to be able to talk to you at this point in my life to even be still here on this planet long enough for our paths to finally cross it's just absolutely huge for me on a personal level and and we're going to share this with the world and hopefully they'll enjoy it and I'll do
right by Depeche Mode fans because I am one well that's very flattering thank you very much what an introduction Motors is something that happens to people when you need it it never felt like a tourist experience like oh I just stumbled across a Depeche Mode song maybe a little bit later when the hit started to
really happen and the radio really started to support but but you were already a big and successful band Martin you already had a huge audience at that point you were playing Arenas and stadiums and heading that direction so does that make sense that that opening statement that there's a necessity to
what you make in a necessity for why we listen that is a a very good question um you know we've always felt I mean we've always been passionate obviously about making music and that is you know that is the the ultimate thing and I think we've always stood behind what we
what we make and we've tried to like you know evolve as we went along I mean obviously with the first album I think I I consider that as being a different band because you know obviously Vince was in the band he wrote most of the songs and then the second album I was
kind of thrown into the hot seat and yeah you know you know now you do it so I don't kind of really count those albums and it was only from kind of construction time again really you know what it started to find their path it's like album Number One all the house lights are on and then you got to adjust
the lighting that's how that's how I think of it you know like you got to create the moods of each room and sometimes they were pitch black you know that first record yeah Martin's I I totally agree with what Martin said really about and it we were so young as well when we look back on that now
those songs for instance that first record you know when Vince was writing all the songs pretty much apart from a couple that Martin would write um we were we were playing those songs that's how we kind of form together and that's how we we were already in clubs
in England and trying to go other places as well before we even made that record that first record so when we went in to record it luckily with the help of Daniel Miller who produced the record and bought a couple of pieces of of gear that we that we used relentlessly on that record
um but it's been a patron forever in general and he's still he's still here with us and he's still we still regard him with the we still have high he has the in the highest regard for everything he does and has done for us um without him we most definitely would not have survived those early years
um he helped us to uh sort of be uh have the courage and also um the ability to grow isn't it true that he never asked you to sign a contract yeah we we uh we shook hands with him um and agreed to make a one-off single and I don't even think we had a discussion after that when it came to
the second single or the album it was just if he would take us into the studio and we just yeah we went from one yeah I don't I don't think we actually signed anything with mu until mu until Daniel sold mute U2 Emi which was probably late 2001 2001 now so you got 20 years in this utopian
record industry which is how it probably should have been from day one yeah it's not and you know what it's crazy that isn't that in itself I believe has been quite a big influence on a lot of a lot of other artists which we also are very flattered by but they talk about us as
being you know sort of influencers um in what they do and I think a lot of it is also that identity of a band that um built something really from scratch um in their own way with someone's help with Daniel's help but we we we didn't there wasn't any big well we did sign a
record deal with an American record company which was a terrible idea at the time but we were too young and too naive to know what we were saying in this seven albums sort of yeah because you've been living in complete isolation metaphorically speaking and then we're asked to go and move into the big city
it's like a bad film um yeah I knew we were lucky with Daniel because you know we we trusted him and we didn't trust anybody we were these young kids from Essex and um everybody seemed to be like you know we're going to rip us off in some way or you know didn't understand us or
whatever but we had each other and Daniel and Daniel had a few few uh Records out on his label mute that we really liked and really respected the normal of course who was Daniel Miller and then there was fad Gadget and so we looked up to him and he didn't really
ever guide us in the wrong way I don't think yeah no no so yeah so he allowed us to develop at our own pace and I think we just naturally because we were so young when we started we we were growing and so I think that what what the the kind of the songs we were putting out they were probably important
to me at the time when I was writing them probably important to us because we're probably all experiencing the same sort of thing we were we lived together we did everything together and they were songs that represented who we were and the people that we hung out with and the
you know circles that we mixed in and we were a little different to everybody else you were entirely done everybody and we still don't and you still don't and that's that's what's incredible about it is that it is one of the great outlier stories and also the writing you would create this beautiful sort of
combination of sort of dystopian industrial sounds mixed with this kind of Yearning romance like it's this weird combination in the arrangement and then sometimes the songs could reach for the biggest subjects and other times they could just talk about being bored and that's what I loved about it was that
there was a an entire Human Experience wrapped up in the writing it wasn't just like we're going for the big the big emotions here sometimes it was like hey girl what do you want to do I'm bored oh yeah yeah that's also true I mean I I used to laugh in the early days that you
know I think I had like three themes basically that I used to talk about can I guess yeah boredom of Youth and I'm probably missing wasn't there whoa six six yeah goals yeah maybe but that's probably that's probably a sex maybe yeah and some religion came in there or some Dogma or whatever all all dressed all
with the common thread of self-hatred and guilt that's the perfect combination and have you mix that up with Melody then to bring in the joy because there is Joy there of course in making music and it it's a way of actually explaining how you feel without actually having to try
and explain that to somebody in relationships in life in whatever music has always done that for us and we hope that we do it in our music for others you know I was talking to a friend of mine who I'm sure you know because he's one of your biggest fans on the planet
and he's done well for himself guyo Siri and I was talking to him yesterday um because you're the reason why I didn't go and hang out with at his house last night because there's no way I'm staying out until two in the morning when I'm talking to my heroes tomorrow I'm getting my rest and he got
that immediately and and he said can you ask a question for me I said absolutely and he said you know what were the bands and this is the perfect time to bring it up because you were talking about absorbing the people who inspired you and helping that to Define your identity
who were the bands that ultimately and I've never even really asked the social thought about this they kind of put to pierce mode together before you actually had your own blueprint there's a lot of different mines exposed me to a lot of different music over the years but I think initially we we both we both
were huge Bowie fans um and a lot of glasses we came out of Glam you know T-Rex yeah um craft work when craftwork came along they were a huge influence we were going to clubs and listening to music Roxy Music all that kind of stuff and I like the stones too I like Jagger
and I like that I like their Badness you know when I say Badness I mean they they were they were you know they were the villains yeah and I like that yeah I've always listened to all kinds of music and I think you know as a songwriter it's it's important to be aware of everything that's out there you know not
not you know if you're an electronic musician you shouldn't just listen to electronic music you know it's interesting to like you know you know I like things like Kurt vile for instance and you know like the chords like weird chords or that's always been very important to me and I'm really into
words so yeah so you know I you know I like obviously I like people like Bob Dylan and um I mean I used to like Neil Young a lot I still were like and that makes sense I mean I mentioned a couple of songs before that obviously become real Staples of the live show and
I mean you put on an album like black celebration for a start that album scared out of me um as soon as it began I'm like oh I'm gonna be taken somewhere really heavy and but then there's a song called sometimes in that album which is just um one of the most I I think for its
time and today one of the most astute observations about um being kind to yourself when uh when you're at potentially at your most vulnerable anxious or out of balance and that song is powerful and so when you talk about songwriters like that that's what I hear is this desire to write a
Flawless emotional narrative yeah I mean sometimes was very short and um and and I think when the album came out people like uh didn't like it very much it was apparently very uh you know obvious or something and not very and it but to me I always really liked it was
just like something really uh short and simple but to the point and it's also it's like that too it's the perfect moment to be able to turn around and say to somebody you know you've been in my shoes like it was it's an it's a to me it's a very emotionally intelligent moment you know that's yeah
yeah some of the greatest songs you know from like people like Bob Marley or John Lennon or in the the Simplicity of them is is what really stays with you yeah forever you know over complicating things and sometimes it's necessary to you know throw the whole kitchen sink in there and everything when you when
you're making music but sometimes it's just stripping every more things away which we making this record Martin and I will very kind of uh aware of the fact that it was it not to over clutter everything or over complicate things like if we had we had a great team with with James Ford
and Martin salongi um it was just you know in the end just the four of us um but it it it worked out really well and they were they were on the same page with us as well trying to uh almost I don't know it was declutter yeah declutter like yeah declutter the the thing but
it's like everything that you've every tool in the box that you've found and mastered along the way is sort of on display here like it starts with the densest most like terrifying landscape with this sort of very Hymnal Dave vocal which you're very very good at offsetting what I think is things
starting to Decay yeah it really worked you glue them together with this idea of communication and it's gentle really and it's almost meditative okay I said you've been putting the Mantra in music for a long time and my Cosmos is mine you could say that over and over again
for five minutes and it would actually not be a collection of words it's it's almost a mantra that it's actually one of my favorites on the album and not initially when Martin first sent me the demo but it didn't strike me but some it's not quite often is the ones that creep up on me later that I become
I most identify with for some reason and that song was one of those I remember singing it I remember going into in Martin's house and um in his Studio [Music] um and I knew we were capturing we had captured something the combination of that the song and I'd found a place where I wanted to be with it and um I
feel like I found um a meaning in the song that I identified with and I don't often and it's not something I talked to Martin about and he might have a completely different concept about the lyrical content of the of the song but I found my place with that song I knew it was
going to be the uh something that was gonna um be a great introduction to Memento Mori I think of a song like speak to me sorry to go in heavy early I know we've got a bit of a journey on this um and again you know I listen to the words very carefully in Depeche Mode songs and
this one to me just was a very descriptive song you know the idea of searching for salvation and searching for something that's beyond your own control to find out what your purpose is but the beauty of this is that I hear you find it at the end and I just wanted to stop at this moment
and talk about the end of the album at least this point and what that song means to you you know initially the idea sort of came to me um and the song was incredibly elevated by Martin and and James and Martis along you to a into a different place to another world somewhere else and that's
exactly where I wanted the song to go as well and it was it was beyond what I could have really put together myself was quite it's quite a very simple song but honest and and real and uh uh you know for me uh it was it was a key and a to open the door for me to want to continue to make a record with
Martin uh again uh that was a Depeche Mode record it was like an answer it was like an answer to that question for me when I listened to it the last words of the album you know I've I've I found it you know yeah I found it well sort of a bit bit a bit sarcastic you know I I'm
you know I hear you you know I'm I'm I'm here yeah you know I'm found it's a bit sarcastic but at the same time it's all there's a there's a there's a uh uh an absolute peace and joy in The Emptiness of the end and then you got it and then you go to work and you take us somewhere
at the end of that song was to your point the slow foreboding building of energy not sound energy it's like a slow techno track or something like that really heavy pounding techno track yeah but with a dynamic that is such a slow roll you don't even realize that you're like at
the peak of the night until you cut it off it doesn't arrive it finds you over time it was awesome when that happened in the studio actually because we were playing at Marta Marta's like she's a genius with a tape Loop in and sending stuff back into the tape machines and then and then and then all this process of
um using analog type to create these loops and um when it just came to the conclusion that it should just end you know like just that that would be the end um I think it's the perfect bookmark that with my Cosmos is mine which sets up everything there is this desire through your writing
and through music to try to understand why we do the things we do I think that's the biggest question through Depeche Mode's 40 years to me is why right why do we do these things why do we treat people the way we treat them I don't understand you ask that question very early on help me understand yeah
you know I was thinking about this recently and um you know I think that the the main thing that I've been doing since the band started is it or since I took over writing where it is I've been a communicator yeah you know and that's you know I think that's a great
um thing to be able to do to you know just sit in your room write some words down put them to music and then they they go out all around the world and people listen to them and they they understand you but can I be really granular for a second and ask that question when you're writing people are
people what are you going through that makes you want to ask the question help me understand why we are like we are to each other it's a big question not my question your question by the way just to be really clear what you're asking there was a lot of stuff going on
in at that time there always is there's I mean there's there's even more going on today you know things don't change that much people yeah people don't change that much unfortunately yeah I was stuck in a loop it's true yeah you know I think just before that I mean you know because
we were we came from a you know although it was quite a lot of people lived in our hometown it was still considered a very small town very small town mentality and we traveled a lot you know during the first years of the band and we saw a lot more and so I think that just opened us up to
so many things that were happening in the world and that's that's kind of where that that song came from it's a compared to to it's so interesting you know I just never at that age in my life I'm like I'm in a socioeconomic meltdown trying to figure out what that song means and I'm a kid and I don't
understand who puts food on the table where it comes from or what's happening well it was put and the backdrop of course is is very pop as well it's very you know it's like it was a danceable you know sing-along you know thing that we were doing a lot at that time um but creeping in there all always and
getting away with it as well were these subversive like you know it's grab all they can who makes a chorus out of there and sells records I mean we got we got we did get a lot of criticism um especially you know uh um at the same time we got weird you know we got weird things like I remember
there in that time suddenly but we were like the Communist band or like because of the Socialist you know so we were the conscience and uh we were just you know 25 year olds like trying to find it yeah pipes of Steel with a stick trying to figure out how to make things sound
rough I think it was more Martin was just very aware of like we were traveling a lot we were seeing different things we were going to different parts of the world we were realizing it was a bigger world than we lived in and that was just that was Finding its way on into the music oh [Music]