• Neil Tennant: «[Xenomania] told me they had been thinking about what the Pet Shop Boys were meant to sound like. The first thing they wrote was "The Loving Kind", which Chris didn't like, so that went straight to Girls Aloud.»

• Is it true that you were given a list of song titles and told to go away and write the lyrics?
  Neil Tennant: «Yes, I was rather surprised by this. (...) I was a bit miffed, because Brian didn't ask me if I had any titles. Chris looked at the list and liked "The Loving Kind", but it was difficult. Then we sat around with dictaphones singing up a few ideas. It was just fist-bitingly embarrassing.»

• Chris Lowe: «I was banished - sent upstairs. And it was great, because I ended up in the room that had all the backing tracks playing and I could just write melody lines.(...)
  We learned a lot. We learned to consider everything. Usually, when we write a melody that's it - we cross it off and leave it alone, whereas they write multiple melodies on the same backing track. Now we wring out every last good bit from a tune, whereas before we'd usually write one melody and one set of lyrics and go, "That's done. Lunch?"
  

• Neil Tennant: «(...) It's completly cross-generational. Some of the things we would consider obvious and tired - those '80s synth lines - sound fresh and new to them.»
  Chris Lowe: «They love our '80s stories. A phrase you hear a lot at Xenomania is, "Go on! Tell us another '80s one!"»

• Neil Tennant: «On "Love Etc." Brian and I had a very heated debate. He wanted the chorus to happen twice at the start to establish it. I agreed, but insisted it had different lyrics. Well, he was having none of it. And neither was I. You can't just repeat it - it'll be boring! I thought his head was going to blow off. (...) We agreed we'd put in a different line. Luckily, I had one ready prepared...»

Labels: Pet Shop Boys, press