Pnau And Elton John's Collaborative Record Was Definitely Worth The Wait!

Since its release, Elton John and PNAU's new album has impressed critics. One half of Pnau, Peter Mayes, revealed to Contactmusic.com the extensive and meticulous work that went into creating their collaborative record with music legend Sir Elton John.

When the Australian dance duo were given Elton's back catalogue, they spent six months absorbing the musical genius. 'That's probably why it took so long', Mayes explained. 'I think there was about 600 songs or more, probably.' When that was over, jumping into creating the music wasn't the simplest of processes either. Mayes told us about the 16-hour long days Pnau spent dissecting Elton's time-honoured tunes once they were given the blank canvas to recreate them. 'We didn't want to just bang it out', he said. 'It was just a matter of cutting up hundreds and hundreds of individual notes on the piano and harp and harpsichord.'

However, in danger of spending 'too long' on the creation of the album, it became time to change their attitude. 'I think it was what Elton wanted us to do was to actually just do it', he laughed. Certainly, their legendary collaborator does not seem to be one who dwells too long on the making of a record; Mayes explains his fascination for watching the artist at work in the studio: 'He writes a song in like 10/20 minutes and then by the time you've hit 30 minutes. the whole song's done!'

Luckily, it was all worth the gruelling effort in the end what with the record bringing dance to a new audience and the man himself seemingly extremely positive about it. Contactmusic.com have personally described the album, 'Good Morning To the Night', as 'retaining the same originality and pop shine the songs had in the first place'.