Songwriting I think, or any art form, the inspiration comes from your personal life or it can be from politics or region you live in.

It's always good to be somewhere with some history, maybe that's England, which has a long history.

New York was a fantastic place to disappear because no one cares who you are. No one bothers you. In my ten years living there I was never once asked for an autograph or stopped on the street. It was an absolute joy. I gave myself time and space to get to know myself more.

I saw a band called The Electric Guitars, from Bristol. I described them to Roland, and he just started playing a riff on guitar and said, 'Do they sound like this?' And they did.

You find it hard to deal with certain things and as you get older it becomes easier.

Leading into 'The Hurting,' what changed our view of music was Gary Numan.

Normally the amount of music we have is what you hear on the album and that's it.

You know, if you ever listen to your voice on an answering machine everyone thinks we sound dreadful. That's sort of the way I think when I hear myself speak.

I mean the joy of doing the 'Psych' thing I have to say, is that, you know, I'd met them beforehand, James Roday and Timothy Omundson specifically. I met Dule Hill when I got up there. But they're just, you know, a nice bunch of people.

I normally don't do interviews on the road.

Tears for Fears is me and Roland.

Naturally, in a band or duo, it's really about compromise which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

To be honest, I've been back to Atlanta a couple of times, I can't remember what for. One for a big conference, a radio conference. I feel like it's a vibrant place. It has a vibrant music scene.

Mad World's distinctive percussion intro was played on a Roland CR-78 drum machine. We first recorded it at twice the speed, but it sounded great slowed down.

Mad World' was easy for me to sing because I could relate to Roland's lyrics. We were both the middle of three sons and had been brought up by single mothers with absent fathers.

We released 'Mad World' as a single because we felt the music press would like it.

My father always worked away, and died when I was 17, but I hated him by that point. It hit me later in life, but back then I was teenage and angry.

I think when you finish an album, you tend to have your favorites, where a lot of the time are not the singles.

I don't think we ever really think about it when we're doing it, because if you sort of go in with a plan of attack, it tends to take away the natural rhythm of songwriting.

I think what we find fascinating and interesting is when people take our music and turn it into emotionally something else. And weirdly, Lorde's version of 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World,' the production really goes with the lyric more than our version does, because our version, albeit the lyric is dark, the music is quite uplifting.

I find that albums generally tell a story. Because it's music, it doesn't have to be in chronological order.

Normally doing an album you go from track to track and go, 'Let's not work on this one today, let's go work on the other one,' and I think you tend to get more self-indulgent that way.

My kids don't really buy albums. They buy singles.

MySpace is just spam central. I mean, every day I just get mail inviting me to gigs that are nowhere near Los Angeles!