We’re niche now, and it feels good
Tears For Fears overcame tragedy to record their first album in nearly two decades. ALEX GREEN finds out all about it
IN THE ‘80s, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith made it their mission to engage with difficult topics like childhood trauma, primal scream therapy and mental health.
Timeless tracks such as Mad World, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Shout saw them shroud those issues in catchy choruses and stadium-sized synths.
Ultimately, this combination made them unlikely pop icons.
Some 17 years since they last released an album of new music, the pair, both 60, will return in 2022 with The Tipping Point and fans will be pleased that the latest project rediscovers this rawness.
“When music comes from a place of honesty, it just is more powerful – simple as that,” says Curt from his Los Angeles home.
Tears For Fears’ seventh studio album reflects the personal and professional tipping points they have faced since their last album, 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. These include rebuilding their previously fractious relationship, the politics of Curt’s adopted home of America, and Roland’s experience of losing his wife of nearly 40 years.
The Tipping Point’s 10 tracks sound unlike any of their previous albums. They are less bombastic, and influenced by folk, country and even trip hop. But it took some time to arrive here.
After three successful albums across the ‘80s – The Hurting, Songs From The Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love – there was an acrimonious split and the pair explored solo projects.
In 2004, they reunited for a new album but failed to reignite the fruitful creative partnership (or the sales figures) of their heyday.
Nevertheless, they continued to tour and, at the behest of their then-manager, went into the studio with an array of external songwriters. This was not a success.
“It was an interesting exercise,” says Curt carefully. “I’m not knocking necessarily the premise.
“We went along with it. It didn’t seem that alien to us, particularly at the time. But then you get into it and realise, ‘Ah, this is not really working, and this is not us’.”
Eventually, Roland and Curt got together for a crisis meeting. They sat down with acoustic guitars at Curt’s home and began to write, with no outside interruptions.
“That chunk of music was the opposite to anything we had attempted before,” Roland recalls from his mother-in-law’s home in Colorado. “It wasn’t commercial, it wasn’t pop music. It was folk, it was blues, it was country. It was Johnny Cash. Who knows?”
He took the song away and it became No Small Thing, with its poignant refrain about personal freedom. That was the jumpingoff point for the rest of the album.
Roland puts that moment in stark terms.
“It was this relief,” he explains. “The sense of freedom we had, being able to do what we wanted. And we have earned that right.
“We are not mainstream pop anymore. And it’s stupid to even attempt to believe you are – to hark back to those days. We’re not. We’re niche now – and it feels good.”
Roland’s wife, Caroline, died in 2017 after struggling with depression. Four years later, after meeting and marrying writer and photographer Emily Rath, he feels ready to share music inspired by that time, and the song Please Be Happy recalls his experience. “That’s a very moving song for me,” he says. “Watching my wife struggle with depression to the point where it was killing her, as was the alcohol. And those two things are sometimes indivisible and, until you take alcohol and pills out of the equation, you’re never going to get to the heart of someone’s mental health problems.
“Watching her was heartbreaking and that’s a very poignant part of the record, I must say. Because Curt sings it beautifully, and every time we do a playback together in the studio, the whole thing builds up with (previous tracks) My Demons going into Rivers Of Mercy.
“And then the first line that Curt sings, I have to leave the room. Oh yeah, I can’t bear it. But that’s what we’re here for.”
Tears For Fears were ahead of the curve when they sang about topics such as depression and even psychoanalysis in the ‘80s.
“This is progress,” Roland says. “The role of the artist is to try and progress things in society and make things that were not acceptable become acceptable, slowly.
“And there’s no better way of doing it than in music.”
Recent years have also seen Tears For Fears cited as a major influence by acts like The Weeknd and The 1975. Curt says this enduring legacy is simply a bonus.
“I don’t necessarily think that was the aim,” he reflects.
“We never have a need to be vindicated, I don’t think. We have a burning desire to end up with a record that we are happy with. “That’s pretty much it.”
■ The Tipping Point will be released on February 26 and Tears For Fears will tour the UK next summer, inclding the Incora County Ground, Derby on July 12. See tearsforfears.com for more details