Danger Mouse Looks Through
A Label, Darkly

Danger Mouse would produce the 2006 Sparklehorse release Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. After those sessions, Linkous played Burton an instrumental titled "Revolution." "I just couldn't sing it," says Linkous, "and I thought that it should be an anti-war song, but I'm not that good at writing literal lyrics." Gruff Rhys, from the Welsh band Super Furry Animals, added lyrics and vocals and the song, retitled "Just War," kicks off the Dark Night album. "That was the egg for the entire project," says Linkous.

Over the past three years, in between production gigs with the Black Keys, Beck and others, Burton has poured his time and money into Dark Night of the Soul. (EMI never expressed much interest in the project, nor did Burton use label money to fund it.) Linkous sporadically traveled to Burton's home studio in L.A. for writing and recording sessions. "Brian would get some wicked drum track going and I know how to write pop structures," says Linkous. They'd send those instrumentals to specific singers, including Wayne Coyne, Vic Chesnutt and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle. "It was a passion project for everybody," says Burton. "There weren't a bunch of checks being written to be on the record, everybody did it because they wanted to do it. They thought it was cool."

The project was never just about music, though. "It's a bad time for music videos," says Burton. "You just end up watching them on a 3x5 inch YouTube screen." When it came time to tackle the visual element for Dark Night, they petitioned a mutual hero, Lynch, who listened to the songs for inspiration. "Some of the images are calming, some are jarring, some are beautiful, some are sad," says Burton. "David was the only person I thought of who could put some imagination into this music."

And while the project has been a success — all 5,000 limited-edition books with CD-Rs have sold out at $50 apiece, though posters and the blank disc are still available on their own — its producer is loyal to his artistic goals. "I'm glad people are hearing the album, because that was almost in jeopardy," says Burton, who paid for the whole project out of his pocket. "I'd rather have it be presented right than have the 'financials' get in the way."