Depeche Mode – Music For The Masses
Depeche Mode came at a formative time of my life, ages 12 to 15. I ran with bad friends, we were new wavers. It was a really hard time in a lot of ways, and being in the suburbs of Houston, I felt I was stuck there, all my friends were assholes, and I wanted to be somewhere else. But looking back now, I realised it was really kind of utopia. The place that I went to a lot out – I don't know if it's like a Houston thing related to the heat, but there were these funplexes. The big one when I was growing up was called Fame City. It had a roller rink, a bowling alley, and two dance clubs. Upstairs there was Studio Circus which was ages 12 to 15, downstairs was Club EFX, and that was for the 16+. So of course your goal was to get to Club EFX.

At that time families felt safe just leaving their kids there. But we kept it totally on the down low what was actually happening. It was around this time I started doing LSD for the first time, started getting into drugs. And I remember hearing a lot of Cure, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Communards, Bronski Beat – Depeche Mode being the biggest.

Was that where you first heard tracks from Music For The Masses then?

I probably got it on cassette first, then hearing it in that club environment, that's when it really opened up to me. I think back to 'A Question Of Time' – it's speaking to the 15 year old girl. On Music For The Masses there's 'Little 15'. I felt this music was speaking directly to my budding sexuality.

Age 12 I also actually saw Depeche Mode live at Astroworld. We had a whole day riding the theme park, just gearing up for the night to come, a double bill with Depeche Mode and OMD. When it started all the teens just started breaking down the barriers, including me and my girlfriends and a guy who was one of my early crushes, who I had been smooching off and on all day. And we got right up front. It was incredible – lights and steam, and I remember Dave Gahan was wearing all white – it was just pure teenage sex music.