Depeche Mode Dep Jam (Record Mirror, 1987)
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Brief interview, with Martin for once giving most of the answers, at the time of the release of Never Let Me down Again. While the piece covers the pertinent subject of how Depeche Mode were developing a significant cult status thanks to their darker style, the author hops mechanically through the questions with very little comeback, and this makes for static reading.
Dust down your leathers, get your mum’s bra stuffed with paper hankies: Depeche Mode have a new single out. Bella bella says Francesco Adinolfi
As inevitable as night following day, Arsenal sending people to sleep and the Tories winning the last election, Depeche Mode are releasing a single. As inevitable as all the above and more, that same single will be a hit. Following the success of ‘Strangelove’, the band are now back with ‘Never Let Me Down Again’, to be followed in the autumn by a new LP. While never actually having had a flop single or album, the Mode – as they are affectionately referred to – seem to have fought back from a series of disappointing chart positions (by their standards) and are bright and eager and raring to go. Still straddling that uneasy line between teeny-bop pop stars, a ‘lad’s band’ as demonstrated by the hordes of casuals who attend their live shows in Britain (well, they are Chelsea supporters after all) and serious exponents of high quality even arty synthesized music, there are few who have not yet formed an opinion of them. So what’s been happening in the Mode camp? Is the new LP to be a radical departure in style? Will they be touring soon? And is Martin Gore still wearing that silly skirt or has he progressed to bra and sussies yet?
“We’ve been taking it easy,” says Andy Fletcher. “We recorded half the new LP in Paris. It’s hard to speak about the style of the record but the songs are really good, it contains various moods. We’ve recorded 15 songs of which nine or 10 will end up on the album. The title’s ‘Music For The Masses’. I think it’s a very good title.”
Why?
“It’s a bit tongue in cheek really. Everyone is telling us that we should make more commercial music, so that’s the reason we chose that title.”
Who buys Depeche Mode records these days?
“A whole cross section of people. We’ve been going for six years and we’re gaining fans all the time – many grown-up people. Hopefully we’re improving all the time, but it’s very hard for us to be objective – we’re constantly striving for perfection. One day we’ll reach it, perhaps.”
What would you call perfection?
“To have an album which will be regarded in 10 to 15 years’ time as an excellent pop album. I think we made some good pop albums. I think ‘Some Great Reward’ is a good pop album. ‘Construction Time Again’ as well… I feel our albums have simply got better.”
Depeche Mode could, in a way, be seen as a very successful ‘cult’ band. Is this how you see yourselves?
“Probably we’re still a cult band because we find it difficult to cross over to anyone except our fans,’ says Andy. “I suppose we’re still a cult group, we’re still on a small record label… There are a lot of people who like bands when they’re small, when they can go and see them in a small club. As soon as a band becomes bigger they forget it and go on to another group.”
“I think it’s nice to be more of a cult band that a hugely successful group,” says Martin Gore. “I think you can get more out of it and it’s a nicer feeling in some way, you’re not really a loser though many people might say it.”
What mistakes have Depeche Mode made in the past?
“I think we made a big mistake in Britain,” Andy answers. “In the early days, we were very young and naïve and basically we did everything – every teenage magazine, every TV show…” [1]
Martin: “Everybody would come up to us and say, ‘Can we have an interview? Pictures?’ And we’d say yes. It backfires. It’s taken the group four years to get back to a good situation.”
What hurts you most about England these days?
“The violence,” says Andy immediately. “The risk of physical violence. I think you should be able to walk in the streets – naked – and not get any aggravation. I think in Britain there is a definite violent aura around.”
“It’s just the British character,” comments Martin. “We’ve always been violent and we always will be, but there are also good things about Britain. Our friends are here, our families.”
Do you still see Depeche Mode as an experimental band?
“We always take risks,” says Martin. “Pretty much. [2] A lot of our singles don’t get played on the radio. ‘Blasphemous Rumours’… even songs like ‘Shake The Disease, because of the titles, didn’t get any airplay.
“What people don’t realize is that it’s not that easy to make a single. Take George Michael for instance. He has a big name. But would ‘Careless Whisper’ have been a massive hit if you had given that to some unknown Italian singer? Even if we had released it, it wouldn’t have been a huge hit. They would have said it was boring. It’s so successful because it’s George Michael. When we released ‘A Question Of Lust’ they said it was dreary, but that was a great ballad.”
Generally in groups, the person who writes the most is the one who decides what everyone else does. True or false? Martin?
“Not if you’re as weak as me,” he answers, grinning. “Ha ha ha…”
