Photo by Steve Gullick

Last week, Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan announced the release of Angels & Ghosts, his second collaborative album with producer Rich Machin, aka Soulsavers. Angels & Ghostsis out on October 23, and will be accompanied by a tour. Listen to first single "All of This and Nothing", and check out the tour dates, below.

Pitchfork hopped on the phone with Gahan to discuss the record, his relationship withMartin Gore, and the future of Depeche Mode. 

Pitchfork: Where was your starting point with Angels & Ghosts, following the first record you did with Soulsavers [2012's The Light the Dead See]?

Dave Gahan: You're always happy when you’re making music and you hit something where you know you’ve got a good chemistry with somebody. It was a record that was made not under pressure. For example, when I’m making a record with [Depeche Mode], there are expectations that you put upon yourself before you even get started. But this was really free of that completely, and after we finished that first record, we continued writing.

I still was playing around with a few ideas, but had to put some of it on hold because all my energy and focus had to go into the Depeche tour, which went on for a while. Once that finished, last April, I took a little bit of time off but then very quickly started writing again. I was skeptical at first because I wasn’t sure I had any good ideas at all. You feel like that sometimes after a tour; it’s a depleted feeling like you just don’t have anything good to do anymore. You put out all that energy and the adrenaline’s flying and suddenly you’re back home with the wife and kids and you have to go get the groceries, a lot of changes. That took a bit of time to adjust to, but I got into writing again and I just really enjoy that process with Rich [Machin of Soulsavers]. We seem to hit it off; there’s not a lot of discussion, really, which goes on in between the writing. 

Pitchfork: Do you find yourself needing to stretch different musical muscles at this point in your career? 

DG: It’s interesting with Depeche, and it always is. I’ve really come to that conclusion now that after Alan [Wilder] left the band, which is now 20 years ago, it became very apparent that the strength of Depeche Mode is Martin and myself—the two of us together. We could basically stretch anything we wanted around that, use whatever producers, engineers, programmers, other musicians.

When you listen to an extension of that, it’s almost like I get that opportunity to spread my wings a little wider and try some things that I definitely yearn for. Some of my favorite music that we’ve made together, Martin and I, was probably around the time of Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion, when we were really playing a lot with blues and gospel. We still do that, but obviously it’s steeped in a lot of analog electronics. It’s always interesting when I bring a song to Martin because I think it’s finished and he’ll be like, "Well, how about if we change the chords a little bit here?" If you let Martin sit down at the piano and play around, he might resolve the end of the lines in a different way that you would really not have thought. Martin is a genius in that way. He has complete ideas and he has ideas of how to take a pop song and make it way more interesting with textures.

Working with Soulsavers, I get to stretch that muscle, as you say. Those muscles need to be stretched. You have to work with other people, especially after this amount of time working with the same people. It’s the only way you make it interesting.

Pitchfork: Do you ever share your solo work with Martin, when it's in the process of completion?

DG: No, not really. We talked about it a bit the other day. He was interested to know who was playing in the band and what musicians were getting involved. He’s been very supportive, and I hope he feels the same from me when it comes to him doing his solo projects. I think he’s sort of eager at the moment to at least get an idea of when he and I will start work on another record, you know? I think Martin is really enjoying that process right now, and he certainly really enjoys a lot more performing live. On the last tour, I would say that was probably the most enjoyable that he and I have spent on stage together. It felt like a real team. It’s taken a long while for us to get there.

Pitchfork: I read an old interview where you said you were initially self-conscious about showing your songs to your Depeche Mode bandmates. Is that self-consciousness something you've worked through, over the years?

DG: A simple answer to that question is yes. In the beginning, I would often have lots of ideas that I couldn’t formulate. I’m not that type of musician where I can sit down at the piano and work out a song; I actually really enjoy that process of sitting with somebody and having nothing and then suddenly something starts appearing. You struggle with it, and then suddenly a song starts to appear. Then, you’ve got to try and muscle it—there’s that word again—into something and you do. You tussle with it and play with it and roll around with it and suddenly, magically, something appears.

Depeche was set in its way, and we got to that point where it was actually a little bit stifling. Those roles that you play within a band had become so defined that you wouldn’t cross the line, and for me, that was becoming very claustrophobic. It’s taken a long time to realize, "Oh wow. I understand now that you’ve gotta keep pushing this stuff." Otherwise why? Why continue? Martin was a great songwriter, and had reached a point in his songwriting where that was his role. When Alan was in the band, Alan was the musician. Alan left, so then there had to be a reaping. It took a couple of albums, but suddenly then we were forced to actually go into the studio and to find new people to work with; there had to be a new element brought in to help us to make more of what it was we were already doing.

For me, the Soulsavers thing is really kind of a life saver. You get these opportunities, they pop up and you really have to take the risk when you grab it when it feels right because it will pass you by. That’s a lot of about what the Soulsavers songs are, lyrically. I don’t really see that until afterwards, but it’s about taking those risks. It’s about the bigger picture, a bigger power.

Pitchfork: Is there a timeline for Depeche Mode to get back in the studio or on the road?

DG: I saw Martin recently. It was really nice to see him, and I’m sure by the end of this year we’ll sit down together and talk about making another record. I know he’s began writing and loosely I’ve begun writing as well with Christian [Eigner] and Peter [Gordeno] from the band, and also Kurt [Uenala]. But that’s a long way off. Later in the year—I don’t know, in December or something—I’ll go out to his place or something and we’ll sit down and talk about it. It’s always a big challenge. You have to really sit down and you have to have an idea: "What kind of record do we really want to make? Who do we want to work with? Where do we want to take this? Do we want to go on the road?" All that kind of stuff, and I’m pretty sure it will happen, but there’s no plan at the moment.