Depeche Mode Depeche Mode's Kinky Moods (Creem, 1986)

[demoderus]

Depeche Mode's Kinky Moods
[Creem, July 1986. Words: David Keeps. Pictures: Ian Hooton / Andy Freeberg / Retna.]

Easy-to-read and somewhat humourous discussion with the band (mainly Dave) while recording Black Celebration. The piece focuses on their finally succeeding in America and the problem of pushing the artistic envelope without falling foul of censorship and pigeonholing. A pleasure to read, and comments from Andy that he should regret for a very long time.
" We’ve got a very hardcore following that we don’t want to hurt or lose because they’ve stuck by us for five years and we won’t take the piss out of them by putting out trash just so our record goes into the Top 20. "

What would you call a band that wears a lot of black leather, sings about “Masters And Servants” and claims that “God has a sick sense of humor”? And has a brilliant songwriter called Martin Gore who performed his first studio singing effort in the dark and the nude? [1] And when he does get dressed, prefers black leather mini skirts, black nail polish, rhinestone necklaces and rubber leggings?

You’d call ‘em kinky, by cracky, and you’d call ‘em Depeche Mode, otherwise known as the most content-worthy, avant-pop (add your own hyphens here) bunch of Brit boys ever to finger a synthesizer. And you’d call on ‘em at a typically modern recording studio in London where they’re hard at work recording their new LP, Black Celebration. “We’re not computer snots,” lead singer Dave Gahan insists. “We know probably as much as the next person, but we are learning,” he continues, with an explanation that soon soars above my head. Let it just be said that computers help Depeche Mode come up with their strange and wonderful sounds through a process called “sampling”, which, now that they’re in the studio, has been completed.

Well, almost. “I’ve got to do a sample for the nurse tomorrow,” Andy “Fletch” Fletcher reveals. WHAT? “At the beginning of this project I started taking lots of vitamins,” he explains, “but as soon as I stopped taking ‘em I got ill. I’m not saying it’s connected, mind you, but I’ve been ill for the last week and a half, trying to ‘shake the disease’. Still it’s better than being constipated, that’s the worst thing!” Gracious!

Dave seems bemused by the sudden turn of conversation. “Toilet talk is one of his favorite topics,” he sighs resignedly. “It’s all he ever talks about!”

“Well,” Fletch continues unashamedly, “it’s a weird thing. I mean you do it in private and there’s so many things that each individual could do…”

“STYLE!” Dave bursts in. “You should interview him about toilet style…”

“Can I just interrupt for two seconds,” Martin Gore says, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. PLEASE DO! “They need the video title now! I’ve thought of something I don’t like very much. Some Great Videos.” (A spoof on their LP Some Great Reward.) Martin is soon joined by the slightly sinister presence of the fourth (and newest) Mode, Alan Wilder, and an unexpected display of that cherished R’n’R institution, Group Democracy, unfolds before my very eyes.

“Yeah,” Fletch agrees, “because some of our videos are pretty bad, so it’s not The Videos, all of them, but some of ‘em.” Quick thinking lads, but typical, it turns out, as Depeche Mode have always had a little trouble with names. “Shake The Disease,” Fletch recalls. “We had trouble with that one, which is a great song, but they didn’t like the title, partly because it came out when AIDS was in the news all the time. They scrutinize the song’s contents, the lyrics, the video. If there’s anything dodgy, if there’s any excuse not to play it or show it then they won’t.”

Sounds like The Curse Of The Washington Wives. “I’m sure they’re very nice people,” Dave offers innocently. “Oh, that’s right. Prince and Madonna are having trouble with them, right? Well, we’ve done it then, this new album will be totally banned,” he laughs. “Listen, the state of pop is very safe at the moment. No one’s willing to break out and we’re partly responsible for that too. I think we go to more extremes than a lot of other bands, we try to live on the edge, compromise a bit, but I still don’t think we go far enough. But we don’t want to go the whole hog as some bands do to have commercial success. We’ve got a very hardcore following that we don’t want to hurt or lose because they’ve stuck by us for five years and we won’t take the piss out of them by putting out trash just so our record goes into the Top 20.”

It’s that “hardcore following” and the attractive grooves of anti-racist “People Are People” that finally propelled Depeche Mode into the U.S. Top 20 late last summer. [2] It’s been a long, overdue haul for the boys from Basildon who saw their first single (in 1981) zoom up the U.K. charts. At the same time that The Great Synthpop Wave started to wash over the Atlantic, Mode guru Vince Clarke grabbed his songbook and split to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet. Doom and gloom! The sprightly discofied tunes like “Just Can’t Get Enough” from their debut LP Speak And Spell evolved into moodier ditties on their Yankee-ignored Broken Frame LP. “The Broken Frame fans are weirdos,” Fletch says fondly. Depeche Mode hung a sharp louie away from bubblegum and arrived at the threshold of Art. “The first gig we played in New York was packed out,” Fletch recalls. “The second time was half-full. The third time it was almost empty!”

So, they stayed home for a couple of years, recorded brilliant dance records, released and endless stream of British hits, became huge stars in Germany and, finally, had a “totally unexpected good time” touring for five weeks in America as their worldwide ’85 release (Some Great Reward) and a greatest hits package (People Are People) nestled in the Hot 100. This time ‘round, it appears, we Yanks finally got it right. “When we were in Texas,” Fletch remembers, “this girl rang up our room and after talking quite a bit she said ‘When I put on your records it’s like listening to a slice of Europe’, which is great because I think you can’t relate our music to any American style at all.”

 

[demoderus]

“After America we went back to Europe and did festivals with U2 and the new Clash,” Dave says. “Places like Florence where you play in huge circus tents and it’s so hot that it starts raining with condensation and there’s steam everywhere and you think you’re going to have a heart attack. I remember not being able to breathe because there wasn’t any air. Pretty heavy gig!” Less heavy was his decision to quietly marry his sweetheart Joanne. “I just woke up one morning and decided to do it,” says Dave. “It was very very casual. We’ve been together for six-and-a-half years now, so it’s no new thing anyway. We could have got a lot of mileage out of it if we let the press in on it, but we just got married in a registry office and had a party afterward which was quite good.”

One thing all of the Modes are happy to publicise is their involvement with Greenpeace. “We weren’t asked to do Band Aid,” Dave explains. “The way it was put together was like Bob’s-close-friends sort of thing and then it expanded from there and we don’t really mix with that crowd. Since then in every interview we’ve had to explain ourselves, but there were a lot of bands that didn’t do it that were pretty upset about it.” Depeche Mode contributed the hauntingly bee-yoo-tiful “Blasphemous Rumours” to a Greenpeace compilation LP and they participated in a fast sponsored by the Oxfam charities. “It’s a simple exercise, something everyone can do,” Fletch explains. “You spend the money you would’ve spent on food that day to Oxfam and all the fans are supposed to, too.” [3]

And, of course, Depeche Mode have their own mighty mission. “The last five years have basically been a crusade to get our records sounding as powerful as we do live,” Dave preaches. “As a live band we play very loud – we’re talkin’ Motorhead – but that’s what it’s all about. That’s the power of rock’n’roll!”

What? These artful modernists think they’re a rock’n’roll band? “Of course we do,” Dave smiles. “We’ve never called ourselves a ‘rock’n’rowl’ (sic) band; we do everything there is to do in rock’n’roll. Our last single (“It’s Called A Heart”) was rock’n’roll, man. [4] And the next tour we got planned is a six month round the world tour – that’s pretty rock’n’roll!”

Yeah, we know, but we like it.

[1] - The story is true, but somebody wasn't the first he sung on. Martin sung on Any Second Now in 1981.
[2] - I think the writer is getting very confused here - People Are People, like its 'parent' album Some Great Reward, were both released in 1984, as was the U.S.-only compilation also titled People Are People. There was however a singles compilation, Catching Up With Depeche Mode (basically just The Singles 81-85 with a different title) released in the USA in 1985.
[3] - Much of this paragraph is a revelation. It's frequently mentioned in interviews around this time and indeed later that they didn't do Live Aid because they weren't asked. In later years they've increasingly taken the tone that they wouldn't have done it even if asked, as they weren't comfortable with the principle of tugging at people's arms to donate to charity (hence Fletch's probably-ironic comment about "all the fans are supposed to too") while conveniently boosting their own careers in the process. This is an explanation that never comes up in '85-'86, so it may well have been something cooked up to evade the potential embarrassment of admitting "Bob didn't want us". The Greenpeace compilation is news to me (although they did do a Greenpeace / Amnesty International benefit show in 1981), as is the involvement with Oxfam.
[4] - In case you hadn't already figured, Dave is having a laugh here. However much the band's sense of hedonism was developing in 1985/6, it hadn't yet become their trademark, and there is no way on God's good earth that It's Called A Heart could be called rock'n'roll. Man.