Catching up with Depeche Mode’s man behind the scenes, Andrew Fletcher
Andrew Fletcher chats about Kraftwerk, punk rock and the band’s place throughout the ’80s, the ’90s and the here and now
Since the 1981 release of Depeche Mode’s debut, Speak & Spell, leather-clad electro tarts Dave Gahan (vocals), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Andrew Fletcher (whose real musical role in the group is somewhat of a mystery, though he’s often credited as a keyboard player) carved a path through history via synth. pop sounds that waver between buoyant, dance floor fodder and dark romanticism. Coming together on the heels of the U.K. punk explosion of the late ’70s came as a blessing and a curse for the forward-thinking electro-pop pioneers. At the time of their emergence their sound was completely alien to the rock-afflicted masses, but when they hit the states a few years later they were selling out venues as large as the Rose Bowl.-
Over the years they’ve lost and gained members, but Gahan, Gore and Fletcher have carried on. With their latest release, Sounds of the Universe, they’ve tempered the bombast of their more recent years with a return to old-school form that culminates in yet a new direction in what has become a truly timeless sound.-
Chad Radford: So what exactly do you do in Depeche Mode? There’s a scene in the film 101 where you say &-;David is the Singer, Martin writes the songs…”-
Andrew Fletcher: &-;’…and I just kind of bum around.’ That’s the scene, right?-
Yes, but I suspect that you do more than just kind of bum around.-
Right. Well, that is pretty much all that I do. One thing to remember about a group is that there is electricity that keeps it all together, especially a group like Depeche Mode. Not everybody can be Dave Gahan or Martin Gore. I’m the man in the background. Initially — the first 13-15 years that we were around we never had a manager and I used to take care of that side of things. So yeah, I’m just kind of the man in the background and that’s what I like to be.-
Would you say that you are the guy behind the curtain, pulling the strings?-
I’m not so sure about that (laughs). I try to anyway.