We were thought of as just weird people from Bath in the 80s, say Tears for Fears ahead of first live album
TEARS For Fears are at their absolute best live – and they know it.
After 40 years, they are releasing their first live album and a film of one of their brilliant shows.
Songs For A Nervous Planet and Tears For Fears Live (A Tipping Point film) showcase the band at the peak of their powers.
“For those who haven’t seen us live, we are playing our finest shows,” says bassist and singer Curt Smith.
“Our most recent album (2022’s The Tipping Point) showed we still had something to offer.
“It was well received and it had a strong narrative,” says guitarist and singer Roland Orzabal.
“It’s been a joy to play those songs live.”
Both of Tears For Fears are jet-lagged when we meet at their central London record company offices as Smith has flown in from his LA home the night before while Orzabal has arrived from Boston.
There’s a table of soft drinks and fruit to keep them fuelled for back-to-back interviews and the special premiere of their film the following evening.
Tired but chatty, they joke about what they will wear for their film screening.
“What’s wrong with the outfits we are wearing now?” laughs Smith.
“The film is not just for fans but for people who haven’t seen us play live, or those who missed the shows we had to cancel.”
It’s unfinished business for Tears For Fears, who were forced to cancel the remaining dates of their UK Tour in 2022 after Smith broke his ribs.
“It was soul- destroying when that happened,” he says.
“It upset me immensely to not finish that tour because it was going so well.
“It was just one of those freak accidents.
“I thought the bus had stopped but it hadn’t — so I’d stood up to get my bag then the bus jolted forward, and I flew back and literally caught the edge of a table right against my ribs.
“It was so painful.
“I woke up the next morning in agony.
“They could see one cracked rib on the sonogram and said there was no way I could sing.
“When I got back to LA and had a full scan, my doctor told me I had fractured four ribs.”
The film and album’s live recordings were captured at the FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, Tennessee.
How did they cope performing with cameras in their faces?
“We were relaxed until we got on stage,” says Smith.
‘UNFINISHED BUSINESS’
“It’s a double-edged sword.
“I don’t think we look as relaxed as we have done in concert.
“But did we play well? Yes, because we concentrated on playing well.
“You are very self-conscious about playing and singing, but it ended up being the best recording.”
Orzabal adds: “When we headlined Radio 2 In The Park in Leicester last year, I was more relaxed.
“Maybe I was more drunk, or it was because lots of other artists were playing, too.
“Sharleen from Texas popped into the dressing room and she’s hilarious.”
Smith says: “We would like to do more of those things as we thoroughly enjoy them, although we’ve never been asked to play Glastonbury or the Isle of Wight.”
It was important for Tears For Fears to include four new songs on Songs For A Nervous Planet to reflect their ongoing creativeness and the fact they are in a good place.
Smith adds: “The Tipping Point was darkness and a lot of pain, but also about coming back into the light.
“We felt these songs had an entity of their own and so we see it as an EP.”
Orzabal added: “I’ve moved on from The Tipping Point, which was about the death of my first wife, Caroline, who died in 2017.
“Now I’ve been remarried for four years, we are happy personally, and we’re certainly happy professionally.” Orzabal had been trying to write a song for his second wife, Emily, and found an old song while clearing out a computer.
He says: “I took the backing track, which sounded a bit like Woman In Chains, to Hawaii on holiday.
“When you are trying to come up with stuff, you’re not on your own.
“I believe you’re picking stuff out of the ether, or out of the Akashic Field, and I needed a special song title.
“I woke up in the morning and had The Girl That I Call Home as a title.
“So, thank you, whoever you are.”
Emily Said is another song inspired by Orzabal’s wife, while Astronaut is “about not feeling that you belong on this earth”.
“It’s also about what you want to be when you’re a kid. For me, I used to say, “maths teacher”.
‘SENSE OF ESCAPISM’
Curt wanted to be a pilot and a lot of people say, ‘I want to be an astronaut’ — that is exactly what the song is all about.”
“There’s also a sense of escapism,” says Smith.
“Everything is extremely divisive today so the desire to escape is very current.
“And it’s a bit of a weird track, where we can just — forgive the pun — float off to space like an Astronaut.
“And it fits in so well with the other three songs.”
Say Goodbye To Mum And Dad might not have the cheeriest of song titles, but says Orzabal, it’s a “Tears For Fears double-edged sword”.
He continues, “It’s not a happy subject, but with the whistling and music, you get lost in it.
“It’s a morose lyric with a happy backing track and comes from the first lockdown in Britain.
“I was watching TV, seeing all these images of people who couldn’t see or touch their relatives — or were going to hospitals and care homes and seeing their ageing parents through glass and not even being able to go to their funeral.”
“It’s a trademark of ours,” adds Smith.
“If you look at Mad World or Everybody Wants To Rule The World they are lyrically quite dark but have happy backing tracks.
“So, I think it’s the way we choose to balance.”
The album title was inspired by Matt Haig’s book Notes On A Nervous Planet, about how modern life feeds our anxiety, and helps you live a better life.
Orzabal — who suffered a seizure and ended up in hospital and rehab as he struggled with side-effects from taking painkillers — says: “I read this book in 2018, when I was kind of going through it.
“The book says how social media is making the planet so nervous — and explains how it works with algorithms.
We would try talking to George Michael. But it just didn’t happen
Roland Orzabal
“Just read books and protect yourself from the way that information is given to you.
“The way information is received has made everything become very black or white and divisive.”
Smith and Orzabal agree that being in Tears For Fears today is more enjoyable than it was at the height of their fame in the 80s.
“We are enjoying it more today — no question. And there’s a multitude of reasons for that,” says Smith.
“Getting older and calmer, to a certain degree.
“And a lot of it is down to having family — something that’s far more important than music.
“When we were recording in our twenties, it was the be all and end all,” says Smith, who left the band in 1991 and moved to New York with the pair not talking for ten years.
“Nine,” interrupts Orzabal. “Well nine and a bit. We are still trying to make up for it!”
Looking back to their heyday, the pair both say they didn’t really fit in with the other bands of their time.
‘OUT OF PLACE’
Smith says: “We didn’t have perspective in our 20s. I just don’t think we became ourselves until we were a lot older.
“We are individual, and we’re extremely happy that no one does anything like us.
“We’d be on Top Of The Pops, and there would be Culture Club and we’d be bothered that they were higher than we were.
“I went to dinner with John Taylor and Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran — and Simon goes, ‘No one knew what to make of you back then.’
“And it’s very true.
“We didn’t fit in with anything, or any of the ‘scenes’ as we were just these weird couple of people from Bath.
“I was never the biggest Duran Duran fan. But they couldn’t be nicer people now I know them.
“But back then there were no real allies — we felt completely out of place.
“Slade were on at Christmas one time, which was fantastic.
“Slade was the first record I ever bought, but apart from that we felt out of place like we didn’t belong there.”
Orzabal says: “I remember early on being in make-up with Martin Gore from Depeche Mode.
“I’ve got a lot of make-up on, and he’s got a lot of make-up on, and you would think that we’d have something to talk about.
“No. We didn’t speak.
“We would try talking to George Michael. But it just didn’t happen.
“Everyone was too competitive.
“We were called the thinking schoolgirls’ Wham!
“But they would look at us as if to say, ‘You guys are nothing like us.
“So, f***k off. It was like school.”
Next, Tears For Fears will be performing for three nights at BleauLive Theater in Las Vegas, at the end of this month.
Would they ever play album shows — where they play an album from start to finish?
“Well, maybe. It’s not something we’ve really thought about,” says Smith.
“And with certain songs we’re like, ‘Oh, fk, I don’t really want to play that one.’”
What about another new album?
Orzabal says: “If we make an analogy, The Tipping Point and The Hurting.
“Then, Songs From The Big Chair, Songs For A Nervous Planet.
‘WE’RE PICKY F**KS’
“What’s next? Seeds Of Love. Oh, damn, that’s going to take a while.”
Smith adds: “There could be more shows coming and as far as new recordings, I think we’ll release stuff when we think it’s good.
“That approach has served us well in the past.
“When we feel something is worth putting out, that we’re proud enough of, then we’ll release it.
“But we don’t know when that will happen — we don’t know until we do it.
“We’re always going to have a struggle creatively as we’re picky f**ks.”
Orzabal laughs: “We are fussy bastards. But when we do come to an agreement, everyone will know it’s good.”
- Album Songs For A Nervous Planet is out Oct 25 and Tears For Fears Live (A Tipping Point Film) is in cinemas worldwide on Oct 24 and 26.