Before long, everybody was clamoring for a dose of DFA cool. Murphy and his
English-born partner, Tim Goldsworthy, were touted as superproducers,
indieland's equivalent to the Neptunes. Janet Jackson phoned them and suggested
collaborating (amazingly, DFA kinda sorta forgot to follow up the call.) Most
surreally, they spent an afternoon in the studio with Britney Spears. "That was
weird," says Goldsworthy. "Won't do that again. No offense to her—she's lovely.
Got a foul mouth, though!" The brief session came to nothing, through lack of
common musical ground. "When we work with people, we hang out, listen to
records, share stuff," says Murphy. "But with Britney we had absolutely no way
of communicating. She didn't know anything that we knew."

After this lost encounter with "the big time," DFA consciously backed away
from the opportunities being thrust its way. "You stop returning phone calls,
people get bored of you real quick!" laughs Murphy.