After a few weeks of speculation culminating in a frankly frenzied 24 hours when Clash magazine went a day too early with an online article, Depeche Mode have now confirmed some details about their new album and the tour in support of it.
This afternoon in Berlin, Martin and Dave appeared at a press conference moderated by Barbara Charone. Sadly, she didn't do a very good job of it but we got plenty of new information anyway.
It opened with video of various pieces of equipment and Martin and Dave bobbing about in the studio with what appeared to be two new pieces of music soundtracking it. The first was a very electronic track with layers of processed Gore sounds swarming over it. Very nice. The second was a new song featuring the lyrics "Heaven's dreaming" and, I think, "We all end up ghosts" sung by Dave. The music was a combination of the usual Martin guitar twang and very poppy electronics.
When the boys appeared, they both looked and sounded fairly sad as you would expect. They mentioned Andy of course, talking about how much they miss him and how they keep expecting to see him. Martin mentioned walking past the hotel bar in Berlin when they arrived in the city and looking in there fully imagining he would see Andy there with a beer. It must be very hard for them to do this without him.
The album is called Memento Mori and will come out in late March 2023. They didn't use the word "produced" but talked about James Ford being involved so we can I think presume he has produced it once again. They have recorded at Martin's studio in Santa Barbara and at Rick Rubin's studio albeit without his involvement. The band will now return to New York to finish the album.
The album was planned and started before Fletch died and that includes its title which Martin selected.
The tour dates have been announced too and most go on sale at the end of this week - check depechemode.com for details.
It's great to see them back and I really hope the album is a cracker. I'm pleased that they have finished off the plans they made when Andy was still alive as not only will the album and tour be a tribute to the great man but it will also allow fans to get together and properly celebrate his life. I'm looking forward to doing that and I look forward to meeting up with you all at a few gigs next summer.
Welcome back Depeche Mode.
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