Tears for Fears

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Curt Smith Answers Some Questions:

What is your favorite album of Tears For Fears?

Everybody Loves A Happy Ending of course, the favorites always tend to be the most recent

If asked to record or perform a Beatles song as a tribute, which would you and Roland choose and why?

Far too many to choose from but I think "Come Together" would be one of our favorites.

What is your favorite video of Tears For Fears?

Sowing The Seeds Of Love. It's the one video that really captures visually what we were trying to achieve musically.

How would you rate each Tears for Fears album out of 10 and why?

The Hurting - 8/10 - fantastic for it's time but hasn't aged as well due to the production.

Songs from the Big Chair - 9/10 - a very complete album musically, lyrically and it's production has held up well

Seeds of Love - 6/10 - I still however think that the track "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" is as near to perfection as we've got, unfortunately I think the album in general has too many weak songs and overblown production

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending - 9/10 - I believe every song is strong and the production and feel is refreshingly relaxed

What is the one style you still chuckle about, when you look back to your TFF days in the early 80's?

Bad clothing, especially the Katherine Hamnett pants that look like diapers.

Do you know if Caroline Orzabal is in the TFF video for "Shout"? I have friends who say she is the one behind Roland dancing snd wearing red boots...but me and another friend are pretty sure she's the blonde in the back (towards the left of Ian Stanley) and is wearing a gray diamond-patterned sweater. (She can be seen when the two little blonde boys sing into the microphone in the foreground). Do you know which (if any) is her?!?!

I looked and don't see her anywhere in the video, she is however quite prominent in the "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" video.

Based on the set lists posted by fans while you and the band were on the road touring/promoting Everybody Loves A Happy ('04-'05), it seems that you guys played MOST of the new album with the exception of "Killing With Kindness" and "Ladybird". I was wondering, why were those 2 songs never played live? I personally feel they are two of the strongest tracks in TFF's body of work.

I believe we did do "Killing With Kindness". "Ladybird" turned out to be a little too complex to perform live.

"Fish out of Water" reminds me of "How do you Sleep?" Lennon to McCartney. How were you two able to rise above the animosity and reunite? Without going into too much detail, who made the first move at reconciliation and were there apologies on both sides?

At many points in any relationship bad things are said in the heat of the moment. Roland approached me to do another record and neither of us has spoken about it. We're grown up enough to know that in the grand scheme of things it's unimportant.

What is your favorite Tears for Fears bass line to perform?

"Sowing The Seeds Of Love"

Hello Mr. Smith! You got a fairly well know Hollywood starlette to be featured in your music video for "Closest thing to Heaven". How did Brittany Murphy come to be in the project?

We met, I asked and she said yes.

I think TFF has also many beautiful 'darker' songs like "Watch Me Bleed", "The Hurting", "The Devil", and many more songs... Do you both (Roland and you) like and initiate these songs or is it one in particular? What kind of style in music do you both prefer?

We both do to a certain degree as we think an album should always have balance.

Who wrote "What are we Fighting For"?

Charlton & I.

I noticed you have a cowriting credit on "Sowing the Seeds of Love" - what was your contribution to the track? Your vocal tag is fantastic!

The chorus.

What were your influences when writing the new Everybody Loves a Happy Ending album?

Anything we were listening to or had listened to (Floyd, Flaming Lips, Air, Beatles etc.). We honestly don't think about it but work on the premise that we should make the best album possible at that given moment.

By all means don't answer this if you don't want to but, how is your relationship with Roland these days? Was he different to work with on the recent album to your last experience with him?

Polyamorous? We get on much better that way.

Do you have a view on Roland's Tomcats Screaming Outside?

No, they're in Bath outside his house and I'm in LA. There's always Google Earth I suppose.

[]

What's your favourite track on Everybody Loves a Happy Ending?

"Secret World" (sometimes alternating w/ "Size Of Sorrow")

Your vocal on "Advice for The Young at Heart" was absolutely fantastic. Would you consider performing this song again live?

I must confess that it's not one of my favorite songs even though I do as you say sing it well

Will there ever be yet another TFF album?

We of course never say never.

Looking back now many years later, how do you feel about The Seeds of Love as an album overall?

I think it was a great piece of production. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" itself is probably still the closest we've come to perfection. My only negative is that I think a couple of the tracks were substandard and meandering.

Have you run accross any of your old TFF band/tour mates in recent years? Will, Manny, Nikki, Oletta, etc. What do you think of Goldfrapp (the band)?

Over the last few years I've seen Nikki, Oleta and Ian Stanley. LOVE Goldfrapp.

Besides Japan, what other Asian country have the band toured in? Will you still consider doing shows outside the US/Euorope, say, The Philippines?Thanks so much, God Bless.Ted

For me unfortunately it's only been Japan. Would love to do more but only time will tell.

There are several versions of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by many artists. Nas is a hip hop group that comes to mind. They sample the song. Many artists have. A compliment it may be, but do they have permission to do so? How does that work? How do you react when you hear that?

For anyone to use samples of our music on a commercial release they need to ask our permission, give us a writing credit and pay royalties. Some I like more than others

"Mother's Talk" - what is the 2 syllable phrase repeated over and over? Everyone I ask says "James Brown", but I don't hear it.

It is indeed an audience chanting James Brown.

What exactly is being said under the music in "Pharaohs"?

It's a shipping forecast from English radio.

What is your favorite TFF song from the Roland solo era?

"Fish Out Of Water".

Roland has been very quiet for a while. Is there any news you can share with us about him?

He's living in England again and he has far more hair than me.

[]

Were you involved in the remix "Everybody Wants to RUN the World" or was that done by a third party?

My involvement was limited to singing the word "run."

On "Last Days On Earth" from Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, what sound is that at the very start of the song? It sounds almost like a ball being bounced off a piano key.

It's actually a preset on a Korg synth called "bouncing ball."

Why does Tears for Fears have two versions of "Mother's Talk"? Is it true that the group decided to reject the first version?

Yes, we felt it could be better and more rhythmic.

Have you heard Patti Smith's version of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"? If so, what do you think of it?

I have. I find it a little peculiar, though I feel honored that she recorded it.

Is there another TFF album coming soon?

Nothing planned.

What are your favorite songs on each TFF album?

The Hurting - "Mad World".
Songs from the Big Chair - "The Working Hour".
Seeds of Love - "Sowing The Seeds Of Love".
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending - "Secret World".

I have always wondered why you walked away from TFF and would really like to hear your side of the story.

There were two main reasons. One, Roland and I were finding it increasingly harder to agree with each other on anything. Two (and far more important), I really wasn't dealing with being famous very well, especially the lack of a private life. This was at a time when I was going through a divorce from my first wife and it became very clear that I really had no close friends in the UK, just "interested parties.” I then met Frances in New York and started to enjoy the freedom that NY gave me. No one cares who you are and I was free to be myself without being judged by anyone.

How come when you and Roland sing TFF songs, one person sings a whole song instead of one person singing one verse and another person sings another verse?

As far as singing goes, it's normally quite obvious which songs suit either of us as we have very different styles of singing. Normally the chorus is both of us.

What exactly is "The Working Hour" about?

It's from the TFF socialist period (he says with a smile), it's about "working for the man."

Do you sing along when you're out and about shopping and a TFF song comes on?

No, but my children take great pleasure in embarrassing me by singing along as loudly as possible.

Did you and Roland ever get into a fistfight? Like an all out brawl?

No, we use words - which is a far more painful experience.

Have you ever heard the version of "Shout" done by the metal band Disurbed?

I actually met Disturbed in Chicago and went to the studio when they were recording it.

Roland wrote most of the TFF songs, and has a fine voice, yet you sang lead on many of the group's biggest hits. Why is that?

Normally it's down to whose voice suits which song. Our voices are quite different and it's normally obvious who the song suits the most.

How old were you when you met Roland?
13.

Why didn't you guys like "The Way You Are"?

It was a confusing time for us as we hadn't found a real direction after The Hurting. We're really not into doing one off singles as it doesn't allow you the creative room that an album does. It's OK but certainly not the best thing we've done.

Do you like Roland's dancing? ..The "Mad World" video springs to mind!

It's an acquired taste.

[]

Are you and Roland making a new album? How long does it take to make an album, anyway?

Not at the moment, we're too busy doing other things. How long is a piece of string? (It varies of course.)

Why is there no Tears For Fears MySpace page?

Because Elllll-trrrringham hasn't created one in his spare time. (For those of you who don't know Fred, he was responsible for all the drums on Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, and obviously has too much free time on his hands right now.)

How is Roland? What's he up to these days?

We haven't spoken for a while, but last I heard he was fine and had just finished writing a book. He also travels a lot so is hard to pin down.

Source: http://www.curtsmithofficial.com/fan...ion-answer/180

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Some pictures of the band rehearsing for their summer tour in Southern California:


Guitarist Charlton Pettus:






Curt Smith and his bass:

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Their drummer, Nick D'Virgilio:








Keyboard player Doug Petty:




The band (Roland Orzabal on the right side):

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Raoul And The Kings Of Spain will be reissued on August 17. It's a remastered edition with 7 bonus tracks, a picture booklet containing sleevenotes by Malcolm Dome, a new interview with
Roland Orzabal and a track by track run-down.

The bonus tracks are:

13. All Of The Angels
14. The Madness Of Roland
15. Queen Of Compromise
16. Until I Drown
17. War Of Attrition
18. Raoul And The Kings Of Spain - Acoustic
19. Break It Down Again - Acoustic

(Basically all the B-sides that were released on singles; for a
collector like me nothing new, but anyway a nice edition.)

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Set list for the group's current mini-tour:

1. Everybody Wants To Rule The World
2. Secret World
3. Closest Thing To Heaven
4. Sowing The Seeds Of Love
5. Call Me Mellow
6. Mad World (original version)
7. Memories Fade
8. Raoul and the Kings of Spain
9. Quiet Ones
10. Floating Down The River
11. Everybody Loves A Happy Ending
12. Seven Of Sundays (a nice Curt solo treat)
13. Ladybird
14. Pale Shelter
15. Break It Down Again
16. Head Over Heels
17. Woman In Chains
- Encore -
18. Shout

(Drool.) Wish I could be there.

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Some more behind-the-scenes pictures:











^ Roland Orzabal, looking tired and unenthused (maybe it was the long flight over from the U.K.).

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From their Secret World - Live in Paris CD, this is the new studio song, "Floating Down the River":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HALSv...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5sgJ...eature=related

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Photos from the Portland show:











^Afton Hefley (singing Oleta's parts in "Woman in Chains")

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An interesting interview with Curt:

Tears For Fears Hit Portland And We Talk With Curt Smith
By Joseph Dilworth Jr.

The second stop on the Tears For Fears 2009 summer tour was Portland, Oregon on July 11th. The show was pretty fantastic, complete with all the songs you would expect to hear, plus some surprises. The band consisted of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, of course, and they were joined by Nick D’Virgilio on drums, Charlton Pettus on guitars and Doug Petty on keyboards. From the opening chords of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” to the final line of “Shout” Tears For Fears rocked the Washington Park Zoo and a sold out crowd. Recognizing their musical lives outside of the band, both Roland and Curt got in a couple of their solo songs, including one from Roland that has never been released before. Starting things off was Michael Wainwright with just his guitar and a voice that would grab your attention even without a high-tech sound system. All in all, it was a terrific show and I highly recommend you catch them on one of their last west coast dates.

Before the show and after the sound check, Joe went back stage to chat with Curt Smith for a few minutes. Check out the interview below along with a few photos courtesy of Melanie from Black Trillium Fibre Studios.

PCZ: How are things going with this summer tour so far?

CS: Well, we’ve only done one show so far, last night [in Seattle], and it went great. As a first show goes it was pretty smooth sailing. We had a couple of issues, but normally first shows are a lot worse than that. A lot of the time the pacing doesn’t work, which is a major thing because then you’ve got to change the set around. But the pacing worked fine so we’re not going to mess with the set. It’s really rather if Charlton [Pettus] remembers his guitar parts tonight or not (laughs).

Are you guys doing a mixture of Tears For Fears and solo songs?

A little bit, only a couple of solo things. Primarily it’s the stuff we’ve done together. We do a couple of solo things, but it works in the pace of the set. Like, mine brings it all the way down and Roland takes it all the way up. (laughs)

Is it a little easier doing tours like this instead of album/tour, album/tour like in the past?

Much easier. I mean, we’re luckily at that nice stage of our lives and careers where we just tour when we feel like it, which is great. Roland was coming back to LA for the summer and just said, “Well, should we go do a few dates?” and we are. As long as it’s not too far away so that we’re too far away from our families.

This all kind of begs the question are you guys going to do some more songs together soon?

Not right now. It’s a limited amount of time we’re spending together because it’s really taken up with rehearsals and doing the shows. We’ve been working on a live record, it’s not quite coming together yet, but that may happen at some point. But new stuff, not yet, but who knows what might happen the next time we get together or the time after. We really don’t make plans, which is nice.

Enjoying playing the old stuff…

Exactly.

Was it at all tough learning the old songs again?

Well, me and Roland have done a lot of touring in Europe as well with a full orchestra and a full choir, so we’ve actually been playing every year. The last tour we did with this band was 2005.

So you fell right back into the songs.

Yeah, you know, the muscle memory kicks back in pretty quickly. You think you’re not going to remember everything and then you do. We didn’t really need much rehearsal time. We had five days put aside and I think we worked about three hours a day for those five days and we were done.

Has Nick [D'Virgilio, also the frontman for Spock's Beard] toured with you before?

Yeah, Nick’s toured with us since Everybody Loves A Happy Ending and he was on tour with Roland prior to that and Charlton and Doug [Petty] played with me for nearly fifteen years. So, we’re all familiar with each other.

You obviously enjoy playing live. Is that something you try to do regularly?

In LA I think it’s a good things to do. What happens musically for me is the pop side is when I’m doing Tears For Fears and when I’m doing things on my own it tends to be a lot more laid back and low key. I try and pick venues where that suits and where it’s like being in someone’s living room. They’re never too big and are pretty intimate and I think it’s musically a good balance for me. This is where you’re doing the biggest stuff and that’s where I’m sort of being self indulgent, for want of a better description.

And speaking of your solo material, I understand you had started halfway, pleased and then put it aside for Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. How was it coming back to those songs?

It was fantastic, actually, I think the break really worked for the songs and for the production process. I think when I was initially starting I was wondering how to make the production big and more Tears For Fears-like for whatever reason, but then, of course, once I’ve done a Tears For Fears album that’s the last thing I want to do. The way I ended up doing it was quite the opposite to the way I work with Roland, so that actually made for a really pleasant change.

Listening to the album I was really struck by how for the first listen they are really enjoyable songs, but then on subsequent listenings there is the whole other layer to the tracks.

They are many-layered, yeah. Even lyrically, many layers. I think most lyrics I’ve written on that album have to have at least two meanings, some of them three. I enjoy working with language, so you can dig into it as deep as you want to dig into it, but there’s certainly a bunch of depth there should you wish to explore it.

Do you know when you’re putting a song together that it’s going to end up like that?

Well, the tune normally comes first and then I spend an inordinate amount of time with the lyrics, purely because they do need to be multi-layered. I’m a big crossword freak, cryptic crosswords, so that’s where the whole sort of double-meanings come form. For example, on [the song] “Halfway Pleased” I wrote “You’re bathed and crowned”, this is someone being born, but it also sounds like a King. You’re the King, the prince, the baby being born, the head crowns first, so, you see, it’s got so many different things going on in my head.

Does it really help you, especially when you’ve completed a song that has a lot of personal meaning, let you put that aside and say “Ok, I’ve worked through that”?

Yeah, it is cathartic I think. Especially on Halfway, Pleased there’s a song about my father, a song about my mother, a song about struggling with fatherhood, which is not that much of a struggle, but it always is somewhat. I do get into explaining it when I play because sometimes people expect me to be quite maudlin, I think, and dark and I’m personally quite the opposite. That’s just how I use music. For me, music is a means to express emotions that I’m not used to feeling everyday. That’s what I use it for, so that allows me to get it out of my system to sort of enjoy everyday life.

I found it interesting that even as far back as the early Tears For fears albums the complexity has always been there. You seemed to have skirted around being really pressured by a label to produce pop songs.

Well, no, we were pressured to a certain degree, but we managed to fight against it and we managed to get our way primarily in the end. We would literally refuse to do things and we were always very sure of what we wanted to do. We made some compromises along the way, but that’s the nature of the beast. Put it this way, there’s no compromises if I look back now listening to the body of work we’ve done as Tears For Fears that I feel particularly bad about.

[b]So, you released Halfway, Pleased under a Creative Commons license. What’s the license you’ve released it under mean?

Well, Creative Commons is a way of just letting people know how they can use your music. If you only knew the amount of emails we get about wanting to use our songs for a documentary or for this and that, or even for doing a school play, or whatever it may be. Technically, they have to get permission or they could get sued. Creative Commons allows you to immediately tell people exactly the boundaries of how they can use this music. In my case, my Creative Commons license just states that you can use it, share it, do whatever you want, but as long as there is no financial gain and you credit the artist. You’ve got to give due credit and you can’t be making money from it, [other than that] knock yourself out.

It seems more and more that bands have their own labels and are releasing their music through the Internet. Seeing that be more prevalent, do you see the label system as something that seems to be going away?

Certainly for established artists there’s no real point to have a record label because you have a following already. Record labels used to be used for cutting you through and getting you played on the radio, but who the hell listens to radio, who watches MTV…well, there’s no music on MTV anymore. No, I think record labels are pretty defunct now. I don’t think that they’re much use to anyone other than for cookie cutter music. I think that’s slowly dying out as people find out they have a lot more choices out there. The cookie cutter music worked when radio was a thing and then you had to pay the radio stations to get your music on the radio even though we claim we didn’t, we just gave away prizes, honest! (laughs) Now, radio doesn’t really matter that much and people are really turning to the Internet and that’s free. It’s leveling the playing field somewhat and I think it will come back to the fact that the better music will now rise to the top as opposed to what someone in an office somewhere is telling you that you should be buying.

Yeah, the Internet seems better for word of mouth. Instead of waiting to hear a song on the radio you can point right to it.

Yeah, especially Twitter, which is a fantastic chalice with half a million followers.

Have you thought about doing more with the Internet like streaming shows?

I haven’t yet. I do play a couple of places in LA and Burbank that do that. I haven’t really got into it yet. Now I’m sort of enjoying trying to find other music on the Internet. One track I’m working on now Zoe Keating is actually gonna put cellos on for me. She’s a fan and I sent her this song, she loves it and this is all down to Twitter. I just sent her a direct message saying “Do you want to do some cello work on this song because orchestrally I think the verses would be fantastic.” She listened to it, loved it and she’s actually doing some work on that. We’re going to meet, finally, on Tuesday.

So, not only can you find new music, but you can find musicians to contribute to your own songs. Twitter is fantastic in that regard. I saw Michael Wainwright [opening act] sending tweets looking for a female singer for tonight’s show.

I don’t know if he’s actually found one, but more importantly I have been using Twitter to follow Wainwright’s love escapades, which I’m twittering about too.

I saw those, that is excellent (laughs).

After last night he is 0-5. It’s pitiful, pitiful! We’ll see how he gets on tonight.

Did you get out at all to see Seattle yesterday?

I got out to Pike’s Place and did all of that, sat by the water…had a hot dog. Not going to get a chance to see Portland, unfortunately, as I leave early in the morning and we only just got here literally an hour before sound check. I did go to Pioneer Square and look at the electric vehicles they had on display, which was kind of interesting. But I leave early in the morning to go home because we have two days off. I’m going back to see the kids…and my wife. I always say that and my wife Frances always complains “You never say you’re coming to see me, why is it always the kids?” I think everyone presumes I’m going to see her as well. (much laughter)

Where else do you guys go from here?

We play outside Santa Rosa on Tuesday, then Saratoga and then we go back to Orange County, Vegas, San Diego, Phoenix and that’s it. Tour, day off, holiday.

Vacation should be fun.

Yeah, England and Italy. At least the Italy part. England involves family, but we have to do these things. (much laughter) We can’t really go all the way to Italy and have a vacation and our families are just an hour or two away. They’d get a bit pissed at us.

And musically after that?

Musically I’m going to keep working on my solo stuff now. I’m working with Charlton. We’ve done one track that I said that Zoe is going to work on and we’ve got a couple of other things going. I’m actually doing it differently this time and just getting one track and finishing it, releasing it and then the next one, finish it, release it. I think that albums are not something people really care that much about anymore. And then in the end you always have the option of making an album, make a physical thing, with a package of all of the tracks together. I think I’m just going to make it and release it.

That seems to be how it’s going, digital downloads and then perhaps later a CD released with extra tracks or whatever.

Yeah, I think what I’ll do is just continue my relationship with iTunes and everyone digitally that I have a relationship with and just release them all digitally and then the CD copy will just come at the end.

Has the feedback on Halfway, Pleased been satisfying?

It’s been great, yeah. My favorite was the other week I was in San Fransisco doing a Cisco event and Howard Jones was doing it and Howard comes up and says “I tell ya, halfway, pleased is such a ****ing great album!” and I go “Woah, Howard listened to it? Cool!” And I’m a big Howard fan. The reactions been good, for the people who have heard it, it’s been fantastic.

Source: http://popculturezoo.com/archives/3616

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Some more pictures from the Portland gig:

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Welcome Change for Tears for Fears
By Meg McConahey (The Press Democrat)

The voice that exhorted a generation to “Shout” it out is cool when confronted with domestic distractions on a weekday morning.

Curt Smith politely calls to delay an interview for a half hour. Would it be all right if he rang back a little later? He has a plumber monkeying with his pipes.

These are the kind of quotidian matters that now consume one of the twin pillars of the pop-rock duo Tears for Fears, who will perform Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Along with Roland Orzabal, the pair from Bath, England, cranked out a string of massive hits like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love” that make up a significant part of the soundtrack of the ’80s. The band sold more than 22 million albums.

But a lot happened between then and now. The Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers fell. Smith and Orzabal spat and split, seasoned, reconciled and reconnected. Both have continued to ably create music independently and together. And perhaps more significantly, they became fathers.

“I think parenthood does change your priorities quite drastically in an incredibly good way — most of the time,” Smith says from his home in the Hollywood Hills, where he’s holding down the fort with daughters Diva and Wilder while his wife, Frances, head of marketing for Juicy Couture, is in London on business.

“You become less precious about other things. If you have a fight at work you get to go home afterwards and things will be fine. It’s an opportunity to be a little more selfless and that is always a good thing.”

Now sporting a growing swath of gray on both temples, the 47-year-old bassist and songwriter applies a father’s patience both to his working relationships and to his fans, who he actively engages through Facebook, a blog and regular Twitters.

In a June 16 blog entry, he explains with a Ward Cleaver tone why he removed several postings that he said were not just critical but abusive.

“As I tell my kids every time a situation like this occurs — just walk away, it’s not worth it and life’s too short. I can only hope that a person who has met me once will heed that fatherly advice,” he writes, signing off “respectfully” as Papa S.

In fact, that is what Smith did. He and Orzabal, who musically connected back in their early teens and formed Tears for Fears in 1981, like many bands, suffered a creative clash.

Smith walked away from the band in 1990. And while Orzabal continued to perform all but solo as Tears for Fears — his 1993 album Elemental went gold — Smith dialed back. He made his way to New York, where he hosted an MTV show, a music radio show syndicated to more than 300 U.S. colleges, taught a music industry course at New York University and in 1995 formed a new band, Mayfield, with songwriter-guitarist Charlton Pettus. Smith was less interested in high-gloss studio production and more in live performances in smaller venues.

But then in 2001 the ice started to crack between the old bandmates. Business matters forced them to start talking again and within several years they not only were talking but creatively collaborating. In 2004 they released Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.

So what changed?

“Our priorities shifted,” said Smith. “We know life is too short to get into fights about stupid, petty things.”

Although they have often been described as “Beatles-like” in their harmonies, Smith believes the TFF reunion effort proved more an homage to McCartney and Wings.

“It was intended to be lighthearted. We are only having fun with it,” he says.

Done with the grind of living on the road, the pair are continuing to perform together, planning just one short, limited tour each year. At the moment they’re completing production work on a Tears for Fears live album. And the band got a boost of exposure to a new generation when American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert picked the band’s elegiac “Mad World,” written the year he was born (1982), and performed it with such emotional intensity the audience burst into sporadic screaming. It produced a standing ovation from the pitiless Simon Cowell.

Living on separate continents — Orzabal remains in England — the two have the freedom and distance to also maintain their individual identities.

Smith came out a strong supporter of Barack Obama, who he says inspired him to become a citizen so he could vote. At the same time he wrote regularly for The Huffington Post.

“I have some lively, engaged debates on my Web site. A few people are strong Republicans. I think I even changed a few minds, which was fantastic.”

Now he’s turning his attention to the governor’s race, Twittering energy for Gavin Newsom.

“You can wind up reaching 100,000 people with the click of a mouse,” he marvels.

Understanding that technology has dramatically changed how people experience and exchange music. His latest solo album, Halfway, Pleased, is being released independently, song by song.

Issued under a Creative Commons license, Halfway, Pleased can be be copied, distributed and performed by fans, so long as it’s non-commercial and properly attributed.

Smith said at this point he’s intrigued by the prospect of writing soundtracks for film and television, if the right script came along.

“You never stop trying to make progress as a musician,” he said. “At some point you want a challenge. I’m starting to get to the point where somebody else giving me the subject matter would be an interesting thing, as opposed to me always talking about how I feel about things.”

Source: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...MENT/907099875

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Tears for Fears pay tribute to Michael Jackson by performing "Billie Jean" at a recent concert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=138R2DaZ-ag

[vonjunzt]

Drummer Nick D'Virgilio's video blogs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85PR7FNtHbk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khWA_...eature=related

[vonjunzt]

An interview with Curt Smith:

http://www.thesoundla.com/?nid=39&sid=286

[mellowscream]

thanks for posting the pics and updates!

[vonjunzt]

Helping promote their current endeavors is the least I can do to repay them for all the pleasure their music has given me over the years.

[vonjunzt]

The U.K. edition of Everybody Loves a Happy Ending contained two extra tracks: "Pulling a Cloud" and "Out of Control".

"Out of Control" -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmb4-ZWtQrQ




Superb.

[mellowscream]

i hope that they can have a concert here in manila

[vonjunzt]

I hope so, too -- and soon! They aren't getting any younger: Roland Orzabal is 48 (b. August 21, 1961), and so is Curt Smith (b. June 24, 1961).

[vonjunzt]

Some video footage from their current tour:


"Memories Fade" (Orange County, California, July 17, 2009) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kimnKGRwxs



"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (Phoenix, Arizona, July 21, 2009) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmRpclKTXc