A Toll New Ball Game

Comprised of superstar groove technician Danger Mouse and Shins frontman James Mercer, Broken Bells have come up with an early Album of the Year contender with their self-titled debut. The record is a beguiling collection of hypnotic dream-pop numbers, in which one can hear echoes of such luminaries as Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, admits that those groups had a significant influence on the album.

“I know James has definitely talked about Cocteau Twins, and we both really like My Bloody Valentine,” he affirms. “We covered one of their songs, ‘When You Sleep’, at a show we did in LA recently. I saw them at Benicassim when we played there with Gnarls Barkley, and it was great. That element is definitely there on this album, along with some older stuff as well. We were really into the songwriting itself on this record. We felt like the album could have a lot of layers to it, and the songwriting would hopefully be something that stayed around for a while.
“We weren’t so concerned with the style so much as the substance of what was really there. There are lot of people doing cool stuff musically right now, which has a lot of style to it, and James and I were more in the songwriting frame of mind.”
The duo first met at a festival in 2004 and discovered they had a mutual enthusiasm for each other’s music. They began work on Broken Bells – a Top Ten hit in the States – in early 2008, although as Burton explains, at that point there was no record company involved and the project didn’t even have a name.
“It took about a year to finish,” he reflects. “We were working on and off; every couple of months we would get together for a week or two. Once we had the record pretty much done, we took a month or so to mix it. It was finished around this time last year. Funnily enough, the gaps between recording sessions didn’t make any real difference to us – that’s kind of the way I’ve always worked with people. Also, me and James had such a good time making it that we always looked forward to coming back. Whenever we started up again, it was really exciting to see what would happen.”
Of course, Burton’s first big break in production came when Damon Albarn asked him to work on Gorillaz’ multi-million selling Demon Days. Has he heard Plastic Beach yet?
“I have, I think it’s great,” enthuses Brian. “I’m just really thankful that I was able to be a part of the whole Gorillaz thing, and I learned so much from Damon – probably more than anybody I’ve ever worked with. Some cool stuff came out of that and I’m very proud of being a part of that album. That was the first record I ever produced that wasn’t mine. I took on board a lot of new stuff, and when I worked with other people afterwards I applied a lot of what I’d got from working on Demon Days.”
Speaking of supergroup ensembles, Burton was among the star-studded crowd (which also included cult film director Spike Jonze and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon) when Thom Yorke’s new band Atoms For Peace performed in LA recently. Have he and Yorke ever discussed a collaboration?
“No, it hasn’t come up,” replies Brian. “I’m definitely a big Radiohead fan, but I think Nigel Godrich is probably the best producer in the world, so I don’t think there’s any reason for that to change. But that’s my own opinion. I love Radiohead and I love Nigel’s production, he’s amazing. Of course, he’s in Atoms For Peace with Thom, and I thought the show they did in LA was pretty groovy.”
One artist with whom Burton did collaborate was the late Mark Linkous. The duo worked together on the album Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night Of The Soul, which for legal reasons has yet to have an official release. Understandably, Burton is still reluctant to comment on Linkous’ sad passing earlier this year.
“I haven’t really talked about it in the press, and for the most part, I’m still keeping it that way,” he says. “Of course, it was really sad and he was a really close friend, but I haven’t discussed it. I don’t know where I would start, and that’s why I haven’t got into it.”
Moving on to less weighty subjects, Burton first came to the attention of music fans courtesy of his inspired Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up, The Grey Album, which unsurprisingly resulted in a serious copyright headache. Did Jay-Z ever express his approval of the record?
“I think I remember hearing something about that when it came out,” recalls Brian. “I think he was cool about it, but I don’t really go too much into what the people behind the scenes said. One, it was a long time ago, and the whole thing was kind of a big mess. So I don’t like to air it out, because every time something new gets said about it, it keeps getting talked about. I did it a while ago, and it kind of worked out as a whole. I don’t regret doing it or anything like that... yeah, I think it was okay.”