LOS ANGELES — Last year, the British dance musician known as Fred Again.. put out a feeler to the Nashville-based alt-rock band Rainbow Kitten Surprise about a possible collaboration. Ela Melo, who’s fronted Rainbow Kitten Surprise since she and guitarist Darrick Keller formed the group over a decade ago as students at North Carolina’s Appalachian State University, was intrigued by the invitation. “It’s brilliant music,” she said of Fred Again..’s soulful electronica.

So the singer and songwriter began sending ideas to the artist’s team. “They’d be like, ‘That’s not it, but keep sending stuff,’” Melo recalled. Before long, she and her bandmates had written nine songs, then 32, then 48. “Eventually, we ended up with close to 160 songs, because it just felt so good to write,” she said.

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