1985-07-26 ERT, Athens, Greece

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Notes

Radio presenter Giorgos Markakis spoke to Alan Wilder and Dave Gahan at the Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel for a very short interview for ERT Radio, a few hours before the 1985-07-26 Panathinaiko Stadium, Athens, Greece concert. It is not known when it was aired. Giorgos Markakis uploaded this interview on SoundCloud on 2018-09-20, which we copied below.

• Duration: 03:26 minutes

Audio

Transcript

Dave Gahan: This is Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode, and you’re just about to hear our new single.

Alan Wilder: Hello this is Alan Wilder from Depeche Mode, and this is our new single People are People.

Giorgos Markakis: As far as I know, you’re from Basildon, right?

Dave: Well Alan’s actually not from Basildon.

Alan: Yeah, I’m actually from London, the other three are from Basildon.

Giorgos Markakis: Has any influence to you, I mean where you’re coming, I mean big city or countryside, do you think?

Alan: Well it’s difficult to say, because I’ve never lived in the country, you know.

Dave: I mean Basildon is not really countryside anyway, it’s just, it’s a suburb of London, really, you know to a certain extent, it’s only thirty miles from London. I mean all of the people that live there are this sort of spillage from the east end of London, really.

Giorgos Markakis: How about the quick fashion, Depeche Mode, I mean was it a certain idea you had as an image to start and as a goal rigid?

Alan: Well yeah, but that wasn’t really a rigid image, it was just I don’t know it’s just what everyone felt like wearing at the time. And the name is, I don’t think the group even knew what it meant, you know it was just a, it’s a name of a magazine, and it was pinched from the magazine, and that’s it really.

Giorgos Markakis: I think one of the biggest countries you have fans is Germany, isn’t it?

Alan: Yeah, we do very well in Germany, I’m not sure exactly what the reason is. We’ve toured there quite a lot there, and that helps, you know, and maybe because there’s a bit of German influence in the music possibly, you know maybe that helps, I don’t know really.

Giorgos Markakis: Two bands, I’d say, from the 70’s and 80’s, yeah, that they’re, perhaps, they have an aline, you’re the latest one the band of the 80’s, and the on is Kraftwerk, right? Because I think you have one thing particular, a very crystalic sound, I don’t know if you?

Dave: Kraftwerk’s music is really out on its own, I think Kraftwerk’s music is, they use a method and they stick to it, really, whereas our music is more pop songs. I think that Kraftwerk tried to be very robotic, you know, they tried to be very robotic, I don’t think we try particularly to be robotic.

Alan: But we do try to be original, you know, in our use of sound, it would be nice that every time one of our records came on, it’s immediately recognizable as Depeche Mode, you know. That’s something we’d like to have, you know.

Giorgos Markakis: Perhaps, in a year or two years or three years, you will just leave the synthies, and just make without the help of synthesizers, or?

Dave: It’s funny, because I think we’ve changed a lot over the five years, so, anything can happen and there’s new instruments and new technology coming out all the time. So we try to stay on top of that, as much as possible, although it is very hard considering there are so many new things coming out all the time.

Giorgos Markakis: What about the short plans, let’s say, of sound, on your new record that comes, you know, you want to try on the same Depeche Mode sound, or you want to try perhaps an acoustic guitar or something?

Alan: Well, we don’t really restrict ourselves any way, you know, there is no set Depeche Mode sound, really, we’re always looking to push forward, always looking for a new method, and new sounds. If we think a guitar sound suits a song, then we use it, and that applies for any sound, you know.

Giorgos Markakis: I’m grateful, thankful, and hope you have good success in tonight.

Dave: Thank you.

Alan: Thank you very much.