Depeche Mode Interviews

1982-03-01 BFBS Radio 1, Cologne, Germany

Apache Mode

Host: Everyone messes the name up. Everyone said it differently. I've heard it say in all different ways. What is it?

Dave: We don't really mind now. It's been Depeche Mode, Depech-ay Mode, DepECHay Mode, it's... Whatever people wanna call it, they can call it.

Andy: Apache Mode.

Host: Apache Mode. [laughs] But you really don't mind?

Dave: No, not really.

...

Host: I mean, you found success pretty quickly, as bands go, really quickly. How did it come about so quickly?

Dave: I don't know, I think we were just in the right place at the right time. It was... the music was changing and we was there. We was picked up very quickly, and the singles were the right thing for the charts, so it went from there.

Host: I wanna talk to you about the sound, because the sound is very fresh. Everyone was saying, it's fresh, it's clean, it's new. But you all, I think most of you, played conventional instruments at the beginning.

Dave: Yeah, well, Andy played bass guitar, Martin played guitar, Vince played guitar, and there was a drum machine. But then Martin got a synthesiser, and gradually they followed and got synthesisers as well.

Host: And now you're all into synthesisers?

Dave: Yeah.

Host: Any chance of getting back to the old instruments, Andrew?

Andy: You never know. We started to experiment with some sounds, new sounds that sound a bit like guitars. You never know. If we get bored, we might get back to them.

...

ALAN IS HERE

Host: I got Alan Wilder with me, who is the most recent member of the band, because Vince Clarke left some time ago. What happened to Vince, Alan?

Alan: Well, as far as I know, he was unhappy, generally, with the way things were going with the band, i.e. that it was becoming public property, and I don't think he really enjoyed that too much. But I don't actually know the guy, I never... Well, I've briefly met him, so I wouldn't like to speak too much for Vince. But anyway, he went, so they advertised for a new keyboard player, and I answered the audition, and went along for an audition, and got the job.

Host: Now, how long ago was this, because you don't often see a band in the calibre of Depeche Mode with a success rate advertising in the back of the Evening Standard?

Alan: No, well, it was the Melody Maker, actually, but I was quite surprised when I actually found out who it was. They didn't actually tell me at first. But, how long ago? When was that? Beginning of the year, January, beginning of January.

Host: And what's your keyboard training?

Alan: Well, I've been playing for... since I was about eight. I had piano lessons and played in a few other bands and things, so...

...

Opinions About Britain And London

Host: Now, you're enormous in Britain, everything is going right. Are you gonna sort of leave Britain and become tax exiles when you're all millionaires?

Alan: I'd like to leave Britain, but not for those reasons, because I'd just like to live in a different country, I think.

Host: What's wrong with Britain for you?

Alan: I don't really enjoy living in London, certainly. And I really wouldn't like to live in the country in England, either, because it's too quiet. I'd like a compromise between the two. I don't like London, it's too hectic, too dirty, too noisy, for my liking. But, as far as tax exiles [are concerned], it's far too early to talk about it, I think.

Host: Really? Martin, do you wanna leave Britain?

Martin: No, I'm quite happy with where I live. The other three of us live in Basildon, which is about thirty miles outside London, so it's sort of out of the way of the sort of hustle of London, but it's not too quiet. It's just about right, really. But we don't get to go home too much now these days, though. We haven't been home for a few weeks.