The GRAMMY Award-winning duo reunites with Swedish singer-songwriter Oaks for a five-track project built around love, storytelling and their longtime creative partnership.
The Chainsmokers LOVE IS KIND EP Puts Oaks At The Center
The Chainsmokers LOVE IS KIND EP brings Drew Taggart and Alex Pall back together with Swedish singer-songwriter Oaks, also known as Winona Oak. Released May 8, the five-track project marks the latest chapter in a creative partnership that stretches back to their 2018 collaboration “HOPE.”
Rather than bringing Oaks in for a single feature, The Chainsmokers place her vocals across the entire project. “ECHO,” “ALREADY KNOW,” “FIVE PAST THREE,” “LOVE IS KIND” and “WILD” form one connected collection, with Oaks’ perspective providing the emotional foundation.
Her own love story inspired the project. The Chainsmokers then shaped their production around her vocals and the narrative behind the songs, allowing that story to guide the EP rather than treating it as an addition to the duo’s electronic sound.
“Winona fell in love since we had last saw her and that has fueled the story behind all these songs,” Taggart and Pall shared in a statement. “We wanted to keep that story and her mesmerizing voice in the center of this project and build a world around it with the production.”
Still, the duo approached the songs with their live sets in mind. They wanted each track to carry enough energy for the stage while preserving the intimacy behind Oaks’ songwriting. That balance gives the Chainsmokers LOVE IS KIND EP both a personal narrative and a clear connection to the duo’s festival-driven sound.
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Oaks Steps Into A New Electronic Era
Oaks enters the project at the beginning of a new creative era. Winona Oak first built her career through emotionally direct songwriting and melodic pop, earning hundreds of millions of streams before creating Oaks as a dedicated outlet for electronic music.
The new moniker gives her room to experiment with production-heavy collaborations while preserving the songwriting that established her career. She has already shared creative space with artists including Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Robin Schulz and BUNT.
On LOVE IS KIND, that evolution meets a familiar partnership. Oaks’ vocals remain the focal point while The Chainsmokers build an electronic world around them. The result reconnects the artists without simply recreating what they achieved together on “HOPE.”
The Chainsmokers Keep Their Momentum Going
The release joins an active period for Taggart and Pall. Before LOVE IS KIND, the duo collaborated with John Summit on “ALL THE TIME” and extended their Las Vegas residency through 2029.
Their career has consistently moved between electronic, pop, alternative and rock influences. “Closer” featuring Halsey, “Something Just Like This” with Coldplay and the GRAMMY-winning “Don’t Let Me Down” featuring Daya became defining crossover hits, while albums including Memories…Do Not Open, Sick Boy, World War Joy and So Far So Good continued expanding their catalog.
More recently, the duo released No Hard Feelings in 2024 and followed it with tracks including “Addicted” with Zerb and Ink and “Don’t Lie” with Kim Petras. Their October 2025 EP Breathe featured “Smooth,” “Helium” and “White Wine & Adderall.”
The Chainsmokers LOVE IS KIND EP now adds a more tightly connected collaborative project to that catalog, placing Oaks and her story at its center.
A Packed Summer Takes The Duo Worldwide
The Chainsmokers also enter the summer with a packed international schedule. Their announced 2026 appearances include EDC Las Vegas, Palm Tree Music Festival, Tomorrowland, Parookaville, Lollapalooza, Untold Festival and additional performances throughout the United States and Europe.
Those dates also give the duo an opportunity to fulfill one of their main goals for the project: creating songs that translate directly into their live sets.
With LOVE IS KIND, The Chainsmokers and Oaks transform a real-life romance into a five-song electronic project while expanding a creative relationship that began years earlier.
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