Denis McNamara: This is LIR 92.7. Looking back to that period of the songs and then eventually it evolved into an album following that, but of the songs you were writing then, which ones come back to mind?
Martin Gore: I think around the time of Construction Time Again, that was a really important phase for us, with the single Everything Counts. That was when we, I think, really took control over what we were doing. Up until that stage, I think we were still very naive, and A Broken Frame is a bit of a mishmash of songs with no particular direction. I think we really found our feet with Construction Time Again.
[Everything Counts plays]
Denis McNamara: This is Martin Gore here with us. Depeche Mode is the band. LIR 92.7 radio station, I'm Denis McNamara. Right around that time too, I saw the beginning of an evolution in your writing, I think, in two very distinct ways, not that it's just limited to that. One, almost political, but political from a humanistic standpoint. And the other , very romantic. Is that a fair evaluation, you think?
Martin Gore: Y eah, that's very fair , because when just call songs political, it's... I don't like that term very much, because some of them kind of do deal with political issues, but musically doesn't really change anything, and it's... If music is... When music is, eh... Oh, what am I saying here? [laughs] Anyway , I don't like the term political, it doesn't really sum up what music does or what music is about, really .
Denis McNamara: Y ou seem to have, like, an everyman's voice, I think, observing. Not necessarily crusading, but observing life and its good points and bad points.
Martin Gore: I think that's very fair , yeah, very true. We're not trying to really change anything. Because, as I said, music doesn't change anything. But, just observing and putting it down in music.
Denis McNamara: Okay , this is Martin Gore with us from Depeche Mode with us, LIR 92.7. Let me throw some of the songs at you, because we are limited for time, and those of you listening, if you hear glasses tinkling in the background, it's because we're sitting in some restaurant in the lobby of a hotel here. As far as the American market goes, with the exception perhaps of stations like LIR and the people who are hip to underground or dance music, the song People Are People had a big role in introducing you to an audience that perhaps were not aware of you. How did that song come to be? I mean, do you remember how you wrote that one?
Martin Gore: Well, same sort of way I write most of them: sitting in a bedroom and a 4-track, guitar , few keyboards. And when I initially wrote it, it was very kind of almost bland disco. But we realized the potential of the tune, and then we really tried to kind of, like, "mean it up", and use a lot of metal sounds and things like that, and we're really pleased with the result, Because it really worked well in the end.
Denis McNamara: There was, like, that real percussive pounding weight to the song, almost, that emphasized that "People Are People" in the background. I'm sure it was a mixture of percussion and synthesizers. Was that something which came by accident, or was that what you were looking for , that kind of power?
Martin Gore: Y eah, we just experimented with loads and loads of different sounds, like a... What's the word I'm looking for? Superimposed loads of sounds, to get some really powerful things happening.
[People Are People plays]
Denis McNamara: Y ou were speaking before about sitting in the bedroom and writing your songs, with your guitar . I might have taken that to mean that there are many , many songs that we haven't heard yet? Do you, like, write and write continuously , or , what's the writing process for you?
Martin Gore: I find it very difficult to write when we're on the road, but I usually get inspiration from seeing things and meeting people, and things like that when we're on tour , and I just jot down notes. And then usually after a tour , we have a writing period of a month, two months, and that's when I sit down and work on those ideas. Some of them work out, some don't.
Denis McNamara: Alright, LIR 92.7. The subject: Depeche Mode, Martin Gore, who is the man who writes the words for Depeche Mode, is with us. Let me run down some of the other favourites, for instance Master And Servant. Can you tell me about that one?
Martin Gore: Everyone likes talking about that one, I can't understand why . [laughs] No, we have got quite a lot of flak, and general... not exactly radio bans, but radio stations wouldn't play that, because they felt it was too sexual, and I think we suffered a bit, radio-playwise, because of that. But it's not really a song about sex, it's not exploiting sex at all. As most of the songs are, they are about life.
[Master And Servant plays]
Denis McNamara: It would say that's an age-old theme, Master And Servant, that I thought was captured there. What is there at the end goes on a little bit there, with that little instrumental part?
Martin Gore: Nothing pervy! But Andy , I think, was wearing shorts at the time, so we got a ruler , and he hit - this is dedication, this is dedication for you - we got him to, like, to just sit there, prepare himself, and then we slapped him with a ruler on his legs. And there was the sound of the ruler hitting him, and then his cry of pain. And then, we put that into a loop and that's at the end of the song. That's dedication for you, though, he does not mind being hurt just to get a good sound for the band.
Denis McNamara: Oh... There you go. Martin Gore, that's from Depeche Mode, LIR 92.7. One thing people have remarked on - and perhaps as we get to the new record more so than any other record - that there seems to be a darker , denser side to the music and the writing of of the last few records. Do you think that's fair? Because underneath that dark, dense thing, there seems to be some very positive lyrics-thing going on.
Martin Gore: Y eah, I think it's true. We're just gradually moving in that direction over the years. I think, from the first album to the second there is like a slight move to that area, and it has just carried on over the years. Who knows what's gonna happen next year?
Denis McNamara: Well Martin Gore is with us, LIR 92.7. A big favourite is Blasphemous Rumours, a song which I think is often misunderstood by people who don't listen close enough to the words. How did that one come to be?
Martin Gore: That was mainly inspired from the early days of the band or even before the band got started, when Andy and Vince were regular churchgoers, and I just used to go along because they were my friends. I just thought it was quite interesting. I was never a practicing Christian, although they were. And when you're not involved in it, I think you really notice the hypocrisy and just the funny side to things. One thing I often quoted is this thing called the "prayer list": every week they would sit and pray for people who were seriously ill, and you could guarantee that most of them, the majority of the people who they prayed for , would die. But they took that as, like, being very , very positive, that was "God's will" and "They've gone to somewhere better". And it's just, when you're not part of it, it just seems very ridiculous, very funny . I know a lot of people out there are not gonna agree with me.
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