Curt Smith
We really hated being in a band. The joy for us and why we slipped nicely and neatly into it was because we didn't need a band anymore. We became a duo because of technology.Collection: Technology
I think Roland read 'Primal Scream' first and then gave it to me. This was, I think, even prior to 'The Graduate' days. We both got heavily into and it offered a lot of questions about how screwed up our home life was.
There's something rhythmic about running, so it's not surprising that I love it. I'm a bass player, after all.
I mean the joy of doing the 'Psych' thing I have to say, is that, you know, I'd met them beforehand, James Roday and Timothy Omundson specifically. I met Dule Hill when I got up there. But they're just, you know, a nice bunch of people.
I went through a divorce during the 'Seeds of Love' album.
Tears For Fears is my ultimate passion.
Leading into 'The Hurting,' what changed our view of music was Gary Numan.
The first album is dark and introspective - tailor made for England.
At the height of our fame, we didn't see anything. We didn't leave the hotel because we were doing interviews all day. We may have traveled the world, but we saw nothing.
I run every day. It keeps me sane and it's my meditation.
We've influenced other artists, and when younger generations become fans of those artists and hear about us, they discover our music too.
What happens with writing a song and demoing it, for me the demo always becomes the master.
MySpace is just spam central. I mean, every day I just get mail inviting me to gigs that are nowhere near Los Angeles!
My kids don't really buy albums. They buy singles.
Normally doing an album you go from track to track and go, 'Let's not work on this one today, let's go work on the other one,' and I think you tend to get more self-indulgent that way.
I find that albums generally tell a story. Because it's music, it doesn't have to be in chronological order.
I think what we find fascinating and interesting is when people take our music and turn it into emotionally something else. And weirdly, Lorde's version of 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World,' the production really goes with the lyric more than our version does, because our version, albeit the lyric is dark, the music is quite uplifting.
I don't think we ever really think about it when we're doing it, because if you sort of go in with a plan of attack, it tends to take away the natural rhythm of songwriting.
I think when you finish an album, you tend to have your favorites, where a lot of the time are not the singles.
My father always worked away, and died when I was 17, but I hated him by that point. It hit me later in life, but back then I was teenage and angry.
We released 'Mad World' as a single because we felt the music press would like it.
Mad World' was easy for me to sing because I could relate to Roland's lyrics. We were both the middle of three sons and had been brought up by single mothers with absent fathers.
Mad World's distinctive percussion intro was played on a Roland CR-78 drum machine. We first recorded it at twice the speed, but it sounded great slowed down.
To be honest, I've been back to Atlanta a couple of times, I can't remember what for. One for a big conference, a radio conference. I feel like it's a vibrant place. It has a vibrant music scene.
Naturally, in a band or duo, it's really about compromise which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Tears for Fears is me and Roland.
I normally don't do interviews on the road.
You know, if you ever listen to your voice on an answering machine everyone thinks we sound dreadful. That's sort of the way I think when I hear myself speak.
I'm becoming hip to my children because bands of their generation name us as influences, so you can definitely hear it, the same way as we were influenced by other people.
Normally the amount of music we have is what you hear on the album and that's it.
You find it hard to deal with certain things and as you get older it becomes easier.
I saw a band called The Electric Guitars, from Bristol. I described them to Roland, and he just started playing a riff on guitar and said, 'Do they sound like this?' And they did.
I see bands that have been around for a long time who go through the motions. They're tired and they shouldn't really be doing it any more. We are doing it because we like it.
We are lucky to have had the longevity we've had, garnering new people. I've even become cool to my daughters' friends.
To preserve my sanity I had to leave England and move to New York.
New York was a fantastic place to disappear because no one cares who you are. No one bothers you. In my ten years living there I was never once asked for an autograph or stopped on the street. It was an absolute joy. I gave myself time and space to get to know myself more.
Laurel Canyon area music is legendary.
It's always good to be somewhere with some history, maybe that's England, which has a long history.
Songwriting I think, or any art form, the inspiration comes from your personal life or it can be from politics or region you live in.
A lot of songs we've written have been political, but they're also personally political.
People don't really buy records anymore, so record companies won't invest in bands like us. They want cookie-cutter acts.
We know our limitations. There's only a certain amount of time that Roland and I really want to be on the same bus together. Our limit is about four to six weeks.
We've never considered ourselves overtly political, but when it comes to English politics - people like Margaret Thatcher - you cannot just stand by and ignore all that's happening around us.
We know we have a method of reaching people, but we have never wanted to preach. We like to make our views palatable, music that is easy to swallow, and I think we've done that.
I think a truly fantastic video is worth it. We spend so much time on the music, it only makes sense to have a really well-done visual translation of that music.
For me, I didn't want to be famous and there was a desire to be me and not 'that guy from the band' so I was happy to see it all go.
The synth helped us in that it meant you didn't have to be a traditional four-piece band and basically, you didn't have to work too hard.
We just weren't a hip band. I mean we recorded our second album in Bath at a time when everyone else was recording in New York or Los Angeles.
I went to live in New York and released a solo album that I now know was very bad. Roland kept on with the Tears For Fears name. It was a bad split.
The nature of Tears For Fears was there was always two of us.