Enjoying The Silence

6 May 2015 | 1:31 pm | Bryget Chrisfield

“One of the things I like about instrumental music is you give people a title and those words, or that word, fires their imagination and they’re just taken off into some universe somewhere."

When this scribe first heard Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore was working on MG, an instrumental album, the chorus lyrics from Enjoy The Silence sprang to mind: “Words are ve-ry/Unnecessa-ry.” Does everyone say that? “No, you’re the first person, actually,” Gore chuckles. “The fact of the matter was, you know, I wrote a few instrumentals during the writing period for Delta Machine (Depeche Mode’s 13th studio album) and we ended up not using them because, um, we have two writers in the band now – I write and Dave [Gahan] writes, so we have so many actual songs between us that we didn’t have room, really, for instrumentals, even on the deluxe edition. At the end of that project I was left with these instrumentals with no home, so that’s when I thought about the idea of making an instrumental record.

“One of the things I like about instrumental music is you give people a title and those words, or that word, fires their imagination and they’re just taken off into some universe somewhere.” MG definitely has a “filmic” element to it, but this scribe also thought the tracks would be fantastically inspiring to choreograph to. “Yes,” Gore agrees, “well, funnily enough I got married last June and my wife is a dancer and a choreographer. And she said to me that she would love to use one of the pieces if she does something again soon. I know she really liked Creeper.”  

Gore singles out a few of his favourite instrumental works: “Selected Ambient Works volumes one and two by Aphex Twin” and “even some classical stuff like Arvo Pärt, a modern Estonian composer”. When told that Yours Truly thought Oxygène by Jean Michel-Jarre sounded like nothing that these ears had previously come across, Gore laughs, “You didn’t think that it sounded a little bit like Popcorn by Hot Butter, slowed down?” Natch.

"Usually when I’m writing I work in the studio on my own, and I find it a very personal experience and a very private experience"

Given Gore’s initials/chosen album title, has he ever driven an MG? “Well there’s a little irony there, I don’t drive! One of those weirdos,” he chuckles. “I have never driven. A golf cart – that’s the closest I’ve come.”

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He laughs easily and Gore’s carefully considered replies often follow extended “uuum”s. He enunciates his words distinctly and his voice boasts a lilting intonation (somewhat like a children’s TV presenter). For “quite a long time” Depeche Mode have worked “in a four-year cycle”, which Gore allows “helps you to keep the quality control up, because you’re not rushing to get an album out”.

“During the ‘80s we almost put an album out every year, which is pretty amazing!” he reminisces. Far from being tied to an unreasonable recording contact that stipulated a record a year, Gore confesses, “We were lucky, though, ‘cause we were signed to an independent label and we’re still – MG is coming out on Mute Records and that is owned by Daniel Miller who was the guy who signed us way back in the end of 1980, early ’81. I feel very fortunate. I mean, Daniel is an amazing person and he’s really not like your typical record company guy.” Not a suit? “He’s not, I mean I think he’s 63, 64 now and he still DJs and, you know, he knew far more about synths than we ever did. And he still comes into the studio when we’re working on albums and, if we’re struggling with a sound, he’ll go, ‘Oh let me have a go!’ and he’ll have a go at making a sound. And, you know, most record company people don’t really know about music. They kind of know about commodities more,” he laughs cheekily.

Some of Gore’s DJ sets are available to stream via SoundCloud (recommended). On whether deck pests make annoying requests, Gore says, “No, people stay away. They know that I pretty much play whatever I wanna play, and it’s not commercial in the slightest, and the chances of them recognising one track that I play is minimal [laughs]. I really have never had anybody come up to me and give me a request.”

There are some rules that you have to follow and I think anybody’s allowed to do a cover as long as it doesn’t stray too much from the original, and as long as it’s not a comedy version…"

While promoting MG, Gore has already started writing Depeche Mode material and one song is already “coming together”. “It’s the first song that I’ve actually started writing since I finished the MG project so it’s always good to get one going and get one under your belt,” he shares. Has Gore ever suffered from (song)writer’s block? “Uuum, I think the only time I felt like I struggled a little bit – and it wasn’t bad, but I think I struggled more than I ever have before or since – was during the Exciter songwriting period.” When asked how he overcame these issues while creating material for Depeche Mode’s tenth studio album, Gore considers, “Uuum, well usually when I’m writing I work in the studio on my own, and I find it a very personal experience and a very private experience, and I got to a point where I just thought, ‘Things are not coming together’. So I got a friend of mine, Gareth Jones, a producer who’d worked with us quite a bit in the past, to come into the studio. And, you know, I would go off and, like, put some chords together and put some words together and vocal melodies, and then we would kind of bash the demo out together. And that kind of helped me through that little blip.”

Has a Depeche Mode song ever come on when Gore’s out and about that’s taken him by surprise? “Oh, I can’t actually think of a place where, you know, haha, I mean, I suppose you get to a point in your life where it becomes so commonplace you almost don’t notice.” During our discussion on elevator music, and whether or not an artist must be approached for permission in advance, Gore contributes, “There are some rules that you have to follow and I think anybody’s allowed to do a cover as long as it doesn’t stray too much from the original, and as long as it’s not a comedy version… And I suppose it’s subjective, you know: is it comedy or not? Ha ha.” 

Let’s just take it there: Depeche Mode will tour our shores again, right? “It’s been a long time since we’ve made it to anywhere near Australia even and it would be nice to get back there one day,” Gore considers. “Obviously we’re in a stage where we’re writing and then we’ll be recording, and then hopefully at some point putting a new album out, and then planning a new tour. So, you know, fingers crossed.”

On when his band last toured our shores, Gore ponders, “I think it was ’94,” adding, “The other terrible thing is we only played in Australia twice and the first time we came there we were supposed to play Sydney and Melbourne, and Melbourne got cancelled because Dave lost his voice!” Reflecting back on that fateful night, Gore remembers, “We felt horrible for the fans as well, because we were only playing two shows there, and Dave went down to the venue to meet a doctor and the doctor basically told ‘im, ‘There’s no way you can sing,’ and this was just before the [venue] doors were opening. And, as he left the venue – you know, there must have been some announcement that the show’d been cancelled – all these fans were, like, hurling abuse at ‘im.”

Gore stresses: “If Dave had gone on that night, he probably would’ve not been able to sing very well, but he probably would’ve damaged his voice more and then we probably would’ve had to cancel the next four or five shows.”