2005-10-13 MetMichiel, NPS, Hilversum, Netherlands

Notes

Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher were interviewed for the radio show MetMichiel. The broadcast of the episode was released here as part of a archive reveal in May 2026. The interview segment has been re-uploaded below (cut). The host also states that the interview was to be found on his website at the time in unedited form, but sadly it is no longer retrievable, not even through Archive.org, so if anyone has this unedited version, please contact us.

• Duration: 02:50 minutes

Transcript

[Host's questions have been translated into English.]

Michiel Veenstra: Depeche Mode returns to the Netherlands after 13 years. Why did it take so long?

Andy Fletcher: For some bizarre reason we've never done particularly well in Holland. We've promoted ourselves a lot there, but we never really took off.

Martin Gore: It used to be this way, though, that Holland was the one little enclave in the whole of Europe where we just didn't sell any records.

Andy: We always used to get on - what's the chart? Yeah, you get the normal chart and then you get the second chart, what's that? "Bumbling Under" type thing, yeah. We used to always be good in that. We never made the real chart.

Michiel Veenstra: Okay, but the concert on March 26th 2006 is sold out. How did that happen?

Andy: I think Anton was ringing all his friends up to make sure they buy tickets. [Anton] works on our stage shows and makes the stage show a lot more interesting than just us up there, playing. And he's got a good idea for the next stage show as well.

Michiel Veenstra: Is Depeche Mode a political band? Do they broadcast a message? Are they trying to convey something with their music?

Martin: Andy always likes to say that he doesn't think that music really particularly changes anything in the world. And I think that recently people had a good attempt at trying to make people aware of the third world debt or whatever, but will it achieve anything? I don't really know.

Michiel Veenstra: Yeah, so Live Aid for example is pointless...

Martin: I'm not gonna say that I don't believe in it because I made one comment like that before when it when the first Live Aid happened, and I got called "Gore the Bore, a man who never helped anyone."

Andy: [laughs] "Gore the Bore"?

Michiel Veenstra: After the album Exciter in 2001, things go quiet for a long time surrounding Depeche Mode. Dave Gahan released a solo album... It makes you wonder: did the band split up?

Andy: I think that the biggest problem was after Ultra or during Ultra, more than [during] Exciter, because that's when Dave had his big problems. I think [the band] could have ended then.

Michiel Veenstra: It must have been drug related then?

Andy: Dave was saying some things in interviews of which we went, "Uh, what's that?" I think Dave was just really into his solo project, and the fact that he was writing his songs and that he was actually singing his lyrics for the first time was a big step for him. And him writing songs on this new album is a big step for him. I think he really feels a lot more involved in Depeche Mode now.

Michiel Veenstra: Okay, so it's a "and they lived happily ever after" story for Depeche Mode, and they will continue to trail onwards happily?

Andy: We never plan too far in advance, in our whole career. We're just planning at the moment this tour, and we'll see what happens after that.

Lineage

Ripped from De Schatkamer by Beeld En Geluid as .ts fle > interview segment cut as .mp3 file by Angelinda, re-uploaded above.