Smith said the group planned to work differently from already established songwriting and production cooperatives such as the Smeezingtons (Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine) or StarGate (Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen).

Rather than spending time in the studio together as a quartet, Smith said he planned to pitch ideas for projects to his partners based on their specific strengths.

"The idea is to get different producers' input on releases where it feels right - rather than getting ...