"Now I feel like an adult. Songs about childhood and the pain of growing
up have been left behind.  On our previous album The Hurting I got that
part of myself of my chest. The new record Songs From The Big Chair is
much lighter than its predecessor. Yeah, we're grown  men now!" assures
Roland Orzabal, the vocalist and songwriter of the TFF-duo who also plays
guitar and the keyboards.

In a couple of years Roland and his bass player friend Curt Smith have
risen quickly to the top of the charts - as a matter of fact very quickly,
when one considers the fact that Tears for Fears isn't a band with an
image designed by the marketing staff of their record company.

Visuality certainly isn't the strongest side of the duo. Roland and Curt
look like a pair of boys from next door. The duo hasn't taken too much
care of their career either - with their first singles they became the
favorites of the young audience, but then they "screwed up" the whole
thing with their dark-sounding album The Hurting, which was like a cold
shower to the fans who had been anxious for the debut album to be launched
after the brilliant poppy singles.

So why did the band make such a mistake these days when one expects
calculated decisions from pop groups? "I don't want to become like David
Bowie or Lou Reed", answers Roland readily. "As a matter of fact, I'm not
even sure if I want to work as a musician."

"I'm not afraid of losing my status, because I'm not running after massive
success. I don't want to be number 1 in America or deposit millions to
Swiss banks. I believe that I'll get the most out of the music business by
going modestly through the whole process."

As one might guess from the previous comments Roland is a serious
character whose comments make the guy sound arrogant. Now that I think
about it more closely, I don't think that he smiled even once during our
meeting that lasted for an hour.

However, Tears for Fears isn't full of dark tones, so the explanation must
be Curt.

"In the early days Tears for Fears was really like two different bands. On
the debut album I went so far that I even divided my songs into two
groups. The songs that had more depth of thought and  moved me were
performed by myself, whereas I asked Curt to perform the lighter songs. He
is a happy chap who is more at home with the poppy music."

"I can't give any reason as to why my songs fall so clearly into two
categories. But I've noticed that this difference is continuously becoming
narrower. The gloomier songs have become clearer in musical structure
which is only a good thing, because of course I want to be able to
communicate with our audience also through the songs that I perform
myself."

Tears for Fears got its first hit straight away with their debut single
Mad World. It was followed by the equally light Pale Shelter and Change.
"The singles rose to the charts quickly, but they also fell off the charts
very fast. That kind of fast circulation didn't feel right. It didn't
forebode longevity for the band, either."

Because Tears for Fears didn't do much gigs in the early days, Roland
expressed himself uninhibitedly on the album The Hurting. The clinical
sound of the studio presents itself strongly on the record. It was only
later that he realized what kind of problems live performance of the album
would cause.

"But then it was already too late and so we had to go on our first tour
with playback. I wouldn't call "The Hurting" an ego-trip, but it's close
to one in any case. There are a couple of songs that just don't work when
they're performed with a band.
What kind of working method did you use while putting the album together?
"I composed all the songs and then I demoed them with Curt. No one outside
the band had even a chance to have a say in the way they were created. I
still make the initial preparations with the songs independently, but I'm
not as stubborn as when we started. Now other people have also a chance to
express their opinions."

How do you write songs?
"Songs are always a challenge. They can be created anywhere. Even when I'm
whistling while walking on the street. Writing songs is a sort of an
obsession for me. Many songwriters are afraid that they will eventually
lose their inspiration, but I'm not worried about that, because when
inspiration comes it takes you with it. If the idea is strong enough, it
is no problem to work on it."

"Sometimes I may put some idea aside for new inspiration. Distance is
usually only good for the idea, because then it comes back much stronger.
This is what happened to Shout, for example. First I thought it would only
be good enough for an album track, but then: Boom! the whole idea of the
song became clear to me. Songs are like good wine, they must settle
first."

Shout and its predecessor Mother's Talk presented Tears for Fears in a
totally new light. Although both songs are catchy, they avoid the worst
fault of chart pop, short life. Especially Shout was played so many times
while it was on the top of the charts in England, so it's a small miracle
that it still sounds fresh while heard from the Songs from the Big
Chair-album. That doesn't mean, however, that those two tracks were the
best that the album has to offer, because especially the latter half of
the album sounds so great that even those who've been skeptic towards
Tears for Fears will forget their doubts. The songs have the strength that
is needed and because of the wide range of instruments it seems unfair to
categorize the music under the narrow label of synth-pop. The album was
mixed in Münich, but the actual recording took place in Tears for Fears'
own studio in Bath.

"We noticed already while recording The Hurting how difficult it is to
record an album if the producer is already involved in the recording
process. You'll have to spend most of your time fighting for your own
ideas. When the debut album was finished, Curt and I learned to use the
studios together. We played with the basic beat and so on. The experiments
were created on The Way You Are-single which seemed to be too artistic for
the average record-buyer."

That's why Chris Hughes returned as your producer on this album, then?
"In a way, yes, but the arrangements in the studio have become better;
after all, it's our music, not his."

If Roland was given free hands, he'd surely have even more desire to
experiment. Have you ever considered recording on your own?

"Possibly. I have considered many kind of things but it's too early to
talk about them now. For example, I wrote I Believe from the new album
originally with Robert Wyatt on my mind, but eventually I ended up
performing the track myself...As I already mentioned, I'm not totally in
love with being a musician."
 

*Translated by Hannu Mutanen (Thanks!)