Questlove and John Legend talk about how their new collaborative album Wake Up! came together in the latest issue of Billboard magazine.

How did “Wake Up!” come to fruition?
John Legend: I reached out to the Roots in 2008, when I was just finishing my album “Evolver.” I was in the middle of campaigning for Barack Obama and feeling inspired by the atmosphere in the country at the time, so I wanted to do something musically that reflected that moment. The original idea was to do some sort of covers EP, but the more I got into it with the Roots, it felt like something that should be heard and marketed on its own. So I put out “Evolver” and toured for it, and then we came back to “Wake Up!” in 2010 and finished it up.

?uestlove, the Roots sound much looser on “Wake Up!” than on the band’s most recent album, “How I Got Over,” released in June. What approach did you take in the studio?
Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson: The Roots haven’t been this raw since our very first record. It’s not overproduced; it’s just us jamming together, and it’s got a grass-roots feel to it. It was actually liberating to not overthink it. With each album that we’ve made I tend to progressively lose more sleep over the tiniest detail, whereas with this it was about letting go and not second-guessing myself. Sometimes it’s hard to have fun with something that’s also your livelihood, because you’re so serious about it.

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