Depeche Mode on Richard Butler

Credits to photographer.

On March 10 Depeche Mode did an interview with the NME and both Martin Gore and Dave Gahan talked about Richard Butler's contribution to their new album Memento Mori. Here's what they said about Richard.

Martin Gore: "I've never written with anyone outside of the band in our history. Richard reached out to me around April 2020, just texting to say, 'We should write some songs together'. I asked for ideas and he sent me a few lines, so I put those to music and we started sending them back and forth.

"We ended up writing seven songs. We didn't like the first one, but the other six were so great that I thought it would be a bit of a waste to put them out as a side-project. They just wouldn't get the same sort of exposure as they would if they were put out by Depeche.

"[Richard's] really great at coming up with ideas – especially during times when I wasn't feeling particularly creative because there wasn't a lot of stimulus coming in. I was just sitting at home and he was prodding me and giving me ideas. That kept the wheels moving."

Dave Gahan: "Martin sent me about six songs, and Richard Butler was singing on a few of them. I was like, 'The [__] is this?' Then Martin explained that during COVID he and Richard had written some songs together. I don't care who wrote them, but they were some great songs.

"One of them was [lead single] 'Ghosts Again', which I loved straight away. Straight away when I heard the demo, it was like when I first heard 'Enjoy The Silence'. I felt the melancholy and the joy at the same time. It was a special song and I wanted to sing it."