“Bloodstream” follows a teenager getting disillusioned with the world around him by experiencing the bad sides of fame.

It was left off the original teaser of photos for The Chainsmokers' debut LP, Memories…Do Not Open, but was quickly added after the original posts were deleted and new versions surfaced with the missing song added to the list as the third track off the album.

Prior to the release of the album, The Chainsmokers used the chorus of this song as an alternate opening for “Paris” — a version which was titled “Paris: Bigger and Badder” — at their concerts. On January 4, the duo teased the chorus at the end of a Facebook video summarising Jingle Ball 2016. They teased parts of the first verse in a similar fashion and had Drew sing it at the end of a video of The Chainsmokers' tour series “‘That Time’ #33.”

American singer-songwriter Phoebe Ryan, who featured on The Chainsmokers' 2016 hit “All We Know,” provides very subtle background vocals to the chorus and alluded to her involvement by posting the tracklist on Instagram with a caption of:

📦 @thechainsmokers #BLOODSTREAM 📦

Furthermore, it’s the first collaboration with the UK-based producers and writers KIN and Mac & Phil.