MARTIN: I have a lot of that stuff on tracks that I do too, especially with my first record. There are trucks and buses all over it.

BERNINGER: I feel a certain amount of that makes it more genuine. But I have pit bulls barking at me on half of the love songs, so that’s not going to work… So, you live near the Botanical Gardens, near the park?

MARTIN: Yeah, exactly. Right by the Brooklyn Museum.

BERNINGER: I used to live between Underhill and Vanderbilt on Prospect. I’ve lived in eight neighborhoods in Brooklyn, but that was my favorite. I’m trying to remember when we met—I think we opened for you in ’04.

MARTIN: I remember that, you opening for us around 2004. I don’t remember much about it though.

BERNINGER: I think it was at The Khyber and then we did a handful of shows together. We crossed paths again at SXSW, I think, later that same year. I remember trying to go to one of your shows and not being able to get in. That was one of those “holy shit!” realizations that everybody was paying attention to you guys. Then we ended up doing tons of tours together. For the record, it’s been 12 years [since we last toured together].

MARTIN: Yeah, but you sang on my last record.

BERNINGER: Which was a blast. That song gets lots of airtime around my house. I have Sonos now. Do you have Sonos or a sound system like that?

MARTIN: No I don’t. I’m old school. I have a record player. [laughs]

BERNINGER: Mine are in boxes. I sold out. So let’s talk about the new record, Arts & Leisure. I think you and I are in similar positions: We work in bands, mostly collaboratively. So how hard or easy is it to be by yourself, doing a solo project?

MARTIN: The only true reference for me is The Walkmen and so much of it was writing music. We spent so much time doing that. The words were something we would do after. So the big difference for me now is that I do the opposite: I focus on the words and then I have fun putting together the music after.

BERNINGER: That’s cool you write down the words in prose style in notebooks and then figure out how to put that together. Do you find it easier or more fun to start with words and the idea of a song, and then to just see where it goes?

MARTIN: I do. I really like to have subject matter. I usually start with a title. I feel like John Fogerty did that and I really like John Fogerty. He would always say, “That’s a kickass title,” and then he’d write whatever, like “Bad Moon Rising.” It’s really fun, I really enjoy doing it like that.