I just like that kind of music.Īren’t you annoyed by the fact that every kind of solitude and melancholy has already been articulated?
I probably just feel like walking on safe territory. It just happens, you know? Many people have told me that the songs that I covered on my new record feature the same topics like songs I write for Depeche. Then again, I don’t start writing a song with the intention to be a sad one. If I write a song, most of the chords-but of course not all of them-are minor chords. I feel closer to the universe writing or singing songs that deal with solitude or melancholy.ĭo you think it’s a sign of quality if a song is written in minor chords? Happy go lucky songs don’t have the power to reach and touch you deep inside. I never liked the idea of writing happy songs myself either. I simply felt drawn to the sad stories that don’t have a happy ending. I was less impressed by this theory of the old, weird America. Greil Marcus called these songs messages from the old, weird America. They are like alternative history lessons. The beautiful thing about these old tunes is that they rank around old myths and legends. That one is called “I Cast a Lonesome Shadow”. You also recorded a second ballad from the same period. I understand the American song culture as such an oral culture. One singer would leave out a line or invent a new one while keeping the structure of a song intact. I wondered why the lyrics of these old songs never seem to be identical, but I soon found out that this is part of the American oral tradition of passing on songs from one traveling singer to another. But the structure of the song was always the same. In all three different versions, the melody was almost similar-sounding and the lyrics varied only here and there. I continued to search for even older versions and finally got hold of a rendition by Blind Willie Johnson-again a recording from the ’30s. But this again only was an interpretation as “In My Time of Dying” is a traditional tune. I finally found a version by Josh White on a gramophone record from the 1930s. So, I liked the song and the mood of it, and I started to search for the original version. Especially if you take into consideration how he sings the song. It wasn’t penned by him Dylan only rearranged the song. I listened to it on vinyl of course, and realized that this song was a cover version, too. The opening song is an old blues tune called “In My Time of Dying”, and it blew my mind a while ago when I listened to Bob Dylan’s debut album that was released some four decades ago. But you recorded cover versions of traditional American country ballads on your second solo album Counterfeit². Martin, do you like America? Do you like country music?īecause when it comes to Depeche Mode, everybody thinks of electro pop. It’s reproduced here in English for the very first time. Following our recent interview with Dave Gahan, we present a special interview with Depeche Mode’s songwriter Martin Lee Gore, originally published in German ten years ago in 2003-on the occasion of his solo album Counterfeit²-for Alert Magazine and conducted by our editor-in-chief Max Dax.