PORTUGAL. THE MAN IS NO STRANGER to writing and recording music. The Portland-based group first released music in 2005 and has consistently been releasing new albums/EPs ever since.

Without catching a breath, the band just put out what has been called their best record to date, Evil Friends.

The band had already been at work on the album when they got a call to come meet with Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) in New York City. The producer and five-time Grammy winner—who’s worked with Cee Lo Green, The Black Keys and Beck, to name a few—decided to produce Evil Friends after sitting down with Portugal’s John Gourley. Gourley says Burton was “the one producer [I] knew I couldn’t say no to.”

Without anything being set, he took off to New York and met with Danger Mouse. Right off the bat, Gourley says the former half of duo Gnarls Barkley told him, “I don’t really want to make a record with another rock band.” It was a statement that made him realize what a “stand up dude” Danger Mouse is.

Gourley expressed to his soon-to-be producer that he wanted to make “the best record,” and the two joined together to make an album that’s full of surprises and unlike anything the band has released thus far.

Once in the studio, Gourley didn’t know what to expect. “I actually didn’t expect him to work the way he does,” he recalls. “My expectations were—they weren’t really there. I mean, I really love the music that he makes and I really appreciate his drum sound.”

It seems like people can hear a track and immediately know that Danger Mouse has produced it. Gourley says that people are constantly tweeting at him saying they knew their song was a Danger Mouse track right when they heard it.

“He’s a classic, classic producer. This is why artwork is so important, music videos are so important to me, all this stuff is tied together in a sense. When you hear Danger Mouse working on a record, you can’t help but hear the drums a certain way.”

Read the full interview here.