John Legend Got Sufjan Stevens to Produce His New Children’s Album

John Legend has a children’s album on the way, and the singer has revealed the unlikely collaborator he enlisted to produce it: Sufjan Stevens.

My Favorite Dream, out Aug. 30, also features appearances by Legend’s wife Chrissy Teigen and their two children Luna and Miles. All three contribute to the album’s first single “L-O-V-E.”

In an interview with the Associated Press, Legend spoke about recruiting Stevens for the project and what he brought to My Favorite Dream.

“He’s singing a lot of backup, and he’s such a genius. I have been a fan of his for like 20 years. When I was writing these songs, my first thought of who I wanted to produce this was Sufjan, because I love how dreamy he can make music, and how whimsical, and how much character he has to everything that he makes,” Legend said. “And I just felt like it would be the perfect energy for a children’s album: To blend my songwriting with his production and arranging and playing. You just hear his influence all over the album and I love it.”

Legend added of Stevens, “I was so happy he said yes because you never know if someone’s gonna want to make a children’s album with you, and we had never worked together. We had never even met before we started working on this.”

My Favorite Dream features nine original tracks and two covers — Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” and the standard “You Are My Sunshine.” There are also three bonus tracks that are covers of Fisher-Price songs.

“I want them to feel the love that I put into it, and I want them to be able to translate that love to their own families and loved ones,” Legend said of the album. “I think the messages of the album are ones that we like to share with our kids, and I have a feeling that a lot of parents are going to want to share them with their kids too, and that’ll make me happy if they’re able to do that.”