In honor of Black Celebration’s 20th anniversary, we are proud to present you our interview with legendary producer and Depeche Mode collaborator, Gareth Jones.

Today, March 17th, is truly a landmark day in Depeche Mode history. Today is the twentieth anniversary of one of their most beloved albums, Black Celebration. An album often considered one of the best records the band has ever made and one that has become one of the fans all time favorites. In honor of this anniversary,  HOME is proud to present to you an interview with one of Black Celebration’s co-producers,Gareth Jones.

Legendary producer Gareth Jones has co-produced and collaborated with Depeche Mode on such albums as Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, Exciter as well as mixing and remixing singles. Aside from Depeche Mode, he has also worked with bands like Erasure, Fad Gadget, and Interpol just to name a few. Back in January he was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions from HOME’s Glen about working on Black Celebration all the way back in 1986.

With this year marking the 20th anniversary of the release of Black Celebration are there any particular moments that stick out when you think back to those recording sessions?

It was a very exciting time – I remember recording the fireworks for “Stripped” and the mixing session at Hansa – it was very intense!

Having worked on a record that is often considered one of their best and also one that has gone on to be a record that would help define their career, is there any one thing you are most proud of on that record?

Not one thing – I am very pleased and proud to have been a part of the record…

Did your duties in the studio change for this album after the co-production work you did for Some Great Reward?

Not really – I just tried to do my job as well as I could.

Alan Wilder has commented that Daniel Miller was very protective and really controlled the direction of things in the studio, so were your ideas generally well received by he and the band?

Everyone on the project was very open with their ideas and everyone’s ideas were respected and taken seriously.

Working with a band who is so interested in experimenting must add to the creativity in the studio.

Absolutely!

Do you recall any moments when those experiments really changed the direction of a song from the original demo?

Not really – we were always trying to serve the song as best we could.

It’s been rumored that there was a lot of tension in the studio when this record was made and it even seemed to end their co-producing work with Daniel Miller. Do you remember it as a tense time or was it just normal work related tension?

It was VERY intense – we decided to make the whole album without a day off (except when we flew from London to Berlin) and that definitely added to the tension, and to the atmosphere of the record.

Were you pleased with the songs that were picked for the singles?

YES!

Do you feel the continuity of the record was damaged when the US version included “But Not Tonight” in it’s track listing?

I prefer the original version of course, but I am happy the US version was so successful.

One of the interesting things about Black Celebration is that the first three tracks are all blended together. What was the thinking behind doing that?

I cannot recall what the theory was – it just felt right……we had already started linking tracks on “Construction Time Again”, so this was a continuation of that……

Black Celebration was also the last time you would work with Alan Wilder as a member of the band, any feelings come to mind when you think back about working with him and his contribution to the album?

Alan is a very talented musician and studio worker – it was always a great pleasure working with him.

Recently there have been talks of some of their back catalog being re-mastered and re-released. Would you like to be involved in the re-mastering of the albums you worked on?

I would love to be involved.

Also, is there anything that you would like to change or update in particular on Black Celebration?

There are always things that I would change, but it is what it is and I respect that.

It seems you are as busy as ever, are there some new projects that you are working on that you are really excited about?

I am currently working on an LP with a new band called Battle. (www.thisisbattle.com) They are very talented and creative.

For more information on Gareth Jones, please visit: www.garethjones.com

Interview by Glen. (C) HOME.