With Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford acting as a referee between Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, the electro-pop veterans deliver their most charged record in years.

Making a Depeche Mode album can be an intense affair, as singer Dave Gahan admits, mainly because of the sometimes fraught creative relationship between himself and multi-instrumentalist/chief songwriter Martin Gore. “Martin comes with a bunch of songs that he feels very cocksure about and rightly so,” Gahan notes with a laugh. “I come along with a bunch of my own demos and basically we duel it out.”

While Gore has been the band’s main songwriter since 1981, Gahan has been co-writer since 2005 album Playing The Angel. For the recording of their upcoming 14th LP, Spirit, due in the spring, produced James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine) sat the pair down to talk through their collaborative differences.

“I would say with this record there was a lot more tension in some ways,” the singer admits. “James was great at mediating, making us sit together, making us talk it out, making us see the strengths. He was basically like, ‘From what I know, it’s Martin’s songs and your voice and the two things come together.’”
As a result, Spirit will be made up of mostly Gore’s songs, interspersed with a few choice Gahan tunes. “I’m kind of on the bench,” quips the singer. “Martin gets to play full-time, and I get a few minutes here and there, and that’s alright. I appreciate that more and respect it more, rather than it getting weird. It certainly got weird for a little bit and then it got better.”

Spirit was recorded in spring and summer 2016 at Sound Design Studios in Santa Barbara and Jungle City Studios in New York, with its 10th-level floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the High Line on Manhattan’s West Side.

“We were kind of in a dungeon in Santa Barbara,” says Gahan. “Even though we were in the beautiful sunshine it’s one of those studios that’s got no windows. It’s buried away. When we were in New York it was the complete opposite. Jungle City is full of light. I like working in New York because I just feel like the city feeds what you’re doing. You get some buzz and energy.”

Combined with the fact that the band are working with Ford for the first time after a trio of albums with producer Ben Hillier, Spirit has turned out to be the most energised Depeche Mode album in years. “It kind of attacks you,” Gahan enthuses. “It feels like a very confident Depeche Mode album. James was very enthusiastic. He gave us the shot in the arm that we needed. He kept us on our toes.”

The first track to be released will be the rallying Revolution with its hookline: “Where’s the revolution?/Come on people you’re letting me down.” Gahan says that there is also a socio-political theme to other songs on Spirit, such as Poison Heart, Scum and No More. “I mean, you can’t not be affected by what’s going on in the world,” he reasons. “I think it’s crept on to the record, definitely. We’re all quick to jump on the liberal buttons, but let’s ‘ave some! Where’s the action?”

That’s not to say that the band are now an angry political beast. “It’s all good, y’know,” says Gahan. “We’re trying to be positive. And, of course, the bottom line is we are here to entertain you, my friends.”

In other words, it’s business as usual for the partnership of Depeche Mode: settling their differences for over three-and-a-half decades to produce top quality pop.

Taking the mic: Gahan lays down a vocal track or six.