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Is there a difference for you when it comes to collaborating with male artists versus female artists? Do you take a different approach? DG: Not really. Sometimes I will write with a male artist and we will have a female artist sing it; this happens a lot or even the other way around. If you want to go higher in the notes, of course you would do that with a female artist. Also, you're not going to necessarily tell the same story in the music with a male artist versus female, even though things are changing, and I love this [laughs]! I think that things are a little bit less stereotyped right now. Tell me about this special creative synergy that you and Sia share? DG: It's incredible, because first, we have a lengthy history together. Sia, when we star ted to work together, was not the big artist she is now. We created "Titanium" [from David's 2011 album, Nothing but the Beat) together, which was, for both of us, a life-changing record. Sia deserves every success she has. She is my favorite artist. She can sing, she can write like no one else, and any time I need her, she is always there for me. We have kept working together, and I love the combination. I think what is interesting in music is to combine opposite feelings together into one song. For example, if you play happy chords and have a happy melody, and you use bright sounds, it sounds kind of cheesy. And if it's too dark, it's like, "Oh my God. I want to shoot myself." You know [laughs]? What is interesting to me is to have a dark instrumental with a happy melody or the other way around. I'm a happy person, so I like to make emotional records that put you in a good mood. Like, I produced "I Gotta Feeling" [the 2009 hit single from The Black Eyed Peas' album, The E.N.D.) —those are the kinds of records I make. And Sia, she is a moody, melancholy, survival kind of artist. The combination between the two is the magic. That is why me and Sia work so well together. You like the contrast of blending dark and light feelings into your musical collaborations. DG: Exactly, and it's just like that with movies I like to watch. If you see an action movie, and all they're doing is shoot, shoot, shoot, bang, bang, bang, it's stupid and boring. If you have an action movie, but there is also a love story in there, it works better. With music, it is the same. When you study music theory and different types of melody and core percussion, they teach you that people want to have seventy-five percent of an experience of hearing something that is familiar to them, and twenty-five percent maximum of feeling excited by hearing something new. This is really a precise number. It's interesting, when you listen to a certain core percussion you need the last chord to feel good, and it's the same when you go back to the first chord. In between the first and the last chords, you can afford to be more experimental. But if you were to add one chord after the other in a sequence that no one ever heard before, it's very rare that it would work. People need a little bit of excitement and they need their familiarity. What spiritual philosophy do you subscribe to? And how does it impact your work? DG: I'm a very happy person, and I'm trying to share this with the world. I'm trying to share my passion for music with the world, and I'm trying to bring people together. I think there are two things that bring people together, and that is sports and music. At a football match you may have the president of the country and you have working people; people from all walks of life. That is what I am trying to do with music. That's what has been my mission my entire life. I'm coming from an underground scene, but I always wanted my music to cross over, because I'm not a guy who's trying to keep it for myself. I like sharing. When I was trying to bring urban music and electronic music together, peoples' feeling was: If you're black, you're going to be into urban music, and if you're white, you're going to be into electronic music. But why? To me, we are all the same, so we can also create music that speaks to everyone.