Curt Smith
I just have to sell enough records to continue financing making more records.
I have this TV pilot I was writing for and a couple of films. It's just a different way to express myself.
We spent a year touring the world and it wasn't until it was over that we truly appreciated the upside and downside of our success.
Due to the Internet, we don't perform new songs until a release. Don't get me wrong, I love new technology, but in the case of a new song we would like the original recording and production to be heard first.
I write music for film because I love it.
I think people forget even though we were labelled a synth band because of 'The Hurting,' but keyboards are not our native instruments. Roland's a guitar player and I'm a bass player.
I think parenthood does change your priorities quite drastically in an incredibly good way - most of the time.
You never stop trying to make progress as a musician.
My daughters prefer Tears for Fears songs as they're more upbeat and generic. Dad's songs are 'a little too sad' for them, which just means that they're harder to understand.
I don't believe that what Tears for Fears has done, and continues to do, can be pigeonholed into a genre or decade.
When you're writing songs for yourself, as all artists do, it's about 'me.' It's about what you feel and your emotions. You're trying to get something out of your system about your experiences.
When you're writing for a movie, you're trying to capture the emotion of a scene. I find it a fascinating process.
I have two kids and they were by no means blank slates. One is exactly like me, one is exactly like my wife.
We're not pop stars. Living with success is a job; it's the music that's dear to us.
We were touring the States tied to a load of drum machines and sequencers and synthesizers, playing to hundreds of thousands of people and yet feeling strangely removed from the music.
I view making records as a journey.
Japanese Breakfast has recorded a beautiful, ethereal reimagining of 'Head Over Heels.'
More than anything else, being famous just didn't agree with me.
Me and Roland used to fight a lot.
I have no preconceived ideas; I gave that up a long time ago... The only thing we can do as musicians is make an album we like, and an album that we consider to be incredibly good.
Technology was changing just as we were getting started. You had these records by people like David Bowie and Talking Heads and Brian Eno that took production into a whole new direction. That really influenced us, and pushed us to find that early sound we had.
We're both getting older, our children are starting to leave home. But I can say that I'm just as passionate a songwriter now in my 50s as I was in my 20s. But instead of talking about the general kind of angst that I felt as a teenager, I'm writing about more specific issues.
We were blessed that we were successful when we were. That enabled us to live in a comfortable fashion.
It's definitely a joy when you make a record to know you are doing it for the right reasons: You want to do it and that you think you have something valid to offer.
We've never been a musically fashionable band. We've been successful, but I think that has something to do with us never following the trends.
I think psychology still has a sway over everything we do, but music, in and of itself, is the therapy.
I couldn't deal with the fame, the pressure and everything else.
And I think the first LP was perhaps too precious. It was our life's work up to that point; there was so much pain in trying to make the perfect statement. We couldn't relax and I think most people missed what we were trying to say.
We've always been slammed by most of the British press. They probably hate us because we're too normal and incredibly honest.
I hate touring beyond measure. I don't like all the travelling and the hotel rooms. But the hour and a half on stage each night keep me going.
In the music business, we're much better off staying in Bath - we don't get involved in the competitiveness, where you've got to be seen in the right places and music kind of takes second place.
People forgot about us, which was what we wanted. We could be left alone without any pressure to make music.
American rock was, and still is to some extent, a closed shop. REO Speedwagon, Toto, Boston, Foreigner all those bands, and I wouldn't be able to tell which from which.
In England, people get bored very quickly. People aren't satisfied with one thing. You can have hits, but to stay there you have to start doing new things.
Every album is like starting our career over again. We don't get blase, we don't get lazy.
When I get some time off, I don't even want to see people half the time.
I live 10 miles outside of Bath, where there are about 10 houses. So it's nice and peaceful and quiet. Keeps your feet on the ground, basically.
I like the country, the peace and quiet, because the music business is so hectic.
For a lot of bands, the London club scene very much starts to become more important than the music they create. Which we never want to happen.
Our own lives always influence the way we write.
Having lawyers involved never leads to good things.
The only formula we have when we work together is that we both have to have a product we can endorse when we finish. Something we both like. It's a matter of compromise. In the end what you get is what both of us can agree on. In that comes Tears for Fears. I don't know what the mix or magic is, that's just what it is.
It's incredibly cool that R & B artists like Kanye and the Weekend, who from a completely different genre to us have tapped into 'The Hurting.'
When we play live show we tend to find there's a whole portion that's a considerably younger demographic. That's quite gratifying. They primarily seem to be into 'The Hurting' which I guess makes sense.
Sometimes albums can be quick, sometimes they take forever, and we're very good at taking forever.
We've been playing together since we were 13, and from the age of 18, we've had a record contract. I think that we've been incredibly lucky, yeah. But we deserve it.
We rushed to finish the album when 'Mad World' became a hit. The pressure was on and it stopped being as enjoyable as it had been; in the end, it wasn't enjoyable at all.
I guess because we're essentially a two-man band, we're attracting Wham's crowd. But Wham! are more of a businessman's band.
My private life, my relationships are much, much more important than my career.