Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill of The Bangles on their 22-year marriage

Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill are relationship goals.

The couple, who performed at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on Friday, August 9, spoke to PEOPLE about playing music together for the first time in their 22 years of marriage, the secret to a successful relationship and their “retirement package tour.”

Peterson, who was a founding member of the 1980s girl group The Bangles, and Cowsill, who played with his family band The Cowsills and the Beach Boys, have been married for more than two decades. They spent a lot of time apart while touring with their respective bands, but two years ago they finally decided to make music together.

“She was a professional and I was a professional and we run around the house like gunslingers. Like, ‘Well, you go first.’ But we don’t say anything about it,” Cowsill, 68, tells PEOPLE. “We’re very domestic. It’s laundry, cooking, hiking, building things in my workshop, gardening.”

“And then I thought, ‘Hey, I have a gig. I have to go. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks,'” he adds. “We were just so weird together.”

Since then, the pair have been working on their first ever record – a “love letter” to Cowsill’s two late brothers – and plan to release it sometime next year.

For them, working together meant that they had to “change” their relationship because they were “both very controlling,” says 66-year-old Peterson.

“No, I’m the right one and you’re the wrong one!” jokes Cowsill.

Peterson, who also played in the Continental Drifters and the Psycho Sisters, adds: “He wanted a lot of input. I’ve played in bands all my life, so maybe I knew a little bit more about the art of connecting with someone, working through something and collaborating. It’s just different when it’s your significant other, so it was a learning process for both of us.”

Today, the couple lives in a studio apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and has joined the local music scene, playing at venues with about 60 people in the audience. They couldn’t be happier.

“We talk to everybody, sign whatever they want, and then go home and count our pennies. We have fun. I call it the S—s and Giggles Tour,” says Cowsill, joking that he is in his “extended guarantee years”: “It’s our retirement tour, and we’re just going to keep doing this until we’re done, until nobody wants to hear from us anymore.”

“We’re just getting started,” Peterson adds. “40 years later, we’re still learning a lot. Every day we feel like we’re new to this space.”

That’s how the performance at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame came about. One day they were walking through Stony Brook, Long Island, and stumbled upon the building. They went in and were warmly greeted by Barry Fisch, a member of the board of directors. They became friends and were eventually asked to play a show.

Although they spent much of their marriage apart, Peterson and Cowsill attribute their happy marriage to one thing: friendship.

“Since we’ve been in New York (we’ve been here two years now), we’ve gotten along great in this little one-bedroom apartment. That speaks volumes,” says Cowsill, adding that couples “need a certain foundation, man. Understanding someone’s jokes is the best.”

Peterson adds: “Respect is also important.”

When Cowsill and Peterson look back on their life together, they are grateful that they can still perform and do not yet have “age-related voices.”

“Sometimes that happens to people. And suddenly you think, ‘Wow, they used to be great. They can’t sing anymore.’ Well, I think we’re still in the ‘we can still sing’ club,” says Cowsill. “We’re lucky. Everyone around us is loving. We have loving friends and family. There’s some bad stuff out there, but I think the good outweighs the bad. It shines brighter than the dark stuff.”

“We actually have a song called ‘Find the Good’ by one of our other bands, The Action Skulls,” Peterson continues. “I love the theory behind it. I love the spirit behind it. Because there’s a lot of darkness out there, but there’s also a lot of beauty. I mean, beauty is everywhere. So look for beauty.”

“The world is a balancing act,” Cowsill concludes. “How do you want to balance it?”