Dave Gahan, who's debut solo LP 'Paper Monsters' is out now, is threatening to leave Depeche Mode if he isn't given a bigger song-writing role.
Gahan has told reporters: "Whether there is a future for Depeche Mode very
much depend on whether Martin is willing and open enough to change. All I know is it won't be going on as it was, I want to be involved more in working on new songs. I didn't have enough confidence, and where should I have taken it from? After all, Martin Gore is the creative head of Depeche Mode. I was just the singer. Martin sometimes even told me how to sing certain passages," he complained. "I often felt like an instrument being used by others."
Article comments
1 - mike
I have to say, I didn't even know Depeche Mode was still AROUND. Nothing they did after Violater did anything for me.
Like REM, Aerosmith, and the Rolling Stones, among too many others, these guys should just pack it in. Mandatory retirement for rock stars at 40, that's my motto.
2 - pk
Hmmm...Trackback doesn't seem to be working; this is a condensed version of what I posted on my site yesterday, here: http://www.penaltykicker.com/shotsongoal/archives/000039.html :
That's bad news. To me, DM are one of those nearly impossibly perfect combinations, regardless of who wrote or sang or played what. They weathered the departure of Alan Wilder, but that was largely because both the sonic texture of the music and Gahan's unmistakable voice remained intact. Were one to be parted from the other, I fear for the future of the band.
That's not to say that each of them respectively couldn't carve out a great solo career. Alan Wilder did exactly that with Recoil, and so can the others.
I couldn't disagree more Mike. While I do feel that their later work isn't as compelling as many of their previous albums, they have demonstrated a willingness to adapt and grow in a way that the others you named have not. For a group that pioneered virtually an entire form of music and wrote half a dozen blindingly great albums, they've aged gracefully while remaining vital. Fine if you don't like their later output, but surely they've not come anywhere near the doddering, self-parodic creative stasis of the Stones or Aerosmith, or REM.
"Mandatory retirement for rock stars at 40."
Tell that to Iggy Pop, or David Bowie, or Wayne Kramer...or David Gahan.
3 - mike
In each case, these stars' output since the big 4.0 has been forgettable. Bowie and Iggy Pop, in particular, are just caricatures of themselves.
Rock, like hip hop and Top 40 pop, is a young person's music. Call me "ageist," but it's true. And I say that as a 40 something geezer myself.
Plus the prevalence of oldsters through classic rock nearly destroyed the genre during the 80s, before Guns and Roses and Nirvana.
4 - pk
Regarding Bowie and Iggy Pop, I don't agree at all. While neither you nor I might find their stuff terribly appealing, I give Bowie credit for attempting to address contemporary musical attitudes and for recognizing that popular music has progressed beyond the days of Ziggie. His attempt to coherently embrace electronic music--i.e., jungle, drum and bass, etc--is some evidence of that. I myself could dismiss his experiments as unsuccessful, but I'd rather look at them as brave attempts to continue evolving as an artist, much as Miles Davis did, even if I loathe the aesthetics of his late work. Part of what earns my respect for an artist is their willingness to at least try to progress and grow, and with that, take the risk of failing. I don't see that risk in the Stones or Aerosmith or REM.
While Iggy hasn't exactly attempted to reinvent himself in the ways Bowie has, I don't see him as caricaturing himself. And although I've not seen him live, I'm told that he really, honestly rocks with an energy and enthusiasm that is difficult to fake.
That's why I mentioned Wayne Kramer too. While the music he's writing now may not be setting the world on fire, the man plays his guitar and rocks with a kind of honesty that I don't see in a lot of bands half his age.
5 - Eric Olsen
No one mentioned Metallica - they're 40 and have the current No 1 album, Chuck Berry is still rocking at 77, and the Fugs have a new album coming out soon - they're in their 70s
6 - mike
I think the new Metallica album proves my point. And I think there's a difference between folks like Berry and the Fugs, who are trading on nolstagia (nothing wrong with that), and those like Metallica who churn out garbage and pretend they're hip, and then clog the airwaves with their baloney, keeping more vital bands off the charts. Eventually their luck runs out but in the meantime we all suffer. And the kids suffer. And I hate to see the kids suffer. Kids are our future. They're the next generation; and they'll still be here after the rest of us have gone to that big Aerosmith concert in the sky--or if we've been bad, to that "St Anger" listening party down below. Shudder. I am definitely going to say my Hail Mary's every day now.
7 - Phillip Winn
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8 - Ms. Tek
Metallica= suck
Depeche Mode? I thought they broke up before they all went solo. Martin Gore's "Counterfeit 2" was so atrocious that I am still considering suing him for putting that out.
Paper Monsters really isn't awful. Its not that great- I only really like one song- but it isn't the absolute KAK that Gore's was.
And I think Iggy Pop and Bowie are cool... Aerosmith aren't too bad either.
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10 - crazydan
depeche mode is still amazing.