Brutal honesty produces the goods
Super-producer Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, says he and Broken Bells partner James Mercer don't need each other. And that if one didn't like what the other was dishing up in the studio, then they'd say so and the other would just have to suck it up.
"There was no harm, no foul," Burton says from his home in LA, where he and Mercer recorded Broken Bells' second outing, After the Disco.
The album of sumptuous space-pop follows their self-titled debut of 2010.
The intervening years have seen Burton and Mercer, who fronts Portland indie-pop darlings the Shins, become closer friends - hence the brutal honesty while creating After the Disco.
"We don't have to be nice or say yes or anything," Burton chuckles. "It was a lot easier for us to tell when the other person didn't like something and move right on to the next thing." The producer says that much of the creative spark comes from their differences as much as their shared experiences.
Burton, 36, is arguably the world's most in-demand producer, his CV bursting with big names - Gorillaz, Beck, Norah Jones, Portugal. The Man - and new albums with U2, Gnarls Barkley and the Black Keys in the pipeline. The 2011 Grammy Producer of the Year is also very single.
Mercer, 43, is married with two daughters. The Shins have unveiled four albums to critical gushing but hardly the kind of head-spinning that even a whiff of a new U2 album creates. "We have different lifestyles. We have different lives," Burton says. "It makes for interesting conversations."
Two busy musicians with successful careers have forged a strong friendship at odds with the usual tales of high-school chums falling out in the maelstrom of rock'n'roll excess.
"I've seen it. I can see how it happens," Burton agrees. "James and I both know that this could not have happened if we had met in our early 20s.
"I think the fact that we had done some of the things that we had done, and the amount of respect we have for each other (makes it work)," he continues.
"I'm a real big fan of him and just love what he does on his own . . . There's no pressure in that way. We don't really need each other."
When promoting 2012 album Port of Morrow - the only Shins album since the Broken Bells debut - Mercer said working with Danger Mouse made him "more adventurous".
"I'd say the same, to be honest," the producer says. "He encourages me a lot. On the first Bells record, I finally was getting out of my shell and able to sing a lot more melodies. I was coming up with ideas and he encouraged that."
Burton compares collaborating with Mercer to working with Damon Albarn, who enlisted the maverick for 2005's Demon Days, the second outing for his mega- selling cartoon band, Gorillaz.
Demon Days was Burton's first big production gig following the controversial Beatles/Jay Z mash-up The Grey Album, released 10 years ago.
"I'm still proud that I did it," Burton says. "I still like the way it sounds and everything.
"It had very significant personal effects on me and I'm very grateful. The single best thing was that it got me introduced to Damon, which changed my life."
The subsequent decade has seen Danger Mouse rack up those big- name credits, with plenty more to follow. But for now, he says, the focus is entirely on Broken Bells.
Rehearsals had begun for Broken Bells' shows which take in Europe and the US. While they didn't make it to Australia on the debut, Burton insists, "this time around it has to happen. We'll figure it out".
