We went to school together, so we've known each other since we were young. At age 15 or 16 we started making music and have been making it ever since.

Obviously, we're not a million miles apart ? [we both have] guitars, drums, bass and keyboards. But within those instruments, we're different. Unfortunately, people have been saying I resemble Chris Martin. I just don't need to have that. That winds me up more than anything.

We recorded and produced it ourselves. We built our own studio and got all of the equipment ourselves. The sound of our new record is very different [from the previous records.] Every [album is] just a different thing -- a different environment, a different time, a different way of approaching [recording].

You can embellish things [that really happened] sometimes and get a line for a song. Some of it's very literal. Some of it's very abstract.

But high school is a better age to absorb what's going on there.

At a young age school came first. It was put in my head that school was first and swimming was second.