As Depeche Mode finish off 14th studio album, they talk fame, pressure and Brexit
The British electronic music pioneers, who helped bring experimental sounds to the mainstream, have just announced 32 European dates, with more international dates expected
Readying a new album and stadium tour next year, Depeche Mode feel free. The British group, who helped bring electronic music into the mainstream with a flurry of hits, are finally setting their own pace.
Spirit, the first Depeche Mode studio album since 2013, will come out in the first half of next year, with the group announcing a 32-city, 21-country tour across Europe starting in May. The shows together could pull in more than 1.5 million fans, even before the dates in North America and Latin America that are expected later next year. Depeche Mode appeared live in Hong Kong in 1994, but there is no word yet on another visit in the future.
But the group are relaxed. “I think there is more freedom at the moment,” says keyboardist Andy Fletcher at a press event in Milan where the group are announcing their plans. Milan of course was the location for one of the band’s numerous live albums.
Martin Gore, also a keyboardist and the group’s main songwriter, says Depeche Mode grew accustomed to cranking out albums annually in the early 1980s after the band’s birth in Basildon, east of London.
