Roland Orzabal

Roland Orzabal
2007 Roland Orzabal
Background information
Birth name	Roland Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana
Born	(1961-08-22) 22 August 1961
Origin	Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
Genres	New wave, post-punk, pop rock, mod revival, synthpop, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitars, keyboards, timpani
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Mercury, Eagle, Epic
Associated acts	Tears for Fears, Graduate, Neon, Mancrab, Oleta Adams

Roland Orzabal (born August 22, 1961) is a British musician, songwriter and record producer. He is known mainly as a co-founding member of Tears for Fears, of which he is the main songwriter and joint vocalist, but he has also achieved success as a producer of other artists.

Early career

Orzabal met Curt Smith while both were in their early teens in Bath, Somerset. In the late-1970s, they formed a mod music group, Graduate, along with three other members.^[1] Following the release of their debut album, Acting My Age, the group disbanded and Orzabal and Smith went on to form Tears for Fears, a synthpop/New Wave outfit directly inspired by the writings of American psychologist Arthur Janov.^[2]

Solo work

After a decade of major international success, Orzabal and Smith had an acrimonious split in the early 1990s. Although Orzabal continued to work as Tears for Fears after he and Smith parted ways, the subsequent TFF albums Elemental (1993) and Raoul and the Kings of Spain (1995) are effectively solo works by him in all but name. Elemental was a success being certified as Gold status in the US and Silver in the UK, while Raoul took a more artistic direction but garnered less chart success. In April 2001 he released his first proper solo album, Tomcats Screaming Outside, under his own name.^[3] Orzabal and Smith had reconciled by that point and were working on a new Tears for Fears album together (2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending).

Work as a producer/songwriter

As a songwriter, Orzabal is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner. His first award was in 1986 for "Songwriter of the Year" following the huge success of Tears For Fears' second album Songs from the Big Chair for which Orzabal wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks.^[4]

In addition to co-producing most of Tears for Fears' records, Orzabal also co-produced Oleta Adams' successful album Circle of One (1990) along with Dave Bascombe, following on from Adams' collaboration on the 1989 Tears for Fears album The Seeds of Love. The album reached #1 in the UK and #20 in the US, and featured her transatlantic top ten hit "Get Here". Orzabal also co-wrote the lead track "Rhythm of Life" for the album, which was initially intended for The Seeds of Love. He also appeared in the song's accompanying music video, as well as playing guitar and singing backing vocals on the track.

In 1999, Orzabal co-produced the Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini's acclaimed album Love in the Time of Science, along with Tears for Fears associate Alan Griffiths. The pair also wrote two tracks for the album.^[5]

Orzabal's talents as a songwriter were recognised again in recent years after Michael Andrews and Gary Jules recorded the song "Mad World" for the film soundtrack Donnie Darko in 2001.^[6] Their version was released as a single in 2003 and became the Christmas number one single in the UK that year, ultimately becoming the year's biggest selling single. The song was originally composed by Orzabal and was Tears for Fears' first hit single in 1982. In 2004, the song won Orzabal his second Ivor Novello Award as the songwriter of the Best Selling UK Single of 2003.^[7]

Personal life

Orzabal was born in Portsmouth, England. His family later moved to Bath where he attended Culverhay School and later became a member of the Zenith Youth Theatre Company.^[8]

Orzabal's mother is English and his father (George Orzabal de la Quintana) is from Paris, France, but of Spanish-Basque descent.^[8] Roland's grandfather was Arturito Orzabal de la Quintana, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.^[9] Orzabal was originally named "Raoul" at birth for two weeks, but this was subsequently changed to Roland to anglicise the name as the family were living in England. When Orzabal was three years old, his father had a nervous breakdown leaving him semi-bedridden for a large portion of Orzabal's childhood. His father decided to run an entertainment business with his mother, a dancer, resulting in different entertainers often around Orzabal's home. He describes his childhood as 'unorthodox' and it inspired various Tears For Fears songs, particularly on The Hurting.

In 1985, Orzabal gained considerable press attention for his strained relationship with his father and a humorous cartoon was printed in the UK tabloid The Sun pertaining to this. The cartoon was later reprinted within the cover artwork for the Tears for Fears single "I Believe".^[10]

Orzabal married his wife Caroline (née Johnston) at Bath Registry Office in 1982.^[11] They have two children, Raoul and Pascal. Caroline can be heard singing the child vocal on the Tears For Fears song "Suffer the Children" from the band's debut album The Hurting,^[12] and also drew the "hands" cover artwork for the 1983 re-release of "Pale Shelter".

Discography

• Tomcats Screaming Outside (2001)

References