Depeche Frontman In New Mode
[Daily Mail, 2nd May 2003. Words: Adrian Thrills. Picture: Uncredited.]
He has spent two decades as the singer in one of Britain's biggest rock bands, enjoying the exhilarating highs of global success and suffering the debauched lows of a drug addiction that nearly killed him.
And, when fronting Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan still leaves the songwriting to others, seeing himself as a performer rather than a creator.
Now he is striking out on his own. Having avoided alcohol and drugs for seven years - and built a happy family life in his adopted hometown of New York - Gahan is finally making his songwriting debut, releasing a solo single, Dirty Sticky Floors, later this month.
"I never thought about writing songs in Depeche Mode," he tells me. "But I've always had a yearning to do something creative. In order to write, I needed a break. I had to put myself in a different frame of mind."
The new single, a grinding electronic rocker, is not a huge shift from Depeche's dark yet dynamic style. But his forthcoming album, Paper Monsters, due out in June, is more surprising, containing several dreamy ballads, elegant classical strings and unexpectedly upbeat lyrics.
"I wanted to make a record that made me feel good," Epping-born Dave continues, his Essex accent now tinged with the tones of New York.
"The albums that inspired me over the years have always made me feel good, whether they were by The Rolling Stones, The Clash or Radiohead. Those records were honest, and that's what I want to be.
"There are a lot of hopeful songs on the album. I wanted to get rid of the negativity that has surrounded me. One thing that kept me going was my sense of humour - and I wanted to reflect that."
Fans worried that Gahan (pronounced 'Ger-haan') [1] might be losing his old swagger should not fret, however. Paper Monsters is more reflective than his recent outings with Depeche and is certainly less reliant on synthesisers.
But there are links with his past in the powerful vocals and a clutch of bluesy songs that recall 1993's Songs Of Faith And Devotion, a No.1 album on both sides of the Atlantic.
Recorded with producer Ken Thomas and New Yorker Knox Chandler - a guitarist and string arranger who was once a member of the Psychedelic Furs - Dave's album was made in a small studio in Greenwich Village.
"Knox encouraged me to change my musical ideas," he says. "We wrote everything together, but we didn't work within set rules. We didn't want to be electronic. We went wherever our emotions led us."
Almost inevitably, Dave's recovery from drugs was an inspiration. A fresh-faced, frilly-shirted figurehead of the 'new romantic' scene in the Eighties, Gahan seemed to change character completely when Depeche Mode became big in America in the early Nineties.
He got hooked on heroin and moved to Los Angeles. There followed a suicide attempt in 1995 and a near-fatal overdose in 1996, neither of which curtailed his wretched habit.
"I was desperately looking for something, but I was destroying myself," he says. "People warned me about the dangers of drugs, but even that didn't stop me.
"In the end, I had to change everything about myself in order to escape. It had to come from within. It was a slow process, but I eventually found the willingness to face up to things. I needed to change to stay in a relationship with my wife, to be able to listen to my children, and to keep on making music."
But while his drug problems are addressed on Paper Monsters, Gahan's past does not overshadow the album. One track, Stay, is about the birth of his daughter, Stella, and the cinematic Black And Blue Again was inspired by the remorse that followed a row with his wife, Jennifer.
"We had a huge fight, and I walked out of our apartment," he says. "I was on my way to the studio when it suddenly dawned on me that I was the one in the wrong. That song is basically me admitting that I'm not always a very nice person. I realised that relationships weren't easy, and I had to change."
Gahan, who turns 41 next Friday, will take his solo show on the road in the summer, playing Glastonbury Festival in June before July concerts in London, Manchester and Wolverhampton.
With his Depeche Mode cohort Martin Gore, the band's songwriter, also making a solo album - a collection of covers - the future of the group, who formed 23 years ago, could now be in doubt.
"There were times when I felt like a fraud in Depeche Mode," says Dave. "Even though I identified with Martin's songs, I was always interpreting someone else's feelings.
"But, when the time is right, Martin and I will sit down and talk. For now, I don't know about the future. I'm moving forward and I'm writing my own songs.
"For the first time in years, I am in the right place at the right time. As corny as it sounds, I'm doing what I should be doing."
[Daily Mail, 2nd May 2003. Words: Adrian Thrills. Picture: Uncredited.]
He has spent two decades as the singer in one of Britain's biggest rock bands, enjoying the exhilarating highs of global success and suffering the debauched lows of a drug addiction that nearly killed him.
And, when fronting Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan still leaves the songwriting to others, seeing himself as a performer rather than a creator.
Now he is striking out on his own. Having avoided alcohol and drugs for seven years - and built a happy family life in his adopted hometown of New York - Gahan is finally making his songwriting debut, releasing a solo single, Dirty Sticky Floors, later this month.
"I never thought about writing songs in Depeche Mode," he tells me. "But I've always had a yearning to do something creative. In order to write, I needed a break. I had to put myself in a different frame of mind."
The new single, a grinding electronic rocker, is not a huge shift from Depeche's dark yet dynamic style. But his forthcoming album, Paper Monsters, due out in June, is more surprising, containing several dreamy ballads, elegant classical strings and unexpectedly upbeat lyrics.
"I wanted to make a record that made me feel good," Epping-born Dave continues, his Essex accent now tinged with the tones of New York.
"The albums that inspired me over the years have always made me feel good, whether they were by The Rolling Stones, The Clash or Radiohead. Those records were honest, and that's what I want to be.
"There are a lot of hopeful songs on the album. I wanted to get rid of the negativity that has surrounded me. One thing that kept me going was my sense of humour - and I wanted to reflect that."
Fans worried that Gahan (pronounced 'Ger-haan') [1] might be losing his old swagger should not fret, however. Paper Monsters is more reflective than his recent outings with Depeche and is certainly less reliant on synthesisers.
But there are links with his past in the powerful vocals and a clutch of bluesy songs that recall 1993's Songs Of Faith And Devotion, a No.1 album on both sides of the Atlantic.
Recorded with producer Ken Thomas and New Yorker Knox Chandler - a guitarist and string arranger who was once a member of the Psychedelic Furs - Dave's album was made in a small studio in Greenwich Village.
"Knox encouraged me to change my musical ideas," he says. "We wrote everything together, but we didn't work within set rules. We didn't want to be electronic. We went wherever our emotions led us."
Almost inevitably, Dave's recovery from drugs was an inspiration. A fresh-faced, frilly-shirted figurehead of the 'new romantic' scene in the Eighties, Gahan seemed to change character completely when Depeche Mode became big in America in the early Nineties.
He got hooked on heroin and moved to Los Angeles. There followed a suicide attempt in 1995 and a near-fatal overdose in 1996, neither of which curtailed his wretched habit.
"I was desperately looking for something, but I was destroying myself," he says. "People warned me about the dangers of drugs, but even that didn't stop me.
"In the end, I had to change everything about myself in order to escape. It had to come from within. It was a slow process, but I eventually found the willingness to face up to things. I needed to change to stay in a relationship with my wife, to be able to listen to my children, and to keep on making music."
But while his drug problems are addressed on Paper Monsters, Gahan's past does not overshadow the album. One track, Stay, is about the birth of his daughter, Stella, and the cinematic Black And Blue Again was inspired by the remorse that followed a row with his wife, Jennifer.
"We had a huge fight, and I walked out of our apartment," he says. "I was on my way to the studio when it suddenly dawned on me that I was the one in the wrong. That song is basically me admitting that I'm not always a very nice person. I realised that relationships weren't easy, and I had to change."
Gahan, who turns 41 next Friday, will take his solo show on the road in the summer, playing Glastonbury Festival in June before July concerts in London, Manchester and Wolverhampton.
With his Depeche Mode cohort Martin Gore, the band's songwriter, also making a solo album - a collection of covers - the future of the group, who formed 23 years ago, could now be in doubt.
"There were times when I felt like a fraud in Depeche Mode," says Dave. "Even though I identified with Martin's songs, I was always interpreting someone else's feelings.
"But, when the time is right, Martin and I will sit down and talk. For now, I don't know about the future. I'm moving forward and I'm writing my own songs.
"For the first time in years, I am in the right place at the right time. As corny as it sounds, I'm doing what I should be doing."