Essexual Healing

The last time this writer spoke to Dave Gahan was in 1997, in the immediate aftermath of his much publicised annus horribilis – a year that encompassed repeated drug overdoses, a couple of failed suicide attempts and the meltdown of his marriage. Understandably enough,
the beleaguered Depeche Mode frontman neither looked nor sounded like the happiest of campers. What
I remember most about our encounter
is that, shortly after a very long
and intense interview, he totally failed to recognise me in the hotel elevator.
He wasn’t being stand-offish or aloof – he was so dislocated that he literally had no idea who I was. After an awkward moment, his manager Jonathan Kessler intervened and I was rewarded with an apologetic dead fish handshake. I figured he’d be dead within a year.

I was wrong. Today, six years straight and enthusing about his debut solo album Paper Monsters, the fully rehabilitated 41-year-old singer sounds more chipper than Burdocks.
“I’m really having a good time at the moment with my band,” he enthuses. “It’s totally different to working with Depeche Mode. We’re a lot more flexible. They’re really up for playing live.”
His enthusiasm stems from the fact that his new band includes some old buddies from his LA years (he’s lived in New York since 1996), particularly new songwriting partner Knox Chandler.
Most of the tracks on Paper Monsters are clearly autobiographical, dealing with Gahan’s descent into serious addiction and the healing pain of his slow rehabilitation. The most direct of these is opener ‘Dirty Sticky Floor’ – an overblown (“Ask me what I want/Easy, that’s just more!”) and hugely tongue in cheek, rock stomping reality check that rather deflates the great rock & roll myth about the glamour of drug abuse. Other songs like ‘Bottle Living’ and ‘Black And Blue Again’ are the work of a man who has a lot of regrets and bad behaviour to atone for.
“I’m not God,” the former rock-god chuckles. “I think that’s probably the biggest lesson I learned at the end of it all. My life used to be completely crazy. Nowadays, I prefer chilling out at home with my family to going to a party or something – you know, not score some smack and… whatever.”
Having come through all of that himself, does he now feel obliged to have a word with any fellow musicians he sees fucking-up on drugs?
“Not really. That didn’t work for me. I had all kinds of people, the guys from Aerosmith, even Bono gave me a little talk one time, Michael Stipe from REM, and lots of people that I respected reached out to me, but I just wasn’t ready. You’re ready when you’re ready to put that crap down and move on and grow.”
Having sung Martin Gore’s words since Mode’s inception, he first began writing his own lyrics during the recording of Ultra, though none of his songs wound up being used on the album.
“I wrote a couple of songs around that time which I offered to the band. Martin seemed keen – especially on one of them – but then once we started recording the album we never got into doing it.
“I began writing with Knox and just knew that what I was doing with him was not for Depeche.”
With Depeche Mode colleague Martin Gore also releasing a solo album, the question has to be asked – after 22 years together, are Depeche Mode on the verge of a split?
“At the moment we’ve kind of left it that we’ll talk at the beginning of next year, and see where we’re at. All I know is that I’ve opened a door here for myself and that I’m enjoying exchanging ideas with other people. It would be difficult for me not to be able to put forward my own ideas and put as much effort into Depeche as well.”
Which means?
“Which means I don’t know whether it’s gonna be a Depeche Mode or another Dave Gahan solo album next,” he laughs. “I genuinely don’t know. Really what this album’s been about for me is taking it a day at a time, showing-up and just trying my best.” b

Dave Gahan’s Paper Monsters is available now on Mute Records