Toronto rapper k-os at the Royal York in Toronto, Ont. (Dave Thomas/QMI Agency)

The force was definitely with Canadian singer-songwriter-rapper-producer k-os when he was making his new double album of hip-hop and rock, BLack on BLonde.

K-os, whose real name is Kevin Brereton, wound up at the Laurel Canyon house of Canadian actor Hayden Christensen, who played a young Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequels.

"Oh, my God, I'm a Star Wars nerd," said the Whitby, Ont.-born, Vancouver-based artist, 40.

"It just made sense where I was like four or five records (into my career). I'd already done a lot of stuff in Canada and being in a new environment, but also having a place of my own, especially that place, cause it's very much a barren Miami Vice old '80s mansion. It's nothing glamourous. There's a lot of space. But there's that lonely feeling that you can channel. (Hayden's) also a musician. He's a great piano player. We'd jam together. He's a renaissance dude. So he totally relates to everything I do."