Depeche Mode Interviews

1984-12-08 BFBS Radio 1, Cologne, Germany

Interviewer: Tell me about the mechanics of recording a single. Where does the first idea come from?

Andy: Well, Martin writes most of the songs, and he'll write them at home, and he'll finish them - they will be quite completed, he makes a demo, quite bad quality, but most of the ideas are there, and he will sort of, like, play it to us and then see what we think. And if we decide to record it, we will go into a studio, and start from there.

Interviewer: From the time that you have the idea of the song, what happens after that?

Martin: Well, after I've played it to the others, I may make copies or something to give to the others so they can sort of get to know the songs. And then we will go into a rehearsal studio or, actually into the recording studio, and sort of discuss the songs and maybe change the structure, maybe if we feel it's not working perfectly, and then we just start recording, working on sounds, which is not really my strong point. That's more, let's say, Alan's strong point. Yeah so, we all got sort of different roles within the band. And we just sort of start on the basic tracks and work on it till it's finished.

Interviewer: Now, the band has become quite famous, I suppose, for using what is called "sample music".

Andy: It was a couple of years ago that computers came on the scene. What these instruments enable you to do is, you can record any sound you like, for instance, if you like tapping the table [taps the table] or something, you can record that, and play it, and put it in a sequencer on a keyboard, which means, really, your sounds are unlimited, so you can create any.