A version of this story appeared inthe April 6 issue of EW, on stands now.

Over the past two decades, they’ve undoubtedly shaped the sound of modern pop.

They’ve collaborated with A-list divas, rappers, and rock bands alike.

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Credit: Illustrations by Lucas Young for EW

They helped usher dance music into the American mainstream.

They guided Rihanna to superstardom with nine Top 10 collaborations.

That was the biggest challenge.

They had flown to Trondheim in Norway and hung out with us for a week or two at least.

It was a great experience.

It’s what we love.

But this came along, and we just wanted to work.

We just wanted to make songs.

That’s basically what got us started.

It’s a very pop-y beginning, but it was great practice for later in life.

Eriksen:There’s nothing that we regret doing, by any means.

It was a fun time.

We had the opportunity to play him some of our music.

He said later that he couldn’t believe these two white guys were making such sultry music.

They insisted we stop what we were doing and try something else.

We’ve written our best song yet!"

Eriksen:It became a party later.

Hermansen:We had 40 people in the room by the end of the night.

That’s all he said.

Eriksen:We recorded with her and hung out with her in the studio a few times.

She’s the best in the game, hands down.

Hermansen:She’s also so beautiful that you could’t really look straight at her.

You have to look to the left of her or something so you don’t get distracted.

She’s just magnetic and, really, the most humble.

There’s never any drama.

She always finishes her stuff.

A lot of people like to throw ideas down and finish it later.

She never leaves anything half-finished.

And up until that point, they would’ve been right.

We just knew, like, “We have to work with this girl!”

There’s something very special about her voice.

This is the best thing ever!"

Hermansen:She was the same person then as she is now.

She’s always been real.

She’s always generous.

She’s just a regular girl who happens to be a superstar.

This was right when we started experimenting with the combination of trancier EDM sounds and slower hip-hop beats.

“Rude Boy” was one of the earliest examples of those sounds coming together.

She was the one who really fought for that record and knew what it was.

I don’t think evenweknew what it was.

Eriksen:We didn’t believe that it would be the biggest record from the album.

We just liked it.

We thought it was a hot record.

But nobody talked about “Rude Boy” until the album came out.

In 10 minutes she sang the song two or three times, and we pieced the vocals together.

I would say 95 percent of what you hear on the finished record is from that demo.

She really took the lead on writing that song.

Eriksen:She’s areallygood writer.

I like that it’s about being yourself.

And the video is brilliant, highlighting people of different races and different sexualities.

It was a really great moment to be a part of.

It still means a lot to people who probably weren’t even born when the song came out.

Eriksen:That’s what makes it all worthwhile.

Those were his exact words.

So we were like, “Okay, let’s go make some good times!”

We wrote this song with Crystal Nicole and [“Firework” co-producer] Sandy Vee.

Rihanna walks in and says, “I want that song.”

Eriksen:Yeah, right away.

I think she even said, “Oh, that’s my first single.”

It was the easiest process ever with that song because it was brief.

Rihanna recorded the song and put it out super fast.

I think the secret to that one is the statement it makes in the chorus.

This is as close to a diva moment as you’ll get.

You don’t get a lot of those records.

Eriksen:She killed it.

That’s not a usual thing to do in dance music or pop music in general.

That’s how the track started.

The car was waiting outside.

She had her coat on, she had her purse in her lap.

She put her vocal down in about 12 minutes while the car was waiting and then left.

Eriksen:Those are the best ones the spontaneous ones where you don’t overthink it.

Hermansen:Rihanna heard it and loved it straight away.

I think she spent two or three days recording that song, which is very rare.

Normally you do it in a day or half a day.

I think Mikkel opened up the song [file] to prove to Sia that it was Rihanna singing.

It was more uptempo and had indie-sounding guitar riffs on it.

That really appealed to [co-writer] Charli XCX.

She jumped on it and wrote the song.

Then at a later stage, we totally redid the track and just left the a capella vocal.

Hermansen:Some of Charli’s vocals are still in there.

Eriksen:There is one little “Oh-oh-oh-oh” part that Charli has in the background.

I was impressed that Selena managed to make it her own.

Not a lot of people can sing a Charli song and sound good.

She’s becoming better and better.

With certain artists, their first album is amazing, and then they lose the plot.

But with Selena, it’s been the other way around.

As she’s grown out of Disney, her music has gotten better and more sophisticated.

She has something that a lot of people don’t have, which is character in her voice.

When she sings, you might instantly hear that it’s her.

But she does have something very special, and that’s her tone.

Eriksen:It was very refreshing to do something in a different genre.

The guys are so talented, and Chris’s songwriting is on another level.

It really did for us.

It’s really rewarding on a deep, deep level.

Worth It, Fifth Harmony feat.

It was almost like what you would do if you were a DJ trying to make a mashup.

[Co-writer] Priscilla Renea didn’t even remember the original track.

We had to tell her, “Remember this song that you wrote a year or two ago?”

Eriksen:It was the same thing with the Kid Ink rap.

It was something that we already had that we then put together.

That’s a very different process for us.

Our only goal is for all of them to shine.

We don’t have any preferences like, “This person should always sing the chorus.”

We just let them sing.

Eriksen:Sometimes we record parts with multiple singers and decide later who sounds the best on each part.

You know exactly which girl would sound the best on each part.

Sometimes just by chance you have similar ideas floating around.

Waterfall, Stargate feat.

Pink and Sia (2017)

Hermansen:Sia is one of the great inspirations for us.

She’s proven that you might have a meaningful career as an artist without following the rules.

It’s exciting to watch as a friend, but it’s also inspiring to watch as a producer.

We’ve spent the better part of twenty years in studios with no windows.

We felt it was time just to let the air in and go out.

The creative process is very similar.

I’m excited to get out in front of people and play.