Back in 2014, British duo Tears For Fears shared the stage at Almost Acoustic Xmas, a popular radio station show put on by L.A.’s KROQ, with many of the biggest bands in alternative music, including Imagine Dragons, Interpol, Weezer, No Doubt, Vance Joy and Smashing Pumpkins.
What was memorable about that show was watching how a slew of fans who hadn’t yet been born when TFF (as they were known) scored a string of hit singles, including “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” “Shout,” “Sowing The Seeds Of Love” and “Pale Shelter,” in the 1980s sing along to every word from Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal.
TFF owned night two of the two-day radio station fest, proving at the time their music is as relevant as ever. Three years later that career resurgence has continued with multiple successful tours, including one his year co-headlining with Hall & Oates, and now a new greatest hits compilation, Rule The World, that also features the duo's first two new songs in 13 years.
I spoke with Smith about being an ex-patriot in Los Angeles for the past 20 years, the young bands he admires and being political songwriters.
Steve Baltin: Where are you today?
Curt Smith: I am at home in Los Angeles today, I live in the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland/Laurel Canyon area.
Baltin: How long have you been in L.A.?
Smith: I have been here, my daughter is now 18 and she was born here, so 19 years.
Baltin: There is such an amazing tradition of music in that area. Do you feel the spirit of it in your music?
Smith: I think it has a certain effect on you. It’s always good to be somewhere with some history, maybe that’s England, which has a long history. Or if you’re in L.A. Laurel Canyon area music is legendary.
Baltin: Talking to so many people this year what I have found is everyone agrees that politics has shaped music this year whether you are overtly political like a Rise Against or just giving fans a release. Has that been the case for you?
Smith: I think that consciously or subconsciously it always affects you. A lot of songs we’ve written have been political, but they’re also personally political. You tend to balance it out with whatever you’re going through personally as well. 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. I certainly think when we’re playing live, twofold, one, people are in desperate need of a release and to go out and find something tangible to hold on to and get joy out of. And two, obviously a lot of our songs are kind of political, “Seeds Of Love” or “Mad World,” even though that’s kind of personally political. I think people do relate to them more. And we’re finding a younger generation live that relates to our music. That’s something new for us that’s happened over the last few years, and that’s very gratifying and wonderful to see.
Baltin: Has playing to the new younger audience invigorated you?
Smith: Definitely, it’s completely inspiring when you play live, there’s no question about that, when you look at the audience. Let me take one show as an example. We played at Bonnaroo [2015], which is predominately a younger audience. And we were in sort of the tent with the open end and they thought we’d get four or 5,000 people would watch us. And it went all the way back to the end of the field so my guess is there were maybe 12 to 15,000 people. All the people I could see at the front were predominantly 18 to 25, they were all young. And what was amazing was the album they gravitated towards and seemed to know all the lyrics from was The Hurting, which in America was never a hit. It was popular in L.A. and New York, but in middle America it wasn’t. It was quite amazing to see. So yes, it does invigorate you and sort of give you a new lease on life. And I mean that in business playing live and personal.
Baltin: Can you now after all this time get the perspective to step away and see why people gravitate to that album?
Smith: In the case of The Hurting I think that we just thought this is obvious, like all these feelings are obvious to us. And it was at a time, I think, we thought, of course as every 18, 19 year old feels, we were literally the only people in the world that felt like this. And we were, on our own, fighting against the system, only to record an album that millions and millions of 18 to 20-year-olds at colleges and universities around the world feel exactly the same way. So I understand, in retrospect, that age group went for that album, because that was the age we were when we wrote it and recorded it. And that’s why younger audiences have gravitated to that album.
Baltin: Who else would you like to tour with like you did with Hall & Oates this year?
Smith: Oh god, I don’t know. Normally you don’t really think about those things. In this case it was our agent or manager would come to us and say, “How about touring with these people?” The bands I would like to tour with I wouldn’t think would want to tour with us (laughs). But next year in England we are on the road, for a few weeks, with Alison Moyet, which I’m looking forward to. Primarily, one, because I love Alison’s voice and two, she’s hilarious. So in that sense it will be enjoyable. But it’s hard to really know when it comes to touring because it could be one of your favorite ever bands and they could be assholes. So you don’t really know and I’m very aware of that because some of your heroes you meet you’re like, “Oh wow, wish I never met you, it’s ruined everything.”
Baltin: Have there been artists that have been fans you would not have expected to be fans?
Smith: There are a lot of younger bands I admire. When I say they wouldn’t want to tour with us, as a package it doesn’t necessarily make sense. If I think of my favorite concerts over the last year or so I would probably pick the 1975 and Twenty One Pilots were the two best shows I’ve seen. I also love their music.
Baltin: What do you take from this compilation when you listen to it?
Smith: I’m listening to myself grow up is what I’m doing, which is fascinating.
Baltin: Are there moments you’re proudest of?
Smith: It’s always the later work. The thing I would guess I’m most proud of is the fact that we have never been satisfied doing one thing and the fact that I’ve seen growth and musically, production-wise, lyrically, consequentially personally, the fact that I see growth is a wonderful thing. It would be disappointing to think that, “Oh my god, we just progressively got worse.” I think we’re actually still improving and I think that’s not something you judge by sales obviously. I think that you, as a musician and a singer and as an artist, if you can see that you’ve improved over the years then it’s a good thing.
