Interview

SEVIGNY: So I never got to see 101, but I saw you guys many times after that. One of my favorite parts about seeing you live is what you do between song lyrics onstage. You do this thing where you move the microphone away from your face and you murmur to yourself or say something.

GAHAN: [laughs] Yeah, I do, yeah.

SEVIGNY: I was always curious what you’re saying. Do you feel limited by the songs, like you have to break out of the song a bit?

GAHAN: You’re onto something there. Actually, I thought about that yesterday when we were performing, because I also do my solo stuff. I kind of put together a separate band with the guys I knew from Los Angeles: Martyn LeNoble, who plays bass with me and comes from Porno for Pyros, and Victor Indrizzo, my drummer, who was with Beck. It’s very different from Depeche stuff, where everything is really settled and in place. I’m kind of the wild card—I’m that part of the band. And sometimes I get frustrated with the limits that I’m confined to. The way it works is very structured.

SEVIGNY: But those moments onstage are so dynamic.

GAHAN: That’s the animal in me. That’s the animal breaking out of the cage.

SEVIGNY: Another large part of the live shows is the fact that they become sing-alongs. The crowd gets to chant. Can you hear the crowd from the stage? Is it loud?

GAHAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, I don’t use in-ear [monitoring] like a lot of people use live. I still have live monitors. I’m kind of old-school. I have to feel the audience. I enjoy that feeling of community. There’s something sort of spiritual about it in a lot of ways. It’s like we’re all doing this together. You can really hear the people—especially at some of the gigs we’re going to be playing on tour. We started in Tel Aviv, where we played in a huge football stadium like when we played 101. But it’s like that all across Europe. We’ve never actually done a whole stadium tour like this, so it’s gonna be pretty crazy. I know some of those gigs are gonna be wild.

SEVIGNY: What are the best cities in terms of fans?

GAHAN: L.A. is always great. There’s something special about L.A. And New York, for me, because it’s home. There’s nothing quite like walking onstage at Madison Square Garden.

SEVIGNY: I saw you at Madison Square Garden.

GAHAN: I think I always kind of try that much harder because it’s home. I have a sense of duty there. But L.A.’s great. It’s different all over Europe. Like in Italy, everybody sings, and not just during the songs, but chants in between them—a whole football field. Milan is great. Paris is fantastic. London is tough—everyone’s a bit too cool for school.

SEVIGNY: Yeah, I’ve been to shows there. I’ve felt that.

GAHAN: It feels like when I come to London, the big gates close on me. It’s not my home. But Poland’s crazy, Prague is great, Budapest . . .

SEVIGNY: Do you think it’s the kids who are alienated who come to those cities that especially embrace the band? I feel like there is much more passion from the degenerates, the outcasts . . .

GAHAN: That’s always what it’s been. It’s always been the kids who weren’t so included in school—where something wasn’t quite right, and they weren’t like the other kids.

SEVIGNY: Yeah, I remember what that’s like.

GAHAN: I remember, when I was a kid, I could fake it pretty good. I had lots of different groups of friends. There were kids that sort of went to gigs and discos, the kids that hung out on the street and stole cars and stuff like that. I never stayed long enough for anyone to really get to know me, and that seems to be a bit of a pattern in my life. I think Martin [Gore] and I were both like that. We grew up with similar backgrounds. We both had stepfathers who we thought were our dads but weren’t. We grew up in a similar sort of distrusting way. So, you know, there are a lot of people like that out there—and I think Depeche Mode music somehow appeals to the oddball, to the person who is looking for something a little bit different.

SEVIGNY: But for a band that appeals to the outcast, you’ve sold a gazillion records.

GAHAN: There are a lot of freaks out there. [both laugh]