"Sup' Sumner," says the Jamaican-American dancehall-reggae star Shaggy, as he emerges from the elevator at New York's Sear Sound studios and greets the bass player he's been working with on a new album.

This particular Sumner – also a singer and songwriter whose real first name is Gordon – is much better known by the nickname he's employed since he formed the Police four decades ago: Sting. He and Shaggy are in Manhattan – where Sting lives and Shaggy often records, although his family is based in Kingston, Jamaica – to put the finishing touches on the Caribbean-inflected album 44/876 (out April 20th) that they're been crafting together on and off for the last few months. "The most important thing to me in any kind of music is surprise," says Sting, whose distinctive tenor, it turns out, is a highly appealing match for Shaggy's gruffly melodic dancehall toasting. "And everybody is surprised by this collaboration – by what they're hearing. We're surprising."

Read the rest of the interview here...