I think it’s been the blatancy of “Everything Counts” that has turned heads. It isn’t subtle. Dave: “Some people have thought it was about different things, like eating too much, or it was just about the music business but really though it’s about multinational corporations, y’know, that they’ve got too much power.
“But it was a conscious move to come across fuller and more definite and not just floating through. People used to think before: “Depeche Mode? Oh yeah, they’re that band that just sorta float by.” “Everything Counts” was a definite move to make something stronger, more lasting.
“I think a lot of bands try and do it too obviously though. I suppose The Clash… but they’re really into what they’re doing. I used to listen to The Clash years ago, I really liked them. I wasn’t really into what they were singing about cos I didn’t really understand that first album at the time, but I used to go and see them because I liked the attitude and the energy. They was brilliant. Coming away from all those gigs with your ears RINGING and telling all your mates in school the next day…”
“Everything Counts” seems, oddly, a literal successor to “Remote Control”, more than anything because it’s quite clear, quite brutal.
Dave: “Yeah, but the thing is people wouldn’t expect that from us, whereas they would from The Clash. A lot of people had no idea that we was capable of writing something like “Construction Time”.
“We’d been portrayed for ages in one way. Like, we did every interview going and just sorta said exactly the same thing. “Yeah, we started in so and so…” y’know. But then we suddenly realised – what are we doing? If we want to carry on, we’ve got to do something a little more lasting.
“I think Martin and Alan have both got a lot more substance in their writing…”
― it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:25 (twelve years ago) link