Interview

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He calls them the Black Swarm. That’s the nickname that front man Dave Gahan has given those particularly obsessive fans who seem to devote their entire lives to following Depeche Mode. Gahan and his bandmates, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, who formed Depeche Mode in 1980, make music for outcasts. But considering the group’s extreme popularity over the past three decades, the Black Swarm may indeed outnumber the normal folks. The magic of Depeche Mode goes way beyond new wave. They write songs that are big enough to serve as arena chants but have all of the twisted personal emotion of diary entries (many fans would choose the 1986 album Black Celebration as the soundtrack of their youth). Last spring, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher released their 12th full-length album, Sounds of the Universe, and set off on a global tour that was quickly sidelined when Gahan fell ill with a stomach ailment. But the Black Swarm need not despair: The group is back on the road and plans to be through the end of the year.

Actress Chloë Sevigny is a die-hard Depeche Mode fan. She discovered the band’s music in her early teen years in Connecticut, and a poster of Gahan occupied prime real estate on her bedroom wall. Here she talks to the 47-year-old singer about how lonely outsider teenagers become very popular adults.

DAVE GAHAN: Hi, Chloë.

CHLOË SEVIGNY: Hi! You’re not in New York?

GAHAN: No, unfortunately. I’m in London right now. We just rehearsed.

SEVIGNY: You’re preparing for the tour . . . You know, I tried to go see Depeche Mode 101 when I was a kid. I was in, like, junior high.

GAHAN: You must have been about 5 or something. [laughs]

SEVIGNY: I was not! I was about 14 or 15. I listened to a lot of music growing up. My father kept very current, and then I had my older brother. But Depeche Mode was the first band that was my own. It was my discovery.

GAHAN: Oh, cool.

SEVIGNY: But I couldn’t raise enough money to buy the concert tickets. My babysitting pay wasn’t really doing the trick. So there was this kid that hung out at the park where I grew up. He was kind of like Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Do you remember that character? He would sell concert tickets and pot and whatever else. This guy drove a Honda CRX with a WDRE bumper sticker. I went over to his car and was like, “Do you have any tickets for Depeche Mode?” He said, “Yeah, they’re some-odd dollars.” I didn’t have enough so he said, “If you give me a hand job, I’ll give you the tickets.”

GAHAN: Oh! No way.

SEVIGNY: I didn’t know what that was then, believe it or not. So I went back to my friends who were in another car and was like, “He said he’d give them to me if I gave him a hand job.” My friends said, “No! Don’t do it!”

GAHAN: Oh, my god.