Tears For Fears consists of Curt Smith.
Tears for Fears are a British pop band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, which emerged after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate. They were initially associated with new wave and the New Romantic movements, but quickly branched out into mainstream chart success.
The duo's name is derived from the primal therapy treatment formed by Arthur Janov. During primal therapy, the patient is encouraged to cry, scream, and beat objects to express childhood, perinatal and prenatal feelings; hence the name "Tears for Fears."
Orzabal and Smith's professional music career actually started with the band Graduate. In 1980 Graduate released an album called Acting My Age. Graduate's sound was a cross between Mod Revival and New Wave. Much of their sound was similar to that of The Jam and early Elvis Costello.
Acting My Age had some success in the UK (just missing the Top 100) and in Spain. Upon work on their second album, Orzabal and Smith left the group. Their reason for leaving the group was because they didn't want to be confined to a band. They formed a band called The History of Headaches which was quickly changed to Tears For Fears. The plan going forward would be that Orzabal and Smith would work in a "project" mode: In other words, Orzabal and Smith would form the nucleus and bring in surrounding musicians to help them complete the picture.
Their first album The Hurting ( 1983) featured synthesizer-based songs whose lyrics reflected Orzabal's bitter growing-up experiences with his parents. Its singles were Mad World, Change and Pale Shelter, all of which were UK Top 5 hits, and the album itself charted at #1. A previously unheard single called The Way You Are was released at the very end of 1983 to keep the band in the spotlight (minimally - it only made the Top 25) while they worked on the second album. For The Hurting, keyboardist and composer Ian Stanley and drummer Manny Elias were considered full members of the band.