M L INTERVIEW
AN INTERVIEW WITH TEARS FOR FEARS
With more than 40 years under their belt as platinum album selling artists , Tears for Fears are set to play a series of shows to support their first new studio album in nearly two decades , The Tipping Point , which was released in February .
Their tour has already got underway in America and Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith will be touring the UK in July 2022 , with special guest Alison Moyet .
We caught up with them about their new album …
This has been a long time in the making ? Well , the weird story is this , we finished an album in 2016 , I believe . It had been funded by Warner Brothers , but it was suggested we approach Universal ; they had our back catalog . Universal took two tracks , put it on the greatest hits and then we were left with this depleted album which we felt just wasn ’ t very good .
So we then had to forge a path forward , and I think Roland suggested , you know , let ' s just get together and sit in a room with a couple of acoustic guitars and see what comes of that . We hadn ' t done that since we were , I don ’ t know , 18 years old probably , and that ' s where ' No Small Thing ' came from .
And so , we realised that ' s what we had to do . We had to go back . We kept five songs from past sessions , and we then went in search of the other five . We already had one that actually gave us those highs and lows , and that ' s where we kind of started . From there the process was really quick . I mean , it only took us a few months .
“ Rivers of Mercy ” is probably my favourite on the album . Rivers O ’ Merzee ? We should have done a scouse version for you , shouldn ' t we ?
We worked with Charlton Pettus and Doug Petty , our keyboard player on that one . Funny really . My wife said , ‘ why don ’ t you work with your band ?’ Well , we ' d worked with Charlton , obviously , a lot . But Doug is amazing . They ' re all great . Fantastic musicians . And I think Doug and Charlton had been working on some kind of film track and they had this backing track which then became Rivers of Mercy . I ' m going to say Rivers O ’ Merzee every time now .
You ’ ve used a pre-existing backing track before , haven ’ t you ? A lot of the time it ' s not a whole backing track that songs come from , it might be a drum pattern or a synth sound . It ' s not until we get to the studio that the whole thing kind of comes together . When we started with The Hurting , pretty much everything was written on acoustic guitar because we didn ' t have a synthesizer . And it ’ s when we met Ian Stanley , a musical guy , and figure in Bath , in a vegetarian disco as we have said many , many times .
He had a kind of small demo studio with an 8-track or 4-track , I can ' t remember and a drum machine . So , we then arranged the songs which were written on acoustic guitars and didn ' t sound very good and arranged them with electronica and then everything started to make more sense .
The rest emerged when we were making the Mothers Talk video , and Ian and Chris Hughes , our producer , were screwing around trying to make it into something which I didn ' t think it was . But it turned out incredible .
I think we naturally go for ear candy . The melody is already in your head , and that leads you into the song , and I think that ' s the same for Head Over Heels , and Everybody Wants to Rule the World .
What ’ s it like when younger generations discover your songs from a different source ? One of the funniest things that happened to me was when Kanye sampled Memories Fade to the Coldest Winter , and then we played the original at a show in Orange County in America . My kids were very young at the time , and we had a nanny with them because I was working . She came up to me afterwards , and said , ‘ So great you did that Kanye song live .’ And I was like ‘ well , actually it was ours originally , but OK , thank you for that .’
It was the same with the Donnie Darko version of Mad World , which amazingly became a Christmas number 1 . So , you know , you do get a new audience from those things - it actually works in our favour !
How do you feel about going back on tour ? We couldn ’ t be more excited to start playing concerts again . We ’ ve missed seeing our friends on the road around the world and the energy of performing live .
‘ The Tipping Point ’ has taken so long to get together to the point of being ready for release , and we are looking forward to playing our favourites from the new album as well as our classics throughout the years .
Tickets to Tears for Fears new tour and more information is available here : https :// tearsforfears . com / merseylife . com 23