Ray Gun / Martin Gore interview

Q: A lot of Depeche Mode fans take your lyrics quite seriously. Do you feel any responsibility for the effect your words might have?
A: When I sit down and write, I don't know exactly what my goal is. It's just something that I enjoy doing. The main responsibility is to produce something good.

Q: Do you feel that your lyrics are often misinterpreted?
A: A lot of songs are fairly ambiguous and people fit them into their own lives, their own situations. I think that's fine.

Q: You've made an impact on thousands of young people. Are you ever frightened by the influence that you've had on so many?
A: I wouldn't say it frightens me. I quite like the idea. The only thing I sit down to do is try to communicate with people. To get to the point when you've actually achieved that is really nice, to be able to communicate on such a global level.

Q: Do you ever sit down and talk to fans who relate what various lyrics meant to them?
A: Yeah. There was one instance regarding 'Never Let Me Down Again' when two separate people came up to me after a show one night and said 'I really like that song'. One of them thought it was a gay anthem and the other thought it was a drug anthem. They both loved the song, so that's fine by me. Last night was a good example of how nice it is to communicate. We got dropped off at a bar and it was closed. Michael called a taxi, you know how hard it is to get a taxi here, and just at that moment these two fans passed us, recognized me in the street, and came over. I said, 'Give us a lift?' And they were happy to. They came with us an even hung around to give us a lift back to the hotel later (laughs)

Q: Why do you think that Depeche Mode has such a strong fan base in Southern California?
A: I think it's mainly because of the radio support, as boring an answer that may be. Every time I come to LA it seems you can't go for more than half an hour without hearing one of our records on KROQ, even when we haven't had a release out in three years! I guess there are quite a few alternative stations. You know, the alternative scene in America is weird to me. I was listening to the alternative station up in Seattle and it just seemed to cover such a broad spectrum. It's unfortunate because I think at one point alternative music really was alternative. Now it seems that so much of it is just bad. It almost means bad music.

Q: Now that David lives in Los Angeles, has it effected the working relationship of the band?
A: With this record we did two periods in Madrid, one in Hamburg, we all have to travel. For the tour, we will probably rehearse in London. It's very easy. It's only a plane ride. It's not a big problem.

Q: Would you ever consider moving to America?
A: I might be forced to one day. My girlfriend is American and she just loves, like all of you Americans, the American way of life. I was actually talked into skiing over Christmas. It's just those sorts of things that are so easy over here. It's one of those things that I've always said I never wanted to do, but her parents bought me these skiing lessons for Christmas.

Q: Is it ever odd for you to have David interpreting your words?
A: No, because David is like another instrument. He's the voice of the band. His voice is particularly suited to a lot of the songs. I can't sing the way he does.

Q: What are some of your musical inspirations?
A: Over the past few years I've really gotten into Leonard Cohen. I like John Lennon, Kurt Weill. The Velvet Underground was probably the best band that ever existed. Sparks were one of my influences when I was growing up. Propaganda is probably my favorite album of all time. Another one of my major song writing influences was Neil Young.

Q: It's interesting that Brian Eno did the remix for 'I Feel You'. What sort of working relationship do you have with him? Did you just sort of turn over the tapes?
A: We basically just sent him the tapes. Flood knows him from his relation- ship with U2, so he just called him and he was keen to it. His mixes have this really strange atmosphere to them. Every time I play it, no matter what time of day it is, it almost puts me to sleep. It's really weird. We had to take it off when we were driving in the car 'cause me girl- friend was falling asleep.

Q: Although Depeche Mode is considered a keyboard based band, you often write the songs on guitar...
A: Yeah, often. I usually work on the chord structure on guitar, then the words, then I move into my studio at home, then do a basic demo with the keyboards or whatever, and then I present it to the band. I've been trying to keep the demos more open. If the demo is too finished you tend to have that in your head as the final picture.

Q: Do you have much interest in production?
A: I've really never been very interested in production. Obviously production can do a lot, but I like to place more importance on the song. If the song is good enough in the first place you can pretty much get away with anything.

Q: As the main songwriter you must make a lot more money than the rest of the band...
A: (nodding his head and laughing) Can't you tell I stand out?

Q: There's no animosity?
A: They've never mentioned it to me. Maybe they have secret meetings behind my back. (laughs)

Q: Have you kept in contact with Vince Clarke?
A: We see more of him now, but that's not much. Maybe once or twice a year. We get on really well. They (Erasure) actually played in Hamburg while we were recording there and he came out drinking with us one night.
I'd never seen him do that with us before! I was surprised. He actually came out with us and had a good time. (laughs)

Q: How do you handle the impact of a tour? Is life on the road difficult for you to adjust to?
A: It's actually more difficult adjusting back to normal life after the tour. When we are on the road we have about five people looking after us. Anything you want all day long is at your feet. Suddenly you have to go home after the tour and adjust to normality. The first grocery trip is very weird. (laughs)

Q: How hard is it for you to connect with the audience in a large arena?
A: I've got terrible eyesight so if it's more than ten people it doesn't make a difference to me.

Q: How involved are you with the visual marketing of the band?
A: We have big meetings with Anton (Corbijn). We trust him a lot. He comes up with most of the ideas. He does all of our video output now, our sleeves, photographs, and we're also getting him involved in the stage set design this time.

Q: You've touched on a lot of religious imagery in your songs...
A: I've always touched on religion. I must have some deep rooted problem somewhere.

Q: Were you raised with a religious upbringing?
A: No. I always liked the idea of belief. I wanted to believe in something but I've never been sure what it is I should be believing in. The idea of faith really appealed to me.

Q: Do you read a lot on spirituality?
A: Over the last couple of years I haven't really done any reading at all.

Unfortunately, I've really gotten into Sega and Super Nintendo. (laughs) So there's a few worrying pointers. The other worry is that I've got an eighteen month old daughter and we've just gotten into Disney sing-a-long tunes and they've really started to get ingrained in my head! It's quite a worry for the next album....