Tears for Fears maintain 'Tipping Point' momentum with live album, new film, Vegas shows
For a band that ruled if not the world then a good chunk of the ‘80s, this decade is materializing as Tears for Fears' most creatively fulfilling since.
In 2022, the duo released their first new album in 17 years, “The Tipping Point,” to collective acclaim, its combination of piercing lyrics about loss and grief meshing artfully with plush arrangements. A successful tour to support the album restated their live prowess with a set list that tapped into a hearty catalog that includes “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” “Mad World,” “Head Over Heels” and their most pervasive hits, “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal – friends since childhood in Bath, England, and both 63 – are maintaining this momentum with a trio of Las Vegas shows (Oct. 30, Nov. 1-2), their first live album “Songs for a Nervous Planet,” out Oct. 25, and a concert film.
“Tears for Fears Live (A Tipping Point Film)” was recorded at FirstBank Amphitheater at Graystone Quarry outside of Nashville last year – the venue “just looked amazing,” Smith says – and will play in movie theaters worldwide on Oct. 24 and Oct. 26.
The intellectual pair popped onto a video chat to discuss how they replicate their songs live, the divisiveness of social media and the “positive feel” of the four new tracks on “Nervous Planet.”
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Question: “The Tipping Point” ignited a resurgence with the live album, the film and Vegas shows. How did it affect your partnership to come back and have that level of success and acclaim?
Curt Smith: Before “The Tipping Point” we were kind of in flux. Not necessarily coincidentally, losing our management and not having anyone involved until we were done with the record was the best thing that happened at the time. We felt the record was really good. We’re incredibly finicky and fussy, but we do know how to make good records. So the experience brought us much, much closer and you realize that the people who know us best … is us.
You guys have said that you don’t think a lot of people realize you’re a good live band. I saw the show in Philadelphia in 2022 and it’s among my favorite concerts of all time.
Roland Orzabal: We’re hoping that this (concert) film will change that. We’ve been playing live for a long, long time. We used to play just for fun, under the radar. I would come across from England to LA and say to Curt and the boys, let’s do some shows. They would be wineries or casinos for fun. Once we made “The Tipping Point,” we were keen to put those songs in the set because it became very obvious that the new album was matching the old material in terms of quality.
So many of your songs have really lush overtones. How hard is it to replicate that live?
Smith: We have the most amazing drummer (Jamie Wollam) who can drum on all these different styles. The hardest thing is finding a great drummer and our drummer is capable of all of the above. It used to be harder to replicate this stuff live because the musicians weren’t as good as they are now. And to be fair, we weren’t as good as we are now, either!
Is the title of the live album a political statement, a climate statement, or a statement about unease in general?
Orzabal: It was taken from a book by Matt Haig, “Notes on a Nervous Planet.” It’s essentially saying it’s not so much about the news you’re receiving. We all know there are terrible wars, but nowadays it’s how you receive that information and how it makes you feel. He talks about going on Twitter and having an argument with someone 5,000 miles away. You used to get news from alleged neutral sources like the BBC in England and now people get news from social media, which is designed to be divisive and the news sources are similarly divisive.
Smith: It’s how it’s designed with the algorithms. You’re not getting opposing viewpoints and that’s become highly successful in dividing people and getting clicks. The regular news media is kind of doing the same thing. It’s all about money in the end, and how many clicks can I get?
“Songs for a Nervous Planet” also has four new songs. One of them, “Say Goodbye to Mum and Dad,” was inspired by the COVID-19 lockdowns so it’s a depressing topic, yet an upbeat song. How do you often balance the sad lyrics with such sumptuous music?
Orzabal: It’s something we’ve always done and I don’t know why. We did it with “Mad World,” which has this lovely percussive backdrop and all of these crazy synths, but the song itself is best described by the Gary Jules version. With “Say Goodbye …” we knew it was a dark subject. We could have gone darker on the lyrics, but we pulled back from it. It’s that crazy beautiful whistling thing and then with the first lyric (“Say goodbye to Mum and Dad … go tell all your friends society’s gone mad”), your brain automatically goes to a different place.
Smith: To quote a famous poet, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
Orzabal: When we do record and put darker lyrics to a sweeter background, it becomes more palatable. I think it’s more representative of us because we’re not that dark and depressing as people.
Roland, we spoke just before the tour kickoff in 2022 and you mentioned that “Rivers of Mercy” was the song you were most worried about playing live because it’s so emotional. How did that unfold throughout the tour?
Orzabal: It was always emotional. And sometimes it was incredibly special and that’s probably why it was emotional. By (the second leg in 2023), when we started that song a lot of people would put up their phones like thousands of candles. It became a highlight of the set, coming after “My Demons.”
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You’re doing some shows in Las Vegas. Do you enjoy spending time there?
Orzabal: It’s changed so much. The last time I stayed there I was shocked that the hotel I was in didn’t have a casino and did have very good food. Since the building of the Sphere and the stadium having a Super Bowl, the attitude toward Vegas has changed from instead of it being a place to die, it’s where you go to audition.
“The Tipping Point” was your first new album in 17 years. Do you have another one in you?
Orzabal: What was great about doing this set of four songs is that it didn’t feel there was any pressure on us. An album is such a huge statement. But do we have another? Without question, absolutely.
Smith: These four tracks seemed like a little snapshot in time. “The Tipping Point” came out of a lot of pain and these four have a positive feel about them, almost a mini statement that you came out the other side.