Q+A / Story (1/3): DEPECHE MODE – MARTIN GORE: “… a little dangerous.”

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Photo: Travis Shinn

With Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) we talked about the curse and blessing of obscure tracks in setlists, the (in)spectacular tour life in the hotel room and the union of aesthetics and music.

Martin Gore on…

…the agony of choice in the setlist composition

In 2012, Martin moaned about choosing a setlist: “It’s really difficult. Because we feel like we’ve made a really good album, and we want to go out and play songs from it. There are probably six or seven songs that we think we should play live. And then there are songs that we think we have to play because they’re classics and people would be really disappointed otherwise. And then that doesn’t give you a lot of room for the more obscure stuff. In a way, it would be nice to be able to go out and play a lot of more obscure tracks to maybe make it a little more interesting. But this is also our very first stadium tour, where we’re playing in stadiums or in front of big crowds almost every night. And I think we have to take that into consideration as well, because it’s easier to lose a big crowd than if the venue is a little more intimate. We might be able to get away with playing the obscure tracks if we were playing in front of 500 people, but when there’s 50,000 and three-quarters of them don’t even know the song you’re playing, it’s a little dangerous.”

In the next part we think about alternative setlists.

(Interviews: Marcel Anders, Article: Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg)

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