For their latest single, “The Fighter,” Gym Class Heroes collaborated with OneReublic’s Ryan Tedder. But this is not their first collaboration. In fact they’re known for bringing other artists in, either to write with or perform on their tracks.

Singer Travie McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley talked to CBS Local about working with Maroon 5′s Adam Levine on “Stereo Hearts” as well as their recent collab with Tedder.

“I think whenever we collaborate with someone it’s never for name’s sake or for, ‘This artist is hot at the moment, let’s hurry up and work with them before the fire burns out.’ It’s usually, if it’s someone we’re inspired by or someone we’re into,” McCoy said. “For instance, with Adam, we’ve been Maroon 5 fans since before [their first album] Songs About Jane came out.”

Their collaboration was just a wish-list item for a long time, McCoy relaid. “I remember earlier on, when we first got signed, they asked if there were any artists we’d like to collaborate with and Adam was one of the first names that we named.”

Levine was still far from their first collaboration. Fans of the band remember their early single, “Cupid’s Chokehold,” which featured vocals from Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump. They’ve invited Speech from Arrested Development, Neon Hitch, William Beckett from the Academy Is…, Daryl Hall and The-Dream to collaborate with them in various roles on subsequent albums.

Most recently, the guys worked with Ryan Tedder on “The Fighter.” McGinley characterized it as being a completely different experience from the Levine collaboration.

“In terms of the process of bringing those songs to life, there’s not really a script for it,” McGinley recounted. “With Adam we were working on ‘Stereo Hearts’ and we kind of brought him in mid-production. With ‘The Fighter’ Travis went out, got together with Ryan and they put their heads together and wrote the skeleton of ‘The Fighter.’ It can go any number of ways, I think, when collaborating with other people.”

-Courtney E. Smith, CBS Local