The only formula we have when we work together is that we both have to have a product we can endorse when we finish. Something we both like. It's a matter of compromise. In the end what you get is what both of us can agree on. In that comes Tears for Fears. I don't know what the mix or magic is, that's just what it is.

There's something rhythmic about running, so it's not surprising that I love it. I'm a bass player, after all.

Me and Roland used to fight a lot.

I live 10 miles outside of Bath, where there are about 10 houses. So it's nice and peaceful and quiet. Keeps your feet on the ground, basically.

At the height of our fame, we didn't see anything. We didn't leave the hotel because we were doing interviews all day. We may have traveled the world, but we saw nothing.

I run every day. It keeps me sane and it's my meditation.

We've influenced other artists, and when younger generations become fans of those artists and hear about us, they discover our music too.

What happens with writing a song and demoing it, for me the demo always becomes the master.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Tears for Fears is me and Roland.

I normally don't do interviews on the road.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

A lot of songs we've written have been political, but they're also personally political.

People don't really buy records anymore, so record companies won't invest in bands like us. They want cookie-cutter acts.

We've never considered ourselves overtly political, but when it comes to English politics - people like Margaret Thatcher - you cannot just stand by and ignore all that's happening around us.

We know we have a method of reaching people, but we have never wanted to preach. We like to make our views palatable, music that is easy to swallow, and I think we've done that.

For me, I didn't want to be famous and there was a desire to be me and not 'that guy from the band' so I was happy to see it all go.

We just weren't a hip band. I mean we recorded our second album in Bath at a time when everyone else was recording in New York or Los Angeles.

I went to live in New York and released a solo album that I now know was very bad. Roland kept on with the Tears For Fears name. It was a bad split.

The nature of Tears For Fears was there was always two of us.

Solo, you don't have compromise. It gets back to what's great when you're a musician.

I just have to sell enough records to continue financing making more records.

I have this TV pilot I was writing for and a couple of films. It's just a different way to express myself.

We spent a year touring the world and it wasn't until it was over that we truly appreciated the upside and downside of our success.

Due to the Internet, we don't perform new songs until a release. Don't get me wrong, I love new technology, but in the case of a new song we would like the original recording and production to be heard first.

I write music for film because I love it.

The first album is dark and introspective - tailor made for England.

I think people forget even though we were labelled a synth band because of 'The Hurting,' but keyboards are not our native instruments. Roland's a guitar player and I'm a bass player.

I think parenthood does change your priorities quite drastically in an incredibly good way - most of the time.

You never stop trying to make progress as a musician.