“I knew that before we went into it, so I changed my attitude about it. I have to remember why I play music – it’s not for fame, it’s not for money, it’s because I’ve wanted to do it ever since I was a little kid.”

“I made a decision going into the experience of being signed: I'm going to enjoy it,” Ayres agrees. “For me, it's a thrill of a lifetime. My whole long experience of being a musician has been like holding onto a Brahma bull, but for a bit longer than [eight] seconds.”

Shortly after signing with Columbia, the band’s song “City of Love” was picked for the soundtrack to the movie, Bewitched. “The best thing about Bewitched was, you look on the back and it says, Persephone’s Bees – #1 track, and Talking Heads – #2,” Moysov says with a smile. “I was like, this is it – we made it. We can retire now.”

As influences, Moysov lists literature, films, interaction with people and her “observations of the human condition,” but she can also credit an eclectic taste in music. In addition to Russian folk and Gypsy music, the singer was turned onto Western rock music as a child, though it wasn’t easy to come by in her native Soviet Union. Through her brother’s record-collector friends, they got their hands on second- and third-hand recordings of Deep Purple, John Lennon and Susie Quattro.

“I got exposed to a lot of that stuff pretty early, luckily. And only a few kids our age in town knew about that kind of music, so we felt really, really cool.”

Though she and Ayres grew up with and are influenced by much of the same music, they have decidedly different approaches to songwriting.

“I write the body of the song, and then Tom hears it and he ruins it completely with his guitar parts and his arrangements. That’s what Persephone’s Bees is! We defined it just now: I write pretty melodies and good lyrics and chords and then Tom comes in and ruins it, and that equals Persephone’s Bees,” the singer says, laughing.

“I do ruin her beautiful songs – I have to 'cause there's so much rockin' inside of me!” Ayres adds. “Her initial creation is generally softer, while what you hear eventually is a result of my early years, posing in front of the mirror whilst rocking to Humble Pie, [Robin] Trower, Allman Brothers, Tower of Power, Yes, etc.”

Moysov and Ayres admit that like most couples, they don’t always get along, but “musically, knock on wood, we’re always on the same page, it’s pretty amazing,” Moysov says.