Singer Curt Smith is best known as one-half (along with singer Roland Orzabal) of the English pop band Tears for Fears, whose multiplatinum 1985 album "Songs From the Big Chair" spawned the No. 1 singles “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” But in recent years, Smith (now a U.S. citizen) has also made a name for himself as a social networking guru -- leveraging his followers on the Internet to launch a Web-only music show called “Stripped Down Live” and speaking at technology conferences such as TEDx.
The popular website Twitter, in fact, proved to be the perfect place to catch up with Smith on Aug. 11 about Tears for Fears’ current tour, the band’s much-anticipated Aug. 26 double bill with Atlanta hometown heroes Arrested Development, and his now-public private life.
“I don’t feel or behave like a rock star, so thankfully people don’t treat me as such,” Smith writes, in a series of direct messages to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He says “personal contact with fans” through his own blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts “normalizes” him.
Although Tears for Fears hasn’t released an album of new material since 2004’s "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending," the band’s loyal fan base is still interested in the lives of the pair of songwriters who wrote “Mad World” and “Advice for the Young at Heart.”
Orzabal isn’t very active online, but when the family-oriented Smith tweets that he’s taking his young daughters to watch “American Idol” live at L.A.’s Nokia Theatre, sends out a link to his new single, “Perfectly ... Still (featuring Universal Hall Pass),” or posts a photo of an Adelaide billboard while on tour in Australia, fans respond -- and so does Smith, by answering their replies and leading occasional “Twitchats.”
As for Tears for Fears’ music career, Smith says that “geography” (Orzabal lives in Bath, England; Smith resides in California) and “a record industry in flux” prevent the duo from writing new material together at the moment. However, both will be on the tour in Atlanta, giving the band the opportunity to enjoy performing hits such as “Secret World” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love” (both among Smith’s favorites) in the company of its longtime fans.
One such fan is Arrested Development’s Speech. In a recent phone call with the AJC, the leader of the seminal, socially conscious Atlanta hip-hop group says that, as a young DJ, he used to spin Tears for Fears’ “Shout” and scratch the song’s “C’mon!” chorus to make crowds go wild. “I love that joint’s beat,” he laughs.
Of the two bands’ gig together on Aug. 26, where Arrested Development will play Chastain Park Amphitheatre for the first time and roll out a career-spanning set (including songs from its 2010 release, "Strong"), Speech says, “It is going to be so much fun.”
Smith agrees. “My favorite Arrested Development song is ‘Give a Man a Fish,’ ” he tweets. “Love Speech.”
On the night of Aug. 26, fans of both bands can join in the love fest.
Concert preview
Tears for Fears with Arrested Development and Wainwright. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26. $28.50-$48.50. Chastain Park Amphitheatre, 4469 Stella Drive N.W., Atlanta, 404-733-5012, www.chastainseries.com
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