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DAVE
GAHAN: PAPER MONSTERS INTERVIEW
[From the Paper Monsters EPK, Mute IPKSTUMM216]
" It first came about lyrically because I felt like I’d been tested, I’m always being tested in different areas and I realised they weren’t really tests, they were gifts, they were chances and things that were given to me to maybe make a change, maybe take a different road with something. "
Summary:
The audio interview section of the Paper Monsters
electronic press kit. Dave speaks in detail about the events that convinced him
to embark on a solo project, how he worked alongside Knox Chandler, and where he
found inspiration for the songs. Unusually calm and balanced (for Dave), what
comes through clearly is that Paper Monsters was more than anything a spiritual
journey for Dave which led him to discover a lot about himself and his own
capabilities. [3924 words]
View pages: cover
Try
also: "Q&A:
Depeche Mode" [Mean Street, May 2001]
"Depeche
Frontman In New Mode" [Daily Mail, 2nd May 2003]
"Facing My Monsters"
[Daily Mirror, 27th June 2003]
"The Uncut
Questionnaire: Dave Gahan" [Uncut, July 2003]
"Q & A Dave
Gahan" [Metro, 27th October 2003]
This
interview is part of the Technical Trail [previous
item]
What inspired the decision to record your own solo album?
I
really got serious about it about three years ago when we finished the Depeche
tour – it was the Singles ’86-’98 Tour. I had a few song ideas and I went
back to New York and really, my wife really encouraged me to do it and she
really supported me a lot. I had these ideas and I guess I was always moaning
about not having someone to bounce the ideas off. I really felt the need as well
to have an outlet. I wanted to work with somebody else so that we could exchange
ideas, I wanted to move forward. And when we finished that tour I felt like it
was just really important to push myself in an area that maybe was a bit scary
for me, and it was something I talked about for a long time. In fact when I
lived back in Los Angeles I started properly talking about doing it – more so,
actually, from other people, you know, friends tried to encourage me to do
something and at the time I just didn’t have the bottle to do it.
You
worked closely with Knox Chandler on this album, how did this come about?
What
happened was someone… a mate of mine from Los Angeles, Victor, who actually
played a lot of drums on the album and he’s going to be playing drums with us
on tour as well; he suggested that I call this mutual friend – this guy Knox.
And I knew Knox, but I didn’t know him that well. [1]
It just so happened it was a total chance meeting, I happened to walk into a
place and he was there, sitting there. So something possessed me at that point.
It was really nerve-racking, but I went up to him and just said “I’m Dave
Gahan, I hear you play guitar and some cello and stuff and I’ve got these song
ideas and I need someone to help me develop them.” And he was all just like,
“Yeah, great”. He said, “I’ve got a little work room in my house, come
over next week.” And so sure enough I went over there the next week and had
this one song which has now ended up… it will probably be a B-side, it’s
called “Closer”. [2] I sung
him the song and he started playing some guitar and to be honest we just made it
a regular event, we started getting together and it was about writing really.
How
did you and Knox work together?
After
we’d thrown around about five different ideas – I had a lot of words and I
had some melody ideas in my head - Knox really helped me with the things that he
would play. I mean, he played very atmospheric guitar stuff, a lot of cello,
some stand-up bass stuff, and it was very spacious, very atmospheric, and a long
way from where we are now. And it just really inspired me. There was something
about the sounds and the way he played that really inspired me and I’d start
blurbing out lyrics and ideas and we’d just record everything. After not that
long we used to get together once or twice a week, sit around, drink a lot of
coffee, talk and then work for about an hour, but always I left there with
something. I left feeling like we’d accomplished something and I got really
excited, and I hadn’t felt like that for a long time and I realised at that
point that I really needed to be doing it. After a couple of months doing this
we both realised that we were writing songs together.
Did
you carry on working on your own material when you were recording the last
Depeche Mode album?
Even
during the making of “Exciter” on days off I would work on ideas and I would
go back into the studio in Santa Barbara and work on ideas. The engineer there
would help me, I’d burn some ideas and send them back to Knox, and he would
send them back to me with some ideas on top, and that’s really how the songs
came about.
Had
you ever discussed writing any songs within the framework of Depeche Mode?
The
only time really that I plucked up enough courage to do that was during the
making of “Ultra”. I had that song, actually, which then was called “The
Ocean Song” and I played it to Martin, it was a really rough demo, I mean
it’s basically me tapping my foot and singing the melody and singing some
words. I played it to Martin and he really liked it. And then for whatever
reason during the recording it was presented to me that the song didn’t really
fit in with the theme and at that point I really backed off again. But it
didn’t matter because it started the ball rolling with me to just keep pushing
and seeing what I had inside me.
Do
you find that your singing style is different now that you are singing your own
words?
Yes,
totally different, and I didn’t really realise that myself… It was
interesting because when I first started writing I found myself editing my own
words and songs in a way that I was very used to. I would almost be like my own
worst enemy when I was singing because I was actually trying to shape things in
a style or a way – unconsciously, really – that was familiar to me, which
was the way I worked with Depeche. And really, Knox had given me the
encouragement to try different things with my voice and just to be freer and not
stick to any rules. Once I got confident doing that things started coming really
easily. It felt… obviously it was way more natural, it felt like stuff was
just flowing through me rather than me trying to direct it into a certain way.
After
working for so long within the framework of a band, how did it feel to suddenly
be doing your own thing in the studio?
Suddenly
the rule book was thrown out and I realised I could play with different ideas
and things would change all the time, and once we started recording as well, if
something wasn’t working, or if I felt it could be better I’d just do it
again, I’d rewrite it. But these things, you know, these songs kind of after a
while, during the making of this album in New York, started to… After we
recorded a few songs, it has like a life of their own and I haven’t really
felt that for a long time, probably since “Violator”, probably since making
“Violator” with Depeche Mode, where it was like, it was just going somewhere
that I never imagined it to go and I was actually really liking it.
Was
the recording process different to how you have worked before?
Certainly
all the stuff was recorded in a different way, everything pretty much was
performed and then processed rather than being processed from the ground up. And
I think that also – for me – that seemed much more natural and it makes more
sense now that I’m coming to the end and am nearly finished, because what
I’m really good at, that I feel I’m really good at, and what I’ve learnt
over the years, is performing: and you know, that’s where my strength is and
it feels really natural. It’s so great to be in the studio and be open to
other people’s interpretation of my ideas as well. It took me a while to get
the confidence with that, actually. I still don’t fully believe it to be
honest. (laughs)
Ken
Thomas produced your album. Ken is best known for the Sigur Ros albums, what was
in those records that you thought would work for you?
I
think that’s a really good question because when I first picked up a Sigur Ros
album it just made me feel really good. I don’t know why it made me feel
really good but it just did. It really inspired me to push forward and to carry
on with what I’m doing. It was kind of like, to be honest, during the making
and before we started in the studio with this I carried it around with me like a
Bible, I listened to it everywhere and there was just something about it that
was really like they’d thrown out the rule book – and I suggested Ken.
Daniel said he knew him from the past, and called him up, and they took a
meeting and Daniel played him a few songs, I think he played him “Dirty Sticky
Floors”, a song called “A Little Piece” and “Black And Blue Again” and
then we all got on the phone together. I asked Ken what he thought and he said
to me “Your songs really make me feel good, I’d really like to do it.” And
that to me, that’s what I want to do, I want to make a record that makes
people feel good.
Did
you draw from any particular musical influences when writing this album?
Well
there’s a lot of different influences in what I do, which I’ve come to
realise… I’ve had a lot of training from somebody who I respect who is
probably one of the best songwriters of my time – who is of course Martin –
and that’s definitely rubbed off on me (laughs). And so I just wanted
to take that and just kind of be freer with it, there definitely is a lot of
blues influence, there’s a lot of the music I grew up listening to, like
T-Rex, David Bowie and Slade and “feel good” stuff. It’s not rock, you
know? It’s not what I’d call “raaak”. The stuff that moves for
me, it’s got a swing, I always feel like I have to be able to perform it, when
I was writing the songs and everything as well, as they were developing I would
always be visualising myself performing them and it just felt right.
What
inspires you as a songwriter?
A
lot of the lyrics I was writing came from just the way I feel about people and
life and I kind of put myself in there, and how I felt about myself and the way
I’ve sort of led my life. None of this stuff was really written, apart from a
couple of things, through what I call my Dark Ages – the prehistoric times!
It’s all come out of life, how beautiful life can be, seeing that again and
feeling that again. There’s a lot of darkness in the world today. There’s a
lot of fear and the only way to combat that – for me, personally – is to
have a feeling of hope and faith and I definitely have that today.
Are
there any songs that came out of what you call the “dark” period of your
life?
“Dirty Sticky Floors” is the whole lifestyle that I was drawn into. That whole kind of rock star cliché, as it is, it was a lot of fun for some time and then it wasn’t any more, so out of the ashes of that came “Dirty Sticky Floors” which really was a piss-take of myself and the sort of whole glamorous side of – it’s not really glamorous at all – but that whole culture of the rock and roll star that gets drunk, gets high, and falls on his face and usually ends up on some dirty sticky floor – be it your own or somebody else’s I wanted to just sort of put some fun into that – and not be a song about the pain of addiction. As painful as it is, if you are lucky enough to come out the other side like I have, and get enough perspective on it, and some space from it, you can see how ridiculous it is, especially when you choose it. And I definitely chose it.
[1] - Dave knew of Knox from the "Exciter" sessions: Knox arranged the strings and played the cello on "When The Body Speaks". Incidentally, it was not the first time Dave had worked alongside Victor Endrizzio either, as Victor had drummed on "Barrel Of A Gun" and "It's No Good" in 1997. [continue]
[2] - "Closer" became one of the B-sides to "I Need You". [continue]