Interesting news for fans of original 80s electronica: the two founding members of Depeche Mode are working side-by-side for the first time in many years. Yes, Martin Gore and Vince Clarke are working on a new album.
Having been on the ground for Depeche Mode’s launch to stardom, Clarke then left the band in 1981, allowing Gore to take a greater songwriting role. Clark went on to enjoy success with Yazoo and arguably more famously, with Erasure. Now, the pair are working together again after Clarke remixed Depeche’s 1987 single Behind The Wheel.
In an interview with Billboard, Gore said, “Out of the blue I got an e-mail from [Vince Clarke] just saying, ‘I’m interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ This was maybe nine months, a year ago. He said, ‘No pressure, no deadlines,’ so I said, ‘OK,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing the last six months.”
The hatchet seems to have been firmly buried, with Gore adding, “I think a few years ago it would have seemed highly unlikely for Alan and Vince to be involved in a project with us, but now we all get on OK, so it’s not that strange.
That said, the collaborative process was hardly intimate, Gore saying, “It was something different, and we didn’t have conversations about it. It was more just like e-mails and file-sharing. It was something completely different – no vocals, all instrumental stuff.”
While it’s been a wee while since Depeche Mode played in Australia, band member Andy Fletcher was over as recently as last summer to DJ at Playground Weekender.
