Depeche Mode Modes To Freedom (Record Mirror, 1983)
- Thread starter demoderus
- Start date
MODES TO FREEDOM
A yellow plastic watering can rests idly on the floor, having just recovered from a bashing the previous night in the name of ‘percussive effects’. Worn leopardskin cushions are scattered on an equally worn, but homely, settee. All it needs is the rubber plant to make it as cosy as mum’s sitting room.
The fact that it is also the legendary Blackwing recording studio makes no odds, for it may as well be home for Depeche Mode, who’ve again been ensconced within its walls since Xmas with mentor Dan Miller and smiling engineer Eric [1], perfecting their first single for four months, a new M Gore meisterwerk.
Martin, hitherto known as the one that sits in the corner during interviews saying nothing while Dave and Andy mouth off [2], had been ordered by the latter duo to conduct the initial stages of the interview alone to avoid the inevitable inter-band contradictions. Grateful for the chance to grill this most private of songsmiths, we settle down and kick off with a bit of news.
Martin: “Things are a bit different now ’cos Alan’s now a full member of the band and he’s actually playing on the new single, and the B-side is co-written by him and me.”
Is this a recent decision?
“Not really, but it only came into effect recently. We planned to take him on full-time after the album, which we wanted to finish on our own otherwise people would have said we couldn’t carry on on our own.”
Alan Wilder is now a la Mode, he’ll be bringing his own style and influence along in yet another subtle change to Dep’s melodic delights. It may help them face another year under scrutiny with renewed vigour after a post-novelty period of intense critical flak. But they’ve always expected that, says Mart.
“Things have been going pretty badly for us press-wise recently – it had to come. It’s no surprise, just a bit annoying, especially when there’s a lot of people who used to like you and for some reason they suddenly don’t. Before, you couldn’t do anything wrong, now you can’t do one thing right. You’d think there’d be a couple of ideas they might quite like!”
Master Gore would like to see the critical balance redressed with their soon-come single, appropriately entitled “Get The Balance Right”. Martin: “I think it’s a lot harder, more powerful and more direct. It’s quite moody, too. What I’d like to do is diversify so that we’ve got loads of different fields where we’re not just restricted to one type of music. It’s nice to be able to work it however you feel at the time. I think our new material’s going to be more to the point, about more general topics that everyone can relate to rather than having more personal lyrics.”
The reflective, heart-searching quality of Martin’s lyrics have always been the subject of much attempted analysis, and he feels he should explain his dislike of discussing them in detail.
“It’s up to people to make of them what they want. A lot of people try and make me explain what every line means, but it takes away any sort of mystique. It might as well be a book or an essay.”
Is he optimistic about Depeche’s chances of survival over the coming cut-throat pop year?
“I’m optimistic about our material and the way we’re going to progress and get stronger, but whether the material will sell as well is hard to say. I don’t think we’ve ever been optimistic about it, we always worry. I think we always tend to underestimate ourselves.”
Surely that’s better than being braggarts?
“In some ways, but… to the public we come over in interviews as being negative and pessimistic and I think that rubs off on people. When you read something like a Duran Duran interview they’re full of optimism, but to me they come across as being big-headed and I don’t like that.”
Depeche really do worry about how people see them (see Dave’s comments later…) and it’s not hard to see how their easy-going, modest manner can be misinterpreted. How does Martin reckon they’re viewed?
“Mainly just… simple minded. We’re rarely taken very seriously, especially by the press and that’s all you hear from apart from fans. We know we don’t believe what the press say, but it’s difficult to confront someone in the street and say ‘what do you think of us?’ Perhaps we should do a survey or something!”
With visions of Daily Star-type opinion polls and ‘real men don’t like Dep Mod’ headlines racing through my brain, Mart retired to the control room to summon the remaining ‘fluent speakers’ muttering about how he “felt like Martin Fry”. Having thus ensured the Quiet One had his belated say, Dave, Alan and Andy let their tongues go walkies.
Andy discusses strategy: “We wanna record a new album, get that out as soon as possible, then we can be in a position where we can release singles off that album rather than vice versa. Because of that the last album was undersold and underrated. But then we’ve found people who didn’t like us before do now. I think it appealed to other people.”
Dave pitches in, defensively: “We feel our records have improved and progressed in a big way, though. Think of the differences between the new track and ‘Dreaming Of Me’, which was so simple. We’ve come so far in production, we’ve really learned a lot. The same goes with ‘Broken Frame’ and the first album – it was quite a challenge to release that, it also made a lot of journalists listen a bit more and think there’s more to them than just a pop band.”
The quartet who still manage themselves, are ever-aware of the pressures to time everything to perfection and how success (ongoing dept) is based on how your last single did. They’re relying now on a song with ‘real substance’ and a beefed up bottom end (!). But they wouldn’t mind having a visual profile a notch or two higher.
The Deps, however, are resigned to the fact that you can’t look cool when you’ve got a big grin on your face, so they’ll carry on laughing at each other.
Andy: “Some groups are trained to do sickly grins an’ that…”
Dave: “But ours just come out natural!”
The boys can’t help it…
