Depeche Mode Enjoy The Silence (Again)
Author: Jont y Skrufff
Sunday, September 26, 2004
The album revisits a period that for lead singer Dave Gahan was dominated by heroin addiction, which he told Jonty Skrufff some years ago, had a profound effect on his vocal performances.
"I brought an element to the pop melodies that was darker and that combination is quite an exciting place to be when you're making music; your mood can dictate the way a song feels and emotionally, when I would sing, I'd always bring this darkness," Gahan recalled.
"I felt that dark place was where you were supposed to be if you were an artist but all that's bollocks. I paint a lot and all the stuff I did in the first part of the 90s was drug induced."
"Heroin was my drug of choice for eight years (between 1987 and 95); when I found it, it was like in Trainspotting- like an orgasm multiplied a hundred times," he added.
"That didn't last very long but I still couldn't stop, then as soon as I started using intravenously I was gone."
The Depeche Mode star came perilously close to death, even flat-lining them continuing to use drugs as soon as he could, he revealed.
"I came out of hospital and used again then the insanity struck me," he said.
"It (heroin) wants me dead, I thought, and that's when I reached out to the handful of people who had constantly been trying to stop me from using, because they would say where it was going to end."
"There's nothing cool about being a heroin addict, it's a really painful, sad existence" he added.
"Many friends died and when I was using I didn't think about it. If a junkie died in my hotel room I'd think 'get them out and throw them on the fucking lawn; dial 911 and say someone's had a heart attack; that's the life; the only thing you care about is yourself. You don't even think you're affecting anybody else, it's not until you're clean that you realise."
Enjoy The Silence/ Halo is out on October 18 on Mute.
www.depechemode.com (download available here from September 27)
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