Gahan Ditching Depeche Mode?

After releasing his debut solo album Paper Monsters this summer, singer Dave Gahan is thinking about quitting Depeche Mode.

"It's become increasingly difficult for me," Gahan says. "When we go on tour and I'm performing, I know that I contribute a great deal to what we do -- in terms of bringing the songs to life on stage. But in the studio, it's like [keyboardist and songwriter] Martin [Gore] might as well be doing it himself . . . They're his songs, his ideas, and I'm the voice on top of it."

"It's just not fun in the studio if you've got an idea for something and the person you're working with can't even be bothered to pick a guitar up," Gahan continues. "It seems to me like a waste of time."

Gahan is currently touring to support Paper Monsters, released in June. Not only is it his first solo album in twenty-two years of Depeche Mode, it's the first time his own songwriting has made it to disc.

"I played a few demos to Martin during the making of [2001's] Exciter," Gahan says. "He nodded his head and let me know that they were pretty good, but he never turned around and said, 'Great, let's record some of these for this album.'"

Gore released his own solo album Counterfeit2, which consists entirely of covers, in April. "I don't think it would be right for me to use my own material for a solo record while I'm still part of Depeche Mode," he told Rolling Stone at the time.

But Gahan says, "Unless he's open to both me and him coming into the studio with a bunch of songs and supporting each other, I don't see that there's any point in going on and making another Depeche Mode record."

And what are the chances of that? "You know what?" Gahan says. "At this point, I don't really care."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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