John: One thing I wanted to ask you about the "NME" piece and then we'll move on but, maybe it was the way that he wrote it, or the way it was structured, but there were things in there that sort of made it seem that, at times, you were sort of just flippant about the whole thing. I guess it's important to be able to have some sense of humour about what you went through, but I didn't get much anguish out of it either, and I'm sure that was there as well...
Dave: Thank god. That's because I'd been sober for a while. And could look at it in a different light. When you're right in it, it's impossible, and I think you have to see the kind of, insanity of it. I think that was because at the time in those particular times that I'm talking about, I wasn't serious enough about trying to get clean. It was, "I'll clean up for a bit, and then I'll be well enough to be able to go out and do it again." And it, time after time, it got worse and worse. And you know it's true what they say, you go back. If you get clean for a while and you go back, nine times out of ten you'll pick up exactly where you left off. And for me, I have to consider the fact that that possibly means death, you know. And that's not an option now in my life...
I have too much to lose. I have a wonderful son that I don't want to grow up with that in his life. I think if I can't stay clean for myself, I have to remember the people around me... I have a girlfriend who I love very much and care about very much who's been incredibly supportive to me, and I've been very selfish over the last eight months with her as well, but I need to change that. I need to change a lot of things about me, and it's not gonna happen overnight. But if I do just take it one day at a time, and I hate to use all the cliches and stuff in the program, but they work you know, that's why they're there. I'd rather be throwing out cliches than be the dead cliche (laughs).
John: There was the thing in the interview about the whole Kurt Cobain thing, and your envy, or fascination. Is it going too far to say that you had a conscious kind of death wish or is it just that there was something appealing about that monster?
Dave: Yeah. For sure. I think it was all fear-based. All of it. Fear of losing what I felt was really important to me. Dissolving into something that other people uh, didn't enjoy to be around anymore. It created this ideal that what I was was what people wanted therefore I was trying to please everybody else and completely forgot about David. And when I tried to find David, it was too late.
I think there was a number of times when in different ways I attempted suicide you know. But I think that they were more cries for help really, now that I think about it, because I'd always make sure there was enough people around me so that someone was gonna' come pick me up from the floor at some point and I'd be picked up from the Sunset Marqius and rushed off to hospital again.
I feel lucky. I feel very fortunate and grateful and lucky that I've had that in my life. There's a lot of addicts out there who are in meetings, who don't have that. You know, they don't have people around them that will pick them up every time that they fall down. You know, I think I would have been dead long ago if I didn't have people around that wanted to keep, for whatever reason, they wanted to keep David alive. You know, it was lucky they were there and for whatever reason they were trying to keep this body moving. Whether it was to make another record or whatever, I don't really care about that anymore. There was a time when I kind of resented that and I used that as, like, "Well they only want me to get clean so I can make another record." Yeah exactly, I'd use any f**king excuse if I broke my shoelace in the morning I'd go and get high, you know? I'd be, "F**k it's Sunday." I hate Sundays, you know.
John: Wow. Well, let me ask you about the time you were in New York, and your feelings about the band... at the time were you eager to get back to a new record or were the drugs so much a part of your life that it was just, whatever...
Dave: Um, it was I was in and out, sometimes I was very kind of enthusiastic about it, usually when I was coming down and miserable, you know but um, if I'm gonna be honest it was.... I dunno, I kind of like... it helped me in a way because I realised what I didn't want to do, was just before I'd even give it the chance, just die... or something and I was gonna end up dead without even giving it the chance, and um... actually working at it and doing this record especially in the last eight months or so, it's really helped me a lot, therapeutically, you know Martin's lyrics and stuff um, the songs being fundamentally about destiny, you know it's kind of spooky.
John: He said that he doesn't deliberately write for you, but if you can bring something to it... so much the better.
Dave: Like Martin once said to me, like one night. I think in fact it was in Chile... where the Kurt Cobain thing happened, not where it happened, but same night, and we were in my room. It was very late and we'd been drinking a lot. Whether he was drunk, I don't know if he can even remember it, but it stuck in my mind anyway. He said to me that he feels like he gets his songs like... gets something from God and he thought that he was losing it because he was drinking and stuff. For some reason he thought that he had to channel that work through me, and I was his voice kind of thing, which I thought was the most beautiful thing he had ever said to me. I mean we were both in kind of the "I love you" mode but it really stuck in my mind like maybe I really am supposed to deliver some kind of message you know.
For whatever... whether people get something out of it or not maybe it's supposed to do something for me, you know? And in some little way I held onto that you know, I think about it a lot and um... so that's what really drove me as well, to want to complete this record and now I'm so glad... I feel really proud of what we've done, you know.
John: And your feelings about the music on this record, vis-a-vis what you wanted to do, or at least everything that's been written about how you wanted to sort of push in another direction for "Songs of Faith and Devotion"...
Dave: You know I think I was once again trying to change the destiny of Depeche Mode myself, all on my own and I was like this is what we should be doing... and you know Depeche Mode is a collective group of people and ideas, and I think I was just trying basically to boost my own ego, for whatever reason I don't really know, 'cause it's kind of a bit of a blur. I don't feel like I need to do that anymore.
You know, I concentrated on just trying to put my feeling and my heart into singing the songs. And I feel like Depeche Mode is, you now, if it was a movie Martin would be the writer and the director, and I'm the actor, and it's my job to kind of get it across, you know. Get that emotion across. It's head music and I'm the heart or something, and that's not putting Martin down, his songwriting, it's the way.... Mart, obviously, I mean that's the way he expresses himself. He finds it very hard to talk about what he does, but I think over the years, and what I now accept I think it's a good thing, is that depeche mode is very much Martin's songs and my voice. That's what you hear when you listen to a Depeche Mode record and the two wouldn't really be Depeche Mode without the other.
John: You come across as a really sociable person who likes to talk and interact and it's interesting...
Dave: I'm a good actor. (laughs)
John: Seriously, you don't feel that way? You don't enjoy the company of other people?
Dave: You know what? I do, I do. But it's hard, I don't know why. But I feel very self conscious and um.... when I actually do, it's a lot easier to do once I'm doing it. Like this morning, I was sitting on the couch and my stomach was turning over and I've been in this band for seventeen years and I been doing this stuff for a long time, and I still get...
John: But that's 'cause you knew what they were gonna' want to talk about...
Dave: Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's not even that it's just um, I'm not that comfortable anymore with sitting and kind of, like, trying to justify what I am and my actions and stuff but I do feel responsible to a certain extent for my actions possibly leading to other people thinking it's a good thing, or that's the way to go, because of what I've been through in the last few years, I would hate for anybody to think that it was cool or like it was a good thing to do or that was the way that an artist should be cause that's utter bullshit.
I mean, I did think at one time that I had to be in a place of complete pain to sing, a song like "Condemnation." I felt like I couldn't have done, I thought that performance was down to the fact that I could just about stand up and had to take everything in my body to get it out and without even like, that was....a song like "Walking in My Shoes" or whatever. It was my head. It was more like doing it with my head instead of doing it with my heart and just letting it flow, you know? What I would really, really love is just to be at peace with myself, just to be comfortable within my own skin, and that's gonna' take some time, I think.
The above was from MTV on February 1st, 1997.