Marshmello — woke up, looked at his phone, saw about 50 texts congratulating him on getting nominated for a Grammy, and then immediately fell back asleep.
“Then I was having dreams that I got nominated,” he tells Billboard. “I woke up super confused, like, ‘That felt real.’ I looked at my phone and realized I was awake and that it was true.”
This literal dream-come-true was realized with ‘Mello’s 2021 album, Shockwave, which is nominated for best dance/electronic album at the 2022 awards. The LP, the first Marshmello album that’s not part of the producer’s three-LP Joytime series, was surprise-released in June and spans harder electronic genres like trap, dubstep and tech-house, sounds not typically part of the buoyant Marshmello repertoire.
Shockwave includes a crew of collaborators including Carnage, DJ Sliink, TroyBoi, Eptic, Nitti Gritti, Subtronics, Peekaboo and other producers who have never had a strong presence at the Grammys. (The album does feature superstar and 2021 best new artist Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion on “Bad Bitches,” one of Billboard‘s top dance songs of 2021.)
For Marshmello — who’s currently at work on Joytime IV — earning this nomination, the first of his career, in tandem with all of these friends is making the experience that much sweeter.
Did you did you anticipate this nomination at all? And why do you think that this is the project that got it?
The obvious thing to do is get powerhouses on the album, like the biggest artists in the world. Megan Thee Stallion is on Shockwave, but [with this album] I really reached out to artists I’m fans of, like DJ Sliink. He’s a Jersey Club legend. I grew up listening to Jersey Club. It’s one of the biggest genres that inspired me in making Marshmello music. It’s not like he’s a huge, huge, huge artist, but he’s so talented and so sick.
That’s what I went for with this album. I’d like to think that that was noticed, because it would be the most obvious thing for me to turn around and work with the biggest [artists], but that’s not really my style. I mean, I do it. And when I do do it, it’s because I love the other artists and we have a great relationship, but I’m not just going to do something because the artist is massive.
Like you said, you have huge star Megan Thee Stallion, but you also have TroyBoi, DJ Sliink, Carnage — artists who’ve been in the electronic scene for a long time but haven’t ever been nominated for a Grammy.
The day nominations came out, I texted everybody on the album and said, “Yo, wake up, you’re nominated for a Grammy.” I was FaceTiming everyone. I just love everybody that I worked with; they’re all so cool and so talented, which is why I worked with them. You obviously develop a relationship with somebody when you’re making a song together.
For a lot of musicians, really all we have is music, you know what I mean? Like, we put all of our eggs in one basket. So when you’re collaborating with somebody, it’s like everything they are and everything you are as an artist. You spend a lot of time working on the song the other. So obviously, with all artists on my album, we have a very strong bond.
So you’re saying this is also a nomination for each of your collaborators?
Definitely. The artists I picked, regardless if they just popped up on the scene yesterday or they’ve been in it 25 years, it’s kind of my personal feeling of, “These guys are sick.” Eptic, for example, we did the song with Juicy J — and Three 6 Mafia is one of my biggest inspirations for getting me in the music — but Eptic, I’m pretty sure he’s younger than me, and I’ve been listening to him since I was learning how to produce. His production level is so insane, and he’s had some of the biggest festival dubstep songs ever. So we were both really stoked about [this nomination].
I love that with this nomination, you snuck artists into the Grammys through the back door. Collaborators like Peekaboo or Subtropics or Eptic — artists that you wouldn’t necessarily correlate with the Grammys get to be involved now.
It’s just great. The first show I ever played was Skrillex, DJ Sliink and me, and now we did a song together and we have a Grammy nomination. It’s crazy.
Your Joytime III album from 2020 also had a lot of collaborators. How does Shockwave feel different from that album?
Shockwave was kind of like, “I’m going to do any style of music, and I’m just going to do it because I want to, and I like it.” Like, a “nobody can tell me no” kind of thing. It was completely in my hands, and, “I’m just going to do whatever I want to do, and that’s that.”
Did you not feel that type of freedom with your previous albums?
It’s not that didn’t feel that with the last albums. I had a different mindset from the last albums. Joytime and Joytime II were very much that raw Marshmello sound, the very kind of simple, not too much, not too little, very catchy sound. That was my goal was with those albums. It was all intentional. I’ve seen stuff like, “Oh, the production on these albums is not this and not that.” Just kind of haters. But it’s all been intentional, because with those first two albums, I’m like, “It doesn’t need much. I don’t need to sit here and and work on a snare sound for four days.” That’s how I went into it.
And then Joytime III — I grew up on a lot of pop-punk music and grew up singing in bands with guitars. So with Joytime III, I really wanted to try to push this pop-punk/EDM mix. Joytime III was a lot of pop-punk with me singing it, mixed with EDM and then some other straight EDM bangers. That was also obviously intentional.
Then with Shockwave’s opening track, “Fairytale,” it’s strictly trap. I was making it like, “This isn’t really like Joytime-y or anything, but I’m going to make it because I want to.” So this is more of an album album, whereas the Joytimes are more of an ode to that Marshmello sound.
Shockwave is pretty heavy. Like you said, it has trap, it has dubstep, tech house — sounds that aren’t necessarily commonly recognized by the Grammys. What does it mean for you to not only be nominated, but to be nominated with sounds not often represented at the awards?
I was taken aback. I was just having fun, you know what I mean? I wasn’t pressed for time. Obviously, the pandemic was going on, so I wasn’t rushing to get on the road. I wasn’t rushing anything when I got home, and nobody else was either. I think I really got the best out of every artist I worked with. We all got the best out of each other on this album.
While it is just straight bangers, that was all intentional. I was just having fun with it, without overthinking too many things. So for it to be the body of work of mine to be nominated, and to have all these artists that I’ve been meaning to work with for however long on it, it was like “Damn, that’s sick.” For lack of a more detailed explanation of how I felt. [laughs]
It’s interesting what you’re saying about you and your collaborators having freedom of time with this project. When were you all actually working on it?
I sat down in the first half of 2020 and said, “Okay, I’m going to make another album.” It was like, the first half of last year, for six months. A lot of FaceTimes, a lot of calls and singing synth rhythms over the phone, looking like a crazy person.
Is that different from your typical process?
What I find is most producers have their little vibe. They like to be at their house. They like to have their morning coffee. They have little routines, because as a producer you spend a lot of time in a room. When you learn to produce, you’re usually in a basement and wherever you move to to, you have a designated space where you feel most comfortable. So being able to work [at a time] where everybody was in their comfortable spaces, I think made for something different too.
Does this nomination make you feel any differently in terms of your standing in the scene?
No, it doesn’t make me feel any different. I’m just grateful and thankful. I’m just really stoked on it, but it doesn’t make me feel any different. I mean, obviously, now I can say I’m Grammy-nominated, but I’m just super thankful that I got the nomination and all the artists I worked with also got the nomination. That’s what I really love.
If you win, will you take off your helmet to give a speech?
I’ll give a speech. I don’t think I’ll take off the helmet.