NEW YORK — Three years ago, Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, was the toast of the Internet thanks to his wildly popular, highly unauthorized and completely brilliant mash-up of the Beatles' "White" album and Jay-Z's "The Black Album" — "The Grey Album."

Though many music aficionados knew the 29-year-old Danger Mouse for his eclectic collaborations with rapper friends like MF Doom and Jemini, it's safe to say that "The Grey Album" put him on the mainstream musical map.

But Danger Mouse never wanted that album, a fun side project for his friends, to be his musical landmark. As he worked hard on two upcoming projects, he hoped he wouldn't always be defined as that mash-up guy.

It paid off. One of those projects was the platinum-selling Gnarls Barkley, the groovy, retro-rock soul duo he created with Cee-Lo, which had perhaps the most infectious, perfect jam of last year with the trippy "Crazy."

It's nominated for record and song of the year, two of Gnarls' four Grammy bids at tomorrow's awards ceremony. Danger Mouse was singled out for another nod in the producer of the year category.

(Oh, and that other project he was working on? Last year's record of the year nominee, "Feel Good Inc.," by the Gorillaz. He also recently wrapped up work on the self-titled debut of The Good, The Bad & The Queen).

Q. You've done many different projects and collaborations over the years. What was it about Gnarls Barkley that made it such a mainstream success?

A. I guess it's Cee-lo, that voice of his is amazing. It hit people instantly, that song. You never know when a song like that is going to come around. ... It worked out pretty good.

Q. Had you intended for Gnarls Barkley to be a permanent band?

A. I don't think either one of us intended for it to be such a live-oriented thing, but once we put the band together and tried it out, it turned out good. ... I think the main thing was once we started spending time together on the road, we realized that we were really compatible and became really good friends. If that hadn't happened, I don't think we would be touring like we are now.

Q. Even though Gnarls Barkley is nominated for multiple awards, you guys were shut out of the best new artist category. Did that surprise you?

A. No, I don't know that that would have really worked out. Neither one of us is really a new artist. That always weirds me out when there's a best new artist and I have three of their records before that, so I don't think that was a mistake.

Q. Do you plan to continue Gnarls Barkley, or was this a one-time thing?

A. We've already started actually, we've gone into the studio a couple of times. ... Once we were on tour and everything and playing to all these people, we were like, "Oh, we've got to do this again."

Q. With your success, you must have record companies and artists whispering in your ear to make the next hit. How do you fight the temptation to become that producer who churns out a lot of hits?

A. You didn't make it sound very appealing (laughs). The way you've just described it, it doesn't seem like a hard thing to turn down! ... What I do is definitely different. I'm a little bit selfish with the world that I'm in, I guess, and I kind of want people to come into my world as opposed to going into theirs. ... I don't want to necessarily do the next so-and-so record and hope that it's good.

Q. Will we ever see a Danger Mouse solo CD?

A. You know, every time I think about doing a solo CD, the first thing I think about is who I'm going to get on it (laughs). It's not really that interesting to me; I like working with people with music much more than I do just working with myself.