working with Timbaland

How did you end up picking Timbaland ? What did he bring to the table ?

I have said this before but he was a big fan of "Venus as a boy" , the bollywood strings and I remember him coming up to me at a party and saying he loved the bassline in that song and I felt pretty chuffed because I wrote that ! He also sampled “Jóga“ for a Missy Elliott track so we have had an eye on each other for a while . We were always going to work together one of those days . So I wasn’t really after a hip hop thing , I am just into him as a musician . It was kinda weird after we did that stuff together some hot hip hop producers contacted me thinking I was going to do a hip hop album . I was really flattered but that was not what i had in mind . I first sent Timbaland some of the brass stuff I was working on but he felt it was too weird ( one of it was in 9/8 ). I walked into the studio with timbaland and he immediately played a rhythm and I sang on top even though I had a throat problem that day and 5 minutes later “earth intruders“ was ready . Two hours later we had 3 tracks . I then walked away with the mutlitrack and edited it for a year and added other musicians on top . “Earth intruders“ and “Innocence“ kinda happened in the studio with him and Nate but “Hope“ I added on bassline later and then took it to mali , africa and Toumani Diabate played on top .

www.brooklynvegan.com, April 18 2007