Martin Gore on Depeche Mode’s ‘Memento Mori’ and ‘Ghosts Once more’

Summarize this content material to 540 phrases If the Depeche Mode video for his or her present hit tune “Ghosts Once more” presents you a way of déjà vu, you’re not alone.Directed by famous photographer and director Anton Corbijn, the music video displays the theme of the British digital outfit’s fifteenth album, “Memento Mori,” which was launched Friday, and options constitution members Martin Gore and David Gahan taking part in chess in a re-enactment of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 cinematic traditional “The Seventh Seal,” the place Demise performs a mortal in a contest to assert his soul.“We’ve been working with Anton Corbijn now since 1986 and he’s actually the one who’s liable for all of our visible output,” mentioned chief songwriter Gore throughout an unique Zoom chat with the Star earlier this month.“The video was his thought to make use of ‘The Seventh Seal’ reference. He did the video. He’s designed the stage set. He’s been filming the flicks that might be taking part in behind us on the stage whereas we’re on tour.”“Memento mori” — a symbolic or creative picture that reminds considered one of dying’s inevitability — could also be an apt title for the band’s newest opus.Apart from “Ghosts Once more,” references to mortality are peppered all through “Memento Mori,” in such songs because the solemn, synth-driven “My Cosmos Is Mine”; the marginally extra animated “Wagging Tongue”; the darkly humourous “Don’t Say You Love Me” and one thing this author described to Gore as a “lounge suicide tune” known as “Soul With Me” that ol’ Blue Eyes himself might need crooned had he been a goth at coronary heart.“For me, that’s very attention-grabbing — it’s received so many bizarre influences,” chuckled Gore, whose band headlines Scotiabank Enviornment on April 7 and Nov. 5.“I’ve been saying that it sounds a bit bit like a bizarre Seashore Boys tune, one the place they received (German composer) Kurt Weill to assist them with a number of the weirder chords.” After all, one might soar to the conclusion that “Memento Mori” was influenced by the sudden lack of Depeche Mode co-founder and keyboardist Andrew Fletcher final Could as a consequence of an aortic dissection, however Gore insisted that was hardly the case.“For me, the pandemic was clearly an enormous issue and I feel that’s why a number of the songs, a minimum of, do take care of dying,” Gore defined. “Additionally, I did truly flip 60 throughout the pandemic and that was an enormous wake-up name to me as properly.”In what approach?“Sixty doesn’t sound that previous, however my stepdad truly died at 61 and my organic father died at 68,” he replied. “So taking these issues into consideration, 60 sounds fairly previous.”Whereas Gore, now 61, maintains that Fletcher’s dying didn’t play into the general theme or music on the album, he mentioned he and singer Gahan used the “Memento Mori” classes as a distraction from the tragedy.“Clearly, the environment throughout the making of the album would have been quite a bit completely different,” he famous. “Andy was a bigger than life character and really sociable and chatty. “We additionally managed to make use of the album as a technique to distract us from Andy’s dying. We determined to hold on with the schedule that we had, as a result of specializing in music was higher than us sitting at residence and specializing in the truth that Andy had died. “Gore mentioned the band, acknowledged for such previous stellar million-selling albums as “Some Nice Reward,” “Music for the Lots” and “Violator,” wouldn’t miss Fletcher’s impression creatively as a lot as personally.“I don’t assume the top results of the musical a part of the album would have modified that a lot, however … we had to enter the studio and make an album with out him. We needed to go and do a photograph session with out him for the primary time. Now we’ve simply been on a promo journey with out him. These are all emotional issues — I imply, the most important emotional factor might be going onstage with out him. “There might be that gaping gap there on the stage the place he was.”Gore added that he’ll miss Fletcher’s cheerleader spirit.“It’s humorous, as a result of as me and Dave have usually mentioned, he was the band’s greatest fan and, although he wasn’t essentially concerned with the music, he was the one who beloved being within the band essentially the most.”The band’s doom and gloom method to most of their materials will shock nobody — they offered greater than 100 million information after abandoning their “Simply Can’t Get Sufficient” synth pop beginnings 43 years in the past with the departure of co-founder Vince Clarke (who went on to kind Yazoo, the Meeting and Erasure) — however Gore mentioned there are extra silver linings of their music today.“The album, it’s not all about dying and it’s not all miserable,” insisted the person who wrote such incisive tunes as “Blasphemous Rumours,” “Private Jesus” and “Strolling in My Footwear.”“Even ‘Ghosts Once more,’ I really feel is uplifting,” he mentioned.“It’s attention-grabbing, as a result of when you simply take a look at the lyrics as a poem, it might in all probability sound fairly miserable. However by some means, the 2 work collectively rather well.“It nearly feels like we’ve managed to make a common tune, as a result of it’s getting performed (on radio) all over the place, however it’s additionally getting lots of love from lots of different folks, too. It’s getting lots of common respect.”One other shock about “Memento Mori” is Gore’s new songwriting companion: the Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler.Gore, who normally writes solo or often groups up with Gahan, joined with Butler for 4 songs, together with “Caroline’s Monkey,” wherein the phrasing actually reminds one of many Furs’ gravel-voiced singer.“That’s one thing I’ve by no means accomplished earlier than, particularly for Depeche Mode,” Gore mentioned. “Richard reached out to me by way of textual content early on throughout the pandemic and mentioned we should always write some songs collectively. I mentioned, ‘OK, let’s do it’ and we ended up writing six.“I appreciated them a lot that I known as him and mentioned, ‘How do you’re feeling about me utilizing them for Depeche?’ And he mentioned, ‘I’m completely satisfied so that you can use them.’ I used to be very happy with that, so 4 (‘Ghosts Once more,’ ‘Don’t Say You Love Me,’ ‘My Favorite Stranger’ and ‘Caroline’s Monkey’) ended up on the album.”Gore mentioned the expertise may break him out of his common songwriting solitude.“I feel I’m open extra to collaborating with folks now,” he mentioned. “I used to assume that perhaps I’d lose my approach a bit by attempting to work on collaborations, however it appears to work very properly.”SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anybody can learn Conversations, however to contribute, you ought to be a registered Torstar account holder. 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