Depeche Mode Bong 30 (1996-12)
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Bong 30 (December 1996)
Articles:
In Search Of Depeche Mode (mammoth band interview, here split into three parts for convenience: Martin / Dave / Andy )
Singles 81-85 (album review) by various contributors
Black Celebration (album review) by various contributors
From "Pressed In Black" (fan letter) by "Raf Boy"
Pictures:
page 1 the band's Christmas greetings
page 2 the band in the studio
page 3 Fletch's birthday party
page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 the band and production team in the studio
page 11 the band and production team in a lighter moment
Articles:
In Search Of Depeche Mode (mammoth band interview, here split into three parts for convenience: Martin / Dave / Andy )
Singles 81-85 (album review) by various contributors
Black Celebration (album review) by various contributors
From "Pressed In Black" (fan letter) by "Raf Boy"
Pictures:
page 1 the band's Christmas greetings
page 2 the band in the studio
page 3 Fletch's birthday party
page 4 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 the band and production team in the studio
page 11 the band and production team in a lighter moment
Attachments
CATCHING UP WITH... MARTIN
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
When I first thought of interviewing Depeche Mode for Bong, I was convinced it would be no easy task (even for the Fan Club), considering how busy they were in the studio, trying to get the album finished. I couldn’t have been more wrong, organising a suitable time for everyone was the only difficulty and not the “Mission Impossible” I’d imagined. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the guys. Their time and co-operation is greatly appreciated.
Catching up with… Martin
How do you feel about the past two years? Have you been doing much?
We’ve spent a large portion of the last two years making the record we are working on at the moment and before we started the actual recording I was writing the songs. But I probably started writing the new songs earlier than two years ago.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from such an extensive Devotional Tour?
I actually think it didn’t take me very long. I got into some very bad habits on that tour. I was taking sleeping tablets every day and when I got home from the tour I still had a couple left and so it gave me a few days of good sleep… sleep is a key to happiness (laughs). After that I ran out of those tablets and I was totally back to normal.
Have you kept in touch with one another since the end of the Devotional Tour or just wanted a break and forget about Depeche Mode for some time?
Because Dave went back to America we didn’t see him very often and we didn’t speak on the phone very much, maybe not as much as we should have. We didn’t speak to Alan at all even though he was living in London which we felt was quite strange and we were totally prepared for his decision to leave the band. We actually predicted that months and months before it happened. Andy I see all the time because we have the same group of friends and so if I’m in London I’m almost bound to bump into Andy at some point.
Do you think that Dave being in LA and the rest of the Band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
I think the fact that there is such a great distance between us sometimes raises more communication problems and even though it is so easy to pick up the telephone and speak to somebody, it’s just something people don’t do as often as they should. We are realising that we should keep in touch more often especially when decisions are to be made, if we are on different sides of the Atlantic…
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
This record has been really easy for us to make. [1] There is such an easy going atmosphere in the studio, and the team we are working with are all such nice people. So compared to the pressure of making the last few albums, this is totally enjoyable. I knew Tim before and we actually met quite a lot over the years, but I’ve never spent a lot of time with him, and he’s such a lovely person. It feels like I have discovered a new soul brother. When you have to be in a studio with four or five different people all the time it always helps if you have that bond with them.
When did it come about to start working on the new album?
I suppose it’s always down to how many songs I have ready, and demo’d, up to a stage where I think they’re ready to go into a studio, and start experimenting with. So I think when I had about six or seven songs we had a meeting, and we talked about future plans and when we should start recording, when would be a good time to release something, in theory, and that’s when we had those preliminary meetings.
Have you been listening to a lot of music lately? Has anything inspired or influenced you in your current work?
I have always liked to listen to all kinds of music. I just came back from the record shop and when I analysed what I’ve just bought, none of it is actually current. I got one CD that might have been released during the last three months but the rest of it is really old stuff. It’s not any particular genre of music.
What gigs have you been to lately?
I don’t particularly like live music very much. I went to see Oasis at Knebworth, but more for the event really, and I found it quite interesting. I always found it very bland watching bands on stage unless there is something really special happening. Just watching people playing instruments has never really appealed to me.
How has the current music, including electronic forms such as techno and dance floor, affected the recording of the new album? Especially since Tim Simenon is one of the representatives of such a flow?
I’m really into slow dance music and anything over about 100 beats a minute is a bit too fast for me, and that’s really slow. The tempos on this album range from 69 up to about 100 and that’s my perfect range. But going back to the music I like, I do generally like a lot of the trip-hop stuff, for want of a better term, I hate the term trip-hop, but it doesn’t actually sum up a certain sort of music.
Tim Simenon is known among the fans for his remixes of your songs such as “Everything Counts”, “Strangelove”… Why did you choose him particularly?
We all really liked the last Bomb The Bass album and I particularly liked the Gavin Friday album that came out just a couple of months before we started working with Tim. I think the stuff he’s worked on with Sinead O’Connor in the past is her best stuff, for me. Tim does have a good ear for dance music. Tim can make something that’s 69 beats a minute quite groovy and that’s quite important to us because we are in such a slow territory. In the past we have gone much faster than 100 beats a minute but when I try writing anything faster than that now it always sounds silly to me, it just loses atmosphere. For me, this record is all about atmosphere.
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
When I first thought of interviewing Depeche Mode for Bong, I was convinced it would be no easy task (even for the Fan Club), considering how busy they were in the studio, trying to get the album finished. I couldn’t have been more wrong, organising a suitable time for everyone was the only difficulty and not the “Mission Impossible” I’d imagined. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the guys. Their time and co-operation is greatly appreciated.
Catching up with… Martin
How do you feel about the past two years? Have you been doing much?
We’ve spent a large portion of the last two years making the record we are working on at the moment and before we started the actual recording I was writing the songs. But I probably started writing the new songs earlier than two years ago.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from such an extensive Devotional Tour?
I actually think it didn’t take me very long. I got into some very bad habits on that tour. I was taking sleeping tablets every day and when I got home from the tour I still had a couple left and so it gave me a few days of good sleep… sleep is a key to happiness (laughs). After that I ran out of those tablets and I was totally back to normal.
Have you kept in touch with one another since the end of the Devotional Tour or just wanted a break and forget about Depeche Mode for some time?
Because Dave went back to America we didn’t see him very often and we didn’t speak on the phone very much, maybe not as much as we should have. We didn’t speak to Alan at all even though he was living in London which we felt was quite strange and we were totally prepared for his decision to leave the band. We actually predicted that months and months before it happened. Andy I see all the time because we have the same group of friends and so if I’m in London I’m almost bound to bump into Andy at some point.
Do you think that Dave being in LA and the rest of the Band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
I think the fact that there is such a great distance between us sometimes raises more communication problems and even though it is so easy to pick up the telephone and speak to somebody, it’s just something people don’t do as often as they should. We are realising that we should keep in touch more often especially when decisions are to be made, if we are on different sides of the Atlantic…
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
This record has been really easy for us to make. [1] There is such an easy going atmosphere in the studio, and the team we are working with are all such nice people. So compared to the pressure of making the last few albums, this is totally enjoyable. I knew Tim before and we actually met quite a lot over the years, but I’ve never spent a lot of time with him, and he’s such a lovely person. It feels like I have discovered a new soul brother. When you have to be in a studio with four or five different people all the time it always helps if you have that bond with them.
When did it come about to start working on the new album?
I suppose it’s always down to how many songs I have ready, and demo’d, up to a stage where I think they’re ready to go into a studio, and start experimenting with. So I think when I had about six or seven songs we had a meeting, and we talked about future plans and when we should start recording, when would be a good time to release something, in theory, and that’s when we had those preliminary meetings.
Have you been listening to a lot of music lately? Has anything inspired or influenced you in your current work?
I have always liked to listen to all kinds of music. I just came back from the record shop and when I analysed what I’ve just bought, none of it is actually current. I got one CD that might have been released during the last three months but the rest of it is really old stuff. It’s not any particular genre of music.
What gigs have you been to lately?
I don’t particularly like live music very much. I went to see Oasis at Knebworth, but more for the event really, and I found it quite interesting. I always found it very bland watching bands on stage unless there is something really special happening. Just watching people playing instruments has never really appealed to me.
How has the current music, including electronic forms such as techno and dance floor, affected the recording of the new album? Especially since Tim Simenon is one of the representatives of such a flow?
I’m really into slow dance music and anything over about 100 beats a minute is a bit too fast for me, and that’s really slow. The tempos on this album range from 69 up to about 100 and that’s my perfect range. But going back to the music I like, I do generally like a lot of the trip-hop stuff, for want of a better term, I hate the term trip-hop, but it doesn’t actually sum up a certain sort of music.
Tim Simenon is known among the fans for his remixes of your songs such as “Everything Counts”, “Strangelove”… Why did you choose him particularly?
We all really liked the last Bomb The Bass album and I particularly liked the Gavin Friday album that came out just a couple of months before we started working with Tim. I think the stuff he’s worked on with Sinead O’Connor in the past is her best stuff, for me. Tim does have a good ear for dance music. Tim can make something that’s 69 beats a minute quite groovy and that’s quite important to us because we are in such a slow territory. In the past we have gone much faster than 100 beats a minute but when I try writing anything faster than that now it always sounds silly to me, it just loses atmosphere. For me, this record is all about atmosphere.
What is the main difference in work approach between Tim Simenon and Flood?
One of the main differences is that there’s a lot less performance but that’s also probably dictated by the songs more. There’s a lot less guitar on this record than on the last one, and probably less than on “Violator” as well. Tim also has a strange set-up and he works with the same team. So in the studio we have a programmer, a musician, an engineer and Tim, and all four of them work together all the time, and they have a really good working relationship. With Flood, it was just Flood there throwing ideas at us and saying “why don’t you try this? Get on with this and see if it works” or suggesting something and trying it out himself. Now sometimes there’s two or three different things going on at once… me and Tim might talk to Dave Clayton, the keyboard player, and say, maybe we should try this on this song and he’d put his headphones on and go off and work for a few hours, while maybe we’re trying something else out, on a different song. And sometimes, like in New York I had a set-up in the live room, to write as well. So sometimes there’s three different things going on at once. Parallel working, they call it (laughs).
Does it mean that you are involved in the production a bit more than you used to be?
In the past, Alan was almost a control freak. I think he’d even admit he’s a bit of a control freak. He tended to really focus on the production and it’s something that didn’t interest me as much. Obviously, I cared about what was going on and what the end result was. If I liked what he was doing then I would let him get on with it. If it came to a point where I really didn’t like something, then I would say I don’t think that works, maybe try something else, which is like you’re sort of a background producer. Now, I definitely have to be slightly more involved than that. [2]
Did you discuss with Daniel Miller the directions you want to take on this album?
I always play Daniel the demos as soon as they are finished and he generally likes them. I can’t remember a time when he said “I really hate that song”. We didn’t have a big concept before we started the album. I did say to him that I like the idea of it being quite hip-hop based in a certain way. That’s why we started thinking about the dance angle and I think it was Daniel who first suggested Tim. He said “what about Tim, he’s a nice bloke, you know him already, he’s produced a few good records”. So we listened to the stuff Tim had been doing and thought, what a brilliant idea. We’d already met him and liked him. If you like people it’s one of the important things in life and everything falls into place.
How many new songs have you written and how many of them will make it onto the album?
At the moment there are nine actual songs with words and there’s an instrumental, that’s probably the first B-side, but we like it so much we might end up putting it on the album as well. We also want to try and do some atmospheric instrumental link pieces. We’ve got the ideas there but we haven’t actually physically done them yet. We don’t know how long they are going to end up and if they end up having titles then there could be like 11 or 12 tracks. If they end up being so short that they are just really link pieces, then we probably won’t even name them. [3]
Do you write when you’re happy or unhappy?
I don’t know if I am ever really happy or really unhappy. I think I always have a certain level and because I am always at that level that’s always how I write. That’s always the emotional state I am in when I wrote. I don’t have like massive peaks and troughs of happiness.
What do you do with the songs that don’t make it to the album?
Some of them will end up on B-sides and there is probably one or two that I’ll end up rejecting, just because I am not sure about them.
One of the main differences is that there’s a lot less performance but that’s also probably dictated by the songs more. There’s a lot less guitar on this record than on the last one, and probably less than on “Violator” as well. Tim also has a strange set-up and he works with the same team. So in the studio we have a programmer, a musician, an engineer and Tim, and all four of them work together all the time, and they have a really good working relationship. With Flood, it was just Flood there throwing ideas at us and saying “why don’t you try this? Get on with this and see if it works” or suggesting something and trying it out himself. Now sometimes there’s two or three different things going on at once… me and Tim might talk to Dave Clayton, the keyboard player, and say, maybe we should try this on this song and he’d put his headphones on and go off and work for a few hours, while maybe we’re trying something else out, on a different song. And sometimes, like in New York I had a set-up in the live room, to write as well. So sometimes there’s three different things going on at once. Parallel working, they call it (laughs).
Does it mean that you are involved in the production a bit more than you used to be?
In the past, Alan was almost a control freak. I think he’d even admit he’s a bit of a control freak. He tended to really focus on the production and it’s something that didn’t interest me as much. Obviously, I cared about what was going on and what the end result was. If I liked what he was doing then I would let him get on with it. If it came to a point where I really didn’t like something, then I would say I don’t think that works, maybe try something else, which is like you’re sort of a background producer. Now, I definitely have to be slightly more involved than that. [2]
Did you discuss with Daniel Miller the directions you want to take on this album?
I always play Daniel the demos as soon as they are finished and he generally likes them. I can’t remember a time when he said “I really hate that song”. We didn’t have a big concept before we started the album. I did say to him that I like the idea of it being quite hip-hop based in a certain way. That’s why we started thinking about the dance angle and I think it was Daniel who first suggested Tim. He said “what about Tim, he’s a nice bloke, you know him already, he’s produced a few good records”. So we listened to the stuff Tim had been doing and thought, what a brilliant idea. We’d already met him and liked him. If you like people it’s one of the important things in life and everything falls into place.
How many new songs have you written and how many of them will make it onto the album?
At the moment there are nine actual songs with words and there’s an instrumental, that’s probably the first B-side, but we like it so much we might end up putting it on the album as well. We also want to try and do some atmospheric instrumental link pieces. We’ve got the ideas there but we haven’t actually physically done them yet. We don’t know how long they are going to end up and if they end up having titles then there could be like 11 or 12 tracks. If they end up being so short that they are just really link pieces, then we probably won’t even name them. [3]
Do you write when you’re happy or unhappy?
I don’t know if I am ever really happy or really unhappy. I think I always have a certain level and because I am always at that level that’s always how I write. That’s always the emotional state I am in when I wrote. I don’t have like massive peaks and troughs of happiness.
What do you do with the songs that don’t make it to the album?
Some of them will end up on B-sides and there is probably one or two that I’ll end up rejecting, just because I am not sure about them.
Musically and lyrically, does this new album mean any profound changes from the previous ones?
I think in some ways, it’s very different to the last album and it would probably have made sense as a follow-up to “Violator”. For me, the last album was a bit of a quirk, our pseudo-rock album. This one’s far more heavily electronic based, which is I think where our true roots are.
How long does it usually take to write and then record a song?
To write and demo a song could take a day if I do it all really quickly. But sometimes… there’s one song on the album which I kept trying to do a demo of but it just never worked and I kept thinking why doesn’t it work? I liked the basic song and I went back to it five or six times and spent like a week each time on it, and in the end I got it to work. But that’s just the demoing of the song. When we get in to the studio, some songs fall into place quite quickly and some don’t.
Would you say the majority of the new songs are slow emotional ballads or rocky pieces?
There aren’t many “rock” songs on the album. There are about three or four that are possible to dance to in a conventional dance sense. Most of the tracks are quite slow, but I think they’re slow, but really groovy, they’re not un-danceable. There are about four that are fairly up-tempo.
Do you write ideas down when they occur to you? Are they visual?
They are usually visual, but I wish I did write ideas down more often because I believe that my memory is a lot better than it is. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I have a brilliant idea for a song and I remember a couple of cases when I virtually had a whole song written and I think “shall I get up and write that down – no there’s no way that I am going to forget that”. I wake up the next day and I can’t remember one line and that’s really depressing in a way.
What subjects do you touch on in your lyrics on this album?
I think religion is probably touched on less on this album than it has been in the past because I think I’ve overdone religion. But because it is still a major fascination, every time I pick up a pen there’s going to be a few words in there somewhere. It’s probably less religious than previously. I think it’s got quite a spiritual feel. There’s not really a concept or a theme to the album but quite a lot of the songs deal with destiny.
Have you every worried about becoming creatively bankrupt?
I worry all the time about that. I am never convinced that I’m not doing something good until the record is out, it’s been reviewed and people are buying it. With the last seven studio albums, I’ve never been happy until the records have been out, and people are buying them, but maybe there’s something interesting happening there. I remember with the last record I was really unsure playing it to people before its release, because when you’ve been working on something for so long that you have absolutely no perspective on what’s good or bad anymore. You just hope by trusting your judgment that you haven’t gone astray somewhere. [1]
You introduced the guitar on “Violator”, drums on “SOFAD”, what are you going to surprise us with this time?
I don’t think we’ve had Bob Dylan style ranting before. We have never used a pedal steel guitar in the conventional way before. One of the tracks has quite a country flavour to it. We got a pedal steel player, called B.J. Cole, in, and that worked really well.
Have you invited any other outside musicians or special guests to collaborate with you on this album?
We used quite a few different people and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. We got Jaki Liebezeit from Can to come in and play some drums on one of the tracks. We used another drummer from London, a Japanese guy called Gota Yashiki. We got Doug Wimbish who played bass for us on one of the tracks and we had Keith Le Blanc doing some drum programming for us. [2]
Have you used any new equipment or new ways of recording, technology-wise?
We have never worked with a programmer before, we’ve always done it ourselves. I really enjoy having a programmer there, because even though Alan did a lot of it on the last record, you still felt really involved, whereas now it’s much easier to just step back and listen to what’s happening. It’s also a lot quicker working with somebody who knows how to work everything perfectly. He also used a lot of things like hard disk recording which we’ve never used before and which gives you a lot of freedom. You don’t have to tape everything all the time. We’ve never had outside musicians constantly un the studio with us before. I suppose we had Alan in the past, and Dave Clayton, the musician we are working with now, in a way fulfils Alan’s role, but it’s far easier to manipulate him. If Alan didn’t like something, I am sure, he would play it badly, but if we say to Dave “can you try this out for us”, he’ll try it, and he’ll try his hardest to make it work for us. So as I said before, I really enjoy this whole set up.
I think in some ways, it’s very different to the last album and it would probably have made sense as a follow-up to “Violator”. For me, the last album was a bit of a quirk, our pseudo-rock album. This one’s far more heavily electronic based, which is I think where our true roots are.
How long does it usually take to write and then record a song?
To write and demo a song could take a day if I do it all really quickly. But sometimes… there’s one song on the album which I kept trying to do a demo of but it just never worked and I kept thinking why doesn’t it work? I liked the basic song and I went back to it five or six times and spent like a week each time on it, and in the end I got it to work. But that’s just the demoing of the song. When we get in to the studio, some songs fall into place quite quickly and some don’t.
Would you say the majority of the new songs are slow emotional ballads or rocky pieces?
There aren’t many “rock” songs on the album. There are about three or four that are possible to dance to in a conventional dance sense. Most of the tracks are quite slow, but I think they’re slow, but really groovy, they’re not un-danceable. There are about four that are fairly up-tempo.
Do you write ideas down when they occur to you? Are they visual?
They are usually visual, but I wish I did write ideas down more often because I believe that my memory is a lot better than it is. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I have a brilliant idea for a song and I remember a couple of cases when I virtually had a whole song written and I think “shall I get up and write that down – no there’s no way that I am going to forget that”. I wake up the next day and I can’t remember one line and that’s really depressing in a way.
What subjects do you touch on in your lyrics on this album?
I think religion is probably touched on less on this album than it has been in the past because I think I’ve overdone religion. But because it is still a major fascination, every time I pick up a pen there’s going to be a few words in there somewhere. It’s probably less religious than previously. I think it’s got quite a spiritual feel. There’s not really a concept or a theme to the album but quite a lot of the songs deal with destiny.
Have you every worried about becoming creatively bankrupt?
I worry all the time about that. I am never convinced that I’m not doing something good until the record is out, it’s been reviewed and people are buying it. With the last seven studio albums, I’ve never been happy until the records have been out, and people are buying them, but maybe there’s something interesting happening there. I remember with the last record I was really unsure playing it to people before its release, because when you’ve been working on something for so long that you have absolutely no perspective on what’s good or bad anymore. You just hope by trusting your judgment that you haven’t gone astray somewhere. [1]
You introduced the guitar on “Violator”, drums on “SOFAD”, what are you going to surprise us with this time?
I don’t think we’ve had Bob Dylan style ranting before. We have never used a pedal steel guitar in the conventional way before. One of the tracks has quite a country flavour to it. We got a pedal steel player, called B.J. Cole, in, and that worked really well.
Have you invited any other outside musicians or special guests to collaborate with you on this album?
We used quite a few different people and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. We got Jaki Liebezeit from Can to come in and play some drums on one of the tracks. We used another drummer from London, a Japanese guy called Gota Yashiki. We got Doug Wimbish who played bass for us on one of the tracks and we had Keith Le Blanc doing some drum programming for us. [2]
Have you used any new equipment or new ways of recording, technology-wise?
We have never worked with a programmer before, we’ve always done it ourselves. I really enjoy having a programmer there, because even though Alan did a lot of it on the last record, you still felt really involved, whereas now it’s much easier to just step back and listen to what’s happening. It’s also a lot quicker working with somebody who knows how to work everything perfectly. He also used a lot of things like hard disk recording which we’ve never used before and which gives you a lot of freedom. You don’t have to tape everything all the time. We’ve never had outside musicians constantly un the studio with us before. I suppose we had Alan in the past, and Dave Clayton, the musician we are working with now, in a way fulfils Alan’s role, but it’s far easier to manipulate him. If Alan didn’t like something, I am sure, he would play it badly, but if we say to Dave “can you try this out for us”, he’ll try it, and he’ll try his hardest to make it work for us. So as I said before, I really enjoy this whole set up.
What places and studios has the new album been recorded at? Have those particular choices had an effect on the way of recording?
We’ve done a lot of the recording in a very small studio called Eastcote. I think it’s helped in some ways to create this easy going atmosphere because we haven’t gone to top studios all the time. It’s been very low key and it’s been something that’s helped us to set a tone for the record. But obviously when it comes to mixing and vocals we have had to go to bigger studios, so we have done some of it at Sarm West, some if it here at Rak Studios and some at Electric Lady in New York.
What is the main difference between recording the album in a rented villa in Madrid and various studios? Was it more comfortable to spend the recording time at one place?
In theory, we loved the idea of renting a villa in Madrid and setting up our own studio but in practice it was an absolute disaster. We all hated it there because it wasn’t really in the centre of Madrid. It was about 30 or 40 minutes outside. So every time we wanted to go out we had to get cabs into town. The clubs there are open till really late and you come out really drunk and you’ve got to take a 30-40 minute cab ride home, and the cab drivers never wanted to take us that far. Also living on top of each other became really difficult. We never had any space from each other, so I think we learnt our lesson there. It’s much better for us to be living in totally different places and meeting up whenever we have to.
Are you singing on any of the new songs?
Yes, two of the songs. [3]
Are you planning to have your new songs remixed by the likes of Brian Eno, William Orbit, Johnny Dollar, Steve Lyon, Francois Kevorkian?
We are planning to have remixes. Not necessarily by the same people. So far we’ve only sorted out one remix and that’s by DJ Shadow. He’s doing the remix for the B-side of the single. It’s called “Painkiller”.
How much is there still to be done before the album is completely finished?
We’ve still got to finish the vocals on about four tracks. Musically, we are probably about 70% there, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we should get all the tracks up to the mix stage and then we have about eight weeks of mixing booked.
Is there a target audience you want to attract with this album?
No, not really. My soul brothers and soul sisters, that’s my target audience (laughs).
Do you think the reaction to the new record might be rather different in Europe than in America? Do you think the music scenes are very different in direction?
I find it really hard to gauge what’s going on. There doesn’t seem to be any direction to me, it seems there’s a bit of a mish mash. If you look at the charts over the years they’ve always been the same.
Does chart success mean anything to you?
I’d like to say no but unfortunately I have to say yes. It doesn’t mean that I lose sleep over whether we are at number one but I think if our record totally flopped and didn’t make it to the charts I think I would be quite upset. We have already spent a year working on it and we’ve got another few months to go, and after all that if it fails to make any charts I would be upset. When the last record came out I was on holiday and I got back from dinner one night and I had a fax saying that the album had gone straight to number one in America, England and a few other countries and I think I was really happy. So chart success must mean something.
Before finishing the last record there were doubts raised in the press of you overcoming the success of “Violator”, do you worry the new album might not be as successful as the previous ones?
During the writing of the last album I think I felt more pressure than I do this time because “Violator” was by far our biggest selling album up to that point and it virtually sold double anything else and it just seemed like there was this massive attention on us which I don’t feel anymore. The last record did OK but it didn’t sell as much as “Violator”, it sold more than “Music For The Masses” and “Black Celebration”. Maybe that’s the amount of pressure I like, maybe I could work it out in units to see exactly how much pressure I can take… “Violator” was slightly too much (laughs).
Do you still worry about how the media might receive your work?
It’s always depressing to get bad reviews because I honestly believe that what we are doing is good. But again I wouldn’t lose sleep over it because we all know what a fickle world it is, and you could be putting out the greatest work that’s been put out in the last ten years, but if somebody has a personal vendetta against you they’ll view it badly. So one thing we’ve noticed is it doesn’t matter what we release we get 50% good reviews and 50% bad reviews and I don’t think they have anything to do with music, everything is subjective and it’s a question of what’s going on in a reviewer’s head.
We’ve done a lot of the recording in a very small studio called Eastcote. I think it’s helped in some ways to create this easy going atmosphere because we haven’t gone to top studios all the time. It’s been very low key and it’s been something that’s helped us to set a tone for the record. But obviously when it comes to mixing and vocals we have had to go to bigger studios, so we have done some of it at Sarm West, some if it here at Rak Studios and some at Electric Lady in New York.
What is the main difference between recording the album in a rented villa in Madrid and various studios? Was it more comfortable to spend the recording time at one place?
In theory, we loved the idea of renting a villa in Madrid and setting up our own studio but in practice it was an absolute disaster. We all hated it there because it wasn’t really in the centre of Madrid. It was about 30 or 40 minutes outside. So every time we wanted to go out we had to get cabs into town. The clubs there are open till really late and you come out really drunk and you’ve got to take a 30-40 minute cab ride home, and the cab drivers never wanted to take us that far. Also living on top of each other became really difficult. We never had any space from each other, so I think we learnt our lesson there. It’s much better for us to be living in totally different places and meeting up whenever we have to.
Are you singing on any of the new songs?
Yes, two of the songs. [3]
Are you planning to have your new songs remixed by the likes of Brian Eno, William Orbit, Johnny Dollar, Steve Lyon, Francois Kevorkian?
We are planning to have remixes. Not necessarily by the same people. So far we’ve only sorted out one remix and that’s by DJ Shadow. He’s doing the remix for the B-side of the single. It’s called “Painkiller”.
How much is there still to be done before the album is completely finished?
We’ve still got to finish the vocals on about four tracks. Musically, we are probably about 70% there, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we should get all the tracks up to the mix stage and then we have about eight weeks of mixing booked.
Is there a target audience you want to attract with this album?
No, not really. My soul brothers and soul sisters, that’s my target audience (laughs).
Do you think the reaction to the new record might be rather different in Europe than in America? Do you think the music scenes are very different in direction?
I find it really hard to gauge what’s going on. There doesn’t seem to be any direction to me, it seems there’s a bit of a mish mash. If you look at the charts over the years they’ve always been the same.
Does chart success mean anything to you?
I’d like to say no but unfortunately I have to say yes. It doesn’t mean that I lose sleep over whether we are at number one but I think if our record totally flopped and didn’t make it to the charts I think I would be quite upset. We have already spent a year working on it and we’ve got another few months to go, and after all that if it fails to make any charts I would be upset. When the last record came out I was on holiday and I got back from dinner one night and I had a fax saying that the album had gone straight to number one in America, England and a few other countries and I think I was really happy. So chart success must mean something.
Before finishing the last record there were doubts raised in the press of you overcoming the success of “Violator”, do you worry the new album might not be as successful as the previous ones?
During the writing of the last album I think I felt more pressure than I do this time because “Violator” was by far our biggest selling album up to that point and it virtually sold double anything else and it just seemed like there was this massive attention on us which I don’t feel anymore. The last record did OK but it didn’t sell as much as “Violator”, it sold more than “Music For The Masses” and “Black Celebration”. Maybe that’s the amount of pressure I like, maybe I could work it out in units to see exactly how much pressure I can take… “Violator” was slightly too much (laughs).
Do you still worry about how the media might receive your work?
It’s always depressing to get bad reviews because I honestly believe that what we are doing is good. But again I wouldn’t lose sleep over it because we all know what a fickle world it is, and you could be putting out the greatest work that’s been put out in the last ten years, but if somebody has a personal vendetta against you they’ll view it badly. So one thing we’ve noticed is it doesn’t matter what we release we get 50% good reviews and 50% bad reviews and I don’t think they have anything to do with music, everything is subjective and it’s a question of what’s going on in a reviewer’s head.
Do you watch MTV and are you happy woth the way MTV has treated you in the past few years?
I think MTV has helped us a lot because even though we haven’t had a single out for three years people still can see us on MTV, but that doesn’t mean I am a great fan of MTV. I virtually never watch it and if there’s absolutely nothing on TV, I still refuse to put MTV on. But I few times I have seen it I think that MTV Europe is better than MTV in America. MTV America is far too preachy, they are constantly trying to politically correct all of the youth of America and I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think their views are necessarily right.
Why do you think it is that most of the TV stations still tend to present Depeche Mode as that naïve synthesizer band performing Just Can’t Get Enough? Do you have any explanation for this?
Maybe there’s a comedy factor involved… like send in the clowns… let’s show “Just Can’t Get Enough” again (laughs). In this country we have always suffered, I think mainly from a press campaign that went wrong. When we were doing OK in this country but we were doing much better everywhere else, we started portraying ourselves as these enormous superstars everywhere else that didn’t quite make it here. [1] But the point that everybody missed was that we were doing quite well here too, we just weren’t as successful as we were everywhere else. What the average person in the street seems to pick up from that is that we’ve never had any success at all here. I have so many people coming up to me saying “are you lot still going?… you had a couple of hits in the early 80’s didn’t you?” and they remember “Just Can’t Get Enough”, but partly because of this press campaign and there’s probably a few other contributing factors, we’re considered as total has-beens in this country by a large percentage of the population, and I hate defending myself. Every now and then I get really angry when people say this to me, and I say “our last album went to number one, how high do you have to get to be noticed?”
Do you read your own press?
When an album comes out I get all the reviews and if we do interviews I obviously read them to see what the interviewer’s written about us. But I don’t ask for every little press clipping that comes in, I try to avoid that.
Has “SOFAD” turned out the way you envisaged it?
I think when we started that record we decided that it should have a lot more performance and I do like it but at some points I think we spoiled the songs. On a few tracks we may have spoiled the songs by trying this pseudo rock angle.
When was the last time you listened to a Depeche Mode album?
I have listened to “Violator” a few times two or three months ago, only because I was staying at my London flat and it was lying around and I thought it would be interesting to listen to it because I haven’t listened to it for years.
When you go on tour again, would you prefer to go on tour with a big production as you did during the Devotional Tour ir would you rather play smaller venues?
We haven’t spoken about touring at all so we don’t know if we even want to consider touring or not. But as I said earlier, for me, watching a few people on stage singing and playing instruments doesn’t make a great show. I think if we are going to play live we would have to at least try to entertain people somehow else, so I would imagine that we would need a fairly big production to do that.
Your acoustic version of “Personal Jesus” became very popular among the fans. Have you ever thought of doing or recording an unplugged session?
This is one of the things that we have never considered for some reason and I think it’s the word “unplugged” that really puts me off.
Do you prefer the studio work to touring?
There are a lot of aspects on the touring side that I really love but the whole thing is so gruelling and physically demanding and it’s not even performance. Being the character that I am I find it impossible to finish a concert and go home to bed. So every night we end up finishing the concert, drinking, going out, getting to bed late and then having to travel the next day and doing it all over again and it’s not very good for your body to do that for 14 months non-stop.
What do you think of other bands covering your songs? To mention just a few – Smashing Pumpkins, Terry Hoax, Diesel Mode [2]… do you think they do a good job?
I really like Terry Hoax’s version of “Policy Of Truth”. I thought it was an interesting version of the song and the same with Smashing Pumpkins, I thought it was a brilliant version of “Never Let Me Down Again”. It was totally not expected. When I heard that the Smashing Pumpkins had done a cover of it I expected it to be sort of really rocky and heavy, but it had a really laid back, mellow feel to it, which I thought was brilliant.
I think MTV has helped us a lot because even though we haven’t had a single out for three years people still can see us on MTV, but that doesn’t mean I am a great fan of MTV. I virtually never watch it and if there’s absolutely nothing on TV, I still refuse to put MTV on. But I few times I have seen it I think that MTV Europe is better than MTV in America. MTV America is far too preachy, they are constantly trying to politically correct all of the youth of America and I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think their views are necessarily right.
Why do you think it is that most of the TV stations still tend to present Depeche Mode as that naïve synthesizer band performing Just Can’t Get Enough? Do you have any explanation for this?
Maybe there’s a comedy factor involved… like send in the clowns… let’s show “Just Can’t Get Enough” again (laughs). In this country we have always suffered, I think mainly from a press campaign that went wrong. When we were doing OK in this country but we were doing much better everywhere else, we started portraying ourselves as these enormous superstars everywhere else that didn’t quite make it here. [1] But the point that everybody missed was that we were doing quite well here too, we just weren’t as successful as we were everywhere else. What the average person in the street seems to pick up from that is that we’ve never had any success at all here. I have so many people coming up to me saying “are you lot still going?… you had a couple of hits in the early 80’s didn’t you?” and they remember “Just Can’t Get Enough”, but partly because of this press campaign and there’s probably a few other contributing factors, we’re considered as total has-beens in this country by a large percentage of the population, and I hate defending myself. Every now and then I get really angry when people say this to me, and I say “our last album went to number one, how high do you have to get to be noticed?”
Do you read your own press?
When an album comes out I get all the reviews and if we do interviews I obviously read them to see what the interviewer’s written about us. But I don’t ask for every little press clipping that comes in, I try to avoid that.
Has “SOFAD” turned out the way you envisaged it?
I think when we started that record we decided that it should have a lot more performance and I do like it but at some points I think we spoiled the songs. On a few tracks we may have spoiled the songs by trying this pseudo rock angle.
When was the last time you listened to a Depeche Mode album?
I have listened to “Violator” a few times two or three months ago, only because I was staying at my London flat and it was lying around and I thought it would be interesting to listen to it because I haven’t listened to it for years.
When you go on tour again, would you prefer to go on tour with a big production as you did during the Devotional Tour ir would you rather play smaller venues?
We haven’t spoken about touring at all so we don’t know if we even want to consider touring or not. But as I said earlier, for me, watching a few people on stage singing and playing instruments doesn’t make a great show. I think if we are going to play live we would have to at least try to entertain people somehow else, so I would imagine that we would need a fairly big production to do that.
Your acoustic version of “Personal Jesus” became very popular among the fans. Have you ever thought of doing or recording an unplugged session?
This is one of the things that we have never considered for some reason and I think it’s the word “unplugged” that really puts me off.
Do you prefer the studio work to touring?
There are a lot of aspects on the touring side that I really love but the whole thing is so gruelling and physically demanding and it’s not even performance. Being the character that I am I find it impossible to finish a concert and go home to bed. So every night we end up finishing the concert, drinking, going out, getting to bed late and then having to travel the next day and doing it all over again and it’s not very good for your body to do that for 14 months non-stop.
What do you think of other bands covering your songs? To mention just a few – Smashing Pumpkins, Terry Hoax, Diesel Mode [2]… do you think they do a good job?
I really like Terry Hoax’s version of “Policy Of Truth”. I thought it was an interesting version of the song and the same with Smashing Pumpkins, I thought it was a brilliant version of “Never Let Me Down Again”. It was totally not expected. When I heard that the Smashing Pumpkins had done a cover of it I expected it to be sort of really rocky and heavy, but it had a really laid back, mellow feel to it, which I thought was brilliant.
Being a band with a high frequency of bootleg records, does record piracy bother you a lot and are you taking any steps against it?
I think if you are bootlegged as much as are it has to be healthy, it means there’s a lot of interest. We have never noticed it harming us. When we were in New York we went to a few record shops in the Village where there are bootleg specialists and we couldn’t believe how many different bootlegs there were. We had like racks and racks and racks… I couldn’t even guess but there must have been a thousand or more different bootlegs.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in how the music business works?
I am not sure because we’ve been really lucky and I think we’ve been quite buffeted from the music industry by being on an independent label. I’ve never really felt part of the so-called music industry because we’ve always been like on the fringes of it. It’s very difficult for me to judge. We don’t have to deal with the major record companies very often, obviously if we go to America we do, but that is quite a limited experience. I suppose the licensees throughout Europe are major labels but we’re not actually signed to them, we are signed to Mute and we are licenced through them. America is the only place where we are actually signed to a major label.
What do you think of the recent reunions of the bands like Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Eagles?
We thought maybe it would be a good idea to do an album and get Vince back to have the original line-up and go on tour playing the first album (laughs). Vince keeps saying to us that he wanted to come in and do the programming for us on this record and he said it as a joke but when he said it for the 20th time we started thinking “is he serious?”. He said it far too many times for it to be a joke (laughs).
Have you ever felt like quitting?
I think there’s been a few times where the pressure’s got to me, and I think “Is it all really worth it?” But then when you start weighing it up and you think, I do really enjoy this and I love writing songs and I love the whole aspect of being in a band, I love communicating with people. If I just left it because the pressure got too much at some point, I know I’d regret it within about a week.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame anymore?
It’s really not that bad. I hardly get recognised at all in this country and if people do recognise me they are very cool about it, so I don’t find it a problem at all.
How do you manage to balance your personal and professional lives these days?
I work all week, go out all week and I go home for weekends (laughs).
A lot of your fans take your lyrics quite seriously. Do you feel any responsibility for the effect your words might have?
I always write about things that interest me and I hope they interest other people who may feel similar emotions. If that affects people adversely I don’t think I can really take responsibility for that. If I’m going to worry about every word that I write then I think that’s like censorship. I think I’ve got to write what I feel and then people hopefully understand what I mean. If they take it wrongly and feel suicidal or something, I think they’ve probably started out with a personal defect, and if it wasn’t me it would be Ozzy Osbourne that made them do it.
Is there anything in your career you look back on and say, “I shouldn’t have done that”?
We all know we had a phase where I think we courted the pop press too much and I think our image at that time was really naff, but for some reason it didn’t seem to harm us. I think it maybe should have harmed us more than it did. I can’t say I really regret it and we seem to have survived it.
What do you think your mission is?
My true will is to be a musician. I realised that from a very young age. I never ever considered doing anything else. When I first left school I didn’t know what to do, I had to find a job but I was totally unhappy. That’s what always happens, people are unhappy until they find their true will. I was fortunate that I found mine quite quickly. [3]
What has the world got to gain from your music?
I think there’s a certain amount of beauty in our music and beauty is important.
I think if you are bootlegged as much as are it has to be healthy, it means there’s a lot of interest. We have never noticed it harming us. When we were in New York we went to a few record shops in the Village where there are bootleg specialists and we couldn’t believe how many different bootlegs there were. We had like racks and racks and racks… I couldn’t even guess but there must have been a thousand or more different bootlegs.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in how the music business works?
I am not sure because we’ve been really lucky and I think we’ve been quite buffeted from the music industry by being on an independent label. I’ve never really felt part of the so-called music industry because we’ve always been like on the fringes of it. It’s very difficult for me to judge. We don’t have to deal with the major record companies very often, obviously if we go to America we do, but that is quite a limited experience. I suppose the licensees throughout Europe are major labels but we’re not actually signed to them, we are signed to Mute and we are licenced through them. America is the only place where we are actually signed to a major label.
What do you think of the recent reunions of the bands like Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Eagles?
We thought maybe it would be a good idea to do an album and get Vince back to have the original line-up and go on tour playing the first album (laughs). Vince keeps saying to us that he wanted to come in and do the programming for us on this record and he said it as a joke but when he said it for the 20th time we started thinking “is he serious?”. He said it far too many times for it to be a joke (laughs).
Have you ever felt like quitting?
I think there’s been a few times where the pressure’s got to me, and I think “Is it all really worth it?” But then when you start weighing it up and you think, I do really enjoy this and I love writing songs and I love the whole aspect of being in a band, I love communicating with people. If I just left it because the pressure got too much at some point, I know I’d regret it within about a week.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame anymore?
It’s really not that bad. I hardly get recognised at all in this country and if people do recognise me they are very cool about it, so I don’t find it a problem at all.
How do you manage to balance your personal and professional lives these days?
I work all week, go out all week and I go home for weekends (laughs).
A lot of your fans take your lyrics quite seriously. Do you feel any responsibility for the effect your words might have?
I always write about things that interest me and I hope they interest other people who may feel similar emotions. If that affects people adversely I don’t think I can really take responsibility for that. If I’m going to worry about every word that I write then I think that’s like censorship. I think I’ve got to write what I feel and then people hopefully understand what I mean. If they take it wrongly and feel suicidal or something, I think they’ve probably started out with a personal defect, and if it wasn’t me it would be Ozzy Osbourne that made them do it.
Is there anything in your career you look back on and say, “I shouldn’t have done that”?
We all know we had a phase where I think we courted the pop press too much and I think our image at that time was really naff, but for some reason it didn’t seem to harm us. I think it maybe should have harmed us more than it did. I can’t say I really regret it and we seem to have survived it.
What do you think your mission is?
My true will is to be a musician. I realised that from a very young age. I never ever considered doing anything else. When I first left school I didn’t know what to do, I had to find a job but I was totally unhappy. That’s what always happens, people are unhappy until they find their true will. I was fortunate that I found mine quite quickly. [3]
What has the world got to gain from your music?
I think there’s a certain amount of beauty in our music and beauty is important.
CATCHING UP WITH... DAVE
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
What have you been doing in the past two years?
Generally, I’ve been really ill. At the moment I live in Los Angeles in a sober living house that’s full of addicts like myself. I came out of a detox place, a rehab, that I went into in June after getting really sick. I overdosed on heroin, and I actually flat-lined for a couple of minutes and I was revived, and after that I found myself still using heroin for a couple of days after I came out of jail. Then I decided to try and do something about it again. I’ve been in and out of these sort of places for the last couple of years. I got really lost in the whole thing and spent the last five months just really trying to concentrate on getting my life back together. And during all this time, for the last year or so, we’ve been trying to make this record, and my work was really suffering. I was having problems even singing, and one of the things that I really love to do, that’s been a big part of my life, was being taken away from me. It was my own doing, but I couldn’t stop, and needed help, and that’s what I’ve been doing really. But it’s really good now, on a positive side and I feel really good about what I am doing. I am very happy to be clean and sober and living my life again… I have my life back.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from the Devotional Tour?
I didn’t. I was functioning only with the use of drugs, without them I couldn’t even move. I came back from the tour and I wasn’t playing music and singing anymore but I really threw myself into using drugs.
Have you kept in touch with one another since the end of the Devotional Tour?
Not really. But no-one is to blame really, because the phone rings both ways. The only time that I heard anything from anyone was really if I was kind of hurting myself and it got in the press. Then I got a call from somebody, usually Martin or I’d call him. I got a call from Alan at one point when he decided he wanted to leave. But I didn’t really react in any way to that because I was deeply into using drugs by then.
Do you think that you being in LA and the rest of the band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
I don’t really have much of a relationship with the others outside of the band. When you’re on the road for that long, and that was nearly two years, I think the last thing you want to do is hang out together (laughs).
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
Yes, it has taken a long while. But I’d say we’ve done our best work in the last few months. It progressively gets more and more difficult because when you know each other so well, little things become really big things. There is a lot of outside things now… everyone’s got families and they’ve got other interests outside of the band. A lot of time and energy is spent on those things and so less and less time really gets spent on making music together. I think when things go well it’s really good but there’s a lot of sitting around and waiting. The roles are very defined, Martin writes the songs and I sing them. We have Tim Simenon working with us on this record and a number of other people playing music, programming and stuff like that. Tim is playing a really big role in it. I wouldn’t say that he replaced Alan because it’s a completely different thing but he fulfils that role. I think Martin is working a little bit harder in putting himself forward and working in the studio because there’s nobody else to do it.
Were you ready to go into the studio after you heard Martin had been working on the new songs?
Yeah, we got back together and listened to some songs. We had a meeting and decided whether we wanted to even make another record together. It was very unsure at first because everyone had had a lot of time being involved in interests outside of the band. I think that if you’re going to be in a band it’s important that you are fulfilling a role within that band. As I said, the creative side of the writing is down to Martin, and I sing. If we were making a film, Martin is the director and I am the actor following the orders (laughs). [1]
What was your initial reaction after the first listen to Martin’s demo?
I really wanted to record them. I really wanted to do the songs. A lot of the lyrical content, the feeling in the melodies really fitted with the way that I was feeling and the stuff I was personally going through. It seemed like it would be a really good thing for me to do at that time because it was my own personal problems. In retrospect, I wasn’t ready and it was more important for me to take heroin than being in the band but I think that in the last few months I feel like I’ve done some of my best work. I’ve thrown myself into it, I’ve been working with a vocal coach, Evelyn, and we were also working with her in Los Angeles. We recorded vocals for some of the songs in LA. It’s a long process and I am trying to put all my energy into doing that.
Were you as passionate about the new material that Martin presented you with as you were last time with the songs Martin wrote for “SOFAD”?
I always am and we’ve all had our favourites, but what struck me the most with a lot of these songs were Martin’s lyrics. For me personally, I could really relate to a lot of his writing… I am looking at myself with the words I sing.
Musically and lyrically, does this new album mean any profound change from the previous ones?
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s gone back more to a similar vein to “Violator” really. The songs are shorter and more compact and I think the melodies are much stronger.
Are there any particular songs on this album that you feel closer to or emotional about than the others?
There’s a song on the album called “Sister Of Night” which is my personal favourite song on the album by far, but I think the most innovative thing on the record, in terms of what Depeche Mode have done over the years is “Barrel Of A Gun” which is going to be the first single. I think that’s the most exciting song on the album. It’s the least like anything we’ve ever done before and it kind of stretched us a bit – it stretched me vocally – and I am really pleased with what I’ve done now.
Do you find it easy to sing the new songs?
I never find it easy to sing. It is a very emotional thing to do. It’s the icing on the cake if you like. Everything else is pretty much programmed and it’s all what I call “head-work”. When I sing I sing from my heart and it’s the human element in Depeche Mode, especially so with this album.
Is there another “Condemnation” on this album, a song you feel strongly about?
No, there’ll never be another “Condemnation” but I would say “Sister Of Night” moves me in the same way that “Condemnation” did.
You have always wanted to play the guitar. Did you get a chance to play it or any other instrument on this album?
I’ve been playing the guitar quite a bit, but no, not with Depeche Mode. Years ago, we used to be very snobby about other bands that used guitars. That’s all they did and they didn’t try any other experimentation. To be quite honest, we’ve come full circle with that now. It seems the easy option now is to do what we’ve done on a great number of albums, which is programming, rather than trying to physically do something. As I said, we’re a “head-band”. I personally still need very much to fulfil my own ambitions musically, and I am beginning that process now. I have been working with some other people on some different things and finding I get great enjoyment out of it… different people coming together with different ideas and putting them together and creating something. It’s really exciting and it’s spontaneous and I think Depeche Mode are anything but spontaneous.
What’s the best thing about this album?
Getting it finished.
Has “SOFAD” turned out the way you envisaged it?
Nearly. I think we did the best that we could. We pushed a lot harder to actually create something more as a group effort, and it was really hard at times. I don’t think we really fulfilled that as much as we could have if we had put personal things aside, but they are always there, the problems, the personal things and the outside interests. They are always in the studio, with us, if you like, and as you get older the chance to do that seems to get further and further away. I think it’s probably an impossible task for the band to make a group album.
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
What have you been doing in the past two years?
Generally, I’ve been really ill. At the moment I live in Los Angeles in a sober living house that’s full of addicts like myself. I came out of a detox place, a rehab, that I went into in June after getting really sick. I overdosed on heroin, and I actually flat-lined for a couple of minutes and I was revived, and after that I found myself still using heroin for a couple of days after I came out of jail. Then I decided to try and do something about it again. I’ve been in and out of these sort of places for the last couple of years. I got really lost in the whole thing and spent the last five months just really trying to concentrate on getting my life back together. And during all this time, for the last year or so, we’ve been trying to make this record, and my work was really suffering. I was having problems even singing, and one of the things that I really love to do, that’s been a big part of my life, was being taken away from me. It was my own doing, but I couldn’t stop, and needed help, and that’s what I’ve been doing really. But it’s really good now, on a positive side and I feel really good about what I am doing. I am very happy to be clean and sober and living my life again… I have my life back.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from the Devotional Tour?
I didn’t. I was functioning only with the use of drugs, without them I couldn’t even move. I came back from the tour and I wasn’t playing music and singing anymore but I really threw myself into using drugs.
Have you kept in touch with one another since the end of the Devotional Tour?
Not really. But no-one is to blame really, because the phone rings both ways. The only time that I heard anything from anyone was really if I was kind of hurting myself and it got in the press. Then I got a call from somebody, usually Martin or I’d call him. I got a call from Alan at one point when he decided he wanted to leave. But I didn’t really react in any way to that because I was deeply into using drugs by then.
Do you think that you being in LA and the rest of the band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
I don’t really have much of a relationship with the others outside of the band. When you’re on the road for that long, and that was nearly two years, I think the last thing you want to do is hang out together (laughs).
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
Yes, it has taken a long while. But I’d say we’ve done our best work in the last few months. It progressively gets more and more difficult because when you know each other so well, little things become really big things. There is a lot of outside things now… everyone’s got families and they’ve got other interests outside of the band. A lot of time and energy is spent on those things and so less and less time really gets spent on making music together. I think when things go well it’s really good but there’s a lot of sitting around and waiting. The roles are very defined, Martin writes the songs and I sing them. We have Tim Simenon working with us on this record and a number of other people playing music, programming and stuff like that. Tim is playing a really big role in it. I wouldn’t say that he replaced Alan because it’s a completely different thing but he fulfils that role. I think Martin is working a little bit harder in putting himself forward and working in the studio because there’s nobody else to do it.
Were you ready to go into the studio after you heard Martin had been working on the new songs?
Yeah, we got back together and listened to some songs. We had a meeting and decided whether we wanted to even make another record together. It was very unsure at first because everyone had had a lot of time being involved in interests outside of the band. I think that if you’re going to be in a band it’s important that you are fulfilling a role within that band. As I said, the creative side of the writing is down to Martin, and I sing. If we were making a film, Martin is the director and I am the actor following the orders (laughs). [1]
What was your initial reaction after the first listen to Martin’s demo?
I really wanted to record them. I really wanted to do the songs. A lot of the lyrical content, the feeling in the melodies really fitted with the way that I was feeling and the stuff I was personally going through. It seemed like it would be a really good thing for me to do at that time because it was my own personal problems. In retrospect, I wasn’t ready and it was more important for me to take heroin than being in the band but I think that in the last few months I feel like I’ve done some of my best work. I’ve thrown myself into it, I’ve been working with a vocal coach, Evelyn, and we were also working with her in Los Angeles. We recorded vocals for some of the songs in LA. It’s a long process and I am trying to put all my energy into doing that.
Were you as passionate about the new material that Martin presented you with as you were last time with the songs Martin wrote for “SOFAD”?
I always am and we’ve all had our favourites, but what struck me the most with a lot of these songs were Martin’s lyrics. For me personally, I could really relate to a lot of his writing… I am looking at myself with the words I sing.
Musically and lyrically, does this new album mean any profound change from the previous ones?
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s gone back more to a similar vein to “Violator” really. The songs are shorter and more compact and I think the melodies are much stronger.
Are there any particular songs on this album that you feel closer to or emotional about than the others?
There’s a song on the album called “Sister Of Night” which is my personal favourite song on the album by far, but I think the most innovative thing on the record, in terms of what Depeche Mode have done over the years is “Barrel Of A Gun” which is going to be the first single. I think that’s the most exciting song on the album. It’s the least like anything we’ve ever done before and it kind of stretched us a bit – it stretched me vocally – and I am really pleased with what I’ve done now.
Do you find it easy to sing the new songs?
I never find it easy to sing. It is a very emotional thing to do. It’s the icing on the cake if you like. Everything else is pretty much programmed and it’s all what I call “head-work”. When I sing I sing from my heart and it’s the human element in Depeche Mode, especially so with this album.
Is there another “Condemnation” on this album, a song you feel strongly about?
No, there’ll never be another “Condemnation” but I would say “Sister Of Night” moves me in the same way that “Condemnation” did.
You have always wanted to play the guitar. Did you get a chance to play it or any other instrument on this album?
I’ve been playing the guitar quite a bit, but no, not with Depeche Mode. Years ago, we used to be very snobby about other bands that used guitars. That’s all they did and they didn’t try any other experimentation. To be quite honest, we’ve come full circle with that now. It seems the easy option now is to do what we’ve done on a great number of albums, which is programming, rather than trying to physically do something. As I said, we’re a “head-band”. I personally still need very much to fulfil my own ambitions musically, and I am beginning that process now. I have been working with some other people on some different things and finding I get great enjoyment out of it… different people coming together with different ideas and putting them together and creating something. It’s really exciting and it’s spontaneous and I think Depeche Mode are anything but spontaneous.
What’s the best thing about this album?
Getting it finished.
Has “SOFAD” turned out the way you envisaged it?
Nearly. I think we did the best that we could. We pushed a lot harder to actually create something more as a group effort, and it was really hard at times. I don’t think we really fulfilled that as much as we could have if we had put personal things aside, but they are always there, the problems, the personal things and the outside interests. They are always in the studio, with us, if you like, and as you get older the chance to do that seems to get further and further away. I think it’s probably an impossible task for the band to make a group album.
In one of the 1993 interviews, you said that after some strange and painful time you’d been through, working on the “SOFAD” was a therapy for you. Would this be the case with this album, after overcoming your recent personal problems?
Yeah, definitely. What’s great about this record, for me personally, is that I’ve been through a lot of stuff emotionally, and I think musicians’ egos can get out of control, so I have always, in the past, liked to put myself in a real painful place to do what I do, and it was killing me so I had to change something, and I wasn’t sure whether I could, but it’s something I have so much experience of now that I can tap into it at any time.
Do you find the recording process of the new album a happy and enjoyable one?
It’s rewarding and it’s enjoyable when I get to sing and hear something back that I’m pleased with, ‘cause I’ve worked really hard on this album, with my vocals, in the last few months, and really the only person that I have to please is myself. If I am really happy with it I know a lot of other people will be. I can’t really fool myself anymore. I would say that on this record there will probably be the best vocal tracks I’ve ever done… we’re spending a lot of time getting them right.
Working in the London studios most of the time, is it difficult for you to travel from LA to London all the time?
Yeah, very difficult. It’s emotionally and physically really hard to commute that far all the time and it’s something I’m looking forward to not having to do so much anymore.
Would you consider moving back to England permanently?
No.
What is the main difference between recording the album in a rented villa in Madrid, and in various studios? Did you find working in Spain more comfortable?
In theory, it was a really good idea but we found that our personalities clashed incredibly when living together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I didn’t mind it so much but Alan detested it and I think Fletch had a hard time with it. I think Fletch has a hard time being anywhere but home, in his home environment, with his things, his friends, his family, his restaurant… that’s where Fletch is comfortable. Whereas I haven’t really had a homebase for a long while so I don’t mind so much, but it is something that I am really striving to achieve over the next couple of years.
What is, in your opinion, the main difference in work approach between Tim Simenon and Flood?
The difference is that Tim Simenon has got kind of a little team. We have a programmer, a keyboard player and he uses the same engineer all the time. He has a little team whereas Flood pretty much works on his own… Flood works in a very different way. I think Martin really enjoys working with Tim because Tim likes to work in the same sort of process as Martin, so they get on really well. I think Flood was a little bit more experimental, and I don’t mean that in a bad way to Tim, but Flood was willing to try a lot more stuff musically and dig deeper than sort of going with the same format of just programming everything, every song.
Do you think the reaction to the new record might be rather different in America and Europe, considering the music orientation on both continents?
That’s really difficult to answer. Things have changed a lot over the last few years, especially in America. There’s a lot more radio stations and they play a big variety of music. I think a “fan” would really love this record. Whether we make any new fans at all… that’s not for me to say, really (laughs).
When you go on tour again, would you prefer to go with a big production as you did during the Devotional Tour or would you rather play smaller venues?
I’d rather take a smaller production and use a band, have some playing musicians with us on stage. I certainly don’t want to go on tour again in the same kind of format that we did last time where the whole show is pretty much on my shoulders, in terms of responsibility.
So what do you prefer more, the studio work or touring?
I prefer touring but it’s something that I would have to think very carefully about doing it again.
Have you ever thought of doing or recording an unplugged session?
I think that we are totally capable of doing it. I think all the songs stand up acoustically, most of them anyway. But possibly for other people in the band it’s just too much of an effort to have to think about. Personally, I think it would be a kind of cool thing to do, and I think the people who enjoy our music would like to see that, but the rest of the band seem to be very much happy to just repeat what we’ve done before and stick to that format… that’s kind of a very English thing… Whereas I would rather that we branched out a bit and stretched ourselves to try to do something a bit different. [1]
During the Devotional Tour, there was an occasion when you had a chance to communicate with your fans directly via computer. Do you find the use of the Internet important in respect of what business you are in?
I think it’s a great medium and it’s really opened up a lot. I think it’s cool that the fans can communicate together on the hot-line. It’s like sending a letter and getting an instant reply. [2]
Have you ever thought of releasing your own CD-Rom?
Yes, we have and I believe that’s something we’re looking into but we haven’t actually made any plans yet. [3]
Yeah, definitely. What’s great about this record, for me personally, is that I’ve been through a lot of stuff emotionally, and I think musicians’ egos can get out of control, so I have always, in the past, liked to put myself in a real painful place to do what I do, and it was killing me so I had to change something, and I wasn’t sure whether I could, but it’s something I have so much experience of now that I can tap into it at any time.
Do you find the recording process of the new album a happy and enjoyable one?
It’s rewarding and it’s enjoyable when I get to sing and hear something back that I’m pleased with, ‘cause I’ve worked really hard on this album, with my vocals, in the last few months, and really the only person that I have to please is myself. If I am really happy with it I know a lot of other people will be. I can’t really fool myself anymore. I would say that on this record there will probably be the best vocal tracks I’ve ever done… we’re spending a lot of time getting them right.
Working in the London studios most of the time, is it difficult for you to travel from LA to London all the time?
Yeah, very difficult. It’s emotionally and physically really hard to commute that far all the time and it’s something I’m looking forward to not having to do so much anymore.
Would you consider moving back to England permanently?
No.
What is the main difference between recording the album in a rented villa in Madrid, and in various studios? Did you find working in Spain more comfortable?
In theory, it was a really good idea but we found that our personalities clashed incredibly when living together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I didn’t mind it so much but Alan detested it and I think Fletch had a hard time with it. I think Fletch has a hard time being anywhere but home, in his home environment, with his things, his friends, his family, his restaurant… that’s where Fletch is comfortable. Whereas I haven’t really had a homebase for a long while so I don’t mind so much, but it is something that I am really striving to achieve over the next couple of years.
What is, in your opinion, the main difference in work approach between Tim Simenon and Flood?
The difference is that Tim Simenon has got kind of a little team. We have a programmer, a keyboard player and he uses the same engineer all the time. He has a little team whereas Flood pretty much works on his own… Flood works in a very different way. I think Martin really enjoys working with Tim because Tim likes to work in the same sort of process as Martin, so they get on really well. I think Flood was a little bit more experimental, and I don’t mean that in a bad way to Tim, but Flood was willing to try a lot more stuff musically and dig deeper than sort of going with the same format of just programming everything, every song.
Do you think the reaction to the new record might be rather different in America and Europe, considering the music orientation on both continents?
That’s really difficult to answer. Things have changed a lot over the last few years, especially in America. There’s a lot more radio stations and they play a big variety of music. I think a “fan” would really love this record. Whether we make any new fans at all… that’s not for me to say, really (laughs).
When you go on tour again, would you prefer to go with a big production as you did during the Devotional Tour or would you rather play smaller venues?
I’d rather take a smaller production and use a band, have some playing musicians with us on stage. I certainly don’t want to go on tour again in the same kind of format that we did last time where the whole show is pretty much on my shoulders, in terms of responsibility.
So what do you prefer more, the studio work or touring?
I prefer touring but it’s something that I would have to think very carefully about doing it again.
Have you ever thought of doing or recording an unplugged session?
I think that we are totally capable of doing it. I think all the songs stand up acoustically, most of them anyway. But possibly for other people in the band it’s just too much of an effort to have to think about. Personally, I think it would be a kind of cool thing to do, and I think the people who enjoy our music would like to see that, but the rest of the band seem to be very much happy to just repeat what we’ve done before and stick to that format… that’s kind of a very English thing… Whereas I would rather that we branched out a bit and stretched ourselves to try to do something a bit different. [1]
During the Devotional Tour, there was an occasion when you had a chance to communicate with your fans directly via computer. Do you find the use of the Internet important in respect of what business you are in?
I think it’s a great medium and it’s really opened up a lot. I think it’s cool that the fans can communicate together on the hot-line. It’s like sending a letter and getting an instant reply. [2]
Have you ever thought of releasing your own CD-Rom?
Yes, we have and I believe that’s something we’re looking into but we haven’t actually made any plans yet. [3]
What music have you been listening to lately? Has anything inspired or influenced you in your current work?
I wouldn’t say that any band influences us at all. We don’t really discuss other records or other artists that may or may not influence us. I am sure, individually we are very influenced by what we hear, especially Martin when it comes to writing. My favourite records of last year were… Gavin Friday’s album… there’s a lot of records… I listened a lot to a band called Filter, a band called Local H from Chicago… I really liked the Smashing Pumpkins’ album and I think that was a great album… Flood did that.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in music?
I think this is a really awful time for music. I prefer 60s and 70s. I am a big David Bowie fan and T-Rex and the Rolling Stones.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame any more?
I am having a hard time with it now. The thing I am most proud of, in the last year, is the fact that I’ve cleaned up, because I did it for myself, and what I realised during that was that I had to do it in public. Most people, when they get a chance to clean up from addiction, get to do it with the support of other people, fellowships and programmes. Everything that I did or said was always in the press, so it just made it a lot harder for me, I had to hide away a lot.
Have you ever felt like quitting?
Yeah, lots of times. I think about it every day.
Does it bother you being recognised on the street?
It’s very flattering, but sometimes it’s hard. Not so much in England, but in other places, especially Los Angeles, my private life is pretty non-existent. I’ve had press following me around a lot everywhere for a long time. They’d be outside my house and stuff like that.
Have you had any new tattoos done recently?
Yes, the one on my left forearm but it’s a few years old. It’s dedicated to my wife that I am divorcing now. [4]
Does your passion for painting still persist? Have you had a chance to do some more painting recently?
Yeah, I have painted a lot during the last few years. There are paintings all around my house. I paint on the walls, I paint on the floor, I paint on pieces of cardboard. I had a lot of my paintings stolen from my house. I’ve been invited to do an exhibition of paintings in New York, in a gallery there, so it’s something I might do in the future.
Do you like to take control of your visual side?
Anton pretty much comes up with the ideas, but I find myself being the one who approves lots of the photographs and stuff like that. Alan used to do it a lot in the past as well. Fletch and Mart look through everything as well but they are usually quite happy with it. I like checking out the photos and picking some stuff out and the same with the video stuff as well.
What kind of future do you envisage for Depeche Mode?
I am not sure really. I think it’s important to just focus as much as you can on what you’re doing at the moment. It’s impossible for me to predict what’s going to happen in the future, it’s not in my hands… thank God (laughs).
I wouldn’t say that any band influences us at all. We don’t really discuss other records or other artists that may or may not influence us. I am sure, individually we are very influenced by what we hear, especially Martin when it comes to writing. My favourite records of last year were… Gavin Friday’s album… there’s a lot of records… I listened a lot to a band called Filter, a band called Local H from Chicago… I really liked the Smashing Pumpkins’ album and I think that was a great album… Flood did that.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in music?
I think this is a really awful time for music. I prefer 60s and 70s. I am a big David Bowie fan and T-Rex and the Rolling Stones.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame any more?
I am having a hard time with it now. The thing I am most proud of, in the last year, is the fact that I’ve cleaned up, because I did it for myself, and what I realised during that was that I had to do it in public. Most people, when they get a chance to clean up from addiction, get to do it with the support of other people, fellowships and programmes. Everything that I did or said was always in the press, so it just made it a lot harder for me, I had to hide away a lot.
Have you ever felt like quitting?
Yeah, lots of times. I think about it every day.
Does it bother you being recognised on the street?
It’s very flattering, but sometimes it’s hard. Not so much in England, but in other places, especially Los Angeles, my private life is pretty non-existent. I’ve had press following me around a lot everywhere for a long time. They’d be outside my house and stuff like that.
Have you had any new tattoos done recently?
Yes, the one on my left forearm but it’s a few years old. It’s dedicated to my wife that I am divorcing now. [4]
Does your passion for painting still persist? Have you had a chance to do some more painting recently?
Yeah, I have painted a lot during the last few years. There are paintings all around my house. I paint on the walls, I paint on the floor, I paint on pieces of cardboard. I had a lot of my paintings stolen from my house. I’ve been invited to do an exhibition of paintings in New York, in a gallery there, so it’s something I might do in the future.
Do you like to take control of your visual side?
Anton pretty much comes up with the ideas, but I find myself being the one who approves lots of the photographs and stuff like that. Alan used to do it a lot in the past as well. Fletch and Mart look through everything as well but they are usually quite happy with it. I like checking out the photos and picking some stuff out and the same with the video stuff as well.
What kind of future do you envisage for Depeche Mode?
I am not sure really. I think it’s important to just focus as much as you can on what you’re doing at the moment. It’s impossible for me to predict what’s going to happen in the future, it’s not in my hands… thank God (laughs).
CATCHING UP WITH... FLETCH
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
What have you been doing over the last two years?
Recovering from the last tour.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from such an extensive Devotional Tour?
I was just so emotionally knackered after the tour and that’s why I didn’t do the last American leg. I think we just set ourselves too much of a target and I think we all suffered in different ways.
Do you think that Dave being in LA and the rest of the band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
There’s no difference really because even when Dave was living in England we hardly saw him at all, and the same with Alan, we never saw him and he only lived 20 minutes away. I don’t think that’s a major concern anymore. Dave has spent most of his time over here while we’ve been working on the album, and we went to record in America for a while, so I don’t think it caused any problems.
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
It’s been quite easy because Martin has been writing very good songs and at the end of the day if you are working on good songs it’s much easier. We’ve settled in with a very good team of people so that’s helped things as well… the atmosphere has been very good.
Were you ready to make a new album after you heard Martin was working on the new songs?
We had to satisfy ourselves that Dave wanted to do it. I think there’s a strong bond between us all. I think Alan thought that when he left the band it was going to be enough to split us up but I think the bond is much stronger than he believed.
What was your initial reaction after the first listen to Martin’s demo?
There are different demos, it’s not just one. We’ve given him three or four writing periods so it’s not as if we listened to all the songs in one go. He’s been playing me songs all the time. We are very happy because the standard is very good.
Whose idea was it to appoint Tim Simenon as a producer?
Tim’s name has come up in the past. He’s done remixes for us in the past that we liked. The thing that made us eager to work with him was the team of people that he has around him. Dave Clayton – who is a really good musician… perhaps with losing Alan we needed someone’s expertise in that field. Q is a really good engineer – very quiet, works well, and our programmer Kerry… so it’s a good team. It wasn’t as if we were just taking Tim on, it was a team of people. It’s worked very well.
What is the main difference in works approach between Tim Simenon and Flood?
I don’t think there is much difference really. Producing is getting on with people, and getting the best out of people, and in that sense they’re pretty similar. Flood comes from an engineering background, because he has a group, but generally their approach is still the same. Because all the people in the band are different personalities, you need to have someone to make sure that all the personalities are working together and trying to get the best out of each other.
Did Alan’s departure affect the roles and responsibilities within the Band in any way?
I think that Alan was trying to gain control of everything towards the end of the project, and because I wasn’t very well he was doing that… he was able to take control, and no detriment to Alan, but I think I deal with things a bit differently. I don’t think the roles have changed at all… we just replaced Alan, as such, with a team of people.
What is the best thing about this album?
I think the best thing about making the album is how enjoyable it’s been. The last album was really recorded under a lot of pressure. With this one, we are really in a good position. We’re almost expected not to release something and so it takes the pressure off. No-one really expects us to be massive. With the last album it was all “world domination” stuff… “we’re going to be the biggest band in the world”. Someone like U2 for instance, are going through that at the moment… there are so many expectations of their new album and they can’t finish it.
Have you ever considered releasing your own CD-Rom?
We have, but it takes enough time to make an album, and we don’t do anything without putting 100% into it. We can only concentrate on a certain number of things at a time. To do a CD-Rom, we would probably have to give it more time than we’ve got.
During the Devotional Tour, there was an occasion when you had a chance to communicate with your fans directly via computer. Do you find the use of the Internet important in respect of what business you are in?
My personal view is that the importance of the Internet is a bit exaggerated. The problem I see with it is that a lot of the information you can get… like the stuff about Depeche Mode… is 99% wrong information. So there is no control, and it’s very hard for anyone to know if what they’re reading is true. [1] I just think it’s very inaccurate. I suppose sooner or later, when more controls come in it might be better but now I think its use is exaggerated.
[From Bong 30, December 1996.]
What have you been doing over the last two years?
Recovering from the last tour.
How long did it take you to adapt to a normal day-to-day life after coming back from such an extensive Devotional Tour?
I was just so emotionally knackered after the tour and that’s why I didn’t do the last American leg. I think we just set ourselves too much of a target and I think we all suffered in different ways.
Do you think that Dave being in LA and the rest of the band being in London affected your relationship a lot?
There’s no difference really because even when Dave was living in England we hardly saw him at all, and the same with Alan, we never saw him and he only lived 20 minutes away. I don’t think that’s a major concern anymore. Dave has spent most of his time over here while we’ve been working on the album, and we went to record in America for a while, so I don’t think it caused any problems.
Have you found it difficult to settle down in the studio again after the time off you had?
It’s been quite easy because Martin has been writing very good songs and at the end of the day if you are working on good songs it’s much easier. We’ve settled in with a very good team of people so that’s helped things as well… the atmosphere has been very good.
Were you ready to make a new album after you heard Martin was working on the new songs?
We had to satisfy ourselves that Dave wanted to do it. I think there’s a strong bond between us all. I think Alan thought that when he left the band it was going to be enough to split us up but I think the bond is much stronger than he believed.
What was your initial reaction after the first listen to Martin’s demo?
There are different demos, it’s not just one. We’ve given him three or four writing periods so it’s not as if we listened to all the songs in one go. He’s been playing me songs all the time. We are very happy because the standard is very good.
Whose idea was it to appoint Tim Simenon as a producer?
Tim’s name has come up in the past. He’s done remixes for us in the past that we liked. The thing that made us eager to work with him was the team of people that he has around him. Dave Clayton – who is a really good musician… perhaps with losing Alan we needed someone’s expertise in that field. Q is a really good engineer – very quiet, works well, and our programmer Kerry… so it’s a good team. It wasn’t as if we were just taking Tim on, it was a team of people. It’s worked very well.
What is the main difference in works approach between Tim Simenon and Flood?
I don’t think there is much difference really. Producing is getting on with people, and getting the best out of people, and in that sense they’re pretty similar. Flood comes from an engineering background, because he has a group, but generally their approach is still the same. Because all the people in the band are different personalities, you need to have someone to make sure that all the personalities are working together and trying to get the best out of each other.
Did Alan’s departure affect the roles and responsibilities within the Band in any way?
I think that Alan was trying to gain control of everything towards the end of the project, and because I wasn’t very well he was doing that… he was able to take control, and no detriment to Alan, but I think I deal with things a bit differently. I don’t think the roles have changed at all… we just replaced Alan, as such, with a team of people.
What is the best thing about this album?
I think the best thing about making the album is how enjoyable it’s been. The last album was really recorded under a lot of pressure. With this one, we are really in a good position. We’re almost expected not to release something and so it takes the pressure off. No-one really expects us to be massive. With the last album it was all “world domination” stuff… “we’re going to be the biggest band in the world”. Someone like U2 for instance, are going through that at the moment… there are so many expectations of their new album and they can’t finish it.
Have you ever considered releasing your own CD-Rom?
We have, but it takes enough time to make an album, and we don’t do anything without putting 100% into it. We can only concentrate on a certain number of things at a time. To do a CD-Rom, we would probably have to give it more time than we’ve got.
During the Devotional Tour, there was an occasion when you had a chance to communicate with your fans directly via computer. Do you find the use of the Internet important in respect of what business you are in?
My personal view is that the importance of the Internet is a bit exaggerated. The problem I see with it is that a lot of the information you can get… like the stuff about Depeche Mode… is 99% wrong information. So there is no control, and it’s very hard for anyone to know if what they’re reading is true. [1] I just think it’s very inaccurate. I suppose sooner or later, when more controls come in it might be better but now I think its use is exaggerated.
Do you have any idea what the visuals of the new album is going to be like? Do you take much control in that?
We have Anton who does the visuals but obviously he talks to us about it.
Is the process of making videos satisfying at all?
They have never been one of our favourite things… some are more enjoyable than others. We don’t generally enjoy photo sessions, making videos, doing interviews, anything like that.
Are you planning to do much promotion in support of the new album?
We couldn’t do much last time because we went on tour but I think we are going to do more promotion this time.
Does chart success mean much to you?
Yeah, I think that in the music industry, chart success is one way of telling whether people like what you do. I am not saying we want to be number one but as long as it’s well received, does well and people buy it, you enjoy it.
Are you planning to tour in support of the new album?
Not at the moment. I think it nearly ruined us last time. It’s at the back of our minds but right now we are just trying to concentrate on the album.
There have been some changes in personnel in the past few years, how many people are in the Depeche Mode camp at the moment?
There’s about seven or eight people including the group.
Many of the fans try to associate with their idols which sometimes leads to extreme situations. In the case of Depeche Mode, does this frighten you a lot?
Not really, because say for instance with me and football. The football players are my idols, so sometimes I would wear the shirt of their team. Obviously it’s worrying when fans see the sort of lifestyle we lead, and there is a lot of publicity of our particular lifestyle, that fans may think that’s the way to live life. Over the years we have seen a few fans we have known personally, who have, perhaps, taken that lifestyle a little bit too far.
Being one of the bands with a high frequency of bootleg records, does record piracy both you a lot and are you taking any steps against it?
Not on that level, it’s not a problem. Obviously, if people started to bootleg our own records it would be, but when they just make records up… it’s always going to be a small proportion of the market because the big record stores won’t stock them because they’d be sued. I think it’s one of the sides of being popular, isn’t it? The more popular you are, the more bootlegs you get.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in how the music business works?
I think it always works in the same way, it’s still the same.
What do you think of the recent reunions of the bands like Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Eagles?
It’s money, isn’t it? I don’t blame people if they need money… do it… if that’s the way they want to do it.
Do you follow some of the current music?
I buy a lot of CDs but I wouldn’t say that I follow current popular music.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame anymore?
Never. I think I got to a point where I couldn’t handle the internal pressures, but not the outside pressures. The outside pressures are not too bad and we’ve always been very lucky in that respect. Also I am quite fortunate because someone like Martin and Dave are much more recognisable than I am, so it’s easier for me.
How do you manage to balance your personal and professional lives these days?
You don’t balance it, it’s all mixed together. A lot of the people I know in my professional life I know in my personal life so it’s very much mixed together.
Name one thing you are most proud of.
I suppose we have always been considered the underdogs, especially over here. So it’s good to show people, year after year, that we have got something to offer.
Is there anything in your career you look back on and say “I shouldn’t have done that”?
The small things are things like the clothes that you wore or the haircuts you get embarrassed about. They are the minor things. I don’t think there are any major things that I regret.
What are the high and low points of your career?
I think the high point is still probably the show we did at the Rose Bowl. The low point has to be on the last tour when I just couldn’t take any more.
Have you ever considered having the Band’s biography written and published?
We have tried a few times but we haven’t got it together. The problem is that people do bootleg books, and they are not correct. Again – it’s just low on our priorities. [2]
What kind of future do you envisage for Depeche Mode?
At the moment I feel very optimistic because the album is going to come out, and it’s going to be very good, and I am very confident. Long-term-wise, anything can happen, but at the moment we’re getting on well, it’s good fun and we’ve got no pressures. It’s all up to us what we do, for a change. We haven’t got this big schedule, so it’s an optimistic short term.
We have Anton who does the visuals but obviously he talks to us about it.
Is the process of making videos satisfying at all?
They have never been one of our favourite things… some are more enjoyable than others. We don’t generally enjoy photo sessions, making videos, doing interviews, anything like that.
Are you planning to do much promotion in support of the new album?
We couldn’t do much last time because we went on tour but I think we are going to do more promotion this time.
Does chart success mean much to you?
Yeah, I think that in the music industry, chart success is one way of telling whether people like what you do. I am not saying we want to be number one but as long as it’s well received, does well and people buy it, you enjoy it.
Are you planning to tour in support of the new album?
Not at the moment. I think it nearly ruined us last time. It’s at the back of our minds but right now we are just trying to concentrate on the album.
There have been some changes in personnel in the past few years, how many people are in the Depeche Mode camp at the moment?
There’s about seven or eight people including the group.
Many of the fans try to associate with their idols which sometimes leads to extreme situations. In the case of Depeche Mode, does this frighten you a lot?
Not really, because say for instance with me and football. The football players are my idols, so sometimes I would wear the shirt of their team. Obviously it’s worrying when fans see the sort of lifestyle we lead, and there is a lot of publicity of our particular lifestyle, that fans may think that’s the way to live life. Over the years we have seen a few fans we have known personally, who have, perhaps, taken that lifestyle a little bit too far.
Being one of the bands with a high frequency of bootleg records, does record piracy both you a lot and are you taking any steps against it?
Not on that level, it’s not a problem. Obviously, if people started to bootleg our own records it would be, but when they just make records up… it’s always going to be a small proportion of the market because the big record stores won’t stock them because they’d be sued. I think it’s one of the sides of being popular, isn’t it? The more popular you are, the more bootlegs you get.
Looking back at the 80s, do you see many changes in how the music business works?
I think it always works in the same way, it’s still the same.
What do you think of the recent reunions of the bands like Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Eagles?
It’s money, isn’t it? I don’t blame people if they need money… do it… if that’s the way they want to do it.
Do you follow some of the current music?
I buy a lot of CDs but I wouldn’t say that I follow current popular music.
Did you ever get to the point you couldn’t handle the fame anymore?
Never. I think I got to a point where I couldn’t handle the internal pressures, but not the outside pressures. The outside pressures are not too bad and we’ve always been very lucky in that respect. Also I am quite fortunate because someone like Martin and Dave are much more recognisable than I am, so it’s easier for me.
How do you manage to balance your personal and professional lives these days?
You don’t balance it, it’s all mixed together. A lot of the people I know in my professional life I know in my personal life so it’s very much mixed together.
Name one thing you are most proud of.
I suppose we have always been considered the underdogs, especially over here. So it’s good to show people, year after year, that we have got something to offer.
Is there anything in your career you look back on and say “I shouldn’t have done that”?
The small things are things like the clothes that you wore or the haircuts you get embarrassed about. They are the minor things. I don’t think there are any major things that I regret.
What are the high and low points of your career?
I think the high point is still probably the show we did at the Rose Bowl. The low point has to be on the last tour when I just couldn’t take any more.
Have you ever considered having the Band’s biography written and published?
We have tried a few times but we haven’t got it together. The problem is that people do bootleg books, and they are not correct. Again – it’s just low on our priorities. [2]
What kind of future do you envisage for Depeche Mode?
At the moment I feel very optimistic because the album is going to come out, and it’s going to be very good, and I am very confident. Long-term-wise, anything can happen, but at the moment we’re getting on well, it’s good fun and we’ve got no pressures. It’s all up to us what we do, for a change. We haven’t got this big schedule, so it’s an optimistic short term.
SINGLES 81-85
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: Various contributors.]
“Dreaming Of Me”. Dreaming of those halcyon (?) days of New Romanticism, when the Deps were pretty darned hip and Martin Gore looked vaguely masculine. “New Life”. The new life was the pop star life. The single was a new, vibrant pop sound in ’81. Still sparkling in ’85. Makes me shudder, though, remembering a stiletto-clad pogoer at a fateful DM gig. The sprightly young thing proceeded to drill a hole in my foot to the strains of this un. “Just Can’t Get Enough”. Just couldn’t get enough. A frequent dance floor filler at flagging parties, when every last drop of alcohol has been downed. Ah, the memories. “See You”. Ta ra, Vince. Manly Martin’s first stab as songwriter, a superlative one it was, too. Startlingly simple but effective. A classic. “Get The Balance Right” opined Basildon’s bravest, but did they heed their own lyrics? Nah. Pedantry creeps in. “People Are People” and Depeche Mode are only human. Like all great authorial talents, they dry up, hit mental blocks, exhaust their verbiage. Painfully infantile. “Blasphemous Rumours”. What’s up with MG? The advent of the nifty little leather numbers saw the crucifixion of the big, brash beat. “Shake The Disease” and I’ll shake off the cynicism. The frilly shirts may be gathering dust but the Deps have never looked like retiring to the closet.
Lesley O’Toole
Record Mirror
(Oct 19, 1985)
Singles 81-85, the album the critics loved to hate. Who can forget the one-line review of “Just Can’t Get Enough” – “I can, you will”? Or the rejoinder to the title of “People Are People” – “Yes, and spiders are hairy”? Fortunately, the energy in “People” and “Master And Servant” alone show Depeche Mode were not to be daunted by a few miles of cutting reviews. Mode serve up very different slices of life: wrecked relationships in “Leave In Silence” and the “routine slab of gloom” in “Blasphemous Rumours”. But they also have the psychotically perky “Just Can’t Get Enough” – a song Stock, Aitken and Waterman would have dismissed as just too damn cheerful. But with their zest for life, you can forgive them just about anything. It is definitely Depeche Mode’s most preachy album, overflowing with messages for all sorts of positive behaviour. Songs plead tolerance (“People Are People”), moderation (“Get The Balance Right”), the importance of stable relationships (“Somebody”) and what love really is behind all the cliches (“The Meaning Of Love”). This isn’t just an album; it’s The Young Person’s Guide to Life in the Early ‘80s! The soaring backing vocals echo the early Beatles and add a very English feel to it. “Blasphemous Rumours”, with its metallic breathing and harsh instruments, is a masterpiece of industrial music and very much a throwback to “Construction Time Again”. The album’s weakest point is the ballad “Somebody”, with its hearts-and-flowers lyrics and sounds of children playing in the background, it presents a Walt Disney portrayal of love that’s fine if you actually like eating treacle by the bucketful. I miss the Eastern influence in the lilting, almost hypnotic “Lie To Me” and “Something To Do”, but more vocals by Martin Gore are strengthening the album all the time. An assured, talented album.
Nina Romain, Auckland, New Zealand
(September 1996)
If ever there was a band destined for obsolescence, it was Depeche Mode. Hopeful flotsam riding the wave of the New Romanticism, their first three singles (up to “Just Can’t Get Enough) and the departure of Vince Clarke) were frothy and undemanding, the light industrial feel of Kraftwerk thinned out into plinkety-plonk electro-bubblegum. Initially championed by certain sections of the music press eager to foist their latest theories about the perfect pop product on to the band, they were soon discarded as worthless pretty boys playing at being Chicory Tip. Then something extraordinary happened. Just as rock press cred had deserted them and just as their baby-faced charm was being turned into heartthrob androgyny for the benefit of Smash Hits, they embarked on a voyage of musical discovery. Experimenting with new instruments sampling new noises and utilising the whole gamut of avant-synth practices from found voices to metal-banging, they came up with a series of dense and druggy soundscapes across which journeyed darkly-shifting melodies and increasingly radical lyrics. Often they degenerated into painfully sincere sentiment (“People Are People”…) but at other times, such as “Master And Servant”, they hit home with explicit and disturbing analogies between S/M sex and capitalism. But as we all know, pretty lightweight. And as long as David Gahan big mascaraed eyes and Martin Gore’s cheeky rouged nipples continue to adorn album covers, they’ll be dismissed as teeny-bop fodder. This complete collection of the boys’ singles including the latest, “It’s Called A Heart”, provides convincing evidence that such a charge is nonsense.
Frank Owen, Melody Maker
(Oct 19, 1985)
The boys from Basildon. I really enjoyed looking at the colour photos of DM at the Bridgehouse and Southend Tech. Real Essex pictures like my sisters take. Also bravely provided are various critics’ reactions to the singles. Not that they’re all bad, one “Sounds” reviewer found “Dreaming Of Me”, (the first single), “Deep, meaningful, heavy and arty”. [1] The things some people put in their Horlicks. Pop fodder for the most part. How the hell did that get in the charts? But that’s what the charts are like. The early thin sound can lose its tinsel glitter at times, and those wicked backing vocals. I liked most of the post “People Are People” stuff, and Martin Gore is showing definite signs of development in his songwriting, while “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” remain as tunefully listenable as ever.
TNT
(Dec 12, 1985)
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: Various contributors.]
“Dreaming Of Me”. Dreaming of those halcyon (?) days of New Romanticism, when the Deps were pretty darned hip and Martin Gore looked vaguely masculine. “New Life”. The new life was the pop star life. The single was a new, vibrant pop sound in ’81. Still sparkling in ’85. Makes me shudder, though, remembering a stiletto-clad pogoer at a fateful DM gig. The sprightly young thing proceeded to drill a hole in my foot to the strains of this un. “Just Can’t Get Enough”. Just couldn’t get enough. A frequent dance floor filler at flagging parties, when every last drop of alcohol has been downed. Ah, the memories. “See You”. Ta ra, Vince. Manly Martin’s first stab as songwriter, a superlative one it was, too. Startlingly simple but effective. A classic. “Get The Balance Right” opined Basildon’s bravest, but did they heed their own lyrics? Nah. Pedantry creeps in. “People Are People” and Depeche Mode are only human. Like all great authorial talents, they dry up, hit mental blocks, exhaust their verbiage. Painfully infantile. “Blasphemous Rumours”. What’s up with MG? The advent of the nifty little leather numbers saw the crucifixion of the big, brash beat. “Shake The Disease” and I’ll shake off the cynicism. The frilly shirts may be gathering dust but the Deps have never looked like retiring to the closet.
Lesley O’Toole
Record Mirror
(Oct 19, 1985)
Singles 81-85, the album the critics loved to hate. Who can forget the one-line review of “Just Can’t Get Enough” – “I can, you will”? Or the rejoinder to the title of “People Are People” – “Yes, and spiders are hairy”? Fortunately, the energy in “People” and “Master And Servant” alone show Depeche Mode were not to be daunted by a few miles of cutting reviews. Mode serve up very different slices of life: wrecked relationships in “Leave In Silence” and the “routine slab of gloom” in “Blasphemous Rumours”. But they also have the psychotically perky “Just Can’t Get Enough” – a song Stock, Aitken and Waterman would have dismissed as just too damn cheerful. But with their zest for life, you can forgive them just about anything. It is definitely Depeche Mode’s most preachy album, overflowing with messages for all sorts of positive behaviour. Songs plead tolerance (“People Are People”), moderation (“Get The Balance Right”), the importance of stable relationships (“Somebody”) and what love really is behind all the cliches (“The Meaning Of Love”). This isn’t just an album; it’s The Young Person’s Guide to Life in the Early ‘80s! The soaring backing vocals echo the early Beatles and add a very English feel to it. “Blasphemous Rumours”, with its metallic breathing and harsh instruments, is a masterpiece of industrial music and very much a throwback to “Construction Time Again”. The album’s weakest point is the ballad “Somebody”, with its hearts-and-flowers lyrics and sounds of children playing in the background, it presents a Walt Disney portrayal of love that’s fine if you actually like eating treacle by the bucketful. I miss the Eastern influence in the lilting, almost hypnotic “Lie To Me” and “Something To Do”, but more vocals by Martin Gore are strengthening the album all the time. An assured, talented album.
Nina Romain, Auckland, New Zealand
(September 1996)
If ever there was a band destined for obsolescence, it was Depeche Mode. Hopeful flotsam riding the wave of the New Romanticism, their first three singles (up to “Just Can’t Get Enough) and the departure of Vince Clarke) were frothy and undemanding, the light industrial feel of Kraftwerk thinned out into plinkety-plonk electro-bubblegum. Initially championed by certain sections of the music press eager to foist their latest theories about the perfect pop product on to the band, they were soon discarded as worthless pretty boys playing at being Chicory Tip. Then something extraordinary happened. Just as rock press cred had deserted them and just as their baby-faced charm was being turned into heartthrob androgyny for the benefit of Smash Hits, they embarked on a voyage of musical discovery. Experimenting with new instruments sampling new noises and utilising the whole gamut of avant-synth practices from found voices to metal-banging, they came up with a series of dense and druggy soundscapes across which journeyed darkly-shifting melodies and increasingly radical lyrics. Often they degenerated into painfully sincere sentiment (“People Are People”…) but at other times, such as “Master And Servant”, they hit home with explicit and disturbing analogies between S/M sex and capitalism. But as we all know, pretty lightweight. And as long as David Gahan big mascaraed eyes and Martin Gore’s cheeky rouged nipples continue to adorn album covers, they’ll be dismissed as teeny-bop fodder. This complete collection of the boys’ singles including the latest, “It’s Called A Heart”, provides convincing evidence that such a charge is nonsense.
Frank Owen, Melody Maker
(Oct 19, 1985)
The boys from Basildon. I really enjoyed looking at the colour photos of DM at the Bridgehouse and Southend Tech. Real Essex pictures like my sisters take. Also bravely provided are various critics’ reactions to the singles. Not that they’re all bad, one “Sounds” reviewer found “Dreaming Of Me”, (the first single), “Deep, meaningful, heavy and arty”. [1] The things some people put in their Horlicks. Pop fodder for the most part. How the hell did that get in the charts? But that’s what the charts are like. The early thin sound can lose its tinsel glitter at times, and those wicked backing vocals. I liked most of the post “People Are People” stuff, and Martin Gore is showing definite signs of development in his songwriting, while “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” remain as tunefully listenable as ever.
TNT
(Dec 12, 1985)
BLACK CELEBRATION
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: Various contributors.]
Although we didn’t know it at the time, the B-side of “It’s Called A Heart”, “Fly On The Windscreen”, was to be the first taste of the 1986 album “Black Celebration”. A dark theme indeed, “Fly On The Winscreen” reunited Martin’s favourite themes of love, sex and redemption. The extended and “Death” mixes, beginning with the refrain “touch me” and samples of global conflicts, suggested the competition between desire and the fear of AIDS, prevalent at the time. The “Death” mix also saw extensive use of media samples to augment the sound. This use of other audio material was later used by bands such as Big Audio Dynamite and falsely credited to them as pioneers of the technique. Justice, I ask you! February ’86 saw the release of “Stripped”, an industrial masterpiece. DM seemed almost to deliberately incite reaction by utilising the latest musical technology to produce a song enticing people back to a life of technology-free simplicity. The irony wasn’t missed. After two relatively weak singles in 1985, “Stripped” shouted loud and clear, “We’re back, so watch it!” “Black Celebration” as a whole explored all of Martin’s favourites: lust, love, lust, religion, lust… and more… lust with greater depth than had been attempted on preceding albums. Musically there was more experimentation with different styles of rhythm and melody. The minimalism of “Something To Do” from “Some Great Reward” was refined leading to the understated but musically complex “It Doesn’t Matter Too” and to the dance hall favourite “A Question Of Time”. Each song taking a simple musical refrain and building on it to produce featured complexity. The title track “Black Celebration” and the rewritten version “Black Day” (Daniel Miller & Alan Wilder) summed up the entire album: the need for love, caring and warmth in a world that often could seem cold, desolate and barren. During this period, Depeche Mode were often accused of being depressing. However, this view ignored the message behind the songs. Yes, the world can be a complete bitch with much to concern. However, despite whatever life throws at you there is always hope for love, lust and trust.
David Stevenson, Norwich, England
(Sep 3, 1996)
“Let’s have a black celebration / Black celebration / Tonight / To celebrate the fact / That we’ve seen the back / Of another black day”. These lines mark the beginning of Depeche Mode’s fifth album “Black Celebration”, their darkest and most impressive one up to now. Without any exaggeration it can be seen as ingenious considering both its lyrics and music. In contrary to its predecessors, especially the first both albums “Speak And Spell” and “A Broken Frame”, without exception every song on “Black Celebration” gives you the certainty that you are a witness of a milestone in music-history and it may even amaze you that a human mind is able to create such a godlike work of art. [1] Considering its texts it may make you feel sad and desperate: “Death is everywhere / There are lambs for the slaughter / Waiting to die / And I can sense / The hours slipping by”. But although it gives a straightforward, almost brutal description of ‘the world we live in and life in general’, it won’t let you alone with your fears and depression. It takes you apart and gives you consolation and hope with songs like “Here Is The House” and “A Question Of Lust”. The voices of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore perfectly support the moody atmosphere of the album and give a very special note to every single song. Whereas Martin’s gentle voice is just cut out for songs like the piano-based “Sometimes”, Dave’s singing varies between devoted fascination like in “Dressed In Black” and uncompromising severity like in “Fly On The Windscreen – Final” or the bombastic “Stripped”. As soon as you put on this masterpiece it will take you by the hand and embrace you with its darkness and consolation. This album was definitely a turning-point in Depeche Mode’s career and gave an outlook of their sound in the future to come.
Helge Bewernitz
Münster, Germany
(September 1996)
Depeche Mode are one of those bands whose music shouldn’t be given the “gut reaction” treatment. Following last year’s “Some Great Reward”, this LP sees Martin Gore following much the same lines. He will persist in asking the kind of questions that there really are no answers to. Musically there is a riot of atmosphere which should ensure many a Depeche fan will be dipping into this one over and over again. Best tracks, aside from the single “Stripped”, are “Here Is The House” and “World Full Of Nothing”.
No. 1, England
(March 22, 1986)
Here are some things to admire about Depeche Mode: (1) their self-sufficiency, (2) their refusal to follow anything but their own fashion, (3) their refusal to be anything but themselves, (4) their unswerving ability to come up with great, fresh melodies. “Black Celebration” is a comfy progression for the Deps, but it contains no huge surprises. It keeps to the rules they set for themselves in terms of quality, value for money, tunefulness and experimentation. It kicks off with three killer tracks – “Black Celebration”, “Fly On The Windscreen” and “A Question Of Lust”, the latter being a prize crystal-clear, soaring Mart-on-vocals special. But it really is like putting all your cards on the table before the game’s finished. Of the raunchier numbers, “A Question Of Time” stands out, as does the single “Stripped” and the moody “Dressed In Black”. “New Dress”, although it pumps and throbs, has rather excruciating lyrics, ditto “Sometimes”, one of the rather too many sweet little ballads. [2] Although the melodies are gorgeous, Martin seems preoccupied with sounding like the gawky school choirboy. Mr. Gore is again lyrically concerned with tenderness, sweetness, closeness with another, and putting his heart on his sleeve. That’s fine, balanced against Depeche Mode’s more exciting, sinister side. Beware the girly swot notebook with the arrow through the heart, boys, and you’ll rool OK. Strength through wimpery!
Betty Page, Record Mirror
(March 15, 1986)
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: Various contributors.]
Although we didn’t know it at the time, the B-side of “It’s Called A Heart”, “Fly On The Windscreen”, was to be the first taste of the 1986 album “Black Celebration”. A dark theme indeed, “Fly On The Winscreen” reunited Martin’s favourite themes of love, sex and redemption. The extended and “Death” mixes, beginning with the refrain “touch me” and samples of global conflicts, suggested the competition between desire and the fear of AIDS, prevalent at the time. The “Death” mix also saw extensive use of media samples to augment the sound. This use of other audio material was later used by bands such as Big Audio Dynamite and falsely credited to them as pioneers of the technique. Justice, I ask you! February ’86 saw the release of “Stripped”, an industrial masterpiece. DM seemed almost to deliberately incite reaction by utilising the latest musical technology to produce a song enticing people back to a life of technology-free simplicity. The irony wasn’t missed. After two relatively weak singles in 1985, “Stripped” shouted loud and clear, “We’re back, so watch it!” “Black Celebration” as a whole explored all of Martin’s favourites: lust, love, lust, religion, lust… and more… lust with greater depth than had been attempted on preceding albums. Musically there was more experimentation with different styles of rhythm and melody. The minimalism of “Something To Do” from “Some Great Reward” was refined leading to the understated but musically complex “It Doesn’t Matter Too” and to the dance hall favourite “A Question Of Time”. Each song taking a simple musical refrain and building on it to produce featured complexity. The title track “Black Celebration” and the rewritten version “Black Day” (Daniel Miller & Alan Wilder) summed up the entire album: the need for love, caring and warmth in a world that often could seem cold, desolate and barren. During this period, Depeche Mode were often accused of being depressing. However, this view ignored the message behind the songs. Yes, the world can be a complete bitch with much to concern. However, despite whatever life throws at you there is always hope for love, lust and trust.
David Stevenson, Norwich, England
(Sep 3, 1996)
“Let’s have a black celebration / Black celebration / Tonight / To celebrate the fact / That we’ve seen the back / Of another black day”. These lines mark the beginning of Depeche Mode’s fifth album “Black Celebration”, their darkest and most impressive one up to now. Without any exaggeration it can be seen as ingenious considering both its lyrics and music. In contrary to its predecessors, especially the first both albums “Speak And Spell” and “A Broken Frame”, without exception every song on “Black Celebration” gives you the certainty that you are a witness of a milestone in music-history and it may even amaze you that a human mind is able to create such a godlike work of art. [1] Considering its texts it may make you feel sad and desperate: “Death is everywhere / There are lambs for the slaughter / Waiting to die / And I can sense / The hours slipping by”. But although it gives a straightforward, almost brutal description of ‘the world we live in and life in general’, it won’t let you alone with your fears and depression. It takes you apart and gives you consolation and hope with songs like “Here Is The House” and “A Question Of Lust”. The voices of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore perfectly support the moody atmosphere of the album and give a very special note to every single song. Whereas Martin’s gentle voice is just cut out for songs like the piano-based “Sometimes”, Dave’s singing varies between devoted fascination like in “Dressed In Black” and uncompromising severity like in “Fly On The Windscreen – Final” or the bombastic “Stripped”. As soon as you put on this masterpiece it will take you by the hand and embrace you with its darkness and consolation. This album was definitely a turning-point in Depeche Mode’s career and gave an outlook of their sound in the future to come.
Helge Bewernitz
Münster, Germany
(September 1996)
Depeche Mode are one of those bands whose music shouldn’t be given the “gut reaction” treatment. Following last year’s “Some Great Reward”, this LP sees Martin Gore following much the same lines. He will persist in asking the kind of questions that there really are no answers to. Musically there is a riot of atmosphere which should ensure many a Depeche fan will be dipping into this one over and over again. Best tracks, aside from the single “Stripped”, are “Here Is The House” and “World Full Of Nothing”.
No. 1, England
(March 22, 1986)
Here are some things to admire about Depeche Mode: (1) their self-sufficiency, (2) their refusal to follow anything but their own fashion, (3) their refusal to be anything but themselves, (4) their unswerving ability to come up with great, fresh melodies. “Black Celebration” is a comfy progression for the Deps, but it contains no huge surprises. It keeps to the rules they set for themselves in terms of quality, value for money, tunefulness and experimentation. It kicks off with three killer tracks – “Black Celebration”, “Fly On The Windscreen” and “A Question Of Lust”, the latter being a prize crystal-clear, soaring Mart-on-vocals special. But it really is like putting all your cards on the table before the game’s finished. Of the raunchier numbers, “A Question Of Time” stands out, as does the single “Stripped” and the moody “Dressed In Black”. “New Dress”, although it pumps and throbs, has rather excruciating lyrics, ditto “Sometimes”, one of the rather too many sweet little ballads. [2] Although the melodies are gorgeous, Martin seems preoccupied with sounding like the gawky school choirboy. Mr. Gore is again lyrically concerned with tenderness, sweetness, closeness with another, and putting his heart on his sleeve. That’s fine, balanced against Depeche Mode’s more exciting, sinister side. Beware the girly swot notebook with the arrow through the heart, boys, and you’ll rool OK. Strength through wimpery!
Betty Page, Record Mirror
(March 15, 1986)
FROM "PRESSED IN BLACK"
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: "Raf Boy".]
Dear Bong
I just felt I needed to drop a line, and share an experience I just recently had. Recently, I visited a club that happened to be playing retro-80s ‘new wave’ music (for me – heaven). While at the club, I met several ‘interesting’ Depeche Mode fans. Having been a huge fan for 11 years, I figured we’d hit it off, and started talking with them (but played dumb about knowing anything about Depeche Mode to see how they would react to me).
It was interesting to note the smug superiority they seemed to feel towards me because I seemed not to be in to ‘all things Mode’. I asked them what ‘all things Mode’ meant.
They said that it required that you wear nothing but Depeche Mode gear (which they did), listen to nothing but Depeche Mode, do not fraternise with non-fans, ‘worship’ the ‘Mode-ness’, and generally shun anything non-Mode related. I told them that in doing so they closed themselves off from a lot of wonderful experiences and people (some who actually don’t like Depeche Mode). This last comment seemed to cause an uproar. They felt that anyone who didn’t like Depeche Mode was not worth knowing, and wondered out loud why they were wasting their time with me. Still playing coy, I asked what it was about Depeche Mode that inspired such passionate worship. They said it was the music, the spirituality, the ‘sacredness of Martin’s lyrics’. I told them that they could glimpse spirituality in a flower or the eyes of a baby or lovers’ embrace; that Mozart has written some of the most sublime music 200 years prior to Depeche Mode; and that Poe or Camus or even the Brothers Grimm committed wonderful ideas to paper. They responded by saying that I wouldn’t be worthy of calling myself a Depeche Mode fan (to which I tried, in vain, to hold back a laugh) and left. I never told them that I’ve been a huge fan since they were probably in diapers.
I just feel that if some Depeche Mode fanatics (or any other type of fanatic) took even a little of the wonderful (and sometimes scary) passion and commitment they felt towards Depeche Mode (or anything else), and applied it towards making this world a better place, we’d all be the richer for it. Bring a smile to a lonely person’s lips, tell a child that they are beautiful and very special, make a positive impact on someone’s life. There will come a time when Depeche Mode will be no more, and what will you have to show for your allegiance but faded and torn posters, tattered T-shirts, dusty records, and old memories… did you remember to live, or did it pass you by? Let Depeche Mode be the soundtrack to, and not the director of, your life.
Raf Boy
Los Angeles, USA
[From Bong 30, December 1996. Words: "Raf Boy".]
Dear Bong
I just felt I needed to drop a line, and share an experience I just recently had. Recently, I visited a club that happened to be playing retro-80s ‘new wave’ music (for me – heaven). While at the club, I met several ‘interesting’ Depeche Mode fans. Having been a huge fan for 11 years, I figured we’d hit it off, and started talking with them (but played dumb about knowing anything about Depeche Mode to see how they would react to me).
It was interesting to note the smug superiority they seemed to feel towards me because I seemed not to be in to ‘all things Mode’. I asked them what ‘all things Mode’ meant.
They said that it required that you wear nothing but Depeche Mode gear (which they did), listen to nothing but Depeche Mode, do not fraternise with non-fans, ‘worship’ the ‘Mode-ness’, and generally shun anything non-Mode related. I told them that in doing so they closed themselves off from a lot of wonderful experiences and people (some who actually don’t like Depeche Mode). This last comment seemed to cause an uproar. They felt that anyone who didn’t like Depeche Mode was not worth knowing, and wondered out loud why they were wasting their time with me. Still playing coy, I asked what it was about Depeche Mode that inspired such passionate worship. They said it was the music, the spirituality, the ‘sacredness of Martin’s lyrics’. I told them that they could glimpse spirituality in a flower or the eyes of a baby or lovers’ embrace; that Mozart has written some of the most sublime music 200 years prior to Depeche Mode; and that Poe or Camus or even the Brothers Grimm committed wonderful ideas to paper. They responded by saying that I wouldn’t be worthy of calling myself a Depeche Mode fan (to which I tried, in vain, to hold back a laugh) and left. I never told them that I’ve been a huge fan since they were probably in diapers.
I just feel that if some Depeche Mode fanatics (or any other type of fanatic) took even a little of the wonderful (and sometimes scary) passion and commitment they felt towards Depeche Mode (or anything else), and applied it towards making this world a better place, we’d all be the richer for it. Bring a smile to a lonely person’s lips, tell a child that they are beautiful and very special, make a positive impact on someone’s life. There will come a time when Depeche Mode will be no more, and what will you have to show for your allegiance but faded and torn posters, tattered T-shirts, dusty records, and old memories… did you remember to live, or did it pass you by? Let Depeche Mode be the soundtrack to, and not the director of, your life.
Raf Boy
Los Angeles, USA