Andrew, you once wrote in an article in The New York Times: “The melody will insist on what it needs, words that do it justice.” Can you talk about your process in composing lyrics?

Andrew: The melody is set in place and very distinct, and then I have to open up the valve of words to let them flow over and see what sticks in the shape of the melody. Words are tricky. They oftentimes have a lot of baggage with them, and maybe that’s why I find myself seeking out words that I don’t even know the definition of but I’m intrigued by or a word that has a certain color to it, or beauty to it. Then I’ll get fixated on that word just like I’ll get fixated on a melody. I have to do something with that word in a song, and then I build around that. There’s a constant stream, but the ideas that have little barbs start gathering other things around them.

Katherine, your background before becoming a designer was in dance. Does that influence your work today?

Katherine: When I was still dancing, I started fitting for a lot of designers as a side job. Both are all about movement. You’re constantly moving and they’re technically trying to figure out what’s happening, what’s working and what’s not working. I’ve always veered more towards very classical or sculptural shapes. In school I became really obsessed with fit-it’s a mixture of proportion and tailoring, but also understanding what will work with the person’s body and fabric and how it’s going to move. The balance of function and beauty in design is similar to dance.

How does the way sound inhabits a space inspire you?

Andrew: I used to have these delusions of grandeur going into a new environment, thinking, “I want to control all the music.” Every time I go somewhere and it’s not the music I want to hear, it obliterates everything I’m working on in my head. Going into public spaces and having music forced upon you used to be really perilous. There’s some fragile thing I’m working on in my head, and then suddenly you’re listening to something like Journey and it’s gone. But there’s something cool about being in a crowded bar and a song comes on and it just cuts right through the din. There is something really great about people congregating and listening to the same thing together, whether it’s a live performance or piped in. Maybe that’s why people say my record Are You Serious is a pop record, because when I was making it I said, “I want to do that. I want to be that Tears for Fears song that plays at the public pool and becomes part of a collective experience.”