If It Was You

And we were like, "We want to try to get in touch with John and Dave and ask them if they'll produce our next record."

The duo started writing the songs that would become 2002's If It Was You, and learning to use Pro Tools on the most technologically advanced Mac at the time, which looked and sounded like an aircraft carrier.

They took their demos to the producers.

They knew what they wanted, but weren't quite sure how to get there.

So they heard songs like Living Room, Not Tonight, the beginnings of If It Was You, and we said, "We want to work with you guys." And it was so funny because they didn't mean it in a mean way, but when we first met with them, they said, "We've listened to your first record, and that's not really what we do.

Are you sure that's what you want us for?" And we were like, "No, we don't want you for that.

We want you for what you did with The New Pornographers."