American EDM producer inverness recently released his new single “State of Wonder”, a future bass EDM track that features K-pop producer / singer-songwriter Anthony Russo and K-pop’s own Kang Daniel.

inverness and Anthony Russo had previously worked as producers on Kang Daniel’s latest album ‘MAGENTA’, but fans were still surprised to see Daniel in his first-ever foreign collaboration track. Across multiple interviews, inverness discussed how Kang Daniel’s involvement came about.

In an interview with YouTubers and radio hosts Brooke Morrison and Racquel Goldy, inverness revealed that the song was actually completed before Kang Daniel was added:

The song was completely mixed and mastered and pretty much slotted to come out when Kang Daniel heard it and was like, "Yo, I gotta hop on this."

inverness and his team pushed back the release and reworked the song to include Kang Daniel.

We had to do it. As soon as he expressed interest, it was the move.

He revealed through this interview and in an Instagram Story that it was K-pop hit producer MARZ who was the connection between him and Kang Daniel. He was invited by his producer friend Pink Slip to work with MARZ on several K-pop songs, among them Kang Daniel’s “Who U Are” and “Movie”. Then MARZ sent "State of Wonder" to Kang Daniel and the rest is history.

In an interview with JoongAng Ilbo, inverness described his reaction to Kang Daniel’s interest as “thrilled” and said he encouraged Daniel to use the Korean language for his part: “It’s cooler to have two languages together.”

Although the release date was pushed back and all communication was done virtually due to the pandemic, the addition of Kang Daniel to the song was seamless. inverness

The dude is such a pleasure. He’s very professional, he’s quick, he’s inspired, and he just wants the best outcome. This is probably one of the smoothest operations that I’ve ever been a part of with something of this caliber.

Anthony Russo, who provided most of the song’s vocals, echoed a similar sentiment in an interview with Genie:

Kang Daniel is very professional. This could have taken a long time with all the difficulties around the world due to COVID-19, but Kang Daniel and his staff worked earnestly with high quality so everything went fast. It was fun working with him and I love his voice!

The end product was a success, with Anthony Russo and Kang Daniel’s contrasting vocals adding more depth to the song. inverness told Sweety High:

Russo's "cool" performance and tone help elevate the record and the story, while Kang Daniel's performance is a nice switch-up with his warmer and sweeter take.

Kang Daniel was also included in the cyberpunk-meets-The Matrix music video as an AI being inside a computer. Check out the music video!

Looking back at the song with Flaunt Magazine, inverness shared his excitement for the future:

I think the music industry as a whole will be seeing a lot more collaborations like this in the coming years. It means the world to me that Daniel chose this to be his first [collab] with an American artist, and I can’t wait for us to work together more in the future.

For anyone who wants to learn more about the making of “State of Wonder”, inverness’ label Monstercat will be holding a discussion and Q&A with inverness, Anthony Russo, and more this Tuesday at 1pm PT:

In other news, inverness has some exciting projects coming up with foreign and K-pop artists whose identities he can’t disclose yet. Anthony Russo has a solo album titled ‘Blue’ coming out in the first quarter of this year. Finally, Kang Daniel just teased something “coming soon” on his Instagram. In addition, Daniel will also be releasing a dance cover of “State of Wonder”.