::INTERVIEW WITH STEVE MALINS::
(page 1 of 2)
1)- YOU WROTE BIOGRAPHIES ABOUT IMPORTANT
ARTISTS, WITH A LONG CAREER FULL OF SUCCESS,
AS WELL AS EXCESSES, AND YOU HAD A LOT
TO WRITE ABOUT THEM. HOW DID YOU ORGANIZE
YOUR WORK TO WRITE THIS BOOK? (meeting,interviews,
etc.)
I approached the band and Daniel Miller
first of all. They didn't want to make
it an 'official' biography but Daniel
Miller was very generous with his time
and I met up with Andy Fletcher.
Martin Gore wrote me a letter answering
various questions.
I also spent a whole day with Alan Wilder,
fuelled by a few bottles of wine. And
I approached as many people connected
to the band as possible.
Organisation, as with all these things,
was opportunistic. I tried to get inside
the story as much as I could.
Dave Gahan was reluctant to get involved
- this was post drugs etc and I understand
that there were probably a lot of things
he didn't want to rake over again.
-
WHICH WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART TO WRITE?
I can't think of a specific difficult
thing to write other than that you're
always trying to get the centre of the
story and that's always a challenge -
even if you have band members are sat
in front of you as everyone has their
own take on things.
So, the difficulty is simply to give the
best account you can and try to find some
insights and just a general feel for the
band. That faces you on every page, I
guess.
2) - YOU MADE YOUR
LATEST UPDATE OF THE BIOGRAPHY LAST YEAR,
WHILE THE BAND WAS INVOLVED IN THEIR NEW
ALBUM.
DID YOU MEET DIRECTLY THE BAND OR (as
I read in the introduction about Martin
and Andy) YOU COMMUNICATED WITH THEM ONLY
BY PHONE AND FAX?
With the update I didn't have direct contact
with the band though I did with management
who were very kind and helpful.
3-
WHICH WAS THE BIGGEST DIFFICULTY IN COMMUNICATING
ONLY BY FAX OR PHONE AND NOT TALKING WITH
THE PERSON DIRECTLY? DID YOU HAVE PROBLEMS
IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THEIR ANSWERS?
It was ok in that a lot of it was to do
with checking facts. Obviously it's no
use doing things this way if you're looking
for a more expansive insight but I'm not
convinced that I would have got that from
the existing band members anyway.
4)-
DEPECHE MODE HAD MANY CHANGES FROM 1980
TILL TODAY: FROM THE EARLY SYNTH POP BAND
TO DARK ELECTRONIC GROUP, TO AN OFTEN
CRITICIZED BAND TO THE PRESENT WELL CELEBRATED
AND BELOVED BAND, FROM INGENUITY TO TRAGIC
EXCESSES.
WHO ARE DEPECHE MODE NOW? AFTER SOME YEARS
FROM THE FIRST EDITION, DID YOU FIND THE
BAND CHANGED?
They've changed all through the career
and what I found interesting was the way
the relationships altered through different
phases. I was really interested in the
dynamic of the band. That has changed
again because of Martin's personal problems
- ie the divorce. That's light years away
from the situation say during Songs of
Faith & Devotion, when Dave was going
through a hellish period.
I think the book tracks all the different
dynamics between them, starting with Andy
and Martin as young church goers hooking
up with the more 'laddish' juvenile offender
Dave and then there are periods in the
80s where Dave is married and rather moral
about things while Martin is acting like
a born-again teenager in Berlin; of course
then Dave starts to go off in a different
direction again after that. That's the
fascinating thing,
Depeche Mode are not this static thing
but they've always been able to make their
differences work somehow - in a very ragged,
inefficient, but ultimately creative way
- Songs of Faith & Devotion being
the most obvious example of that.
5)-
AS YOU WROTE OTHER BIOGRAPHIES ABOUT OTHER
ARTISTS, SUCH AS DURAN DURAN, WHICH ARE
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEPECHE MODE AND
OTHER ARTISTS YOU INTERVIEWED? IS THERE
SOMETHING YOU LIKE BEST OR HATE IN THEM?
I think all the artists I write about
are incredibly under-rated. Gary Numan
as a pioneer, Duran Duran as a pop band,
Depeche Mode as a combination of both
- they really are fantastic artists but
I suspect because of the baggage associated
with the 80s and the fact they use synthesizers
they're never held as highly as Nirvana
or The Rolling Stones. I suppose in my
own way I really try to re-dress that
balance. It's my passion and dictates
a lot of things that I do.
