All Star interview with Martin 1998
Depeche Mode is cooking up quite the array of visual effects for
fans on their forthcoming tour, which kicks off the first week of
September in Moscow, runs through Europe, then hits the U.S. from October
through Christmas.
"I really don't like giving too much away," laughs the band's
main songwriter, guitarist/ keyboardist Martin Gore. "It should really
be
a nice surprise for the fans. I can say it's quite interesting. [Anton
Corbijn] got us to dress up as some of our idols. That will be slightly
humorous when shown on those massive screens behind us. I'm gonna leave it
at that."
Gore adds, "The look of the stage is something that is totally
different." He couldn't recall how many video screens the stage would
have, but did say it will be more in line with the second leg of their
last tour for 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion, which was scaled down
from the elaborate staging for the first leg of that tour.
"We had 11 or 14 screens on-stage with visuals interacting
between all the screens. I think we realized, maybe it was over the top.
So we scaled it down for the second leg and I think that actually went
over better with the audience, with just a couple of screens. This time,
we'll probably only have a couple of screens as well."
Before fans will get a look at the staging, they can see the
video for the only new song ("Only When I Lose Myself") on their
forthcoming singles collection, The Singles '86-'98, due Oct. 6 on Mute/
Reprise.
Shot by Brian Griffin, who is new to music videos but did
Depeche Mode's first five sleeves, the video depicts the song's theme of
obsessional love -- or so Gore thinks.
"He sees the song as being very ethereal, so the look of the
video is supposed to be very ethereal and dreamlike. Apart from that, it's
going to be hard to judge, because all we did yesterday [Wednesday (July
22) in New York] was rock in and out of the light."
Griffin did shoot for two days in Los Angeles images of "wrecked
cars and of couples who look very similar to each other standing next to
the wrecked cars," says Gore. "I told him I quite like the imagery,
but
I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say. I think he's portraying this
obsession thing. The couples that look similar maybe represent the duality
of the relationship, and about people losing themselves into each other."
No word yet on when the video for "Only When I Lose Myself" will
debut; and tour dates have still yet to be announced.
Part Two Of A Three-Part Interview
Depeche Mode fans will have to be satisfied with just the three
new songs the band has penned for their forthcoming singles collection, as
that's all they may be getting until the year 2000.
The Singles: '86-'98, due Oct. 6 on Mute/ Reprise, will include
one of those three newly- written songs, "Only When I Lose Myself."
However, two other songs recorded during the same sessions ("Surrender"
and "Headstar") will be available as B-sides.
When asked if the B-sides would be available in both the U.S.
and the U.K., Martin Gore, the band's main songwriter and guitarist/
keyboardist, answers, "That is a very hard question, because we've been
going through debates at the moment with our American record company. They
don't want to put it out -- not because they don't like it. It gets into
that whole marketing game. If we're releasing it in the rest of the world,
why not here?"
"Headstar" is an instrumental that Gore -- who wrote all three
new songs -- describes simply as "quite upbeat." "Surrender,"
on the other
hand, "is quite slow," he says. "It's very melodic. It's a
good song to
sing. It's about surrendering to your desires -- maybe you don't really
have a choice."
He also describes "Surrender," as well as the Tim Simenon-
produced "Only When I Lose Myself," as an extension of the band's
last
album, 1997's Ultra. Of "Only When I Lose Myself," Gore says, "It's
a bit
more soulful, and it's quite slow for us. Kind of like a ballad, but it's
a bit of a rockin' ballad."
Lyrically, the song is about relationships ("One of my favorite
topics," he says), and of obsessional love in particular. "I've
always
found love quite obsessional. People talk about co-dependency; to me I've
always found there's something co-dependent about being in love -- that's
what love is all about."
With a world tour kicking off the first week of September and
running through Christmas at least, Gore says there isn't much time to
begin work on a new studio album. "That would be a whole new project
when
we get back from tour," he says. "We're out from here to Christmas,
so I'm
not particularly thinking about songwriting at the moment. I can't see an
album out before the year 2000, really. By the time I get back home and
start writing, well... we just don't work that quickly."
Part Three Of A Three-Part Interview
I particularly like the Failure version of 'Enjoy The Silence,'"
says Depeche Mode songwriter/ guitarist/ keyboardist Martin Gore, when
asked what he thinks of the forthcoming tribute album to the band, For the
Masses (1500/A&M, Aug. 4).
"I like the Deftones' version [of 'To Have and to Hold'] too,"
adds Gore, "and I find the Rammstein version [of 'Stripped'] very
humorous. And I've always liked the Smashing Pumpkins' version [of 'Never
Let Me Down Again'], but that's been out for a while."
This certainly isn't the first time Depeche Mode has been
tributized. In fact, there have been at least four tribute albums released
(Sometimes I Wish I Were Dead, Your World In Our Eyes, Transmode Express,
and Sons of the Barrels) -- most originating from Sweden. However, Gore
considers For the Masses to be the first real one.
On how it compares to the previous tributes, he laughs, "The
accents are a lot more understandable. It's a lot more interesting,
really. The groups they put together for this one and the versions are
more interesting. It's a lot more poppy; the other ones were electro-pop,
as far as I can remember.
"It's a great honor to get to that stage of your career where
people are taking out time to record your songs -- try getting us to do
that," he adds, which begs the question of who he would take time out
to
cover. "I did a Leonard Cohen tribute a few years ago. Um... quite a
few
people. I've always liked Kurt Weill... No one's ever done a John Lennon
album, have they?"