John Legend has a new album out. This is his eleventh but he hasn’t made anything quite like it before. It’s called Muse and it’s a 16-track record produced in full by Pharrell Williams, who also helped co-wrote and appears on six songs. The two have been friends for more than twenty years, but this is their first full-length collaboration. The project took shape after Legend appeared on Clipse’s comeback album, Let God Sort Em Out last year which Pharell also produced. The result trades the straightforward love-song approach for more of a concept album feel: a narrative story driven by dramatic strings, big horns, and cinematic soundscapes layered over contemporary beats. All the while, Legend has also been working on the theater side of his career. He wrote the music for Imitation of Life, a new musical at The Shed in co-production with the National Black Theatre, starring Tony winner Adrienne Warren.

On today’s episode, Justin Richmond talks to John Legend about making Muse with Pharrell, what it meant to make something a little out of his oeuvre and how writing for the stage on Imitation of Life differs from writing for his own repertoire.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from John Legend HERE.