Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry On Depeche Mode: Cosmic Synth Pioneers Bridge Cultural Gap Amid British New Wave

Chvrches vocalist and percussionist Lauren Mayberry was chosen to induct Depeche Mode into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She told Pollstar, “The first thing I think of when I think of Depeche Mode are their fans. They are notoriously beloved. Depeche fans mate for life and it’s because the music is so special. The melodies are so rich but there’s always enough darkness, sonically or lyrically, to create their own unique balance. There’s an honesty in everything they do and I think people connect with that.”

Founded in Basildon, one of the boroughs of Essex, in 1980 – back then as a foursome consisting of today’s lineup Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher, as well as founding member Vince Clarke – Depeche Mode made a name for themselves locally by playing gigs around London. It didn’t take long for Mute Records to take note of the band. The iconic label released Depeche Mode’s first singles, including “Dreaming Of Me” and “Just Can’t Get Enough,” their first top 10 hit in the UK – and the only music video featuring original member Vince Clarke. 

Clarke’s songwriting is the reason Depeche Mode’s 1981 debut album Speak & Spell sounds much more lighthearted and pop than following works. The only thing that remains to this day is the band’s obsession with synthetic sounds. Critics’ reviews of the album were mixed. The audience, however, loved it. Speak & Spell entered the UK album charts on No. 10. Clarke left the band soon after, paving the way for Martin Gore to become one his generation’s most influential songwriters – “with his own black leather blend of existential despair, political bite and sly wit,” as the band’s induction video puts it. 

Gore’s early songwriting led to singles like “See You”, included on the band’s second album, A Broken Frame, released in 1982. “See You” topped all of the band’s former releases charts-wise, reaching No. 6 in the UK.

The band was looking for a replacement for Clarke and placed an ad for the position in Melody Maker. Alan Wilder responded and joined the band right between albums two and three. He brought a whole new collection of synths and samples with him that would shape Depeche Mode’s sound for years to come. The band’s iconic industrial sound could already be felt on Construction Time Again in 1983. The album’s top-10 single “Everything Counts” showed early on that this band wasn’t afraid to take a political stance – even if they have always understood themselves to be entertainers first and foremost. The album also marked a further departure from happy synth pop to melancholic synth rock, which Depeche Mode have perfected over the years.

In 1984, the group came out with Some Great Reward. It explored more personal topics on singles like “Master And Servant” or “People Are People,” which helped carry the name Depeche Mode outside the UK. Some Great Reward was also the first album to appear on the U.S. album charts, and that is still six years prior to the release of Depeche Mode’s seminal album Violator, released in 1990 on Mute Records, and bringing the world timeless classics like “Policy of Truth,” “World In My Eyes,” “Enjoy The Silence,” and “Personal Jesus.” The band has long since surpassed that incomprehensible mark of 100 million records sold worldwide.

The tour accompanying Some Great Reward was also the first one to take Depeche Mode, who had performed in the UK and mainland Europe extensively by that point, across the Atlantic. It launched an extraordinary international touring career, which to this day has grossed $579,431,530 with 9,285,258 tickets sold across 575 shows reported to Pollstar Boxoffice. Lead singer Dave Gahan told Time Out in a 1993 interview, “When we go to America it’s going to be fuckin’ mental!”

The most recent run, supporting the band’s fourteenth studio album, Spirit, was the Global Spirit World Tour. It began in Sweden in May of 2017 and continued through summer 2018, with appearances at 13 festivals, wrapping at Germany’s Waldbühne Berlin in late July. The world tour accrued over $202 million in box office earnings during a 15-month span. The band performed for 2.5 million fans at headlining dates in stadiums, arenas and outdoor venues worldwide – as well as a half-million more at the festivals. At 130 shows, it was the longest-running tour in Depeche Mode’s four-decade history, surpassing the 124 performances of the group’s “Touring the Angel” jaunt in 2005-06.

The best-attended concert took place on Leipzig’s Festweise in Germany, on May 27, 2017, in front of 70,002, racking up $5.2 million in revenue. Outside of the U.S., only the two nights at Foro Sol in Mexico City grossed more on the tour, $7.5 million on March 11-13, 2018, which represents the greatest number of sold tickets at one venue during the whole trek. The top-grossing single show of the tour was a sellout at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. The band played the German capital city on June 22, earning $5.6 million from 68,157 total tickets.

The second leg of the tour covered 25 cities in North America from Aug. 23, 2017, through the end of October. It included one two-show engagement at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Sept. 9-11, with 28,713 sold seats.

One act that’s been on tour with Depeche Mode is Chvrches. The Scottish trio supported DM on its 2013 Delta Machine Tour, which grossed $149,824,508 according to Pollstar boxoffice. 

Mayberry recalled one particular anecdote from the Delta Machine Tour that has stayed with her ever since: “The day before we supported Depeche Mode in Prague, we had a day off and were sitting outside a beer hall in Prague. Not that many people knew about Chvrches then so we were surprised when a guy came over to us and started talking about the band. 

“He then showed us a huge tattoo on his back of Dave Gahan and asked if we knew ‘Where Depeche Mode sleep.’ We didn’t tell him but it was a tiny insight into the mad, wonderful world Depeche must live in.” The concert in Prague, Czech Republic, Mayberry is referring to, took place July 23. It was, of course, sold out, and the 33,297 sold seats generated revenues of $2.2 million. 

One glance at the band’s socials is enough to realize the deep love Depeche Mode fans have for their idols. “A live concert in Kyiv in Ukraine at the Olympic Stadium in 2017 tore my soul apart,” writes on fan, referring to the sold-out July 19 concert, which grossed $1.5 million with 30,803 tickets sold. “Seeing [Songs of Faith and Devotion] live at Crystal Palace was amazing,” writes another, recalling a 1993 gig just outside of London, where the band was supported by The Sisters Of Mercy. 

“When ‘World In My Eyes’ mixes the personal with the trans-global; when ‘Personal Jesus’ critiques the Basildon Boys’ position; when ‘Enjoy The Silence’ crystallises melancholy New Order; when you’re ‘Stripped’ down to your bone you know that Depeche Mode give great stadium [shows]. Period,” Dele Fadele, journalist for the New Musical Express wrote after the show.

During their impressive 40-year career, Depeche Mode have managed to bridge the impossible gap between underground and mainstream and remain one of the few acts to do so. Depeche Mode overcame addiction issues which threatened to tear them apart in the ten insanely successful years after Violator. They continued to produce quality music even after two crucial changes in the band’s lineup.  They fill stadiums with their uncompromising music and honest lyrics. Gore writes them in a way like any normal person would talk, but Gahan sings them like only he can. It’s a magical combination. 

As the Rock Hall sums it up: “Known for their dark industrial love songs for the modern era, Depeche Mode have earned a massive following by pushing sonic and lyrical boundaries, with new synthesizer technology and captivating live performances. They continue to evolve, remaining a legendarily fearsome live act across the planet, with one foot in the underground, and the other in the club, but always with an eye on the future.”

Depeche Mode have broken a promise reportedly made in the early days of their career: that they would never use a guitar. Who knows, if they would have rocked the world in the same way, using only keys and synthesizers. Probably yes. No one would have guessed that melancholic, industrial goth rock – for a lack of a better term for the band’s unique sound – could inspire so many fans and artists in the first place, guitar or no guitar? s