Sam Spiegel and DJ Zegon are N.A.S.A.

When composer/producer Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean) and DJ Zegon teamed up to create N.A.S.A (North America/South America), they wanted their first project, The Spirit of Apollo, to embody the concept of unity through music and art. The artists who joined them on their mission were of such diversity and acclaim that it had the blogosphere in awe over the duo's rolodex, which was certainly worth salivating over. The 18-track album features appearances from Tom Waits, Kanye West, Karen O, David Byrne, MIA, Santigold, RZA, a posthumous verse from Ol' Dirty Bastard, George Clinton, Chuck D, Sizzla, Method Man and a slew of others (even the slew is nothing to sneeze at as KRS-One and Seu Jorge are also among the album's guests, way too many to name).

The album also adopts the spirit of multi-media. N.A.S.A invited artists such as Shepard Fairey and Sage Vaughn, directors Syd Garon and Paul Griswold and a host of animators and graffiti artists to create music videos for the tracks. Fairey, Vaughn, Mark Gonzales, Marcel Dzama and The Date Farmers also contributed their own original, interchangeable album covers.

It's a lot of creative energy to expend on a project, but it's a pursuit that sustains Spiegel when he's not composing for commercials through his music and sound design company, Squeak E. Clean Productions. The studio was behind Spiegel's original track "Hello Tomorrow" for his brother Spike Jonze's 2005 adidas spot of the same name, which won the Cannes Gold Lion for Best Music. More recently, he remixed Santigold's "L.E.S Artistes" for a new Ford Flex campaign directed by Mark Romanek.

Boards spoke with Spiegel about the album.

Boards: There are many notable collaborations on the album. What did you take into consideration when deciding who to pair with whom?

Sam Spiegel: We made the tracks first, and it was a matter of who the track would speak to and who would speak to the track, while always trying to be unexpected. We'd say, 'Who does this song feel like?' and we'd always try to find people from different genres. The artists always wrote their own verses. We'd come with a track, sometimes we'd come with a chorus already written, sometimes we'd come with a concept or idea of what the song is about. Sometimes we didn't do anything. We'd say, 'Here's what the record is about, try and fit what you're writing into that framework.' It gave them a way to connect the record together. We didn't want to have a loose, random collection of songs but rather a conceptual record that felt like one piece of art.

Boards: How did you approach the artists: did the collaborations attract them, the concept, the material?

SS: People were attracted to it for different reasons. George Clinton was attracted to it because of its concept: unity through music. That's something that he's always preached - one nation under a groove. David Byrne was attracted to it because he has a tremendous connection with Brazilian music and our record is so heavily Brazilian influenced. More than anything what attracted people to working with us is they'd hear a song and just really like it.

Boards: Why was it important to match visuals with music, especially now when album art and videos are taking a back seat in the industry?

SS: It furthered the concept of bringing worlds together. Also, it was just fun bringing the visual world and the music world together. We were shooting the whole making of the record as well: shooting in Brazil, or George Clinton in the studio, or us going to Kingston, Jamaica to work with Sizzla - flying all over the place on this crazy adventure. We decided to do a documentary because we have all this footage that's really fascinating and we could combine it with the animated videos.

Boards: Do you have an expected release date for the documentary?

SS: We're doing it very much in the same spirit that the record was made, which is DIY. I like to fund everything myself, make it and not have any money people tell me how to make it in terms of how we're going to sell it. Once it's done I take as much time as I need and then I can figure out the business side of it. I really like doing things DIY and funding it myself so that there aren't people who are not creative involved in the creative process.

Boards: Did you use the same process for pairing the artists with the tracks as you did for the musicians?

SS: I think it was even more obvious doing the visuals. For instance, with the song "Money", we did the animation with Shepard Fairey. We were trying to figure out who could do the video and I was looking at Swindle Magazine, which is Shepard Fairey's magazine. In the centre fold was a big dollar bill. He was doing a series called "Two Sides of Capitalism" at the time and the two things just clicked. Same with "The People Tree" video, which was animated by Marcel Dzama. Marcel has all these tree people in his art. There was all of this stuff that was just obvious. That happened a lot with the artists, where their work would just connect with a certain song like it was meant to be.

Squeak E. Clean Productions> www.squeakeclean.com