We were in New York talking about the songcraft of the Beatles.
It was a songwriting conversation, which I really appreciated.
We did talk about collaborating, but it wasnt quite the right time or thing.
Credit: Eliot Lee Hazel
Then, almost 10 years later, we started talking about it again.
DANGER MOUSE:We were both working in 2009.
I think Karen sent me some stuff for [her solo album]Crush Songs.
It wouldve been a small way to work together, but not an actual thing.
Eventually, we were in New York, in 2015.
Karen was pregnant, and thats when things really solidified.
You entered into this project having had no discussions about what the music would actually sound like.
The first day, we started on what turned out to be Lux Prima.
We really just went for it.
Thats how I like to work, and it seemed like that was fine with Karen as well.
We would just jump on stuff and start playing around.
We started developing our own way of communicating with each other, musically.
We were crafting it as we were going.
It was really the sound of us figuring out what we didnt know we were about to actually do.
KAREN O: It was definitely an expedition of sorts, and it just worked.
It revealed itself to us in this crazy way.
There wasnt a moment of, Oh, this is what we want to make.
Then youre off and running.
Its just about how quickly you’re able to get to that point.
I can play bad stuff and not feel embarrassed because of it.
You start to feel that happening, and it was very quick for us.
That blew my mind that he could do that.
That takes a fing titanium spine to be able to do that with certain artists.
Im going to just be like, All right, dude, I trust you.
DANGER MOUSE: The first record I did was [2005sDemon Days] with Gorillaz.
That was my trial by fire right away.
So I didnt know that it could be any different.
I thought, Oh, this is what this is.
That was really fortunate for me, I think.
Karen,Lux Primarepresents the first music youve released since having your son in 2015.
I was curious to see how that was going to express itself and articulate itself in the lyrics.
I felt like I wanted to be protective and supportive like how youd want to raise your kids.
You want to see to it that they feel loved and supported.
Youve both contributed music to films and television.
Karen, you actually went to film school.
Brian, youve long professed a penchant for cinema.
Thats not really what we were doing.
I think it was more us making stuff that we could listen to and then take back in ourselves.
It was really for our own listening pleasure in a lot of ways.
KAREN O:I agree.
Its a more introverted experience, but with little spikes little flavor bursts of extroversion in there for balance.
I still dig Karen, so why not?
