BIOGRAPHY
2009, 2010 and 2011
Overview: Released these years were the single Wrong / Oh Well,
the album Sounds Of The Universe (SOTU) and the further single releases
Peace and Fragile Tension / Hole To Feed in 2009, the
Recoil-Best-Of Selected and DM's DVD Touring The Universe in
2010.
In 2010 Mute got independent again but DM remain signed to and marketed worldwide
by EMI Music.
In 2011 this contract ended with releasing Remixes 2: 81-11.
After the new single had been represented on February 21 at the
Echo-Awards in Berlin, Wrong / Oh Well finally was officially released
on April 06th. At a fairly early stage they had decided to release
Wrong as the first single because it was quite different to anything
they had released before. And it really stood out of the album tracks.
Fletch: "Wrong was the song of which we thought it would make
a big impact. We thought it would be good to come back with a bang. The first
single has to be challenging to the audience, something to makes them react."
The same they thought about the video. "Anton Corbijn normally does our videos,
and we had an idea from Anton and we had ideas from for other people. One of
them was Patrick Daughters. And Patrick's idea didn't include the band very
much, and Anton's idea did include the band. And, y'know, I think on these
days MTV doesn't play many videos anymore. So finally we decided for
Patrick's idea because it we thought it had more effect on the audience. We
don't like making videos anymore, so it was quite enjoyable."[1]
With Oh Well the first track was released that had been co-written
by Martin and Dave.
Martin: "It wasn't a real co-write because I had originally written
the song as an instrumental but Dave heard it and liked it and he took it
back to his hotel room and wrote some words and a melody over the top. It
wasn't like we sat in a room and wrote it together."[2]
(Fragile Tension - with friendly permission of © Lynn (M)factr)
Unfortunately some demos leaked and finally the whole mastered album. They
took it as it was and comforted themselves by knowing that the fans would
buy it anyway. Only about the leaked demos they weren't that happy because
it was some kind of showing an unfinished picture to someone.
On April 20 the album Sounds Of The Universe (SOTU)
was released. A year later they received the award for "Best International
Group - Rock / Pop" at the 2010-Echo-Awards in Germany for it.
Of course they tried to explain the album, said things like that they wanted
it to sound as if they drove with a car in a tunnel by night and that this
album was less "dark" than Playing The Angel. Again they tried to
point out that there was a lot of humour in the lyrics.
Martin: "There's always a lot of humour on our records but there's
definitely more on this one. It's mainly dark humour but this time it's
sometimes more obvious. In the song Little Soul there's a small
musical break, and every time I hear that I laugh. I hope the listener will
laugh when they hear this too.[3] Well, I think Jezebel is a good name for
an exotic booze. I imagine it would taste like a
strong-smelling perfume. There must be a perfume called Jezebel."
Fletch: "You can't drink perfume!"
Martin: "Well, you can, but they take it away from
you if you go to rehab."
Fletch: "It would be quite good for goth girls, wouldn't it?"
Martin: "Women are different now; they like wearing
T-shirts with things like SLUT and WHORE and stuff. I'm sure
a bottle of Jezebel would go down well."[4]
While Martin changed Footprint to Little Soul and was worrying
about that Miles Away was a song title of Madonna and wanted to change
Dave his song to Miles Away/The Truth Is he wasn't worried about
Jezebel. Of course, it's a biblical figure but nevertheless it's also
a song title on Alan's album Liquid.
On the SOTU-box set they also released some old demo-tracks.
Fletch: "Initially it was my idea to put the demos on the box set.
I was convinced that this was unique content that people would appreciate
and that would make the purchase of this box set worthwhile. Martin didn't
mind at all. He was fine with it. The main problem we encountered was to actually
find the demos. Basically the 5 people that you'd think who would logically
have the demos would be Alan, Daniel (Miller), Dave, Martin and me. But as
it ended up, Alan had them somewhere tucked away and couldn't find them
directly and that was also the case with Daniel, Martin and Dave. I knew
I had lots of demos but they were in storage so I dug them up. In the end
I recouped about hundred demo songs - which also means that there are hundreds
that we don't have anymore ... and that includes for instance the demo for
Personal Jesus which seems to be lost forever."[5]
He promised that there will be released more demos in the future.
(Miles Away / The Truth Is - with friendly permission of © Maria Gay)
Then they prepared for the tour. There was no question not to tour
the album because especially for Dave this is the thing what it all makes sense
for him. And of course they are aware of that you sell a record by touring
today.
Martin: "We've done a lot of touring for a so-called 'electronic band,'
and we've proven that electronic music works in a live format and in a huge
live format. In a way, what we're going to do now is a landmark like the Rose
Bowl gig. We're going out to play our first stadium tour. There's not another
electronic band that has gone out to play a stadium tour."[6]
Fletch: "Picking a set-list for the tour is always a nightmare. We're
a democ-racy, so it's like the Eurovision Song Contest. We have to cast votes
for our favourite tracks."
Dave: "We'll do some old stuff and some staples. And we'll have fun
doing songs like Just Can't Get Enough. We can't ignore that. It would
be like the Stones not doing (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."[7]
Well, they didn't play Just Can't Get Enough and they caused lots of
discussions in several message-boards about the question if they might too much
Rolling Stones meanwhile. In fact DM has never played so many different songs
on a tour than on this one but they weren't very creative due to the
live-versions.
Martin: "When we're playing, you look in the front row and there's a
lot of younger kids as well as the older audience. People are coming to hear
the new record as well as songs we made 20 years ago. Obviously, we are the
worst people to have any subjectivity on the matter, but we are really
aware of our legacy and not repeating ourselves. The day we start making music
and don't think we're achieving something - or stop enjoying it - we'll stop."[8]
As usual some journalists dare to ask if this might be the last
album and the ultimate tour (as they did before at Playing The Angel).
Martin: "We've been together for 29 years and we've had ups and downs,
but I think if Depeche Mode ended tomorrow we'd end on a positive note."
Fletch: "It's hard to think about your farewell gig and where it would be."
Martin: "It would have to be the Pyramids."
On May 6 the Tour Of The Universe (TOTU) began in Esch-sur-Alzette
in Luxemburg with the warm-up-gig. The first real gig was played in Tel Aviv.
Martin: "We're going to be starting our tour in Tel Aviv - we were
supposed to end our last one there but unfortunately the Israel/Lebanon war got
in the way of it."
Fletch: "They've got different agendas. They like music, but missiles
are just more important."
Martin: "Yes. We had to make the decision not to fly in and do the
gig because there were missiles flying around and to make up for that we're
starting this time in Tel Aviv."[9]
It seems that Tel Aviv and DM aren't a lucky constellation because with this
gig the problems started.
Fletch: "Actually on the first gig of the tour in Israel, I had the
first bit of bad news: My father died."[10]
The gig in Athens had to be cancelled because
Dave fell ill. First it was said it was a severe bout of gastroenteritis.
While in hospital, further medical tests revealed a low-grade malignant
tumour in Dave's bladder. Lots of cancelled gigs followed.
Fletch: "Actually, Dave was very lucky because he had gastroenteritis
and they found this tumor very early.[11] The thought would have been if the
bladder cancer prognosis was different but actually you couldn't get a better
prognosis. It was caught very early and it was low grade. It was just a
question of zapping it out. I said to Dave to other day, 'I can't wait for
your autobiography.' It's quite a story developing.[12] Dave has really got a
competitive spirit in him. If anything, he thrives on these sorts of things.[13]"
All these things came out much later. So many fans were moaning about the
extremely bad news politics. In fact, it
always took much too long time until they were informed. Allegedly because
"we didn't know ourselves how it would go on". Well, when fans thought
the concert in Poland might take place - at a time when Dave had a surgery -
it's a bit embarrassing. Because there can't be a concert for sure when
there's a surgery. And there was some argy-bargy about concerts right
after the surgery, a time at which also for sure no concerts could have been
played.
On June 8 the tour was re-started in Leipzig. There were 18
concerts in Europe till July 9 when another concert had to be
cancelled because Dave had injured his leg.
In between, on June 15, the single Peace was published.
On July 24 the American leg started in Toronto. 22 concerts were
played till September 5. But in August there had to be cancelled
some concerts again, this time because of Dave's voice-problems.
From October 1 till October 17 there were 9 concerts in
Central- and Southamerica, before on October 31 the second European
leg started. This included 27 concerts and ended on December 18
In between, on December 7, the single Fragile Tension / Hole To
Feed was released.
(with friendly permission of © Jérôme Pouille)
The last leg of the tour - another European one - started on
January 09, 2010 in Berlin, included 24 concerts and ended on
February 27 in Düsseldorf. On this leg there weren't any incidents
luckily.
The concert on February 17 was a very special one. The first
time in their career DM did something they never wanted to do: they
played a charity concert.
Martin: "We're playing a benefit concert tonight. The first time we do
something like this and something we should have done long time before.
A friend of us is part of the Teenage Cancer Trust and asked us to join in."
Everything was special about this concert. It was played in Royal Albert Hall
(funny when you think about what especially Dave thinks about British symbols)
in London and they had a special guest.
Martin: "We asked Alan to join us on stage. It's a long time ago that
we saw him. I think it's nine years ago that I saw him the last time and we
asked him to play one song with us tonight and he very kindly agreed."[14]
Alan: "Well, I got a call from Dave and he just said: we would like
to invent you to take part at this event, the Teenage Cancer Trust. And my
reaction was that I hoped, it was the whole band who wanted it not just Dave.
So I asked him that question and he said yes, definitively. And so I
didn't think twice about it because it's a great thing to do for many
reasons, y'know, the good cause, getting together after such a long time ..."
So Alan joined Martin for Somebody on stage.
Alan: "To choose Somebody was quite natural. It was the song that
makes sense for this. We wouldn't have much time to rehearse. Luckily it
was all still there. It's still here in my veins."
It seems that the band and especially Alan enjoyed the show.
Alan: "The reaction of the crowd was a bit special, very heart
warming, emotional, I got goosebumps ... it was a great day. It was not
only that moment, it was seeing Martin and Fletch and Dave again. We had a
good chat and it was good to see them again. I haven't seen Martin and
Fletch for a long time, it was really interesting to catch up. And Martin
was on very good form I thought, not just vocally but in himself. He
seemed sharper, more focused and more open than I have ever known him. It's a
little piece of history for us, y'know. Being on stage with Depeche
since ... 1994 ... the end of the Songs of Faith and Devotion tour ...
about 16 years."
A few days later he had the opportunity to watch a DM concert the first time
in his life, (also) something he never wanted to do.
Alan: "At Royal Albert Hall I hadn't got the time and opportunity
to watch the show properly. But tonight I got an impression of how it is
to watch a Depeche Mode show. It was a very interesting and enjoyable
experience. Y'know, I had feelings for every song because I know them all
so well ... so ... y'know when you hear the versions they play now
you remember the versions we used to do. I thought some of the versions were
really good, and some I wasn't so keen on. I felt the same about the
stage set, too - some things looked great, and some didn't work for me.
The sound balance was poor unfortunately, but neither that nor the staging
could be blamed on the band. Their own performance was impressive. Dave was
on good form and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Martin's song Home
sounded especially good. The after-show was fun and I was able to catch
up with all kinds of people I hadn't seen for a long time. I missed Dave
however as he always disappears as soon as he leaves the stage.[15] They talked
about "mainly usual things that you chat about with people, you know,
families, what their habits are these days, do they still drink as much as
they used to do, how is the partying situation on tour ... I mean, things have
actually changed quite a lot with Depeche Mode since I was in the band. Martin
doesn't drink anymore, Dave goes home after every show so he doesn't go out
anymore. We used to go to big parties after every concert. So, it must be a
very different thing for them to be on the road these days. But in their
personal lives things have changed a lot, I think. I was very impressed
with Martin because he has been sober for four years and he is like a new
person, someone I almost didn't recognize.[16]"
A good reason for some surveys about how much Alan is still present to the
fans. The result of a survey in a big forum was that 69% want him back
as a band member and 20% at least as a producer. The survey on this website
had a similar result. For 71% he "still belongs to the band somehow" (at
least as a legend) and for 21% he even is still a part of the band today
because he was part of them at their highest point and had a big influence
on their music and success. For the minority however, he is the "most
nerve-racking discussion whenever it comes to DM".
The appearance in the RAH and the promotion for his own tour took place
almost at the same time so one could have come to the thought one fan had:
"It's amazing that it is mostly Alan who is using the history of DM for
his own project."
(with friendly permission of © Paola Gravina Red)
Alan had had a difficult time after the release of SubHuman in 2007. There were some changes in his personal life. "I separated from my wife and now have a lovely new partner, Britt. It has been a difficult two years.[17] I share custody of my children so you have to plan 6 months ahead in your diary, who is going to have them when etc, and I have to fit the music somewhere in the gaps.[18] That has made working on a new album almost impossible, although I have made a start on new material but it's a long way off being near to completion.[19]"
Instead he started the Selected-Tour on March 12. The first leg had 24 events, mainly in Europe, and ended on May 18. The idea to tour Recoil evolved when Alan decided to undertake some promo visits. But he didn't want to keep making personal appearances to sign CDs and shake hands. "I just couldn't do the same thing over again - I needed to do something more, so it evolved from that."[20] So he decided for some kind of an audio/visual presentation, something between DJing and playing live, while showing special films.
On April 19 Selected was released, some kind of
Best Of Recoil.
Alan: "Mute Records approached me with an idea for a compilation and it
was initially just going to be a quick 'best of' selection. But we then started
to discuss releasing it on multiple formats and performing it live so the
project got bigger and bigger. I had to decide which were my favourite tracks
and which ones worked together. I really wanted to avoid a mish-mash which
most compilations are. So this involved going through a lot of the old
master tapes to pick out the best versions and even 'baking' some of the tapes
in an oven to prepare them for digital mastering. The weird thing about this
baking process is that I found a lot of these older tape versions sounded
better than the digital masters I originally walked out of the studio with.
So hopefully the tracks on the compilation sound better than the versions
of the original albums!"[21]
Nevertheless the most asked question, of course, was if there might be a
reunion with DM. Alan got tired of it soon. It started with a friendly
"I doubt you'll see me in the Depeche Mode line-up in the near future.
They haven't asked me being their producer. It would certainly be weird"[22],
went over to "Well, we've not discussed anything like that so there aren't
any plans. But you never know"[23] and to "It's just boring - it's the question
I get asked more than any other"[24] and ended up in saying nothing at all
when the question was put forward again.
The second leg of the "tour" started on October 16. This time
it was more concentrated on the U.S. and South-America but there also
were some events in Europe afterwards. The "tour" ended on
December 4 in Budapest.
The reunion rumour was fed with Martin DJing at the event in Santa Ana
on October 24 and Dave appearing as a guest at the event in
New York on November 1.
Alan (as well as Vince) also was involved in Remixes 2: 81-11, which
was released on June 6, 2011.
Martin: "Toward the end of the last tour I asked Alan if he would come
onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall and he agreed." (Interesting new
perspective because up to this point everyone said Dave phoned Alan and asked
him to join ...) "Then he came on tour in America. It seemed natural to ask
him" to collaborate at the Remix-album. "With Vince, I got an e-mail from him
out of the blue about nine months ago saying, 'I'm thinking of making a techno
album. Are you interested in collaborating?' That's finished now, but we need
to mix it. It was natural to ask him to do a remix as well."[25]
So Vince did a remix of Behind The Wheel and Alan one of
In Chains: "It was the Depeche Mode manager Jonathan Kessler who
suggested it. It had been suggested a long time before that, by the guys at
Mute organizing the whole remix album. They asked me if I would be interested
and I said quite possibly." (Hasn't Martin just said he asked Alan to
contribute? :D Hm, maybe Martin told Dave to phone and Kessler to ask Alan
... ;))" They never came back to me. I thought: oh well that's
not going to happen. I wasn't bothered by that at all and then I was speaking
to Jonathan about something else, I think it was about Martin DJing at one of
the Recoil nights and the idea was put to me again. By then they needed it
within something like two weeks, and this was just before we were going back
on the road again. I wish they would have given me more time, we'd booked a
holiday in the south of France and I ended up spending the whole holiday
encamped in a room doing the remix instead of being out in the beautiful
sunshine drinking wine. Jonathan told me the band would prefer that I did
something new, from the era after which I left the band, and I thought it
was a good challenge to do that. I hope they like it, they said they do.
Martin seemed to be really keen on it, which was nice of him. I think the
others like it too; don't know about Fletch - he didn't say anything. I
think it is a more dynamic version of what they had."[26]
Unfortunately things didn't go that well for Alan in this time. "Times
are tight for everyone these days, and divorce plus lack of any finance for
making records means I need to do some belt-tightening.[27] The record business
has been in crisis for some time now."[28]
This even brought the planned DVD-release (Selected) in danger. "We
recorded and filmed the last European show from 2010, in Budapest, and we're
at rough edit stage. Personally, I think it looks stunning, but we still have
quite a lot of work to do on it. It doesn't seem like my record company is
interested in it though. So far it's been completely self-financed, and I will
find a way to release it myself."[29]
He finally decided to sell parts of his large DM-collection. The auction
was held on September 3rd, 2011 in Manchester and was some kind of
bittersweet event for many fans. He also played some Selected-gigs in
this year.
We will see what future brings ...
(Thank you very much! See you next time! - with friendly permission of © Ingo B.)
References:
[1] Interview Depeche Mode - Sounds Of The Universe, 2009, fnac (Videointerview)
[2] "Depeche Mode Interviewed: Universal Truths And Sounds", The Quietus, 20th April 2009. Words: John Doran
[3] Videointerview 2009 FG5
[4] Songs of faith and commotion, The Guardian, 21 March 2009. Words: Peter Robinson
[5] Sideline, 16th April 2009. Words: Bernard Van Isacker
[6] Depeche Mode in Mature Mode, Los Angeles Times, 28th March, 2009. Words: Chris Lee
[7] They just can't get enough: One-time synthesiser sissies Depeche Mode are back on song, Mail Online, 3rd April, 2009. Words: Adrian Thrills
[8] Depeche Mode in Mature Mode, Los Angeles Times, 28th March, 2009. Words: Chris Lee
[9] Songs of faith and commotion, The Guardian, 21 March 2009. Words: Peter Robinson
[10] "Pop Quiz: Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode", sfgate.com, 9th August 2009. Words: Aidin Vaziri
[11] "Six Questions for ... Depeche Mode", Washington Post, 28th July 2009. Words: David Malitz
[12] "Pop Quiz: Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode", sfgate.com, 9th August 2009. Words: Aidin Vaziri
[13] "Interview: Depeche Mode’s Andrew Fletcher", bohemian.com, 4th August 2009. Words: David Sason
[14] A video interview at the RAH-gig
[15] Interview With Alan Wilder, February 20th, 2010, dmdotcom
[16] "Recoil in Bucharest - Interview with Alan Wilder", depechemode.ro, 2010. Words: Otiliei Haraga
[17] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - February 2010", Reflectionsofdarkness.com, 05th March 2010. Words: Janos Janurik
[18] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - I'm not naive", Sideline, 31st March 2010. Words: uncredited
[19] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - February 2010", Reflectionsofdarkness.com, 05th March 2010. Words: Janos Janurik
[20] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - I'm not naive", Sideline, 31st March 2010. Words: uncredited
[21] "Alan Wilder: A Selected Interview", stevenwilsonbeales.com, 14th April 2010. Words: Steven Wilson-Beales
[22] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - February 2010", Reflectionsofdarkness.com, 05th March 2010. Words: Janos Janurik
[23] "Alan Wilder: A Selected Interview", stevenwilsonbeales.com, 14th April 2010. Words: Steven Wilson-Beales
[24] "Recoil / Alan Wilder - I'm not naive", Sideline, 31st March 2010. Words: uncredited
[25] Q&A: Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Vanityfair, 07.06.2011. Words: Marc Spitz
[26] ALAN WILDER - collected thoughts, Releasemagazine, 19.08.2011, words: Fredrik "Schlatta" Svensson
[27] Recoil / Alan Wilder, Reflections Of Darkness, 01.09.2011, Words: János Janurik
[28] Alan Wilder (ex-Depeche Mode/Recoil) talks on synths, music creation and his upcoming auction, Aug. 2011, Steelberry Clones, Stereoklang.se, words: unknown
[29] Recoil / Alan Wilder, Reflections Of Darkness, 01.09.2011, Words: János Janurik
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