Dave Gahan believes Depeche Mode are “the biggest alternative band in the world”
Speaking ahead of their North American arena tour, Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan has claimed they are “the biggest alternative band in the world”.
This summer, Depeche Mode headlined the London Stadium in England, and are set to continue their Memento Mori tour across the Atlantic next month. It follows the release of an album of the same name earlier this year, charting at two in the United Kingdom and at 14 in the United States.
Reflecting upon their pioneering legacy with CBS Sunday Morning, Gahan explained: “I think we somehow managed to build this cult following. And we still feel to this day that, you know, we’re kind of like a cult band, even though we sell a lot of records everywhere.”
The frontman added: “I think we probably are, and have been for many years, we’re kind of the biggest alternative band in the world, put it that way.”
Meanwhile, in the same conversation, Gahan discussed his past heroin addiction and revealed how it became his priority over Depeche Mode. “It was the time when I wasn’t working that got really dark, because there’s no one there to balance it out. There’s no band, there’s no music, there’s no, you know, it was just the addiction and that’s what it is,” he admitted
Gahan continued: “You can call it whatever you like. But once you go down that road, the hardest thing is to drag yourself back out of it – it was for me anyway. I didn’t think it would be as hard as what it was.”
In a four-star review of Memento Mori, Far Out wrote: “The gatekeepers of gothic synth haven’t reinvented the wheel in Memento Mori, but they’ve given nuanced and considered treatment to their distinctive sound. In this chapter, Depeche Mode have introduced new depth to their morbid allusions, exhuming light from darkness and finding comfort in reality.”
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