The group employed Brian Eno and his assisting partner Mark "Flood" Ellis—both of whom worked on "Achtung Baby"—to produce the sessions; long-time Eno collaborator Daniel Lanois was busy promoting his solo album and was unavailable. Similar to the "Achtung Baby" sessions, Eno worked two-week shifts. The group often gave him in-progress songs to adjust and to which he could add his own personality. Initially, the band did not have a clear plan for how they would release the material being written. At the time, Clayton said, "I don't know if what we're doing here is the next U2 album or a bunch of rough sketches that in two years will turn into the demos for the next U2 album." The Edge was a proponent of making an EP of new material to promote the upcoming leg of the tour, describing his mentality as thus: "We've got a bit of time off. We've got some ideas hanging around from the last record, let's do an EP, maybe four new songs to spice the next phase of the tour up a bit. It'll be a fan thing. It'll be cool."