Un'intervista fatta non molto tempo fà trovata tramite il sito di Curt 
Curt tells The Celebrity Cafe's Dominick Miserandino how his work as a solo artist differs from his work with Roland Orzabal on Tears for Fears projects. Click here to read the full story.
Curt Smith - from Tears for Fears and Solo work
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
In 1982 Curt Smith teamed up with Roland Orzabal to create Tears For Fears, and quickly took the world by storm with songs such as "Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule The World," and "Head Over Heels." After separating in 1990, Smith and Orzabal reunited to bring Tears For Fears back to the recording studio and stages around the world. Smith, meanwhile, has spent the last six years working on a semi-autobiographical solo album, "Halfway, pleased." TheCelebrityCafe's Dominick Miserandino spoke with Smith about working alone.
DM: I just listened to your latest release but I read online that it was released in 2007 in France.
CS: We didn't think we were going to release it in France. I finished it and then Tears was doing some work there at the time, and the record company that released the Tears for Fears album in France really wanted to do it, and so I let him do it before anyone else. And then I had to work with America and the rest of the world and that took me awhile with the various negotiations until I decided that I didn't want to negotiate because I didn't want to sign with anyone. So that explains the gap between the French release and now.
DM: I listened to the whole release and it was nothing like what I expected to hear.
CS: Yeah, most people say it's not what they expected. Some fans, to say the least, were surprised.
DM: The whole time I'm expecting to hear 'Shout' and 'Everybody Wants to Rule the world' or something along those lines, but I didn't hear anything to compare it to.
CS: I wouldn't say it's comparative. There are reasons behind it, but it's certainly a lot more intimate and I guess a lot more laid back and less bombastic than anything I have done with Tears For Fears. I think that because I did a record with Roland in the middle of me writing and recording this album is the reason it turned out that way.
DM: How did that effect how the album turned out?
CS: He would tend to do things in quite a grand way and I got the Tears For Fears thing out of my system doing the whole Tears record. So when it comes to finishing I've been on and off the road a year and a half with Roland and I didn't want to do anything similar at that point in time because I had just done it for quite a few years.
DM: This is certainly the opposite of grandiose. It has an orchestra sound to it, new age classical.
CS: The vocals were supposed to be very intimate, very close, very compressed, and that was to be intentional because I think it fit musically the way we would later lay on the songs. I think it worked really well. When I go to make an album I have no preconceived idea about what it's going to be. I just go in and make what I feel like making at that point without any concern about how people are going to feel toward it. At times it's a good thing and at other times other people's opinions are a bad thing.
DM: Did you think at any point in time that it would be opposite of Tears For Fears?
CS: No, I didn't really. It was the way it came out. It's only through retrospect I can think of the reasons it came out like that because it certainly wasn't in the forethought of my mind while I was doing it. It wasn't in my mind at all. What I did was I just went in to collect the tracks and let the recording be what it was.
DM: Was this the type of album you felt the therapeutic sigh of relief afterwards?
CS: Music to me is a way to get things out of your system. And I think it was a reaction not against the Tears record, because I actually loved the last Tears record. But you spend your time compromising. It's not about your personal experiences but to get something you both agree on. The subject matter tends to be a lot more general as opposed to personal. I had all these things I wanted to write about I couldn't under the Tears For Fears banner that I was allowed to do with this record. It was very soothing to me and a release for me, which was good.
DM: It was a surprise because I expected it to be musically "ballpark" and i was thinking 'did Roland really have that much influence?' because, with the two of you together, it was like a whole separate child was created.
CS: It is completely different. When you listen to Roland's songs they are nothing like what we did under Tears For Fears. When we get together as Tears For Fears it's that: a combination of two things. The Tears For Fears sound is what we do and what we like about things we can agree on. So what we do on our own is going to be considerably different because we don't have to limit ourselves, which is great.
DM: Is this, then, what you and Roland would not agree on?
CS: In some aspects yes. In some aspects Roland would go: 'Why did you do that? I don't really like that.' And the same way when I listened to Roland's album. There are lots of things we don't agree on.
DM: Are you so emotionally joined at the hip that he was at the back of your mind while you were doing this? Like 'This would piss him off if I did this.'
CS: Oh God no. I couldn't care less. It's not among the things we think about when we work on our own. The best part of working on our own is not thinking about someone else. It's not against something. It's just the whole 'I can do what I want' feeling that's just great. And I think doing these kind of projects, and any kind of solo work, enables us to work together because without it I think we would get into conflicts.
DM: Do you have a plan going forward with your musical career?
CS: My plan is to do it as long as I enjoy it - and I'm enjoying it right now - I will continue to do it. I'm very fortunate to be in a successful band and that pays the bills. For me it's about meaning something to me, and if it stops meaning something to me then it's time not to do it any more.
DM: On a personal level is this one of your most successful records?
CS: I think on a personal level it's the most successful record.
DM: It sounds like you've found the perfect road for yourself.
CS: It's never a perfect road but it's certainly gratifying, and I'm quite content with where I am right now and with what I'm doing. That's probably an incredibly good thing.
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