we haven't put out a record for six years and that's the longest that we've ever gone
we obviously lost a friend and band member in in 2022 like six weeks before we were all start
due to start recording the the album because I can't be honest admit I'd never seen you guys
play live before and on my way into work shame on me there's shame on me genuinely I'm not saying
I've never seen anything like it and I watched literally rather than doing loads of research
as you'll find out in this interview I'm just watching you guys playing live like hungry and
stuff like that we came out of the ashes of punk rock you know so we saw the idea of getting up
there and the do-it-yourself kind of thing um it kind of scared me and I like it I liked it yeah
David Gunn Martin Gore uh Depeche Mode it's amazing to have you in the studio fellas great
to have you here uh sometimes I think to myself why don't bands hang out with each other a bit
more you know like when they're finished touring and all that kind of stuff and I've just scrolled
through the tour dates for your Memento Mori tour it's massive it's like five Scrolls of my thumb
yeah we just got started as well yeah yeah so there's more to come there's more I think because
we're doing a short little North American tourists that kick off the Record yeah first shows coming
up then in September October November I think there's a there's they just announced another
sort of 40 shows I mean you you look at that list of stuff uh you know so it's amazing how
does that make you feel because I'm I was scared on your behalf looking at it I'm terrified I mean
I don't like opening the whole sheets up Jonathan when I I say what's that one underneath there you
know like you've shown me the first sheet and I'm like what's that no no you you don't want to look
at it right now you don't need to look at that right now I want to look just to see that there's
some blank dates what you do what's the Depeche Mode day off what do you do when we see the two
blank dates that's important because you know one of those blank dates is flying somewhere yeah yeah
the next that blank date hopefully is a day off yeah yeah I thought you guys might go bowling or
something or Laser Quest we haven't been bowling for a long time I do like bowling though it's fun
this is what else did you talk about doing a lot but you don't actually do this exactly yeah yeah
her 17th of June for Twickenham on this this incredible World Tour as we we've been talking
about first we're in five years unless I've got that that wrong so like yeah because you've got
to put covered in exactly so like with the amount of devotees that you guys have like
an extensive tool like this must mean even more to be able to like connect with people
again after like so much time apart yeah I mean it's been a while but these These Days the first
dates that we put up they sold out so fast and it's and it's a great it's like million and a
half tickets or something like that at the first wow that's crazy after a week and so
that you know the planning to for more shows but um we've been very fortunate over the years with
um when it comes to uh our people coming to see us it's been 40 plus years now this is the
longest period since we put out a record and went on tour but yeah you had to put in there the whole
lockdown into the middle of that as well well where we all just were kind of lost somewhere
um but you know out of that I mean Martin wrote a lot of songs during that time
uh during that period I didn't write a lot to be honest a couple of things but
I don't want to talk about that Mark well yeah I mean obviously it was a terrible time but good
for a writer because you get yeah you get an extended period to do write as many songs as
you want because those people trying to do better themselves during lockdown didn't they like but I
did who lives next door to me bought a tire half submerged in the back Garden he used to hit it
with a lump Hammer every lunch time that's good for your upper body of Parry I don't have you
got involved with any of that mind but I didn't I didn't do any of that kind of stuff I was just I
just I just lent into doing nothing yeah normally you're on the moon a lot of guitar I played a lot
of guitar I enjoyed that you know and so once you watch your writing process like their mind
what'd you do do you have to get out away from people and going right I have a studio at home so
you know I think that was one of the things that kept me sane because I you know I went
there pretty much you know every weekday and I kind of go to work type sense I guess yeah
yeah I have like my set hours I have to clock in and clock out brilliant lunch break off an hour
I couldn't vouch for that yeah I know the routine my lunch time is very important very important I
I get there after Mars lunch time is it hungry is that the word he's already like edgy okay I can't
be honest admit I've never seen you guys play live before and on my way into work shame on me there's
shame on me I just sat there and watched a load of YouTube um clipsy playing live I've never seen
anything like it I've been absolutely Blown Away by how uh edgy and the Menace of you guys playing
live genuinely I'm not saying I've never seen anything like it and I watched literally rather
than doing loads of research as you'll find out in this interview I'm just watching you guys playing
live like hungry and stuff like that I I love bands that have been together for a long amount
of time but you still there's still Menace there and there's a real crunch in what you're doing so
important you guys not because sometimes people get soft the sound gets softer as you've been
doing it for a long time people are always commenting as well I mean we to a point we you
know uh we have the record that we're out touring with or whatever that we use as a template how we
want to sound or how we want to set up the show and stuff like that but you know the sound is
quite different live of to what it is on record quite often yeah um that's just the way it is
um probably for most bands I should imagine but yeah I mean our gigs are quite an event I guess
um it kind of scared me and I like it I liked it yeah well we come as well you have to remember
that when we we came out of the ashes of punk rock you know so with the idea of getting up there and
the do-it-yourself kind of thing you know as Punk was dying out in England in the late 70s there was
bands like ourselves were kind of came out of the ashes of that so we had that ethic still of
how to perform and you know a lot of my kind of performance on stage came out of fear really of
just like fear of you know learned that if I move around a lot and I didn't I wasn't so afraid of
attacked attacked people a little more with the way I was performing that seemed to work as well
I don't mean physically people get the wrong idea let's talk about Memento Mori out today
um obviously a project that was started at the beginning of the pandemic obviously it's a really
strange time to to be working through that but was it was it still fun to make despite all that
I mean it's a challenging time surrounding it all we haven't put out a record for six years
and that's the longest that we've ever gone so um you know I think it was uh you know we obviously
uh lost a friend and band member in in 2022 like six weeks before we were all start due to start
recording the the album so you know I think that we decided to carry on you know partly to you know
mentally help us mentally you know get over that yeah and focus on music but also I think Rio is
important for us to like move and start working again because we've just been sitting around you
know not not really doing anything it feels good to actually get out and be doing something again
I mean the video to ghosts again I have to say from a show perspective whenever we've played
ghosts again it's had the most amazing reaction from the listeners testing and saying oh my God
we absolutely love it so it's been great to play that on home time but the video black
and white video of YouTube playing uh chess against each other undercurrence of Bill and
Ted's Excellent Adventure and I respect you both for that in these kind of cloaks playing chess
um with that in mind in the tour do you play any games on time a big board game guy I love
playing ball games you play Wordle or is Martin doing Candy Crush Saga let's tune
in the guitars every day yeah yeah are you good I'm reasonably good here today
uh David you are getting gaming stuff like that not really no I just sort of stare into space a
lot okay I'll give that a try leave us with a positive message I mean Memento Mori unless my
Linguistics is awful the inevitability of death but it doesn't have to be as Bleak
as it sounds there's a positive message that we can all take from that concert well Martin
says it the best it's like there's also it actually directly translates to remember that
you must stop remember that you must die I believe yeah but it's to celebrate life
and the one that we you know uh seem to be battling against all of us like especially
during lockdown I think everybody had those moments of like is this it is this is this the
is this the end yeah yeah you know I personally really lent into that but like during that time I
kind of like accepted it and I was like you know life's been pretty amazing one final question I
was I was I was going to ask this and I wasn't going to ask it and then I'm just going to ask
it now obviously you guys are from Basildon down the road from me and Leon sea yeah are you aware
of the phrase baz Vegas in terms of Basildon that's what we call Basildon down there are you
aware of that phrase there's an area there isn't it was known as bad Vegas yeah really it really
is a place I believe yes isn't it yeah there was I mean one amazing exchange of information
amazing guys uh go get the new album it's fantastic go and see them on tour as well
as one hell of a stage show uh David Garner Martin Gore Depeche Mode thank you thank you cheers guys