“Dave Gahan Announces Retirement Date, Citing Recent Challenges and Personal Struggles”-…
David Gahan, who plays in Depeche Mode. Anton Corbijn/Artist’s permission “Everything seems different. All of the things we have been doing.” That is how vocalist and composer Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode describes the band’s life since founding keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher passed away in 2022. Without him, Gahan and co-founder Martin Gore continued working on their most recent album, Memento Mori. From Latin, it roughly
The album is replete with references to this theme. “You know, mortality, death, and life! “It is about making do with what we have right now,” Gahan said to Leila Fadel of NPR.
Gahan claims that “Ghosts Again,” the album’s lead single, would have been a favorite even though Fletch did not survive to hear this new music. “A classic: Depeche Mode writing that kind of hits the nerve of both things, with melancholy and euphoric moments.” The tune makes you happy, yet the lyrics and vocal style convey a sense of dread. In contrast to Martin Gore’s custom of dominating such responsibilities, Gahan wrote three of the songs on the album.
Gahan remarked, “I would not say we came to blows, but we came close.” It was like, “Hey, look, I write songs too, and I want as much attention with those songs as you receive,” when the gauntlet was put out. Gahan claims that the song “Speak To Me” was partly an imagined dialogue he had with a “greater power” over the topic since he grappled with the idea of creating another Depeche Mode album. “Because I was incredibly conflicted about whether to immediately start working on another Depeche Mode record or, as I had been doing for the past
