1984-11-30 Sounds!, DRS3, Basel, Switzerland

Notes

When Depeche Mode performed for the first time in Switzerland, on the 30th of November in Basel, Swiss radio station DRS3 recorded the show. Radio DJ François Mürner got to moderate this event in his show 'Sounds!', and his commentary was interjected by interviews with Alan, Fletch and Martin. It was broadcast on December 5, 1984 according to newspaper records. Some of the songs from the live recording of the concert were later used on various single and remaster releases. For the re-upload below, the intro and translations of the answers have been cut out.

• Duration: 06:56 minutes (out of approximately 20 minutes)

Audio

Transcript

François: How did the previous concert go?

Alan: Very good, yeah, we were very pleased. We thought our performance was pretty good. There was a small problem with one of the synthesizers, but I don't think anyone noticed. And I think the audience reacted very well and enjoyed it, and it was very good, yeah.

François: What would Depeche Mode do when the floppy discs are being rejected by the computers, and so their tunes and sounds are not being played?

Martin: Panic. Luckily, I use an Emulator 1, and I used that on the last tour as well, and we've not had very many problems with that. It's just, just for this tour, Alan started using an Emulator 2, which is sort of, like, pushing it a bit, because they've only just come out. And on the British tour we have had quite a few problems.

François: Do DM ever dream of long solos on a guitar?

Alan: Sorry, Martin can play the guitar quite well.

Martin: And Alan can certainly bash out a steady beat on the drums.

Alan: But no, we just prefer to do it this way, because, in the long run, it's easier to get the right sounds, and it's easier to do it live, with keyboards, really.

Martin: It's not even easier to get the right sounds, it's easier to get interesting sounds. The guitars is very boring, really.

François: Aren't you making musicians unemployed by making music with digital instruments?

Alan: No, I don't... Firstly, I think, they will get a job, because there will always be work for those people. And secondly, you can't find technology. If the technology is there, use it. I think the only thing is, like Martin said, you have to use it in a good way. You have to have the good ideas and as many [clip is cut off].

François: After this techno-scene, there will likely follow an acoustic-revival-scene. How do they feel about this?

Martin: As you say, there is already a slight backlash. There's, like, a jazz revival or whatever, but-

Dave [in the background, sarcastically]: Yeah, there's a jazz revival.

Other people: Wow!

Martin: Yeah, there is. But I don't really think you can fight the technology, though, because it's by far the most interesting thing that is happening. Everything else is just regressive.

François: Depeche Mode. Am letzten Rubrik live auf die Bühne in die Sporthalle St. Jakob, Basel, für über 6000 Leute. Wo, wie man höre, lebe dort sehr ungewöhliche Töne, weil Depeche Mode die Gitarre haben abgespeichert, live am Freitagabend, und konsequent gibt's kein andere Band. Warum die harte Töne: für ihnen, oder von der Studio Genie die hintem ihnen steckt, Daniel Miller?

François (translation): Depeche Mode. As last item, live on stage at the St. Jakob Sporthall in Basel, in front of 6000 people. Where, as you can hear, are sounding very unusual sounds, because Depeche Mode have put away their guitars, live last Friday night, and who consequently have no rivals. Why the hard sounds? Do they come from them, or do they come from the the studio genius behind the band, Daniel Miller?

Martin: It's partly us, and it's partly Daniel. It's actually Daniel's computer, he obviously understands it best. But as we've been working with it now for like 2 years or so, we understand it sort of fairly well, and we're actually able to use it, like, to a certain extent.

François: Plus you already come with melody lines, or they will come from Mute?

Martin: No. Don't ask Daniel for melody lines.

Alan: That is not his strong point.

Martin: Daniel is very good at sounds, and song structures, and things like that, but he's not when it comes to melody.

Alan: Melody and vocals he doesn't really get.

François: Martin Gore schriebt jetzt die meiste liedern, Hits, für Depeche Mode. Wie kommt er drauf? Was heißt zum Beispiel Blasphemous Rumours, ihre neue Single?

François (translation): Martin currently writes the most songs, the hits, for Depeche Mode. How does he get to those songs? What does, for example, their new single Blasphemous Rumours mean?

Martin: All the time I just come across instances where I just expect something to happen and it just doesn't, but I just imagine that God is somewhere, laughing. A famous occasion, if you like, a famous instance, is, me and Andy used to go to church. I was never heavily into it but Andy quite, and every week there was like a prayerlist, and everyone had to sit down and pray for these people who were ill. And every week, the person at the top of the prayerlist died. [laughs] Especially for me, not being a Christian at the time, it always struck me as slightly funny.

François: In England, wo man die Texte besser versteht, war die Text intensiver als bei uns für Blasphemous Rumours. Hätte Martin und Depeche Mode mit Blasphemous Rumours sehr viel Leute geschockt. Ist dass absichtig? Wollte sie mit ihre Texte etwas verändern?

François (translation): In England, where the people there understand the lyrics better, the lyrics to Blasphemous Rumours were found to be a lot more intense than over here. Martin and Depeche Mode have shocked many people with Blasphemous Rumours. Was that intentional? Did they want to change anything with the lyrics?

Martin: When we write songs, we never think that we're going to change anything, it just... I don't like that this has gone a bit quite near [=personal], hasn't it? [laughs] We never intend to change anything, but basically I just write what I'm feeling at the time. And I don't really think about the consequences, I didn't really... At the time, I was a bit naive, I didn't think it was such a strong subject.

François: Depeche Mode gehalt sich, vor allem durch Martin, sie sind kein politsche Band, was soll dass Volk von ihnen? Davon wurden sie furios bereits, dafür fuhlen sie sich verantwortlich:

François (translation): Depeche Mode maintain, especially Martin, that they are no political band, because, why should people care about that? This makes Depeche Mode angry, it makes them feel responsible:

Martin: It's a horrible tag to be called a political band. It's just something that we don't wanna get tied down in.

Alan: It puts so many people off.

Martin: [cut mid-sentence]...slightly political, but I think, I'm very naive, I'm very young, I don't really know anything. Who am I to tell everybody, "This is this, this is this", you know? I'm very dubious about politicians as well. Politics is just, like, a dubious subject.

François: Einerseits wäre sie sich gegen die politische Etikette, andererseits waren sie doch gegen der einfache Teenie-Pop band szene. Wo stehen sie jetzt?

François (translation): On the one hand, they're against being branded as a political band, on the other hand, they're against the simply teen pop scene. Where do they stand now?

Andy: We have a quite young audience. Our songs have got substance, they mean quite a lot more than of supposed bands that are Teenie bands. And I think if anyone came to see us, I think many of them sort of would be impressed.

François: Zwei letzte Fragen. Welche Art von Musik mag Martin Gore?

François (translation): Two last questions. Which kind of music does Martin Gore like?

Martin: My taste is really, really varied. My favourite bands, if you like, are pretty stupid. You know, things like Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers.

François: That's not very stupid, that's one of my favourites too.

Martin: They're my favourite band. They're hardly in the same vein. Apart from that, I really like early Sparks. And you know the Ata Tak label? I really like Der Plan and Die Doraus & Die Marinas and things like that.

François: Was für ein verhältnis haben sie zu den ganzen Video sachen?

François (translation): What's their relationship with all the music video stuff?

Martin: Mainly a chore, because music is the main thing that we're interested in. Unfortunately, video now is a very popular medium.

François: Das letzte Wort für den Band. Wie sehen sie ihren Zukunft?

François (translation):The final word to the band. What do they imagine their future to look like?

Martin: I think that we will probably still be involved in sampling and looking for interesting sounds. Because it's so limited. There's no end to the sounds you can sample. And most of it will be interesting.

Alan: So it's only your imagination that limits you.

Lineage

Section 0:00 - 2:15 minutes: MP3 file uploaded by DJ François Mürner.

Section 2:16 - 5:15 minutes: MP3 file uploaded on blackswarm.de/museodepechemode.com.

Section 5:16 - 6:56 minutes: Cassette recording by Maren Bode, unknown lineage > converted to MP3 by Angelinda, then merged together for DMLiveWiki.