Roland Orzabal, co-founder of Tears For Fears, publishes his memoir Welcome to Your Life: Love, Death and Tears For Fears on 4 August through Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins (Billboard).

The 268-page book is subtitled "An Astrological Memoir" and opens with a foreword titled "Warning: This Book Contains Astrology." Orzabal, 64, told Billboard he has studied astrology for 40 years and wanted to combine metaphysics with the story of the band. Publisher Carrie Thornton suggested placing the astrology in interstitial sections at the end of each chapter, so readers uninterested in star charts could skip them and stick to the narrative.

That turned out to be a practical call. Orzabal sent bandmate Curt Smith an early copy. Smith finished it and, according to Orzabal, "was in tears" — which Orzabal took as "a good sign." When Orzabal asked Smith what he made of the astrology sections, Smith said he either "didn't read that" or "didn't understand it" (Billboard).

Orzabal had no intention of writing a memoir. He published a novel, Sex, Drugs & Opera, in 2014 and was shopping a second, Truthwall, when his literary agent Mark Gottlieb suggested he turn to nonfiction. The result is promoted on the band's TikTok as "the world's first astrological memoir" (TikTok).

The book traces the partnership at the centre of Tears For Fears. Orzabal and Smith met as early teens, formed a band called Graduate — which released one album and dissolved — and then founded Tears For Fears. Both developed a deep interest in the psychologist Arthur Janov and his primal scream therapy, a form of treatment built on the idea that repressed childhood pain surfaces as physical and emotional distress. That interest shaped the songs on the band's 1983 debut The Hurting and on 1985's Songs From the Big Chair, which topped the Billboard 200, the chart that ranks the highest-selling albums in the United States.

Tears For Fears announced on social media that the band is back on a world tour alongside the memoir's publication (Facebook; Instagram). Orzabal, who lives on the south coast of Massachusetts, told Billboard the tour and the book were timed to land together.

For readers who have followed the band since the 1980s, the memoir promises a close account of a partnership that has survived breakups and reunions — and for those who care about the astrology, there is a foreword to brace them.