In the synthpop world, there aren’t many artists who have enjoyed the artistic and commercial success that songwriter/synth wizard Vince Clarke has.
As a founding member of Depeche Mode, he wrote the early singles “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Dreaming of Me” and “New Life,” and spearheaded the band’s 1981 debut album Speak & Spell before making a quick exit. Next came the short-lived band Yaz(oo) and songs including “Only You” and the dance masterpiece “Situation.”
In 1985, Clarke joined forces with singer Andy Bell to form Erasure, a band that has been going strong ever since. They have sold over 25 million albums, and have an amazing list of hit singles including “O L’amour,” “Sometimes,” “Victim of Love,” “Chains of Love,” “A Little Respect,” “Blue Savannah” and “Always.” Just over a month ago, they released their 16th studio album, The Violet Flame, which has been getting favorable comparisons with their recordings of decades past.
Erasure will be performing at the Majestic Ventura Theater on Sunday, Oct. 26. Tickets are available by clicking here.
Clarke talked to Noozhawk about the upcoming show and more. The full interview is available by clicking here.
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Jeff Moehlis: What can we look forward to at the upcoming concert?
Vince Clarke: The show’s about an hour and a half long, and we’ll be playing mostly stuff from our back catalog, a lot of which has been kind of manipulated and extended for this show. And then, obviously, we’ll be playing some songs from our new record. It’s a bit of a disco show.
JM: Sounds great! You mentioned the new record. How do you view that album in relation to the rest of the Erasure catalog?
VC: Once you’ve made the record, it’s very hard for me to put it into context with everything else that I’ve done, because it’s so new. I think certain songs take on different meanings as we grow older.
That’s certainly been true for the songs we’ve done in the past. Or something that you don’t really understand, perhaps, suddenly takes on its own kind of meaning when it’s performed live.
JM: I find it amazing that you found Andy Bell just by putting an advertisement in a music newspaper. Do you remember what stood out about him compared with the other people that responded to the ad?
VC: The thing that we noticed immediately was the fact that Andy could sing the songs with such emotion. His emotional interpretations of the songs just seemed to be perfect.
JM: Obviously it worked out — you guys have been making music together for almost three decades now. Do you have a secret that you think has helped you to stay together, and seemingly get along with each other, all these years?
VC: I think the secret really is the amount of trust that we have between us. We both write the songs together, and I think writing songs is a very personal thing. You have to have the right person to work with to do that. You have to work with somebody you trust, and that’s something that Andy and I have had between us, that we’ve learned over the years.
JM: If you don’t mind going way back in time, what initially drew you to electronic music and the synthesizer as an instrument?
VC: I guess I was just inspired by people like Gary Numan, The Human League, you know, the first Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record. They were so unique and different from anything else that was happening. I really felt I wanted to be a part of that scene.
JM: Technology has advanced immensely since you first started writing and recording music. How has that affected the way you approach making music?
VC: I don’t think it’s changed the way we approach music, because me and Andy still sit down and write songs with guitars. That, for us, is the priority. I mean, all the toys come later. But I guess as far producing a record is concerned, it’s a lot easier and there’s a lot more choices. And it’s good and bad [laughs].
JM: My favorite Erasure song is “A Little Respect.” Can you tell me a little bit about how that came together?
VC: That was written … I had a house in London, and Andy came around and we were just messing about on the guitar, really, and I came up with this guitar riff or this guitar pattern. Andy just started singing little bits of melody into the tape recorder. It was pieced together like that. It’s one of those songs that really didn’t mean anything in the beginning, and then once it was played and performed, especially performed live, then it started taking on a meaning.
JM: I hope you’re finding that America is still receptive to your music.
VC: It’s been great. It’s been really great. A lot of people come to our concerts that have been coming to our concerts for years, so that’s always lovely to see. And nobody’s asked for their money back.
JM: You’re clearly doing something right!
— Jeff Moehlis is a Noozhawk contributing writer and a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara. Upcoming show recommendations, advice from musicians, interviews and more are available on his web site, music-illuminati.com. The opinions expressed are his own.