The Seeker of Good Songs
Well-Known Member
(full interview at: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/dave-gahan/)
He calls them the Black Swarm. That’s the nickname that front man Dave Gahan has given those particularly obsessive fans who seem to devote their entire lives to following Depeche Mode. Gahan and his bandmates, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, who formed Depeche Mode in 1980, make music for outcasts. But considering the group’s extreme popularity over the past three decades, the Black Swarm may indeed outnumber the normal folks. The magic of Depeche Mode goes way beyond new wave. They write songs that are big enough to serve as arena chants but have all of the twisted personal emotion of diary entries (many fans would choose the 1986 album Black Celebration as the soundtrack of their youth). Last spring, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher released their 12th full-length album, Sounds of the Universe, and set off on a global tour that was quickly sidelined when Gahan fell ill with a stomach ailment. But the Black Swarm need not despair: The group is back on the road and plans to be through the end of the year.
SEVIGNY: So I never got to see 101, but I saw you guys many times after that. One of my favorite parts about seeing you live is what you do between song lyrics onstage. You do this thing where you move the microphone away from your face and you murmur to yourself or say something.
He calls them the Black Swarm. That’s the nickname that front man Dave Gahan has given those particularly obsessive fans who seem to devote their entire lives to following Depeche Mode. Gahan and his bandmates, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, who formed Depeche Mode in 1980, make music for outcasts. But considering the group’s extreme popularity over the past three decades, the Black Swarm may indeed outnumber the normal folks. The magic of Depeche Mode goes way beyond new wave. They write songs that are big enough to serve as arena chants but have all of the twisted personal emotion of diary entries (many fans would choose the 1986 album Black Celebration as the soundtrack of their youth). Last spring, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher released their 12th full-length album, Sounds of the Universe, and set off on a global tour that was quickly sidelined when Gahan fell ill with a stomach ailment. But the Black Swarm need not despair: The group is back on the road and plans to be through the end of the year.
Actress Chloë Sevigny is a die-hard Depeche Mode fan. She discovered the band’s music in her early teen years in Connecticut, and a poster of Gahan occupied prime real estate on her bedroom wall. Here she talks to the 47-year-old singer about how lonely outsider teenagers become very popular adults.
DAVE GAHAN: Hi, Chloë.
DAVE GAHAN: Hi, Chloë.
CHLOË SEVIGNY: Hi! You’re not in New York?
GAHAN: No, unfortunately. I’m in London right now. We just rehearsed.
SEVIGNY: You’re preparing for the tour . . . You know, I tried to go see Depeche Mode 101 when I was a kid. I was in, like, junior high.
GAHAN: You must have been about 5 or something. [laughs]
SEVIGNY: I was not! I was about 14 or 15. I listened to a lot of music growing up. My father kept very current, and then I had my older brother. But Depeche Mode was the first band that was my own. It was my discovery.
GAHAN: Oh, cool.
SEVIGNY: But I couldn’t raise enough money to buy the concert tickets. My babysitting pay wasn’t really doing the trick. So there was this kid that hung out at the park where I grew up. He was kind of like Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Do you remember that character? He would sell concert tickets and pot and whatever else. This guy drove a Honda CRX with a WDRE bumper sticker. I went over to his car and was like, “Do you have any tickets for Depeche Mode?” He said, “Yeah, they’re some-odd dollars.” I didn’t have enough so he said, “If you give me a hand job, I’ll give you the tickets.”
GAHAN: Oh! No way.
SEVIGNY: I didn’t know what that was then, believe it or not. So I went back to my friends who were in another car and was like, “He said he’d give them to me if I gave him a hand job.” My friends said, “No! Don’t do it!”
GAHAN: Oh, my god.
I think Depeche Mode music somehow appeals to the oddball, to the person who is looking for something a little bit different. —Dave Gahan
SEVIGNY: So I never got to see 101, but I saw you guys many times after that. One of my favorite parts about seeing you live is what you do between song lyrics onstage. You do this thing where you move the microphone away from your face and you murmur to yourself or say something.
GAHAN: [laughs] Yeah, I do, yeah.
SEVIGNY: I was always curious what you’re saying. Do you feel limited by the songs, like you have to break out of the song a bit?
GAHAN: You’re onto something there. Actually, I thought about that yesterday when we were performing, because I also do my solo stuff. I kind of put together a separate band with the guys I knew from Los Angeles: Martyn LeNoble, who plays bass with me and comes from Porno for Pyros, and Victor Indrizzo, my drummer, who was with Beck. It’s very different from Depeche stuff, where everything is really settled and in place. I’m kind of the wild card—I’m that part of the band. And sometimes I get frustrated with the limits that I’m confined to. The way it works is very structured.
SEVIGNY: But those moments onstage are so dynamic.
GAHAN: That’s the animal in me. That’s the animal breaking out of the cage.
SEVIGNY: Another large part of the live shows is the fact that they become sing-alongs. The crowd gets to chant. Can you hear the crowd from the stage? Is it loud?
GAHAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, I don’t use in-ear [monitoring] like a lot of people use live. I still have live monitors. I’m kind of old-school. I have to feel the audience. I enjoy that feeling of community. There’s something sort of spiritual about it in a lot of ways. It’s like we’re all doing this together. You can really hear the people—especially at some of the gigs we’re going to be playing on tour. We started in Tel Aviv, where we played in a huge football stadium like when we played 101. But it’s like thatall across Europe. We’ve never actually done a whole stadium tour like this, so it’s gonna be pretty crazy. I know some of those gigs are gonna be wild.
SEVIGNY: What are the best cities in terms of fans?
GAHAN: L.A. is always great. There’s something special about L.A. And New York, for me, because it’s home. There’s nothing quite like walking onstage at Madison Square Garden.
SEVIGNY: I saw you at Madison Square Garden.
GAHAN: I think I always kind of try that much harder because it’s home. I have a sense of duty there. But L.A.’s great. It’s different all over Europe. Like in Italy, everybody sings, and not just during the songs, but chants in between them—a whole football field. Milan is great. Paris is fantastic. London is tough—everyone’s a bit too cool for school.
SEVIGNY: Yeah, I’ve been to shows there. I’ve felt that.
GAHAN: It feels like when I come to London, the big gates close on me. It’s not my home. But Poland’s crazy, Prague is great, Budapest . . .
SEVIGNY: Do you think it’s the kids who are alienated who come to those cities that especially embrace the band? I feel like there is much more passion from the degenerates, the outcasts . . .
GAHAN: That’s always what it’s been. It’s always been the kids who weren’t so included in school—where something wasn’t quite right, and they weren’t like the other kids.
SEVIGNY: Yeah, I remember what that’s like.
GAHAN: I remember, when I was a kid, I could fake it pretty good. I had lots of different groups of friends. There were kids that sort of went to gigs and discos, the kids that hung out on the street and stole cars and stuff like that. I never stayed long enough for anyone to really get to know me, and that seems to be a bit of a pattern in my life. I think Martin [Gore] and I were both like that. We grew up with similar backgrounds. We both had stepfathers who we thought were our dads but weren’t. We grew up in a similar sort of distrusting way. So, you know, there are a lot of people like that out there—and I think Depeche Mode music somehow appeals to the oddball, to the person who is looking for something a little bit different.
SEVIGNY: But for a band that appeals to the outcast, you’ve sold a gazillion records.
GAHAN: There are a lot of freaks out there. [both laugh]