Breaking The Silence
[Record Mirror, 17th March 1990. Words: Lisa Tilston. Pictures: Uncredited.]
[Record Mirror, 17th March 1990. Words: Lisa Tilston. Pictures: Uncredited.]
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Depeche Mode Breaking The Silence (Record Mirror, 1990)
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In 10 years at the top of the music tree, DEPECHE MODE have gone from cheery electronic popsters to the makers of some of the most controversial, left-field chart music of the last few years. With a new album called “Violator” just unleashed, Lisa Tilston talks to the band who were talking pop / dancefloor crossover while The Stone Roses were still in (flared) short trousers.
Depeche Mode are one of the decade’s most unlikely success stories. They were still in their teens when they got together in a Basildon bedroom to develop their perfect pop technique, they cottoned on to heavy industrial dance long before acid house was invented, and in 10 years they’ve never made a duff record. [1] Their first single, “Dreaming Of Me”, which got to number 57, is still their lowest chart placing, and they regularly infiltrate the Top 10.
All this, and yet Depeche Mode are hardly popstars. Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Alan Wilder and Andy Fletcher could walk down any street in Britain without being recognised, although they get mobbed abroad. Gore’s remarkable songwriting talent is barely acknowledged, their public profile is lower than a jockey’s kneecap, and their ground-breaking, innovative records are often dismissed as “synthesiser pop”.
Tired of being misunderstood, Depeche Mode have shunned the press for the last few years. But now, with a superb new album, “Violator”, ready to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world, they’ve decided to break the silence. Andy Fletcher, as friendly, amusing and unassuming a man as you could hope to meet, gives Record Mirror the lowdown on their finest vinyl outpouring to date.
Fletch, aren’t you setting yourselves up for yet more misunderstanding by calling a collection of sensitive and emotional songs “Violator”?
“We called it “Violator” because we wanted a very heavy metal title. The last album, “Music For The Masses”, was another sarcastic title which no one understood, it doesn’t really matter because we know we’re being sarcastic. The Germans especially didn’t get “Music For The Masses” at all, because over there we really are music for the masses, and they don’t understand sarcasm – they were saying “Oh, so what is this, you are making commercial music?”! I think people miss the humour in the band because unless you’re a real devotee you don’t look that seriously at groups, you just glance at a video on “Top Of The Pops” and make a snap decision about whether or not you like it.
“Over the years Martin’s studio at home has got progressively better and better so the demos he was producing and giving to us were very good quality. If you listen to a song, say “Strangelove” which was a very full demo, after about 20 plays the direction in which you’re going to go is pretty much fixed. We were basically re-recording Martin’s demos with better sound, better production and Dave’s vocals. For this album we said to Martin, just present the demos on acoustic guitar and organ, only lyrics and chords, so we could decide the direction of songs as a group. It was a conscious decision to make this album different from the previous ones. It’s also the first time we’ve used a producer rather than an engineer / producer.
“It was definitely more enjoyable making this album because we went to Milan right at the beginning. We just went out, partied, and didn’t get any recording done, but we had a good time and it cemented the spirit of the whole album. It was very much a group feeling.”
You haven’t really changed your methods though.
“Well, electronics were always the way forward in the Eighties but no one else realised that. Now, of course, 95 per cent of records are made with electronics, but mostly in a bad way. The groups who were around with us in the early Eighties gave the whole thing a bad name, to be in a synthesiser group was a dirty word, and we spent most of the decade trying to justify ourselves.
“We have used guitars and drums but it’s not apparent. People just hear a few synthesisers and think ‘It’s the same old Depeche Mode’. The thing is we’re always going to sound like Depeche Mode because Dave’s voice is so distinctive.”
You’ve released some pretty controversial records over the years.
“We wouldn’t say our songs are controversial. They do cause controversy, but Martin would say all he does is write about life.
“Martin’s a classic songwriter and he’s a great pop fan. When he presents songs to us they’re songs he’s dead sure about. We’re like a family really, so usually what he writes about is the sort of thing we’re experiencing too.
“ 'Personal Jesus' was on a general theme, that’s the important thing. The lyrics are very ambiguous so although it could have been controversial in fact it turned out not to be at all. Most people thought it was a pro-Christian anthem, which wasn’t intended. If you release a song with the word “Jesus” in it you’ve got to expect trouble, but we wanted to release it because we thought it was a good song.
“Martin doesn’t get us around the table and say ‘Listen lads, this is what this one’s about’. He never explains the lyrics at all. In the old days when we used to make videos with storylines like ‘See You’ he hated it because they interpreted his songs too literally. I’ve heard about 10 different interpretations of ‘Personal Jesus’ and that’s what Martin really likes.
“We do experience the same sort of feelings as he does though. The really emotional, lovey-dovey ones he sings anyway, there’s no point in Dave singing them. On the new album ‘Sweetest Perfection’ is quite specific, and obviously Martin’s got to sing that one.”
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Will Depeche Mode make it into the history books?
“Not in England, unless something happens in the future, but in other countries we certainly will, especially Germany and the eastern bloc. In England we’re more hated than we are liked.”
That must hurt.
“This is the only country we’ve got a history in, you see, because in the first two or three years we produced our worst records, we were at our most famous and at our sickliest. We smiled in every photo, we were in Smash Hits every week and people still remember that. They also think we went from that to doom and gloom, so there’s these two extreme views of Depeche Mode in England. We’re either pop, or doom and gloom… but we’re actually both!”
You’ve had your career in reverse, starting as a pop band and becoming progressively more left-fiend.
“Yes, and New Order have done it the opposite way, starting off really gloomy with Joy Division and getting more and more poppy! It’s just the way Martin writes songs. On the second album, after Vince Clarke left, there was pressure on Martin to write commercial tunes and it was a bit of a mish-mash. We consider ‘Construction Time Again’ our first real album when we got our act together and Martin was right into his gloom and doom by then! It comes from him, totally, but we would say that he’s just being realistic and other stuff is too optimistic. We don’t consider ourselves gloomy, there’s a lot of melody and perhaps some of the vocal lines are a bit on the depressing side but on the whole I find it very uplifting and the fans do too.”
You do sound rather doom-laden in contrast with the rest of the charts though.
“Exactly. ‘Enjoy The Silence’ is probably our most commercial song for quite a while. It’s got a good tune and a housey beat, but it still seems gloomy compared to the bouncy dance music like Black Box and Technotronic. In some ways perhaps we’re in our own little world; we don’t aim to be subversive but if we are it’s very natural.”
Has the relentless success ever been hard to cope with?
“I think being on Mute helps a lot. We’ve always been the main group on the label but we’re not treated like stars. It might have been different if when we were 18 or 19 we’d been shunted around in limos, but when we were doing ‘Top Of The Pops’ we were getting there by tube and I think that helped keep our feet on the ground. Also not having a manager helps because you have to learn the business side yourself. We’re in control, because I take care of that side of things. There’s no pressure on Martin when he’s writing, or Alan when he’s putting together the music, or Dave… In fact I get all the pressure! It’s something I’m quite interested in anyway, because I studied economics at school. I think a modern band has to be interested in that side of things, we remember the stories of Gary Glitter going bankrupt and we’re always very conscious of that.
“We still feel like an indie band though. We have total control over what we do because we’re not in a major label conglomerate situation. We make the decisions.”
“Not in England, unless something happens in the future, but in other countries we certainly will, especially Germany and the eastern bloc. In England we’re more hated than we are liked.”
That must hurt.
“This is the only country we’ve got a history in, you see, because in the first two or three years we produced our worst records, we were at our most famous and at our sickliest. We smiled in every photo, we were in Smash Hits every week and people still remember that. They also think we went from that to doom and gloom, so there’s these two extreme views of Depeche Mode in England. We’re either pop, or doom and gloom… but we’re actually both!”
You’ve had your career in reverse, starting as a pop band and becoming progressively more left-fiend.
“Yes, and New Order have done it the opposite way, starting off really gloomy with Joy Division and getting more and more poppy! It’s just the way Martin writes songs. On the second album, after Vince Clarke left, there was pressure on Martin to write commercial tunes and it was a bit of a mish-mash. We consider ‘Construction Time Again’ our first real album when we got our act together and Martin was right into his gloom and doom by then! It comes from him, totally, but we would say that he’s just being realistic and other stuff is too optimistic. We don’t consider ourselves gloomy, there’s a lot of melody and perhaps some of the vocal lines are a bit on the depressing side but on the whole I find it very uplifting and the fans do too.”
You do sound rather doom-laden in contrast with the rest of the charts though.
“Exactly. ‘Enjoy The Silence’ is probably our most commercial song for quite a while. It’s got a good tune and a housey beat, but it still seems gloomy compared to the bouncy dance music like Black Box and Technotronic. In some ways perhaps we’re in our own little world; we don’t aim to be subversive but if we are it’s very natural.”
Has the relentless success ever been hard to cope with?
“I think being on Mute helps a lot. We’ve always been the main group on the label but we’re not treated like stars. It might have been different if when we were 18 or 19 we’d been shunted around in limos, but when we were doing ‘Top Of The Pops’ we were getting there by tube and I think that helped keep our feet on the ground. Also not having a manager helps because you have to learn the business side yourself. We’re in control, because I take care of that side of things. There’s no pressure on Martin when he’s writing, or Alan when he’s putting together the music, or Dave… In fact I get all the pressure! It’s something I’m quite interested in anyway, because I studied economics at school. I think a modern band has to be interested in that side of things, we remember the stories of Gary Glitter going bankrupt and we’re always very conscious of that.
“We still feel like an indie band though. We have total control over what we do because we’re not in a major label conglomerate situation. We make the decisions.”
