News
Page 8
Street Roots • July 14-20, 2017
Street Roots • July 14-20, 2017
News
Page 9
Mode of resistance
In the m idst o f political turmoil in Europe and the U.S., Depeche Mode was motivated
to make its most political record yet - but hopes never to have to write another one like it
BY RICHARD SMIRKE
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
¡P W "thirty-four years ago, when British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
had just won her second general
election, a time of mass unemployment and
increased racial tension in Britain, Depeche
Mode was putting the finishing touches to
its pivotal third studio album.
Released in August 1983, three months
after a landslide Tory victory, “Construction
Time Again” was the band’s first and, until
recently, only real digression into politics,
with songs like “Everything
Counts,” “The Landscape Is
Changing” and “Two Minute
Global S p irit Tour
Warning” delivering a polemical
Dopeche Mode launched its
attack on corporate greed,
world tour this month. The
environmental destruction and
impending nuclear apocalypse.
band will play Portland's Moda
“When we first started out,
Center on O ct 23. Tickets are
we were just a pure pop band,”
for sale at ticketmaster.com.
said songwriter Martin Gore,
speaking to Street Roots’ sister
paper, Big Issue in the U.K.
“With our second album, we were trying to
tread water and work out what we were
doing after (co-founder) Vince Clarke left.
By 1983, we’d grown up a little bit and done
a lot of traveling, so we were worldlier. That
was reflected in ‘Construction Time Again.’”
One hundred million album sales and
three and a half decades later, Depeche
Mode once again have the political
establishment firmly in their sights.
“I feel like we’re in a worse place now
than we have been for as long as I can
remember,” said Gore, who channelled his
frustration and fears into Spirit, the synth
rock group’s 14th record, released earlier
this year to widespread acclaim. “We
decided to go down more of a social
commentary/political route and that’s
always a bit of a risk. You never know if
you’re going to get slated for doing that, but
for some crazy reason everyone loves it.”
“It’s angry but definitely not bleak,” said
JL
co-founder and keyboardist Andy Fletcher,
popularly known as Fletch, in a separate
phone conversation. “If you look around the
world at the moment, it reflects what’s
happening with Trump, Brexit, Le Pen,
Syria. We’re normally very ambiguous in the
way that we write about politics and life in
general, but Martin felt it was the right time
to write songs about what was going on.”
The record is a powerful commentary on
global events, beginning with a vicious
condemnation of society’s regression
(“Going Backwards”) and culminating with
the brutally somber “Fail,” in which Gore
gloomily intones: “Our consciences are
bankrupt: We’re fucked.”
In between, the three-piece ensemble -
which also includes singer Dave Gahan - rail
against political apathy (“Where’s The
Revolution”), inequality (“Poorman”),
nuclear holocaust (“Eternal”) and
duplicitous politicians.
“Blame misinformation/Misguided
leaders/Apathetic hesitation/Uneducated
readers,” state the lyrics to “The Worst
Crime,” seemingly referencing the
ascension of Trump or - given the band’s
pro-European sensibilities - last summer’s
Brexit vote.
Gore, a chipper 55-year-old who has lived
in Santa Barbara, Calif., for the past 15
years and wrote the bulk of “Spirit” before
the EU referendum and the U.S. election,
won’t discuss what his lyrics refer to, but
does say that the political landscape and
Trump directly shaped the album.
“The American election process goes on
for so long that the warning signs were
there. Watching that whole debacle unfold
and so many other horrific things happening
in the world, I felt that I couldn’t just ignore
them. Everywhere you looked, there was
something to write about. It felt like
humanity had somehow strayed from its
path and was going wrong.”
Brexit is the depressing icing on an
already bitter-tasting cake, he said. “I
Fletch, who says the mid-’90s were the
closest the band ever came to ending.
“Dave was in a terrible situation. We
went to New York to do six weeks of vocals,
and at the end of it we didn’t have any.
Martin and I were thinking maybe this is it.
Thankfully, Dave got his act together, and
he’s been sober ever since.”
Relations within the band have improved
accordingly, and although the trio live
entirely separate lives outside of Depeche
Mode, a tight bond exists among them.
“We’re very close to each other. Our
families are very close,” Fletch said.
“Martin’s the effeminate one, Dave is the
macho frontman, and I’m
the average man on the
"The American election
street trying to appeal to
process goes on for so long
everyone.
“We’re fortunate that that the warning signs
were there. Watching that
we don’t have to do the
nostalgia circuit. When
whole debacle untold and
we started, we had all
SO many other horrific
the big labels chasing
things
happening in
us - offering us tons
the
world,
X fe ll that X
of money. And we
couldn't just ignore them.
chose a guy (Mute’s
Daniel Miller) who was
Everywhere you looked,
offering us no money
there was something to
because we liked the
write about."
musicians on his label. If
M A R T IN QOKB,
we’d been on a big label,
DE PE C H M O D E S O N G W R IT E R
we’d probably now be on
nostalgia tours as well.”
Instead, the band will spend 2017
headlining stadiums around the world,
promoting a modern-day protest record that
poses as many questions as it answers.
“For every one of the band members the
album title means something different,”
Gore said. “I see it as more of a call to arms
- to find our spirit again. For me, that is the
hope in the album - that humanity can find
some kind of spiritual path again and stop
making bad decisions.
“But I hope that I don’t have to continue
writing songs like this for the rest of my
life. I hope the world becomes a better
place in the next four years.”
haven’t necessarily always felt British. I’ve
felt European, and that’s about to be taken
away.”
Fletch, who lives in London, is blunter in
his assessment: “Brexit is an absolute
disaster in the making.”
Both members agree, however, that
their despair over recent world events
instilled a renewed sense of urgency and
purpose in the band as they approach
their fifth decade working together.
“The fact that we’re still around 37
years after forming and still making music
that’s relevant and is being well received is
amazing,” Gore said.
“At the moment, I would say life in the
band is better than it’s ever been,” Fletch
said before adding a hesitant caveat “That
might not be the case in five years. That’s
just the way it is at the moment.”
His caution is well founded. Formed in
1980 by Gore, Fletch, Gahan and original
songwriter Clarke as part of the then
blooming new romantic scene, the band was
less than 2 years old and on the verge of a
commercial breakthrough when Clarke quit,
leaving Gore to steer the ship.
Clarke’s replacement, Alan Wilder, lasted
until 1995, by which point the group had
grown to become one of the biggest
alternative acts in the world, releasing a
string of classic singles - ‘"Just Can’t Get
Enough,” “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the
Silence” - and acclaimed albums like
“Violator” (1990) and “Songs of Faith and
Devotion” (1993). Their success masked a
dark truth and behind the scenes, the band
was in disarray. In 1995, Gahan, who had
been battling heroin addiction for several
years, attempted suicide. A year later, he
overdosed in a Los Angeles hotel, resulting
in his heart stopping for two minutes.
“We were in our ways, doing the same
things as well, although not with heroin. I
had a nervous breakdown. Martin was an
alcoholic. But you get through these things,
and you become stronger people,” said
Courtesy o f Big Issue North / INSP.ngo
PHO TO COURTESY OF DEPECHE M O D E