Danger Mouse on Collaboration

1." Be an apprentice. Each collaborator adds to your collective knowledge. They're all teachers. Ideas move to the next project.

2. Contain your ego. It doesn't get in the way early on. Early on, you're just happy to solve problems. Later on, you can't let ego suggest the same solutions to new problems.

3. Reject the past. Take Beck, for instance: I don't think about his past work. I let him think about that. Whatever else he's done doesn't make a difference to me. Here's what matters: "Would it actually work?" And it did.

4. Paddle really, really hard. (See above.)

5. Embrace the misery. I sometimes take too much responsibility for what music can do, for its role in shaping the world. But great records come from miserable times. "

From Esquire