Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

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Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jana » Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:29 pm

Tears for Fears interview with Rolling Stone regarding recording new album . If the cover of Arcade Fire is indicative of the direction they are going, the new arrangement of Ready to Go sounds like they are bringing back some of their synth sound they abandoned years ago. It almost has Roland's solo album sound to it. And they're releasing a special edition 4-disk boxset to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of The Hurting. It's nice to see them working on new music, and Curt said on twitter they would be touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Hurting and in support of a new album. He even told a fan they would tour in the UK. So it sounds like a proper full tour, which would be their first long tour since 2005. So it sounds like they are going to play more tracks from The Hurting than usual.

Ready To Go - Cover - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgCt6maER7s

"Tears for Fears surprised fans this week with their first song in almost a decade — a cover of Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start" — to tease the British band's reissue of its 1983 debut, The Hurting, and first studio album since 2004. And as the band explained to Rolling Stone this week, the cover was key to the group's ongoing recording process.

Listen to Tears for Fears' Surprising Cover of "Ready to Start"

"The idea was before we actually had any material, before we got together, that we might try and do a couple of cover versions to sort of kick-start the recording process again," Roland Orzabal says. "I had that bloody melody going round and round and round in my head," he said of choosing the 2010 Arcade Fire single, adding, "It's not like the original."

Indeed, Tears for Fears' synth-pop version features a layered string arrangement over a heavy drum-and-bass backbeat, quite unlike Arcade Fire's guitar-driven original. The recording is a nod to those who have long covered and sampled the group, including Adam Lambert, whose take on "Mad World" — the highest-charting single from The Hurting — stunned an American Idol audience several years ago.

The impact of Tears for Fears' debut was evident from its unseating of Michael Jackson's Thriller from the top of the U.K. Albums Chart in March 1983. Thirty years later, on October 22nd in the U.S. (and October 21st outside North America) The Hurting gets the deluxe treatment: a box set pairing the remastered record with two CDs of remixes and B-sides, including the early "Suffer the Children" and "Pale Shelter" singles. A DVD of In My Mind's Eye, a 1984 concert filmed in Hammersmith, will fill out the package.

In 1981 Orzabal and Curt Smith, both 20, quit the band Graduate to pursue the type of studio work they admired on albums by Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads and David Bowie. The young men put to music their following of psychologist Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy, through which they confronted depression and the hell of their repressed adolescent trauma. Once Orzabal wrote the songs on acoustic guitar, they tracked demos at keyboardist Ian Stanley's home studio, where he introduced them to his synthesizer and drum machine. The first song Tears for Fears recorded, "Suffer the Children," features vocals from the woman Orzabal would wed the following year. The song went unnoticed, but the radio success of "Mad World" in 1982 teased The Hurting for several months prior to its release. "I just felt it couldn't be anything else but a hit. It's not about dancing on a Saturday night, or pure pop stuff," former drummer Manny Elias says. "We were determined to do something a little different."

In separate conversations with Rolling Stone, Orzabal and Smith agreed that while the music of the debut holds up, their views on the theories they embraced in the Eighties changed once they became fathers in the Nineties. Regarding the notion that children are born blank slates devoid of their parents' traits, Smith says, "I can now tell you as a parent of two that is not true." Orzabal echoes, "Having seen both my sons born, I don't believe that now.

"What's surprising is how we managed to achieve it in one album, to sum up the whole theory and philosophy behind who we were," he adds. "We then became just another commercial outfit, in a sense. There was a push after The Hurting to break America. But the purity is what I like about that, listening to that now."

It set the stage for the group's American breakthrough, Songs From the Big Chair, in 1985. Orzabal credits its bigger sound, on songs like "Shout," in part to the stadium-sized snare smack from Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."; the sonics shifted yet again for 1989's The Seeds of Love, inspired by Steely Dan and The Band's Robbie Robertson.

For their first album together since 2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, Orzabal and Smith decided last November while on a tour stop in Brazil to begin writing songs to supplement their repetitive set lists. "We felt the time was right to go and do something new," Smith says. In July, a two-week studio jam with drummer Jamie Wollam and producer Charlton Pettus sparked some "pieces of dramatic music," giving it the tongue-in-cheek working title of Tears for Fears: The Musical. "There's one track that's a combination of Portishead and Queen. It's just crazy," Orzabal says, adding that the record, which they expect to finish this year, will retain some of the darkness of The Hurting.

The reissue itself will retain the jacket art featured on only British pressings of The Hurting: the profile of a young boy holding his face in his hands. Mercury Records had insisted on a different cover for the U.S. release, one that would help sales by featuring a picture of the frontmen instead. "At that point in time we didn't exactly have a lot of leverage to tell them no," Smith says. Earlier this year, through social media, he tracked down Gebbie Serafin-Jaeger, the child from the photograph. It turns out his hurting was all in the marketing — he remembers laughing."


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z2ctQ11Mv0
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Memorex » Sun Aug 25, 2013 12:08 am

Now that article has taken up at least 2 pages on the internet. Shame, really. :)

I kid.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:34 am

Holy fuck, Jana .. thanks for sharing. This is awesome news. I've recently awarded "Songs From The Big Chair" my coveted "Favorite Album Ever Released," and "The Working Hour" as "Favorite Song Ever." After listening to both since I was 13 or whatever. This is the best music news I've heard all year. Gotta go listen to the tune now.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby No Surprize » Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:49 pm

Jeremey wrote:Holy fuck, Jana .. thanks for sharing. This is awesome news. I've recently awarded "Songs From The Big Chair" my coveted "Favorite Album Ever Released," and "The Working Hour" as "Favorite Song Ever." After listening to both since I was 13 or whatever. This is the best music news I've heard all year. Gotta go listen to the tune now.


I agree, I was just listening to that yesterday. Awesome news, can't wait to get it.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jana » Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:38 am

Jeremey wrote:Holy fuck, Jana .. thanks for sharing. This is awesome news. I've recently awarded "Songs From The Big Chair" my coveted "Favorite Album Ever Released," and "The Working Hour" as "Favorite Song Ever." After listening to both since I was 13 or whatever. This is the best music news I've heard all year. Gotta go listen to the tune now.


Woman in Chains is my most-played, I think. It's never out of rotation. Although, I love Shout as far as the way it builds, the guiltar solo towards the end, the line he sings over top of other lines, "I'm really going to break your heart." I still love the cover you did of Goodnight Song, another favorite of theirs.

What did you think of the cover of Ready to Go? Listening to it with earphones, I really loved the strings, the synth, the drum and bass used. If this is where Roland is going with his songwriting this time as far as arrangements, it shows he's in an experimental state of mind and bringing some synth sound back to their music, which I know most fans will be excited about.

Are you a fan of Depeche Mode, still a full-on electronia/synthpop band? Because they just kicked off their U.S. leg of the tour this week, and the reviews overseas have been fantastic, fans calling it their best tour since the Devotional Tour in '93. Dave's voice is back in a big way. His voice is so strong and clear. I don't know what he's done, but he sounds fantastic. Maybe he quit smoking since his cancer bout last tour. He also is wearing in-ear monitors for the first time. Anyway, if you are a fan, you should try to catch them this tour, as they only tour every four years. I'm going twice this year.

Here's a few clips from Chicago this weekend. Should Be Higher is the best song off their new album, and the backdrop to the song is one of best screen backdrops I've ever seen, really dramatic. And Martin sang Shake the Disease from '85, and the crowd went wild. I have never seen him sing that song.

Should Be Higher - (Shot far enough back for you to see the great screen backdrop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwDMnQS7EY

Shake the Disease - Martin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r811Nel3ZxY
Last edited by Jana on Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jana » Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:43 am

Memorex wrote:Now that article has taken up at least 2 pages on the internet. Shame, really. :)

I kid.


You don't appreciate a great band, I see? LOL. I didn't link the interview because on Rollingstone I sometimes get virus attempts on that site, which my Avast blocks, but I don't risk linking anything to them anymore.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Memorex » Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:06 am

Not a fan, but don't know enough about them to say whether they are any good or not. Songs by them that I used to despise I can now hear and the familiarity makes them ok.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Ehwmatt » Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:50 am

Very cool band. I enjoy everything I've heard by them, but frankly, I haven't made as good of an effort as I should to really learn the "ins and outs" of their catalog. I love the atmosphere in their tracks. From my (superficial) knowledge of their catalog, they effectively meshed the best parts of the synthesized 80's with the AOR/guitar-heavy music that's more in my sweet spot. Cool to hear they're still out there creating.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:03 am

Jana wrote:
Woman in Chains is my most-played, I think. It's never out of rotation. Although, I love Shout as far as the way it builds, the guiltar solo towards the end, the line he sings over top of other lines, "I'm really going to break your heart." I still love the cover you did of Goodnight Song, another favorite of theirs.


I love Woman in Chains. Between Songs From The Big Chair & Seeds of Love, I think they're just two classic, incredible albums. I have a real fondness for the SOL album because of Oleta Adam's vocals and the jazz influence throughout the whole disc, but I think the soulfulness of Big Chair wins me over. "Working Hour" is just such an amazingly intricate work, and the thing that kills me every time I hear it is that appoggiatura played by the saxophone in the chorus, right under the lyric "This is the working hour ..." if you listen really closer you can hear it. It's like a string that just tugs at your soul every time it hits.

What did you think of the cover of Ready to Go? Listening to it with earphones, I really loved the strings, the synth, the drum and bass used. If this is where Roland is going with his songwriting this time as far as arrangements, it shows he's in an experimental state of mind and bringing some synth sound back to their music, which I know most fans will be excited about.


I have to listen to it on earbuds to give it a proper listen. I heard it through my monitor's speakers and it did remind me more of the experimental stuff post-RATKOS ... I'll be really excited if they can commercialize that sound a little better and bring it back to the early-80s vibe.

Are you a fan of Depeche Mode, still a full-on electronia/synthpop band? Because they just kicked off their U.S. leg of the tour this week, and the reviews overseas have been fantastic, fans calling it their best tour since the Devotional Tour in '93. Dave's voice is back in a big way. His voice is so strong and clear. I don't know what he's done, but he sounds fantastic. Maybe he quit smoking since his cancer bout last tour. He also is wearing in-ear monitors for the first time. Anyway, if you are a fan, you should try to catch them this tour, as they only tour every four years. I'm going twice this year.

Here's a few clips from Chicago this weekend. Should Be Higher is the best song off their new album, and the backdrop to the song is one of best screen backdrops I've ever seen, really dramatic. And Martin sang Shake the Disease from '85, and the crowd went wild. I have never seen him sing that song.

Should Be Higher - (Shot far enough back for you to see the great screen backdrop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwDMnQS7EY

Shake the Disease - Martin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r811Nel3ZxY


Cool - I've always liked DM's hits, but never really considered myself a fan. We did a tribute show in Dallas with a DM tribute act out of LA that was absolutely insane amazing and they really made me appreciate the band even more.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:25 am

Ehwmatt wrote:Very cool band. I enjoy everything I've heard by them, but frankly, I haven't made as good of an effort as I should to really learn the "ins and outs" of their catalog. I love the atmosphere in their tracks. From my (superficial) knowledge of their catalog, they effectively meshed the best parts of the synthesized 80's with the AOR/guitar-heavy music that's more in my sweet spot. Cool to hear they're still out there creating.



Yeah, in the 80s, I think they were unfairly grouped with the superficial synthpop bands of the time, a lot of that due to their image and fashion ... they had songs like "Shout" which could stand up to anything Depeche Mode was putting out at the time, and then they would release these remixes of the deeper cuts for dance clubs and stuff (see "Mother's Talk"). But the guitars and arrangements never got the respect they deserved.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby slucero » Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:38 am

Jeremey wrote:
Ehwmatt wrote:Very cool band. I enjoy everything I've heard by them, but frankly, I haven't made as good of an effort as I should to really learn the "ins and outs" of their catalog. I love the atmosphere in their tracks. From my (superficial) knowledge of their catalog, they effectively meshed the best parts of the synthesized 80's with the AOR/guitar-heavy music that's more in my sweet spot. Cool to hear they're still out there creating.



Yeah, in the 80s, I think they were unfairly grouped with the superficial synthpop bands of the time, a lot of that due to their image and fashion ... they had songs like "Shout" which could stand up to anything Depeche Mode was putting out at the time, and then they would release these remixes of the deeper cuts for dance clubs and stuff (see "Mother's Talk"). But the guitars and arrangements never got the respect they deserved.



Hey Jeremey.. If I remember right.. they were one of the very 1st groups to completely sequence their music..

(oh and BTW.. Logic X is amazing)...

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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby verslibre » Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:16 pm

Roland the marble gargler is back? :lol:
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jana » Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:02 pm

Jeremey wrote:
Ehwmatt wrote:Very cool band. I enjoy everything I've heard by them, but frankly, I haven't made as good of an effort as I should to really learn the "ins and outs" of their catalog. I love the atmosphere in their tracks. From my (superficial) knowledge of their catalog, they effectively meshed the best parts of the synthesized 80's with the AOR/guitar-heavy music that's more in my sweet spot. Cool to hear they're still out there creating.



Yeah, in the 80s, I think they were unfairly grouped with the superficial synthpop bands of the time, a lot of that due to their image and fashion ... they had songs like "Shout" which could stand up to anything Depeche Mode was putting out at the time, and then they would release these remixes of the deeper cuts for dance clubs and stuff (see "Mother's Talk"). But the guitars and arrangements never got the respect they deserved.


I love the Mother's Talk remix. Yeah, I always love the guitar interludes Roland put into songs and even the heavier guitar sound, like Elemental, he still carried over that atmospheric Tears for Fears sound. I still love so much of Saturnine, Martial & Lunatic, the B sides and rarities album, because the airy experimental atmospheric sound really is prevalent throughout it. And I've always thought they have great instrumentals.

I love this song from it, Deja Vu and the Sins of Science because of the soundscape to the song. It was a B side to the single Cold from Elemental. And I love Pharaohs. I don't know which album that was a B side to, but that British shipping report introing that instrumental is genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGuGyUHrwT0

And I love the more rock song, Schrodinger's Cat off of it also. It was a B side to Break it Down Again off Elemental. I don't know why it wasn't put on the album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8fevFcAITQ
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:13 pm

slucero wrote:

Hey Jeremey.. If I remember right.. they were one of the very 1st groups to completely sequence their music..

(oh and BTW.. Logic X is amazing)...


Cool - I know along with Peter Gabriel & Stevie Wonder they were among the first to really put the Fairlight CMI to heavy use ... lots of drum machines & rhythm tracks, and god only knows how much of the bass Curt Smith actually played. Really love the way they were able to combine all that with the guitar sounds. For a long time I assumed Roland played the lead guitar, until I saw them in concert in 2009ish when Charlton Pettus was playing most of the lead tracks & I realized those solos were all probably different sidemen & producers. As much as I love the band's music, I know surprisingly little about them, LOL.

Logic X IS awesome. I bought it on impulse the day I heard about it. Immediately loaded up one of my unfinished tracks from Every Little Thing and ended up losing 6 hours of my time that I'll never get back :) Really wish I had more time to mess around with it, especially the Drummer plugin. My 4 and 6 year olds were making amazing drum tracks earlier this year with the iOS version of GarageBand that has a less-featured version of Drummer.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:15 pm

Jana wrote:
Jeremey wrote:
Ehwmatt wrote:Very cool band. I enjoy everything I've heard by them, but frankly, I haven't made as good of an effort as I should to really learn the "ins and outs" of their catalog. I love the atmosphere in their tracks. From my (superficial) knowledge of their catalog, they effectively meshed the best parts of the synthesized 80's with the AOR/guitar-heavy music that's more in my sweet spot. Cool to hear they're still out there creating.



Yeah, in the 80s, I think they were unfairly grouped with the superficial synthpop bands of the time, a lot of that due to their image and fashion ... they had songs like "Shout" which could stand up to anything Depeche Mode was putting out at the time, and then they would release these remixes of the deeper cuts for dance clubs and stuff (see "Mother's Talk"). But the guitars and arrangements never got the respect they deserved.


I love the Mother's Talk remix. Yeah, I always love the guitar interludes Roland put into songs and even the heavier guitar sound, like Elemental, he still carried over that atmospheric Tears for Fears sound. I still love so much of Saturnine, Martial & Lunatic, the B sides and rarities album, because the airy experimental atmospheric sound really is prevalent throughout it. And I've always thought they have great instrumentals.

I love this song from it, Deja Vu and the Sins of Science because of the soundscape to the song. It was a B side to the single Cold from Elemental. And I love Pharaohs. I don't know which album that was a B side to, but that British shipping report introing that instrumental is genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGuGyUHrwT0

And I love the more rock song, Schrodinger's Cat off of it also. It was a B side to Break it Down Again off Elemental. I don't know why it wasn't put on the album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8fevFcAITQ


Yeah, that's one of the things I love about the band ... those moody experimental tracks that are mostly instrumental. Pretty amazing stuff. "Standing On The Corner Of The Third World" and "Listen" are my favorites of those kinds of tracks.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jana » Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:08 am

Standing on the Corner of the Third World used to be my favorite off of SOL for a long time after Woman in Chains. Now I think Swords and Knife is.

Listen is breathtaking. There are are no words for the otherworldliness of that instrumental.
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby Jeremey » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:14 pm

Jana wrote:Standing on the Corner of the Third World used to be my favorite off of SOL for a long time after Woman in Chains. Now I think Swords and Knife is.

Listen is breathtaking. There are are no words for the otherworldliness of that instrumental.


Ha, I just looked up the lyrics for "Listen" for the first time ever yesterday. Seems the chant is not actually saying "Coombayanachikalackamookasay," as I always thought ... :lol:
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Re: Tears for Fears - Rollingstone Interview - New Album

Postby LtVanish » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:23 pm

I am so excited that they are working on a new album, I know its going to be excellent, also great to hear a tour is in order as well.
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