Wonder how your favorite albums get made? Neon Trees say, in a behind the scenes look at their new album, that for them it started with a concept.

“The themes of the songs are a lot about playing pretend and so I thought that a movie theater would be a great way to kind of be a visual,” singer Tyler Glenn said. “It started back with the idea for the album being the ability that someone has to escape for two hours in someone else’s life.”

For Picture Show, the band teamed up with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, a friend who had recently worked on M83′s latest album. He has an interesting career, having started out doing percussion on Beck’s Mutations and Midnite Vultures albums and playing bass for dozens of artists ranging from Pink to Ladytron to the Dixie Chicks.

Glenn said he liked talking about some of his obscure ’80s pop favorites with Meldal-Johnsen, many of which might be slightly too obscure to remember, save #1 hitters Human League.

Glenn listed Orange Juice, the new wave band lead by Edwyn Collins, who had a solo hit in the ’90s with “A Girl Like You.”

And Glenn lists Heaven 17 as a favorite — the two share a lot of sonic influences.

-Courtney E. Smith, CBS Local