Tears for Fears

About Tears for Fears

Successful English duo Tears For Fears helped defined the synth pop sound and used it to dominate the 80's pop charts. Singer/songwriters Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith met in their hometown of Bath, England and formed a mod/new wave band named Graduate styled after clever British new wave guitar acts like The Jam and Elvis Costello. Graduate cut one album and enjoyed moderate success, but the boys had become interested in the more electronic sounds of Brian Eno and Talking Heads and shifted the direction that way. Tears For Fears were always very interested in different forms of therapy and the band name, along with inspiration for their hit single "Shout," was taken from their extensive reading on primal scream therapy. They were signed to the UK's Phonogram Records and had their first hit with the poignant, melancholy single "Mad World" (later re-recorded with a sparse piano arrangement by Gary Jules and used to tremendous effect in the cult movie Donnie Darko.) Their 1982 debut album, The Hurting, also took it's name from therapy text books and was largely inspired by Orzabal's troubled childhood and the entire record is nearly a concept album about psychotherapy. But for their follow-up, 1985's Songs From the Big Chair, they left the therapy behind and got reactionary, critiquing Thatcher and Reagan era politics. The disc was full of textured synthesizers and contained Tears For Fears' two biggest singles, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Shout," both of which would get the band into heavy rotation on MTV.