BIOGRAPHY2013 & 2014
As the first single of Delta Machine, Heaven / All That's Mine was released.
It was the 50th single of the band. It was released digitally in most territories on
31 January, and physically the following day. In the UK it was released
digitally on 17 March and physically the following day.
The video for Heaven was directed by Timothy Saccenti and filmed at
The Marigny Opera House, a former Catholic church in New Orleans
in November 2012.
The chart performance was low in the average, but it was No. 1 of the US Hot Dance Club
Songs and in Hungary and No. 2 in Germany.
Heaven was a courageous choice because it is a quite slow and moody song,
nothing you could call a hit-single.
Fletch: "It flopped a bit because of the sound. We're old timers. We thought
radio might play a slower track. Turns out, they won't."[1]
Martin: "Funnily enough, Heaven, the lead single, is not very
representative for the rest of the sound. So for a lot of" the songs on the album
"I would start off with like, you know, like a bass line and then create some drums
and some effects with the modulars and start from there, really, and then just
start singing along. That's what I do. I'm sorry. And when I sing along, I don't
sing along like, you know, little pretend words. When I sing, then sort of words
just come out. It starts with words. A lot of people do that, you know, like,
singing, you know, strange languages or whatever. But I always just start singing."[2]
Dave: "To be honest, we were all gung-ho on the track Angel, which
is a little more aggressive and a little more typical of what you'd expect from
a first record." But he thinks that, "Heaven is one of the best songs
Martin's written in many, many years, for many reasons. It's just one of those
songs that makes me want to continue making music, long story short. As soon as
I heard it, I was excited to sing it.[3] Martin and I felt Heaven
represented the record in lots of
ways, which is why we wanted to put it out first. It's not like we felt it was
going to be a big hit or something, but that doesn't really drive us to make music.
We all like to have hits, it's nice to have hits, of course, but after making 13
records together, it's not what drives you. What drives you is to make a great
record. That's what still drives me. Certain songs propel that. Heaven is
one of those songs. When Martin played the demo for me, I was in. It's gospel-y bluesy,
it's right up my street. Songs like that speak to me."[4]
On 22 March the album Delta Machine was released. It was labelled to
Columbia Records and Mute Records in the U.S. and to Sony Music in the rest of the world.
The album debuted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 28,450 copies in its first
week. In the U.S. the album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 6 with 52,000 copies
sold in its opening week. And it debuted at No. 1 on the German Albums Chart with
first-week sales of 142,000 units.
"Delta" stands for the blues elements and "Machine" stands for the electronic elements
of the album. The title immediately caused some irritations in the message-boards
because some people started to use the short cut "DM" for "Delta Machine". Unfortunately,
this has been the short cut for "Depeche Mode" for 30 years.
Dave: "We had a few permutations of the title, like 'something' Machine and
Delta 'something' before Martin said, 'Delta Machine?' But I wouldn't dare say this
is a blues record as Fletch has said a couple of times. That's insulting, to blues
musicians, on so many levels. Well, OK, we have influences coming from the blues.
And Depeche Mode is fundamentally us whining, searching for something, moaning our
way through life." (laughs)[5]
As usually they didn't tell much about the single songs of the album.
Dave: "Broken is uptempo, but lyrically it's dark.[6] The lyrics of
Broken are probably based on a friend who's been struggling for a while
with his own demons. I see myself in him, and you can't make somebody change.[7]
All I can say is that Delta Machine is a truthful record. This is who we
are, and this is what Martin and I can conjure up together. If I had my way,
and it might not be the right way, we'd probably do things a lot looser. Martin is
a great guitar player, but he likes to work with electronics, and I have to
support that."[8]
Martin (about My Little Universe: "Funnily enough, I think that out
of all of my songs on the album, that's the one that changed dramatically.
You know, for ages we were thinking that it wasn't going to go on the album because
it somehow didn't quite fit. It was too fiddly. There were, you know, chord changes
in it that it didn't need. So, you know, we stripped it right back. And I think
our programmer, Christoffer Berg, should take a lot of credit for that. You know,
he was the one who kind of started stripping it back and started it on that path."[9]
About Should be Higher Dave explains that, "it's reflecting on my
interest quite often initially in something that is not necessarily real." (laughs.)
"And can quite often get me in trouble. But I'm still quite often attracted to this,
the other side of things I think influence the optimistic side of my head. But
sometimes I do find that the line is basically, saying initially how you might,
something seems more exciting that could be quite dangerous for you. But the
truth takes longer to achieve. But it ultimately is more rewarding. Cause the
line that follows that line is: you should be higher. I'll take you higher.
And I'm referring to something that I feel quite often in life, which is life
itself - which is just a beautiful thing. But you have to work a little harder
to be part of it. And I also follow those lines with the line: Love is all I want."[10]
A little surprise was the song Slow.
Fletch: "That, believe it or not, was a song that was written for
Songs of Faith and Devotion and for some bizarre reason never got
recorded. Martin was going through his demos and came across it and said, 'Actually,
this is quite good', so he did a new demo and it's a great song."[11]
Dave: "As soon as I heard it, I said to Martin, 'That's an old song'.
And he said, 'Yeah, I needed to reinterpret it.' He'd kind of reworked it. When
Martin was demoing before, I seem to remember sitting in a meeting when we
listened to the demos, and Alan kind of not getting it, just kind of ... well, out
of songs that we were going to record it just wasn't chosen at that particular time.
So I guess Martin put it away, and it fits really well with everything we're
doing now."[12]
Slow caused a little discussion among the fans. One group thought it
would have suited SOFAD well, the other group thought that there must
have been a good reason why it wasn't chosen at that time. "Alan kind of not
getting it" is probably a diplomatic way to say that he didn't like it, that
he saw it as too "lightweight" (one of his favourite descriptions to say that
he doesn't like something), as too simple. And well, if you look at the lyrics
of most SOFAD-songs and at the lyrics of Slow, which are quite
simply about having sex in a slow, intensive way, you might get an idea why
it was turned down. Lines like I don't need a race in my bed when speed's
in my heart and speed's in my head instead or Slow, slow, slow as you can
go that's how I like it (from Slow) cannot really compete with ambivalent
lines like oh girl, lead me into your darkness when this world is trying its
hardest to leave me unimpressed (from One Caress) or thoughtful lines
like Is simplicity best or simply the easiest? The narrowest path is always
the holiest (from Judas).
Nevertheless, a song like this can fit into a different context, which the band
thought they had found with Delta Machine.
During the promotion for Delta Machine Martin said in an interview -
being asked for his opinion about the general music business - that "somebody
should shoot Simon Cowell", (an English A & R executive, television producer,
entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known for his role as a talent
judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and
American Idol), something that caused some trouble, at least when Cowell Twittered,
"A ton of people have got shot this year, and people like weirdo Gore encourage this."
"That was great," Martin laughed. He didn't think that "a little flippant
comment" would get such a response. "I think the majority of the world agreed with me."
He grinned.[13]
To be honest it was almost the only funny bit that I was able to find. The band
members hadn't lost their sense of humour, but most interviews showed them as
being serious and more mature. Also, almost all journalists brought up the same
old stories again - at least Dave's overdose in 1996 was mentioned in almost
every article. It's 17 years ago now, they should be over it. But you still find
this angle - Dave almost died in 1996, then he suffered from cancer during
TOTU and now he has written a song like Broken, so the lyrics MUST have a
connection to all these experiences. When you are being asked about the bad things
in your life all over again, it's definitely difficult to be anything but serious.
I personally think you could have a funny chat with Dave (and nevertheless get
something serious about the new album) if you just leave out the subjects of
drugs and cancer.
(Heaven - with friendly permission of © Ingo B.)
The second single release was Soothe My Soul. It was physically released
as CD single and CD maxi single in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 10 May,
worldwide on 13 May, in the U.S. on 14 May, and as 12" single
worldwide on 10 June, in the U.S. on 11 June. CD single, CD maxi
single and 12" single were labelled to Columbia Records. Only in Hungary it was
a No. 1 hit.
The music video directed by Warren Fu was premiered on 28 March.
Of course, they planned to tour the album.
Dave: "This tour, we've got some ambitious plans. We're starting out pretty
large in Europe, going to some big stadiums for a bunch of shows, and then we come
back to the States and go into more reasonable sized venues, lots of arenas, and
that brings us close to Christmas. We're already now planning another European leg
and then definitely South America and possibly Asia. Then I think we're planning
to come back to America, and some more festivals in Europe in the summer
of 2014."[14]
As usual they had their difficulties to find a setlist (and as usual it turned
out not being that different to the previous tours, except that they played some
more songs from the new album this time).
Fletch: "Our last album, Sounds of the Universe, I don't think many
of the songs really translated live that well, but this album seems to be completely
the opposite, it's quite a minimal but powerful album and a lot of the tracks are
sounding very good like Soft Touch/Raw Nerve. Angel is sounding really,
really powerful, and Should Be Higher. We can't play, unfortunately, too
many songs from the new album because we have fans that go back such a long way,
it'd be a bit selfish, I think, just playing a lot of songs off the new album and
disregarding tracks from our career."[15]
Dave (about how to find a setlist): "Well, it starts out with putting
together a list of songs that we want to play - particularly from other
albums like Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, and Ultra - all
of which ultimately should fit with Delta Machine. Also, we're thinking
about reviving songs that we never really played that much, like Barrel of a Gun.
Naturally you have to throw things in the fans want to hear. With us it's a constant
debate: 'Should we do Just Can't Get Enough?' - 'I don't know, should we?'
You've got to look at it as a song that means a lot to a lot of hardcore fans, but
when you do something from thirty years ago, it can be like putting on a pair of
pants from thirty years ago: they don't quite fit anymore, you know? You might
really, really like them, but they might not, uh, work."[16]
The hardcore fans probably don't need songs like Just Can't Get Enough, Enjoy
the Silence and Personal Jesus anymore because they have heard them too
often but of course, fans who don't go to many gigs will enjoy it.
Speaking of fans, the band was asked again why they thought they were so popular
and had such a strong, faithful following.
Martin: "I think people do see us as their little secret. Even though
it's not that much of a secret - if you go into Europe about every third person has
got one of our records somewhere."
Fletch: "A lot of people know the name Depeche Mode but can't point to the
individuals in the band."[17]
Martin: "There are certain places where people seem have more of an
affiliation with us; generally Europe as a whole - even Holland's starting to
get on board a little bit more than it used to. But the UK is the one place where
we probably do least well. In Europe and especially when you get to places like
Germany and anywhere eastwards, it seems to be more than just about the music, it's
like a lifestyle for them. They follow us, they wear uniforms of black - we call
them the black swarm - we seem to be really really important to them."
Dave: "I think it's also because we come from a real place emotionally.
I mean there's an image which has developed over the years and we're quite
comfortable with that as well: we'd much rather be with the misfits than be with
the norm. That's always been the case, we were ridiculed for it in the beginning
and now we're praised for it."[18]
It seems that they have learned a lot about their followers over the course of
time. So they were very critical of the film The Posters Came from the Walls
by Jeremy Deller which tries to depict the fan culture. It was released in
2008 originally, but went online in 2013, that's why Dave
was asked about it.
Dave: "First of all, no disrespect to Jeremy Deller. He made an extremely
good documentary film about this band that's pretty accurate in terms of how
important we are to some of our fans: in their growth, in their lives, in their
beings. When people come up to me on the street, it's not usually like, 'Whoa!
It's the guy!' Rather, most people look me straight in the eye and say: 'Thank you
so much for the music. It's truly helped me.' That's an amazing thing. But what
I felt about the film was, and I can't speak for Martin and Fletch, the whole
thing was just too sycophantic, almost to a point of being comedic. And not in
a good way. It didn't show the diversity of our fans and focused in one area. The
whole drum corps and the Russian girl with the drawings of us, and of course the
German family ... it wasn't objective enough for me. Even if it was well done.
And the timing was weird, much too focused on what was and not what is today."[19]
Well, the fan culture was born in the 1980s, so it might be no surprise that the film
focused on the past. Of course, the film shows mainly real fanatics, not the
"normal" fans, but the "normal" fans mostly came a long way with the band too.
The average DM fan is between 30 and 50 years old, and got to know the band and
its music in the 1980s, or at least in the early 1990s. There are some younger
fans as well, but they are definitely in the minority. (And sometimes these
younger fans came to the band through their parents.) The survey of
depechemodebiographie.de shows a ratio of 70% to 30%. 70% of respondents became
fans before Ultra (1997). So the fan culture is almost as old as
the band itself, and maybe this is one of the reasons why the fans are so
faithful, and sometimes weird.
On the tour the band members were confronted with them again, but obviously
they weren't bothered.
The tour started on 7 May in Tel Aviv with the European leg. It comprised
36 gigs, and ended on 29 July. Before that there had been some short promotion gigs,
and a warm up concert in Nice on 4 May.
At this tour the band, especially Dave, showed up in a very good shape and mood.
This is the complete opposite to the picture the media and the general public obviously
still have about them. As I've said above, it was difficult to find something funny
and up-lifting these days although the band maybe has never been in a better mood.
It became obvious now that Dave had really been ill during TOTU. At Delta Machine-Tour
he was full of energy and very present, and his voice was much better than on previous tours.
I asked a fan if I may tell an anecdote which happened during this first leg of the tour.
As I've said above the hardcore fan as such doesn't need songs like Personal Jesus
or Just Can't Get Enough anymore. Nevertheless, the band decided to play
Just Can't Get Enough again. Now, this fan thought that there are many other
old songs they could play instead. He noticed that the starting beat of the live version
of Just Can't Get Enough is similar to the beat of Boys Say Go! So he initiated
a little campaign with shouting Boys Say Go!, whenever Just Can't Get Enough
was played. More and more people got involved shouting, "Boys Say Go! Boys Say Go! Boys Say Go!"
during Just Can't Get Enough at each gig on this leg.
At the show in Dusseldorf on 5 July, one Boys Say Go!-group was loud enough to
be noticed by Dave. "And now, Boys Say Go,"" he said. Nevertheless, they played
Just Can't Get Enough. "Yeah, this is Boys Say Go," he said in the middle of the
song and was quite amused. The group enjoyed themselves and didn*t notice it at all, learned about it later.
And almost every time, when Martin was singing But Not Tonight (Oh God it’s raining) it started to rain. Two or three times it even happened that it just rained during this song. Martin's face when getting aware that he could make it rain tells more about him than any interview.
The North American leg started on 22 August in Detroit and ended on 11 October
in Austin, Texas. The third leg, another European one, started on 7 November in Belfast
and ended on 07 March 2014. The tour DVD Live in Berlin was released on 14 November 2014.
Before the last leg had started, the band was the headliner at the Yasalam After Race Concert,
after the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on 3 November. This was another thing they have
never done before. Not all their fans were really enthusiastic about it. Their band is going
increasingly mainstream, and there were critical voices talking about "a complete sell-out," and that
the band members are apparently trying to make as much money as possible while they are still on the road.
References:
[1] Andy Fletcher interview, News, 3 April 2013. Words: Uncredited.
[2] The Complete SXSW 2013 Interview, NPR, 25 March 2013. Words: Jason Bentley.
[3] Depeche Mode Q & A: Dave Gahan Talks 'Delta Machine,' Massive Tour Plans, Billboard.com, New York, 8 March 2013. Words: Jason Lipshutz.
[4] Delta Force: A Q & A with Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Time Entertainment, 4 April 2013. Words: Melissa Locker.
[5] Interview with Dave Gahan, Mojo, 22 March 2013. Words: Martin Aston.
[6] Interview with Dave Gahan, Mojo, 22 March 2013. Words: Martin Aston.
[7] Brits wouldn't show our set so we said 'f*** them', The Sun, 22 March 2013. Words: Uncredited.
[8] Interview with Dave Gahan, Mojo, 22 March 2013. Words: Martin Aston.
[9] The Complete SXSW 2013 Interview, NPR, 25 March 2013. Words: Jason Bentley.
[10] Dave Gahan Talks About Depeche Mode's Delta Machine, staticmultimedia, 12 April 2013. Words: Uncredited.
[11] Revealing the Depeche Mode Plan, Exclaim, 26 March 2013. Words: Vincent Pollard.
[12] Dave Gahan Talks About Depeche Mode's Delta Machine, staticmultimedia, 12 April 2013. Words: Uncredited.
[13] Depeche Mode on synths, drugs and Basildon, The Times (UK), 21 March 2013. Words: Ed Potton.
[14] Depeche Mode Q & A: Dave Gahan Talks 'Delta Machine,' Massive Tour Plans, Billboard.com, New York, 8 March 2013. Words: Jason Lipshutz.
[15] Interview with Andy Fletcher, Canadian Press, 24 March 2013. Words: Michael Oliveira.
[16] Through That Darkness You'll Find the Light: A.J. Samuels interviews Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Electronic Beats Magazine, 12 March 2013. Words: A.J. Samuels.
[17] Depeche Mode on synths, drugs and Basildon, The Times (UK), 21 March 2013. Words: Ed Potton.
[18] Depeche Mode: 'We were ridiculed and now we're praised', Musicweek, 19 November 2012. Words: Rhian Jones.
[19] Through That Darkness You'll Find the Light": A.J. Samuels interviews Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Electronic Beats Magazine, 12 March 2013. Words: A.J. Samuels.
