Andy Fletcher’s untimely death could have spelled the end of Depeche Mode. Dave Gahan actually remembered to keep his mic. Martin Gore never considered turning off his synthesizers. “I never questioned the group,” he says in an exclusive interview with La Presse, days ahead of the release of the Memento Mori album and another world tour that will visit Montreal twice.
Posted at 6:00 am
Alexandre Vigneault The press
Stunned by the sudden death of Andy Fletcher, founding member of Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan only realized it at the time of his funeral. He and Martin Gore fell into each other’s arms for Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records, the label that welcomed the group in 1980, and the trio hugged to express their sorrow.
The scene, recounted by British daily The Guardian, dates back to last spring, but Depeche Mode has not yet ended its grief. “We’ve had to do a lot of firsts without Andy,” agrees Martin Gore, who was contacted in California in early March, just days before rehearsals for the world tour beginning Thursday.
“Going on stage without him is definitely going to be quite an emotional moment,” he continues. I hope we’ll come to terms with his absence after a few weeks on tour. That after a while it doesn’t get that hard anymore. »
PHOTO ANTON CORBIJN PROVIDED BY SONY MUSIC
“My faith in humanity isn’t very strong right now,” admits Martin Gore, who co-wrote four of the 12 songs on Depeche Mode’s new album with Richard Butler of the group Psychedelic Furs.
The untimely disappearance of Andy Fletcher, who died of an aortic dissection in May 2022, forced a realignment within Depeche Mode. Suddenly everything rested solely on its two main characters: Dave Gahan, his charismatic singer, and Martin Gore, his main musical architect. Two icons who, without being enemy brothers, were not the two most intimate in the group.
“Dave and I were more, I’m trying to find the right word… distant, that sounds bad, but we socialized less,” explains Martin Gore. Andy was the guy who talked to everyone as they walked into a room while Dave and I were more in the background. Now that Andy’s gone, we had to work on our relationship, get closer. »
Dave Gahan admitted Andy’s death coupled with the pandemic’s forced closure had prompted him to consider ending Depeche Mode. Martin Gore never thought of that. “I never questioned the group, no,” he assures us. Music is his whole life. “We often think that if we hadn’t found success with our music, Dave and I would have faltered in life,” he says. God only knows what we would do with our lives! »
The Shadow of Death
Memento mori, a Latin expression for “remember that you will die”, was already well advanced when Andy Fletcher suddenly died. Death had plagued Martin Gore’s compositions for two years. “Most of the album was written during the pandemic, and that’s one of the reasons why several songs deal with death,” explains the lyricist-composer, who signs or co-signs 10 of the 12 songs on the album. I also turned 60 and it felt like a warning to me: my stepfather, the man who raised me, died at 61 and my biological father at 68. Turning 60 shook me a bit. »
That Depeche Mode is releasing a somber album isn’t in itself surprising: it’s been in their palette for decades. Memento Mori proves particularly raw at times, however, developing a haunted atmosphere that relies on what defines the group, which is music constructed of successive layers, great attention to texture, pure melodic lines and Dave Gahan’s vocals dominating everything.
PHOTO ANTON CORBIJN PROVIDED BY SONY MUSIC
Martin Gore and Dave Gahan had grown apart over time. The sudden death of Andy Fletcher brought them closer together.
Another aspect of Memento Mori catches your eye: we have a feeling that Martin Gore, Dave Gahan and their collaborators (particularly Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs) like to throw in vintage electro sounds here and there. People Are Good (the title is sarcastic, of course) is subtly reminiscent of Kraftwerk’s krautrock and we’re even surprised to think of Jean-Michel Jarre when we hear Wagging Tongue’s keyboards. Not surprisingly, Martin Gore collaborated with the French composer on a track called Brutalism Take 2, which was released last fall.
“It’s not like we sat down and planned everything,” says half of Depeche Mode of Memento Mori’s vintage side. It’s something that happened naturally. The demos this time were much more polished than usual and I think they already contained those references. »
spaces of freedom
One of the things that doesn’t change on this 15th Depeche Mode album is the still as sparing use of guitar we hear in Ghosts Again’s intro as we hear on Behind the Wheel. , Personal Jesus or I feel the case. Martin Gore recalls that this choice was imposed by Composition of Sound, a trio that produced Depeche Mode.
“Vince was on guitar, Andy on bass and I on synth. We quickly saw the potential of synthesizers, so Andy and Vince put the bass and guitar aside and we became a synthesizer band with a drum machine. For a while we limited ourselves to this aesthetic, he says. We felt this was the way to move forward in music. »
From Speak and Spell (1980) to Music For the Masses (1988), Depeche Mode has striven to maintain its identity as a “purely electronic” group. “We wanted it to stay that way, even if it was strange since the guitar is my first instrument. I started playing it when I was 13 and didn’t get my first keyboard until I was 18, he says. At some point we said to ourselves that we shouldn’t limit ourselves any longer and use everything that could serve the songs. Hence these mostly subtle guitars, which nevertheless raise the tracks imperceptibly, from Enjoy the Silence to a few Memento Mori.
Martin Gore no longer thinks about that when composing. “I’m just trying to write the best song I can,” he says. And he’s convinced that Dave Gahan, with whom he now forms the old married couple Depeche Mode, will seize it and push it forward. “Dave has a unique, special voice,” says Martin Gore. I think he takes my songs to another level. Actually, that always happens. »
rock
remember death
Depeche Mode
The album will be out on Friday
craftsmen of yesterday
PHOTO BY IMDB
Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke
Depeche Mode’s sources can be found in No Romance in China, a group formed in 1976 by Vince Clarke and the late Andrew Fletcher. Martin L. Gore will join them in another group called Composition of Sound. With the arrival of Dave Gahan in 1980, the group became a quartet and took the name Depeche Mode. Vince Clarke left in 1981 after the album Speak and Spell, on which we find the group’s oldest success, Just Can’t Get Enough, and will then found Yazoo Erasure.
PHOTO FROM THE OFFICIAL DEPECHE MODE FACEBOOK PAGE
Alan Wilder (center), at the time of recording Songs of Faith and Devotion in the early 1990s, left Andrew Fletcher and right background Dave Gahan and Martin L. Gore.
Alan Wilder
With the arrival of Alan Wilder in 1982, Depeche Mode finds its “classic” direction. Martin L. Gore stands out as the group’s writer and composer, emphasizing tormented imagery and intimate relationships marked by power games (Master & Servants, Strangelove). Alan Wilder contributed to the development of Depeche Mode’s darker sound, perfectly embodied in Black Celebration (1986), and to the group’s creative golden age, marked by the albums Music for the Masses, Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion . Dissatisfied with the space and recognition he was given, he left the company in 1995 to pursue his Recoil project.
PHOTO FROM THE OFFICIAL DEPECHE MODE FACEBOOK PAGE
Andrew Fletcher, who died last year, was among the earliest incarnations of Depeche Mode, even before the band took the name.
Andrew Fletcher
Pillar of Depeche Mode – he’s been with this group since the early days, which aimed to make music without typical rock instrumentation – Andrew Fletcher has already said that he was just an extra… that he hung out with the other three, all of them musical skills were better than him. Fletch, however, was a stalwart of Depeche Mode: he was the unifier, the diplomat, the one who kept his feet on the ground while his peers sunk into excess. He died of an aortic dissection on May 26, 2022.