To help manage the project's 26 tracks, Waters decided to bring in a producer and collaborator, feeling he needed "a collaborator who was musically and intellectually in a similar place to where I was". They hired Ezrin at the suggestion of Waters's then-girlfriend Carolyne Christie, who had worked as Ezrin's secretary. Ezrin had worked with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Kiss, and Peter Gabriel. From the start, Waters made it clear who was in charge, telling him: "You can write anything you want. Just don't expect any credit."