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From Basildon
boys to globetrotting stadium superstars, teenage bubblegum synth popsters
to seriously popular late-thirty-something "serious" musicians,
clean-cut to drug-fuelled, Depeche Mode have done it all, and survived – quite
literally so in the case of vocalist Dave Gahan. Who'd have guessed
that 20 years on from infectious ditties like "Just Can't Get
Enough" - and a staggering 35 million album sales (and counting)
down the line - they'd be releasing Exciter, their tenth studio
album of dark, yet somehow uplifting songscapes that have become their
latter-day trademark for Mute Records (Sire in the USA). It nearly
wasn’t so, on more than one occasion.
For
Depeche Mode are no strangers to pop's tumultuous ways, first written
off as early as 1981 with the departure of then-principal songwriter
Vince Clarke immediately following their lightweight long-playing debut, Speak & Spell.
While Clarke found further synthesized fortune with Yazoo (and later
Erasure), Gahan and keyboard players Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher
refused to be beaten - Gore promptly taking over songwriting duties
and classically trained keyboard virtuoso Alan Wilder filling Clarke's
on-stage shoes (later proving indispensable in the studio). Confounding
fans and critics alike, this fabulous foursome admirably reinvented
themselves, finally attaining world domination status with the 101st
and final concert of their Music For The Masses world tour when
performing to a 70,000-strong audience at Pasedena's Rose Bowl in California
on June 18, 1988, captured on film by none other than D.A. Pennebaker
(of Bob Dylan's Don't Look Back 1965 British tour "rockumentary" fame).
A rock 'n roll roller coaster ride had truly begun for Essex's finest,
but what goes up usually comes down.
Following 1993’s ‘difficult’ Songs
Of Faith And Devotion album, the subsequent 180-show trek to
over two million fans took its toll in more ways than one – not
least Wilder’s 1995 departure, citing “dissatisfaction
with the internal relations and working practices of the group”.
Doom merchants again predicted Depeche Mode’s disbanding. They
were nearly right.
The
partially rehabilitated Gahan, Gore and Fletcher only just managed
to regroup as a trio under the watchful production gaze of Bomb The
Bass man Tim Simenon and were rewarded with 1997’s UK chart-topping Ultra.
Simenon’s baby shifted over four million copies worldwide, spawning
the group’s highest UK hit single in several years (‘Barrel
Of A Gun’). This would clearly be a tough act to follow, both
sales-wise and in terms of production – especially as the group
showed no sign of letting up, venturing out to tour in support of their The
Singles: 1986-98 ‘Best Of’ album. But someone had to
do it.
And
that someone was Mark Bell, an individual who had already made his
own mark on the charts as co-founder of Leeds-based LFO, a Warp Records
signing dubbed by several American websites as one of the most influential
techno acts of the early-’90s. Though a relatively recent ‘A-list’ inductee,
Bell came with excellent credentials, fresh from working on Bjork’s
latest long-playing masterpiece, Selmasongs (having previously
produced Homogenic for the Icelandic songstress in 1997). Indeed,
it was these recordings that swayed Depeche Mode in favour of Bell.
While
Bell is clearly technically adept, safely sailing the good ship Exciter to
its many recording ports of call, ultimately the smooth running of
an undoubtedly complex production procedure fell on the experienced
shoulders of veteran engineer Gareth Jones. Effectively Depeche Mode’s ‘Technical
Director’, Jones’ recording credentials extend back, rather
appropriately, to British synth pop pioneer (and former Ultravox frontman)
John Foxx’s groundbreaking Metamatic album of 1980, with
Foxx himself later opining, “Gareth was a hippy Freudian BBC
drop-out, and these were his first real recording sessions. He soon
became an innovator.”
Can you expand
on your lengthy career’s formative years before encountering
Depeche Mode?
Gareth
Jones: “I very much enjoyed my time at the BBC where I
was given a valuable basic training in studio recording gear, mics,
mixers and tape machines. I was also introduced to digital sound
technology – Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 were distributed to the FM
transmitters around the country on PCM leased lines, using custom
BBC equipment. Getting things done quickly and on schedule was very
important at the BBC, as was a real sense of excellence and innovation.
Working with John Peel was also inspiring. But ultimately it was
frustrating for me; I wanted to be recording music and bands. At
that time you had to wait for many years before getting the opportunity
to record music.
“I
wrote to all the larger studios in London, twice, and got one call!
It was from Mike Finesilver, co-owner of Pathway Studios, who was working
in Berwick Street Studios. He needed a freelance engineer, saw my letter,
and gave me a call. Soon I was pulling double shifts at the BBC and
Pathway. From there, it was a relatively easy step to go freelance.
“Mike,
and the chief engineer at Pathway, Wally Brill, introduced me to recording
in the commercial world. From accountants to mic’ing up drum
kits, studio attitude to the latest digital gear – the first
Eventide Harmonizer – and stress management, they opened the
door and showed me the way. I was thrown in at the deep end and somehow
managed to survive drowning.”
You
recorded and mixed Madness’ debut single ‘The Prince’ at
Pathway in 1979 before moving on to Foxx’s inaugural longplayer.
Presumably, the synthesized nature of Metamatic must have
been quite an eye-opener at the time?
GJ: “I’d
fallen in love with the synthesizer when I heard Walter Carlos’ realisations
of Switched On Bach in 1969, so when John came in with this
cool electronic gear – ARP Sequencer, ARP Odyssey, Roland CR-78,
Elka strings and MXR flanger, I knew it was going to be fun. John had
a clear artistic vision and a wealth of experience, having already
recorded three LPs – most recently Systems Of Romance with
German guru Conny Plank. These facts helped provide a supportive atmosphere
for us to experiment and develop, as did the budget John had arranged!
John wanted to make a minimal record, and he went for minimal resources
to do it. This meant we were ‘pushing the envelope’ with
all the equipment – that was a great thing creatively. And, of
course, we were listening to Kraftwerk and Neu. My first contact with
Mute Records was when John and I listened in awe to the fantastic sound
of The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’.”
Of course,
The Normal was the one-off recording pseudonym of Mute Records’ founder
and Depeche Mode mentor Daniel Miller. Ironically, in 1983 you inadvertently
crossed paths with both through your then ongoing association with
John Foxx when Depeche Mode came to record their third album, Construction
Time Again, at Foxx’s London-based 24-track studio, The
Garden, with yourself as engineer…
GJ: “John encouraged
me to meet Daniel and Depeche at a time when they were looking for
something new. I was initially reluctant because of their ‘teenage
bubblegum synth popsters’ reputation, to use your words. It turned
out that we had compatible approaches in the studio.”
Foxx is very flattering regarding
your role on this groundbreaking album; Steve Malins’ Depeche
Mode biography quotes him as saying, “I think Gareth was
very important in helping Depeche Mode move effortlessly from analogue
synthesizers to the world of sampling and digital technology.” How
would you respond to that observation?
GJ: “That may well be,
but I feel my major contribution was more to do with the acoustic space
around the sounds, beats and riffs. Having moved out of the Pathway
cupboard I was now in a reverberant basement with interesting different
acoustic spaces – mainly bright with short reverb times. I had
a bunch of different amps hooked up in different rooms with mics near
and far, so we were able to experiment with distortions and acoustic
spaces easily. We continued this practice when we sampled ambient sounds
on my stereo Stellavox SP7 – one track for a close sound and
one for distant perspective. This ‘sense of place’ was
very important for helping to enhance and create moods and atmospheres.
We were clearly making machine music, but on Construction Time Again we
put the machines in an acoustic space.”
Daniel
Miller had just bought New England Digital’s upmarket Synclavier,
a kind of precursor to today’s sampling workstations. What
are your memories of what was clearly a technologically exciting
time?
GJ: “Mainly
battling to keep things in sync as we made the transition to digital.
But we are in very exciting times again for music and technology; Moore’s
Law keeps delivering the goods and allows us a lot of virtual fun – and real fun,
too!”
Which brings
us neatly to the present day, and Exciter. I understand Martin
Gore ostensibly resumed songwriting at his rural private studio in
early 1999, with a view to recording a new Depeche Mode album, but
progress was slow. Consequently, in October 1999 he enlisted the
assistance of keyboard player/programmer Paul Freegard and yourself,
a period you term as a ‘workshop’ on your website. What
can you reveal about your role in this early stage in the proceedings?
GJ: “Paul and I were
there essentially to support our artist, Martin, and, as every studio
worker knows, that can cover a lot of ground. For whatever reason,
Martin was creatively ‘blocked’ and we helped establish
an environment and a routine where creativity could flow more easily.
We experimented with the interpretations of songs in a very relaxed,
healthy and positive environment – insofar as we could. We had
a good time; we woke up feeling good; we went in the gym; we went in
the sauna; we did group meditations, sometimes; we listened to music;
we ate well; very occasionally we went to the pub.”
Presumably
you brought some of your own equipment along to these sessions?
GJ: “My ‘equipment’ included
aromatherapy oils and joss sticks, organic brown rice, sardines and
rice crackers, as well as tension tamer teas! I bought along my Supernova
and my Nord Micro Modular as well as Reaktor and AbSynth,
Arboretum’s Hyper Engine, Logic Audio, Pluggo and Sound
Diver. In addition, I brought the Doepfer MAQ16/3 sequencer and
the Doepfer Regelwerk Fader Box; also my Genelec 1029As, to which we
soon added the 1091 sub.
“From
an early stage is was clear that we wanted to be able to move seamlessly
into ‘production’ with this material. Although we were
working on the humble AW8 card, I had my chain of Focusrite ISA 115HDs
and ISA 131s – the Rupert Neve versions – into an Apogee
AD500e feeding the digital input, so we were always making decent recordings.
My Line6 POD was also very useful; I think all the guitars recorded
in pre-production were used on the finished record. I also bought my
trusty B&K 4006 mics along. All in all, it was home recording-style,
a style we carried on with in bigger studios later.”
Electric
Eel’s Kevin van Green – also responsible for creating
customised recording spaces for ex-band members Alan Wilder and Vince
Clarke, Mute boss Daniel Miller, and former Depeche producer Flood – has
told me that Gore’s Hertfordshire-based private studio is sited
in a double garage and featured a custom cabinet housing three vintage
ARP 2600 analogue synthesizers at the time of its construction. What
can you tell us about this studio now?
GJ: “Martin has a nice
collection of gear – Akai samplers; AKS Synthi, as featured on ‘Dead
Of Night’; two rack Minimoogs; Roland JD-800, JP-8000 and JV-2080;
Nord Lead, Wasp Stinger, featured on the chorus of ‘Shine’;
Moog Series III; three ARP 2600s; JoMox drum module; lots of guitars;
piano; a G3 running Logic Audio; Amek desk, with quite a few
guitar effects and different bits and pieces that I’ve probably
forgotten. It’s a pleasant, spacious room, with lots of daylight
and a view of trees and countryside.”
Come 2000, your website lists
Paul Freegard and yourself as being involved in ‘ongoing pre-production’.
At one point you posted news of these proceedings on your website,
announcing, “Dave has been over from New York and done some
excellent vocals on four tunes already.” Can you expand upon
this stage in the album’s progress, and did the songs bare
any relation to the finished product in any way or form?
GJ: “Many of the finished
songs have lots of sounds from the pre-production, of course – everyone
works like that now, I think. There is no point in recreating great
stuff again; indeed, very often it is simply impossible. So a great
deal of our fantastic pre-production work came through to the finished
record. Lots of the guitars and Martin’s lead vocals are from
this session, and masses of synths and audio. Some of Dave’s
vocal work made it through as well, I believe. Working in the virtual
and tapeless world as we do, any audio is available throughout the
whole production.”
Once LFO’s
Mark Bell had signed on board as producer, I understand you all decamped
to London’s RAK Studios on June 5, 2000. Bell has implied this
was more of a bonding exercise than a true recording session…
GJ: “Valuable
musical work and vocals were done at RAK, and we started to develop an
effective and comfortable way to work. It was very important to all of us that we should enjoy making
the record, and our working environment was very important to us. We
wanted to be in a city; we decided to work in a studio for the soundproofing,
maintenance and assistant engineer support. We were not in a studio because
we wanted to be recording on a large console or because we wanted access
to loads of studio effects. With these priorities we were able to reassess
how we used the studio space.”
So
how did you use the studio space at RAK?
GJ: “I set up two linked Mackie consoles in the live room into which we plugged all the equipment we were using – essentially an E-mu E-IVX Turbo; Akai MPC2000 and S3200; Supernova; Nord Modular and Nord Lead; Korg MS2000; Roland JV-2080; Access Virus; two Apple G3 laptops, running Cubase and Logic with VX pockets; and a G4/MotU 2408 running Logic. The laptops were also running Reaktor, PPG Wave 2.V, VB1 and Absynth. I had the same recording chain as in Herfordshire, of course, and I was very easily able to record any Mackie output. Everything was wordclock sync’d. Sometimes I referenced Apogee clock, sometimes Digidesign USD. We extensively used the TC Fireworx and M2000/M3000 on the monitors, and I was able to play the pre-production in different levels of detail depending on what Mark needed – everything was available to him, from individual parts to stereo backing tracks.
“Dave was very keen to spend a lot of time with the tracks, so it was very clear that he needed a space to work where he could sing, listen to music and record vocals whenever he felt he had something worth recording. I set him up in the control room – working to analogue tape at RAK, but later, in Santa Barbara, he went to Pro Tools, which was obviously easier – so both rooms were able to work independently if they wanted. Obviously we were wired for sound, so we could all hear what we were doing if we wanted.
“Later we added a third room for editing, and writing – another G3 laptop running Logic – and were constantly exchanging data on CDs. Back-up was a priority; all the assistants and Retrospect were most helpful here.”
Following
the three-week stint at RAK, where to next?
GJ: “After RAK we went directly to NYC for a couple of weeks with the main intention of focusing on lead vocals. We set up more conventionally in the Penthouse at Electric Lady – vocal mics in the live room and synths in the control room. We also got a beautiful string arrangement by Knox Chandler for ‘When The Body Speaks’ recorded in the Neve room. Dave sang and Martin played guitar together for some of the takes of this song, too. So the Electric Lady session was very much about performance, as opposed to programming.”
I
understand from speaking with producer Mark Bell that a decision
was made to collectively relocate the production somewhere fresh.
RAK and Electric Lady are internationally renowned studios, equipped
to suit; why was Santa Barbara Sound Design specifically
chosen as the next suitable recording venue?
GJ: “Martin had moved to Southern California, and the band decided to go and work on his patch for a couple of months. Sound Design has two live areas and a nice vibe, so we went for that. Santa Barbara was a beautiful place to work. We stayed in hotels overlooking the ocean. Mark and I hired bicycles and rode along the beach to the studio. Everyone had a good time and we were free from the distractions of big cities like LA, NYC and London as the town shuts down at 2am.”
The fact that two
one-month bookings were ultimately undertaken at Santa Barbara Sound
Design is perhaps proof that studio and location was an unqualified
success for all concerned, likewise implying that the bulk of the recording
took place at this venue…
GJ: “We did loads
of great work in Santa Barbara, as we had done already in Herfordshire,
RAK and Electric Lady! And we continued working in the live rooms of
the mix studios – Sony Studio B in NYC and Sarm West Studio 1 in
London – whilst Steve Fitzmaurice was mixing. It was an ongoing
process.”
One of the most remarkable aspects
of Exciter is Gahan’s intimate, upfront and personal
vocal approach to tracks like ‘Dream On’ – the first
single – and the dreamy ‘When The Body Speaks’. How
did you approach this from a technical standpoint?
GJ: “We basically set up a bunch of mics and Dave chose what he liked – same with the compressors. Dave had wanted to try an Avalon 737, so we used that in NYC. In Santa Barbara the house engineer, Nick Sevilla, was working closely with Dave, tweaking compressors and changing mics where necessary. My B&K 4006 was used a lot; it was the main vocal mic and went directly into a Neve 1067 preamp/EQ set flat, then out to the LA-2A limiter – limiting up to 7dB for the heavier stuff and about 0- to 3dB for the normal singing – and then into an Apogee AD8000. My technical approach was very much about capturing Dave’s performances as transparently to him as possible.”
Having
achieved that, how did you then deal with Gahan’s performances?
GJ: “Dave did lots of the pre-editing
himself – if he didn’t like it, we never heard it! Mostly,
he presented us with three or four good takes, and it was a case of using
one main take and fixing it here and there – if and when considered
necessary. Sometimes Martin edited them with Nick or with me; sometimes
Dave edited with Nick. Mark was always involved.”
As
was the case with Ultra,
several guest musicians feature on Exciter. What was the approach, technical or otherwise,
for dealing with the demands of acoustic performance?
GJ: “Always
to make everything as easy as possible – for the musicians and
for Mark. Of course, all the musicians were very experienced and had
great ideas, so really all I had to do was put mics in the right place
and not fuck it up!”
Depeche Mode is still regarded from
some quarters as a synth band, yet Exciter doesn’t
immediately come across as a synth-dominated album per
se. What’s more important
to the Depeche Mode sound of today – synths or samplers?
GJ: “A real mixture of these two things – anything and everything available, really. Both are very important, in my opinion. Akai and E-mu samplers were used extensively, as were all kinds of VST plugs – Logic plug-ins, Pluggo, Hyperprism, and a wealth of TDM plug-ins. In addition to the synths we had in the studio we brought recordings of quite a few others from the Hertfordshire sessions – AKS Synthi, Minimoog, JP-8000, Stinger, ARP 2600, Rave-O-Lution, JoMox drum box and JD-800. Mark also came with a lot of recordings of his synths – in E-mu format – and we recorded his DX11 on ‘I Feel Loved’. VST instruments used included Reaktor, Mercury and PPG Wave 2.V.”
Following
a month-long mixing process at Sony NYC, a Christmas break, then two
weeks at Sarm West in London, the Exciter production
officially wrapped on January 20, 2001. Now that you can presumably
sit back and objectively view the
album from a distance, were you able to achieve or even surpass your
original objectives?
GJ: “We did reach my original objective – that
everyone should enjoy working together to make great versions of Martin’s
songs, and that pleased me.”
As
Depeche Mode prepare to tour the world in support of Exciter,
what are your long-term hopes for this album?
GJ: “I hope it will prove
to be worthy of its place in the Depeche Mode catalogue.”
Jonathan
Miller is a British freelance writer living in… well,
England. He specialises in the ‘ancient art’ of the hi-tech
music interview, and can be reached at jonathan.millermusicmedia@virgin.net
CONTACT:
Over the years I have tried loads of
gear, obviously, and at present I am focusing on a reduced equipment
set-up:
SOFTWARE:
Logic Audio, ReCycle!, Metasynth, MESA, Peak, ReBirth, Pluggo, Hyperprism, SonicWorx – for their amazing Time
Designer plug-in, SoundDiver, Reaktor, Mercury, PPG wave 2.V, Pro-52, B4, VB1, M-Tron and Waves Renaissance bundle. Netscape, Eudora, QuickKeys, Retrospect and Action Files are also in daily use, of course.
HARDWARE:
Akai S3200; Novation SuperNova, BassStation
and DrumStation, Nord Micro Modular; Doepfer MAQ 16/3, Regelwerk, MS404
and Pocket Control; Apogee 500e A/D; Focusrite ISA115HD and ISA 131;
TC Finalizer; B&K 4006 mics; Schoeps Collete series mics; Genelec
1029A monitors; Sherman Filterbank; Line6 POD; Roland RE-501 Chorus
Echo; Waldorf 4-Pole filter; Apple G3 PowerBook; Digigram VX pocket;
E-Magic Unitor II; and the wonderful MT4. My Soundcraft Spirit Folio
Notepad is in daily use. Palm Pilot is also a major part of my life,
and my Creative Nomad MP3 player and Sony CD Walkman are great tools.
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