Andrew Tinker ('07) had a fantastic challenge -- writing a song for the Disney movie Pete's Dragon.

Tinker, a Denton-based singer-songwriter and former member of The Polyphonic Spree, co-wrote "Nobody Knows," which was performed by The Lumineers. He composed the song -- and several songs for David Lowery's 2013 movie Ain't Them Bodies Saints -- with screenwriter Toby Halbrooks.

Fort Worth producer Curtis Heath worked on the "Nobody Knows" demo that caught the ear of Disney's producers. The song had to fit a certain scene, which made things tricky.

"The challenge wasn't coming up with an idea, or even getting a working draft; the hard part was the revision process," Tinker says. "The song itself doesn't have a complex form, and the lyrics don't have any 10-dollar words, and it took a lot of work to achieve that simplicity."

But he was excited when he first heard The Lumineers' version.

"I had sung all the demos," he says, "so it was a great experience to hear our song realized by other musicians, great musicians."