Trip To Your Heart - Recording

Recording

" her love for music. I never seen anyone, like, come alive, full of excitement and giggling and laughing behind the mic. She was like a little kid when she was recording the song and it just brought the whole atmosphere, it changed the whole atmosphere when someone really loves music. So it was great working with her."

—will.i.am talks about working with Spears in April 2011.

In July 2009, Spears announced that she had begun recording new material with longtime collaborator Max Martin; the material formed what would become her seventh studio album, and was completed two years later. Spears stated her desire to make the album "fresh-sounding for the clubs or something that you play in your car when you're going out at night that gets you excited, but I wanted it to sound different from everything else out right now." Spears also stated that she wanted to make sure Femme Fatale was completely different from Circus (2008), and that the album felt "really connected from start to finish." After "Hold It Against Me" was written, originally, Luke and Martin wanted to give the track to Katy Perry, but they later decided that "it definitely wasn't a Katy Perry record." They continued to work on the song with Billboard, and Luke commented that before giving the song to Spears, "I wanted to make sure it didn't sound like everything else I've done". Darkchild stated that while working with him, Spears was very "hands-on" and "had a lot of ideas for me." He later commented he had produced two songs for the album, with one of them featuring Travis Barker. Darkchild added that the song " this rock feel which is out of the box, out of my norm, and I think it's out of her norm as well."

In February 2011, Dr. Luke revealed that a final "cohesive" track listing had not yet been chosen. Later that month, Spears worked with will.i.am, who described their collaboration as "something that today needs." Spears later commented that she is a fan of The Black Eyed Peas, and would love to work with will.i.am again the future. She also explained that she discovered Sabi through a friend recommendation, and had always wanted to feature a new artist in one of her albums, hence they recorded "(Drop Dead) Beautiful". British producer Fraser T Smith worked with Spears on three tracks and complimented her work ethic, saying "She made coffee for us all in the studio, her voice was strong and she was totally focused on her music. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I just hope the tracks make the final cut for the album." Heather Bright, one of the album's songwriters, revealed that "Trouble for Me" was one of the first songs recorded by Spears for Femme Fatale. William Orbit confirmed he had co-written a track for Spears with Klas Åhlund, but it was left off the final track listing. Orbit stated that he was displeased with the decision, and commented, "he Britney thing. Look, I went to a writing camp at Teresa's. Had lovely time. Word got out. Assumptions were made. Dr Luke is exec prod and he locks in locks out whoever he likes. And (do hear ask) where B's at in all this? I surely don't know. id a song Klas Ahlund, who wrote ‘Piece of Me’. And is killa. But not on apparently. But a good song is a good song regardless."