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They spurred revolution on their previous album and world tour, Spirit, but the world and their world have completely changed in the six years since. The title of Depeche Mode's new album, Memento Mori, and the existential questions they plan over their new music explain well the crucial moment they are going through. Depeche Mode lost a friend and founder of the group, Andrew Fletcher, 10 months ago and face the future with stoic serenity and without fear of frightening the public with 10 news about death. "People are used to us being very gloomy, they're not going to be surprised. I'm happy with the record and I'm looking forward to people hearing it," says Dave Gahan, singer of the now British duo.

The interview takes place at Sony's offices in London, in the rehabilitated district around Kings Cross Station and Regent Canal. The record company has taken precautions and you have to get tested for covid – and give negative – before accessing the target. The two musicians -Gahan and Martin Gore- receive separately the chain of international journalists who have been summoned, coinciding with the publication of the new songs of the group and with a world tour that will have a double appointment in Spain in June at the Primavera Sound festival: on the 2nd in Barcelona and on the 9th in Madrid.

Gahan waits in the gloom, sitting on a kind of television set, where only his red booties shine. Gray hair, clear forehead, glasses, silver bracelet and rings, including the skull that appears in the opening scene of the Ghost Again video. It was made by Anton Corbijn, the Dutch photographer who since the mid-80s has transformed into an image the dark, dramatic and sharp style of the group from Basildon, a city in the east of England. With the 60 already fulfilled, the vocalist retains the rock aesthetic and wears leather sucker, t-shirt and black pants this February afternoon.

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"

Memento Mori means remember that you must die! Everyone can interpret it in their own way, but for us it means 'live your life, make the best of it'. All the songs on the album are about the idea of mortality, that our time here is not really very long from the global perspective and you have to get the most out of your life," he reasons.

It's been 43 years since Gahan earned his starring spot in Depeche Mode for the strength of his baritone voice and compelling performance of David Bowie's Heroes. He still includes the live version of the popular anthem, particularly in the bowling alleys of his side project, Soulsavers, when he descends from stadiums to more intimate rooms. Precisely, he hugged his beloved Fletch for the last time during the presentation in London of the third album of this formation, Imposter, in December 2021.

A year earlier, the three members of Depeche Mode reunited, via zoom, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which turned out to be the band's farewell in its trio format. Fletcher died last May as a result of a heart attack, according to the singer. "It was part of our lives. And we of his, since adolescence, since we were 18 years old. It's not here anymore. It's different now. It's sad that it's not here, but it is what it is," he says.

At the virtual event of the Museum of Fame, Gahan acknowledged the contribution of two old colleagues, Vince Clark and Alan Wilder, to the group's takeoff, but in London he makes it abundantly clear that neither will fill the gap left by Fletcher. "That was shut down 30 years ago... I don't even have their phones anymore," he exclaims wryly.

Memento Mori was conceived during the coronavirus pandemic and the specter of death illuminates its content. The sudden disappearance of the backbone of the formation and, according to his companions, the least given to succumbing to the excesses of alcohol and drugs, gave cohesion to the project and a feeling that perhaps time is running out. "Not being here is not something I'm afraid of. I feel darkness and I guess that's transmitted in the music. There is always an element of darkness in our songs, as there is in life. Reality revolves around elections. We all have options, it's something they give us, although some are given more than others," he reveals.

Gahan admits he didn't always choose the right option. The success of songs like Just Cant Get Enough, Personal Jesus or People are People, together with the massive lace of Music for the Masses, Black Celebration or Songs of Faith and Devotion, among other albums, placed the band in the pantheon of electronic pop. The stages grew in size and the tours lengthened, but the most visible face of the band fell into a spiral of addiction, overdose and suicide attempts.

The cleaning process began in the mid-90s. The inner demons still lurk, but he knows how to handle them. "It's part of life. Now I have many better options than before. Years ago I felt that I did not decide, that I had no control over my options. I don't live like that anymore. My options are better and I try to choose better. I failed miserably many times, but more often now I make more good decisions than bad ones," he says.

Gahan contributes to the album three songs that he composed in the final stretch of the process, after spending the covid crisis with his family in New York. "Martin wrote most of the songs during the pandemic, but I wasn't inspired to write. I played the guitar a lot during the lockdown. We all live then day by day, literally not knowing what the next one would bring. I didn't care much. I enjoyed it, even though my wife and children didn't feel that way. I was at ease in solitude," he recalls.

He went for a morning stroll through the half-deserted streets of New York. "You didn't see anyone, which was weird, but there was something that appealed to me. And that foreboding fear that circulated constantly crept into many songs. The sense that the end is coming, that we arrived at the destination, penetrated the disc," he adds.

Depeche Mode have not finished their story. They have simply opened another chapter, without Fletcher's support and with the two survivors united in a common project.

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  • Coronavirus
  • London
  • New York
  • Sony
  • Barcelona
  • Covid 19
  • music
  • Electronic music
  • United Kingdom