As regular Quietus readers will know, we’re massively excited by the new album from Vince Clarke and Martin L Gore’s VCMG project – SSSS, which comes out on Mute on March 12th, is a brilliant ten tracks of chest-out techno pop – proper Essex-boy bangers. Last week, we spoke to Martin L Gore for a forthcoming Quietus feature on VCMG, and asked him how recording SSSS might impact the future of Depeche Mode.
"It’s was a nice break for me to be able to go and do something completely different that doesn’t involve poring over lyrics and having to think about vocal melodies," Gore told us, adding that the VCMG experience has rejuvenated him as he starts writing for Depeche Mode’s thirteenth studio album. "I think I went back to actually writing for the band with much more vigour afterwards, because I had taken such a break. It gave me a real creative impetus."
However, he continued, you’re unlikely to hear a techno-influenced Depeche Mode album any time soon. "I went straight from finishing the VCMG record into writing for the band," he said. "I think even though I used a lot of the same kind of instrumentation, I immediately went into a completely different headspace. The stuff I’ve been doing for the band is completely different to VCMG."
This is in part, said Gore, due to his love of instrumentation as well as synthesisers. "Apart from the fact that I came back to the actual songwriting with more energy, you have to remember as well that I’m also a guitar player," he said. "Working on the VCMG record, obviously I didn’t look at a guitar for that whole period because it just wasn’t right – so the moment I started getting back to writing songs for the band then I’m picking up the guitar, I’m going on the piano, working on chords, just working completely differently."
Gore tells us that Depeche Mode are due to enter the studio at the end of March, and are "hoping to be finished by the end of the year." For now, please meet ‘Spock’.
