Curt Smith on TEARS FOR FEARS and their Enduring Sound

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

iHeartPodcasts

Arts, Music, Tv & Film, Film Interviews, Music Interviews, Performing Arts

4.4 • 8.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Curt Smith is one-half of the band Tears for Fears, along with childhood friend and bandmate Roland Orzabal. Smith and Orzabal met as teenagers in Bath, England and formed a band that would go on to release hit after hit, from “Mad World” to “Shout,” ultimately selling over 30 million albums worldwide. From their debut album in 1983, “The Hurting,” Tears for Fears created a synth-heavy and lyrically complex sound that still resonates with audiences four decades later. Following the release of their latest album, “The Tipping Point,” Alec speaks to Curt Smith about forming a creative partnership bourne out of differing voices, how they found the sound for “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and what led to his departure from the group in the 1990s - and their eventual reunion that happened via fax.

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0:00.0	I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing from I Heart Radio.
0:19.0	There are stars that are flashes in the pan that burn fast and bright
0:24.0	and then there are those artists that endure on the list of musical acts that continue to sell out their concerts, pre and post-COVID.
0:34.0	You will find names like Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Judy Collins, Lindsey Buckingham and my guest today,
0:42.0	one half of the 80s powerhouse Tears for Fears, Kurt Smith.
0:54.0	This is advice for the young at heart from the 1989 album The Seeds of Love.
1:00.0	By the mid-1980s, Tears for Fears had joined a dense pack of new wave artists that included simple minds,
1:08.0	crowded house and simply read in releasing some of the most popular music of the day.
1:14.0	The duo would eventually reach the stratosphere of Stardom selling over 30 million albums worldwide.
1:22.0	Kurt Smith first met bandmate Roland Orsabal as a teenager in Bath England and put out their first album The Hurting in 1983.
1:32.0	They were still booking small clubs when they released their second album Songs From The Big Chair in 1984.
1:40.0	By the time the tour ended, however, they had pulled vaulted into stadiums.
1:46.0	I would guess the actual recording itself took a year, but it was two years between The Hurting being released and Songs From The Big Chair,
1:52.0	which then was a long time.
1:54.0	The Hurting had had huge success outside of America. It was big in New York and LA.
2:02.0	So Songs From The Big Chair, I don't want to dwell on that too much, but you have the number one album in the US.
2:08.0	Quite a different situation to have the number one album in the US.
2:10.0	The biggest market of them all.
2:12.0	That's not the most sophisticated market, but it's the biggest market.
2:16.0	It was a little crazy.
2:18.0	The first time we played with the Cause Turing was weird after Songs From The Big Chair, because before we played our first ever show in the US,
2:26.0	we never played when we released The Hurting. There was no real market.
	...

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